Villa Caemilla Beach Boutique Hotel — Hotel in Malay

Detailed Review as of January 2025

POSITIVES:

Very beautiful, modern, and high-quality hotel with a lovely lobby and restaurant directly on the beach, offering stunning sea views.

• The superior rooms are spacious, modern, and well-designed. • The water pressure in both the bidet and shower is excellent. • The bidet has warm water, which feels great. • Rituals shampoo and conditioner are provided in the bathroom. • The bathroom features a large heated mirror. • The bed strikes a perfect balance between firmness and softness, ensuring a great night’s sleep. • The bed comes with numerous pillows of varying firmness. You can even request specialty pillows at the reception, like hypoallergenic or rubber pillows. The hotel clearly values good sleep. • The staff is mostly friendly and reliable. Service is efficient as long as you give clear instructions on what needs to be done. • For an additional €1, you can have anything from the restaurant, including snacks and drinks, delivered directly to your room—like a cappuccino. This feels like a luxury. • Express laundry service is available for a €1 fee, and the per-item cost is reasonable if you only need a few items washed. • Many international TV channels are available for when you want to relax in your room for a while. • Housekeeping visits a second time at around 7:00 PM to refresh the bed and bring cookies. A fantastic idea—I haven’t seen this anywhere else! • Evening entertainment includes live music and BBQ, adding a nice touch to your stay.

NEGATIVES

• The staff talks and laughs outside the rooms at 7:00 AM. I could hear this through my earplugs. This is unacceptable. Stop doing this and let the guests sleep.

• the Aircon switches off or gets warmer several times during the night so you wake up sweating. Absolutely unacceptable.

• No continental breakfast is offered. Almost every option on the menu comes with bacon and eggs. When asked, they didn’t even have jam, only chutney. After two days, you’ll want to eat breakfast elsewhere. • The minibar has beer but no bottle opener. • When you turn on the TV, the first thing you see is static because it’s not set to HDMI. Someone has to come and fix it. • The bedroom lamps cannot be turned off manually. You have to pull the plug for each lamp individually, which is very low down. It’s very strange—I’ve never seen this before. Install a master light switch. • Every day, you have to sign a form stating what you consumed from the minibar. I’ve never experienced this anywhere in the world and find it very weird. Just issue a final bill like every other decent hotel. • The restaurant food is just okay, not great, and the prices are high. They could at least offer water without being asked, like with coffee. That’s pretty standard in the Philippines. • The staff is often inattentive and unmotivated. You can sit for a long time without being served. They also lack focus, often asking for clarification after you’ve already placed your order. • Housekeeping cleans the room very superficially and is generally careless. One day, I didn’t even get towels—something that has never happened to me in any other hotel. The other day no new conditioner etc etc . They just have this overall laisser faire attitude that I don’t like, especially not when a room here can easily cost 200€/night. Also we couldn’t late check-out. They could have offered at least an hour later but no offer was made. It was just a no. Something I don’t expect from a 4 star hotel

Also the beach towels are actually hand towels. Why would you not provide real beach towels?

Final Rating

I give the hotel 3 out of 5 stars and recommend it despite the issues. I would stay here again. Perhaps the Dutch owner will read this and address some of the points for...

We stayed for 5 nights and 6 days in the Ocean View Suite, and from the moment we arrived, everything felt peaceful and welcoming. We were greeted with smiling faces, a cold face towel, refreshing drink, and a welcome necklace—a beautiful touch that made us feel right at home.||The room was spacious and clean, with a breathtaking sea view and a large private balcony where we loved relaxing every morning and night. Housekeeping came twice daily, and we really appreciated the afternoon turndown service with cookies.||I did WFH for two days, and the WiFi was strong and stable enough for video calls and work. In the evenings, we enjoyed watching sports on cable—the TV also has Netflix and YouTube, which made in-room lounging extra cozy. The pillows were plush and comfy, and there’s even a massage service available if you want extra pampering.||The restaurant has a relaxing, breezy vibe with a beachfront lounge area perfect for hanging out with a drink or enjoying your meal with a view. It’s an ideal spot to catch the beautiful Boracay sunset—definitely one of our favorite parts of the day.||The food was excellent. We highly recommend the beef tapa, crispy chicken wrap, cappucino, hot elixir tea and the Caemilla Breakfast which includes a buttery croissant stuffed with egg and bacon—huge portions and delicious! They serve Illy coffee, and we loved that they had almond milk option. They can also customized your order -- they replaced bacon with eggs as I don't eat pork. They even made my over hard egg perfect! During breakfast, they also serve free health shots made with ginger, cayenne, lemon, and honey—a small but thoughtful detail.||A special highlight was the live acoustic band every night except Sundays-- starting at 6:30 PM, which added a warm, relaxing beach vibe during dinner.||The staff were all genuinely kind and attentive, always smiling and greeting. When we experienced a minor issue with the air-conditioning, they immediately acted, checked in regularly, and resolved it completely by the next day. Their responsiveness and care were above and beyond expectations.||We also appreciated that breakfast starts as early as 6 AM, perfect for early risers. The hotel is located in Station 3, a quiet and peaceful area, but still so close to great restaurants like Giuseppe, TGH Grillhouse, Cafe Maruja, and Conga. It’s about a 15-minute walk to Stations 1 and 2.||Just a heads-up: the hotel will charge for any stains on linens, so be mindful (they let you know this in advance). If we were to note one area for improvement, the bathroom paint could use a bit of freshening up, but it didn’t affect our overall experience.||This luxury boutique hotel gave us the perfect mix of warmth, comfort, and calm. We felt well taken care of and truly relaxed ❤️❤️❤️ Thanks for the surprise crinkles!! ||Thank you to the entire team for your exceptional service. Love the We can’t...

This was my 3rd stay at Villa Caemilla Boutique Resort Hotel, and each visit reminds me why I will never stay anywhere else in Boracay. Not only is it beautifully beachfront with a fantastic restaurant, but the true magic lies in its staff — from management to security, housekeeping, bar, restaurant, and reception, every single person makes you feel valued and at home.||On this trip, the surprises and care were endless: an early check-in, the welcome shell necklace, a complimentary room upgrade, and when I extended my stay, I was able to keep the same room for 6 nights without the hassle of moving. Then, on my birthday, the team surprised me with a HBD song and a mini cheesecake w/ candle — such a heartfelt gesture! They also reminded me of my airport pickup and mind you, even followed up with them (Southwest) when the pickup person failed to show up on the dot (without me even asking them to do the follow up, like wow!)||Villa Caemilla’s thoughtfulness extends to the smallest details: cute welcome notes, reminders of extensions and transfers, cute fresh cookie bites every evening at 6PM, turndown service before bed, and beach towels always ready. Even during Boracay’s 2-day island-wide blackout and a short water maintenance, the staff personally called to keep guests updated, so there were never any surprises.||I can't say enough about the cleanliness of the room because I am very fussy about details and cleanliness. This is my first requirement in the hotels I book and Villa Caemilla exceeded my expectations for cleanliness from the room to the towels and linens they provided.||The service excellence and wonderful experience also makes it worth staying here, definitely value and money well-spent!||The restaurant serves wonderful food (and cocktails!), the beachfront location is stunning, and the genuine warmth of the staff — always greeting you with a smile, a “good morning/good afternoon/good evening,” or simply checking how you are — makes this hotel feel like family.||Since the hotel is located in the quieter Station 3, it is the perfect location for people who want to be away from the noisy and bustling crowds, yet just a few minutes walk away (5-10 minutes), you can reach the main road and hail an e-tryk or go to Station 2. ||Villa Caemilla is not just a hotel; it’s an experience of true hospitality. Whether traveling solo or with company, you will feel pampered, safe, and cared for. A multi-awarded gem I will return to every freakin' single time. Like, I won't book a trip to Boracay if I won't be staying at Villa Caemilla. :) Definitely a 5-star, concierge-level experience...