Estacio Uno Boracay — Hotel in Malay

Amazing hotel, amazing location, but most importantly, amazing staff!

We went to boracay over the weekend to celebrate Father's Day and a birthday in the family and it was a great experience for us staying in Estacio Uno Boracay. Being met with refreshments and warm smiles from everyone.

Firstly, the location of the hotel is very accessible, easy to navigate and is quite near the beach in station 1. Rooms are reasonably priced with large, spacious rooms. We especially love the Annex building and have stayed in it in previous travels to boracay.

Secondly, all rooms are spacious, clean, well kept and has its own balcony. The annex building also has a large pool on its forth floor which was a great place to relax, especially when it's too hot to lounge in the beach area.

The main building is just across the road and it's directly facing the beautiful beach of Boracay. They offer buffet breakfast which was awesome as they serve freshly cooked Filipino/American dishes such as garlic rice, tocino, tapa, bangus to name a few. Their American breakfast serves toast, pancakes, ham, sausages, corned beef and more.

The main building also has its own bar that serves cocktails, beers, and non alcoholic beverages. Perfect for sipping while lounging in their beach front lounge chairs.

Lastly, and I think most importantly, all staff were amazing. Very accommodating, always with a smile and eager to assist. We have not encountered any staff who wasn't a pleasure to speak with.

Special shoutouts for upgrading our rooms to the superiors suite on our last day. It was a great way to cap off our Boracay visit.

Thank you specifically to the following amazing people: Dianne from the Annex building front desk! Very nice, pleasant and remembered us from our last visit in February. Way to go in making your guests feel welcome!

Alexa, from the main building for assisting us daily during breakfast, and going above and beyond in accommodating our scrambled egg, ham and cheese omelette, sunnsy side up egg requests.

And Ray from the main building, for assisting us with the complementary room upgrades, making sure all of us were happy and satisfied. We especially love how you answer the phone with your positive, sing-song voice. That was a nice touch.

Honestly, Estacio Uno has been and will always be our first choice whenever we go to boracay. I encourage all of you to book with them. You...

We went on a holiday in Boracay and Estacio Uno the weekend before Holy Week. The beach is splendid. This is my 11th Boracay trip and I cannot remember the last time it was clean, not so rowdy and crowded. It was an over-all good trip.

As for Estacio Uno...

The Good

The location is really good. It's perfect for families and couples. It's not noisy at night and the parties are very far from the hotel. Though expect some crowd in the beachfront especially at sunset because it's very near the famous Boracay grotto.

Customer service is really good. Staff are polite and accommodating.

The room is big. We got a Deluxe Room with pool access and it's very near the beachfront.

We paid P800 ($16) for two for airport-boat-van transfers on our way home and it was so worth it! I am used to "roughing it"/DIY-ing on past Boracay trips when I was younger but the P800 we paid was worth the comfort. Avail it! Plus - there are too many changes in Boracay lately (eg. new airports/terminals/ports) so it's good that we had guides who even carried our bags.

The Bad

The wifi is terrible. Really really terrible. They told us that we are "too far" from the lobby thus we can't maximize the wifi. I don't think that this is an excuse. Wifis are now necessities even on vacations. Hotel should heavility invest on connectivity, repeaters, and routers.

There is too much going on every day / every night. They have dinner set-up nightly thus the beachfront lounges has to be moved before 6pm to accommodate the set-up for dinner. This quite bothered me because we love hanging out by the beach at dusk or early evening.

The rooms and common areas need some repairs. You can already see some wear and tear in the rooms and other areas.

I hope that there will be improvements in the over-all facilities of the place. It used to be very nice 2-3 years ago. I'm still hopeful. Boracay is rumored to close down for 6 months so I hope that the management will also do some renovations during that time.

Tip: They do have extensive promo. Our accommodation came in with FREE dinner of up to Php 1,200/group per night. Not so high but...

The staff service was excellent. They had a ready smile and greeting and immediately assists when needed. I think this is what made our stay better. I initially booked a room at the annex but upon seeing that it was across the road and you had to walk about 5-10 min to the main building and the beach, I upgraded our room. The room was OK, albeit needing some structural makeover. It showed signs of aging - - there was this constant dripping sound in the bathroom, the bidet could use deep cleaning, the trash can looked moldy, vault wasn't working(but they gave us a key). The door lock wasn't so secure and I would suggest they install a double lock and a peephole. The veranda door lock outside was also rusty but when I called their attention, they put WD40 and it worked. I hope they fix the door handle though so it's easier to lock it from outside. On the evenings when they had the fire poi performance, the fuel smell filled our room though. I asked for an Elec fan to dispel the fuel smell. It took about 2 hrs for the stench to fade. The 2nd night, we just left the room. To be fair, they offered to move us to a different room but since we were checking out the next day, we just opted to stay out until the room is free from the odor. I suggest they move their fire poi performance away from the rooms. Since the room was also next to the fire exit, there was this constant noise coming from that direction. It seemed like an electrical or mechanical sound. On our last day, I woke up at 5am from someone rustling plastic(maybe garbage bag?) and then the loud bang from the exit door. If not for the good demeanor of the staff, the stay would have been pretty annoying esp with all the noise. Bed, toiletries were ok. Facilities need improvement. Pls install a...