Rizal Park Hotel — Hotel in Manila

My wife and I booked two nights here during our travels. All drinks were sold out on both days (except Sprite, no coffee, soft drinks etc) Breakfast was not worth getting up for. They even tried to charge one of us for it even though we booked the hotel for two people. Food looked like yesterday's leftovers which could give you food food poisoning. We had to leave breakfast early as a cockroach was crawling on our table. We also saw dead cockroaches in the reception area. There were no sunbeds at the swimming pool, but we were not informe. Communication from reception is beyond painful. The sunbeds were all removed apparently due to maintenance. There were no customers using the area. In fact, all amenities were either closed or deserted. Reception initially told us that we couldn't book a taxi through them and suggested what seemed to be an unsafe version for cash only (no indication of price). After a long winded conversation, they finally booked their taxi firm for us (cost 4.5x the Grab taxi price). If you don't know, Manila gives off extremely unsafe vibes, especially where this hotel is located so booking a taxi through the hotel seemed more safe. The safe was broken and when we notified staff, they brought another one up and left the broken one in our room. Safes in my opinion should be at least bolted to a fitting as any member of staff can easily just walk in and take it. No do not disturb sign provided. No signage anywhere to tell you where the amenities are, restaurant etc Only one toilet roll, no spares which is standard in most supposedly top rated hotels. Two small bottles of body wash provided for two people for two nights. One bottle basically goes with one wash. No hand wash either. So much staff but none seem to be doing anything. Just a lot of standing around. I ordered a Sprite (as that was all they had) and it took 5 people to get it for me. Only one card reader at reception which they had to go to get. They also charged us for the water from breakfast earlier which is extremely cheeky, especially as we had to leave due to cockroaches (which I raised with them but they didn't care). The water and Sprite was around £2 GBP each which is quite expensive considering we're in the Philippines. There is no sense of trying to please customers, especially when there is constant let down. With all these issues, at least providing something extra would help the experience. They are not proactive and need a lot of work in hospitality training. The level of incompetence by every staff member is quite remarkable. They don't communicate information or update you on things (examples of being able to leave for the taxi as they were checking our room if we damaged anything, taking our bags off us as soon as we arrived, with no stickers or anything identifying them, walking away from conversations when we didn't have confirmation of the requests such as taxi booking). It can be quite awkward walking around as the staff are always over you. Their behaviour is forced and NOTHING here is easy. There were yellow stains on the bed sheets. Overall, there are basic things which were completely missing from this hotel. Considering the price (vs other Manila hotels) and the supposedly high quality and top reviews of this hotel (which I feel are fake/a scam at this point), this falls waaaay below normal standards. Quite frankly, they would be lucky enough to be a two star, let alone their current four. It's an outdated building, which on the service and in pictures might look great, but you'll soon notice it's true colours if you come here. To top it off, the area around the hotel seems quite dangerous, with beggars and people following you at very forceful levels to try to sell you things. We felt unsafe and I don't usually feel like this. It was dirty and we saw so many security guards holding shotguns and pistols outside shops. I had the sense that even kidnapping is quite possible around there. No 7-Elevens accepted card payments. My anxiety levels were extremely high. Avoid this hotel and area...

My husband and I booked a room at the Rizal Park Hotel from 4- 12 September 2024 but opted to check out early on 8 September.

The façade of the Rizal Park Hotel is impressive, the hotel lobby and winding staircases also looked grand. However, just above the reception area was a big gaping hole in the ceiling (we were advised this was due to the typhoon). Later on, we noticed more leaks in the building. The elevator lobby on our floor had "slippery when wet" floor signages. In some places, there would be a small bucket collecting water right in the middle of the hallway.

The carpet was very well worn. A section of the carpet on our floor (close to our room door) was so worn out you can see the underlay/backing. You can see obvious fraying in many areas of the hotel, particularly the stairs.

The 2nd wing, which houses the hotel facilities (gym, pool, spa) looked like it was still being finalised. At the time of our visit, the escalator and the air-conditioning were not working. The attendant at the gym said the aircon was affected by the storm and is currently being repaired. The pool needs to be maintained – as it had several missing tiles.

The room that we were assigned to was spacious, and the bed was comfortable. However: The handle of the sink faucet was not securely attached to the dome – it came off when I first used it. The bar fridge was not working properly – it was not keeping anything inside it cool. The room did not have a room service menu available. We asked for one and whoever I spoke with said they can send the menu through Viber (mobile messaging app). Since I don’t have Viber, they came by with a half sheet of paper with the room service offerings on it. The room was not soundproof, as such we had to endure Muzak playing loudly 24/7. Muzak being played in the lobby, or at the restaurant area is fine, but not in the hallways of guest rooms. As such, we could not get decent night's sleep while we were there.

After four sleepless nights, and several requests to turn off the music, at least near the rooms, my husband and I decided to cut our stay short. As mentioned, we left on 8th September and, as per the Item 11 of the Hotel Rules and Regulations document we found in our room, requested for a refund of 3 nights.

We were told that they do not process refunds – however we showed them a photo of the Hotel Rules and Regulations – they said they would consult with their accounts team. They later offered us a credit – which we declined because we are not residents of the Philippines and don’t see ourselves coming back to the country any time soon. The Front Office team then said their accounts team will process a refund but this will take 30 days to complete. They also said they will keep us updated with the refund process for our own peace of mind.

I am writing this review on 12 October and to date, I have not received our refund, nor any updates on our request for a refund. I have also followed up with their reservations team several times, and – no – I have not received a single reply to any of my emails either.

On the plus side, the staff – especially the wait staff and valet attendants – were exceptionally amazing. The location is good, but there are a lot of shanties around (not the hotel's fault).

II. Consumer Protection Act The Consumer Act of the Philippines (Republic Act No. 7394) is the overarching law that protects the rights of consumers, including those of hotel guests. Under this law, consumers have the right to receive a fair value, good quality, and reliable service. However, this does not automatically grant a right to a refund, unless it was stated in the terms and conditions of the hotel booking or if the hotel provided subpar service or misrepresented...

Bad rooms, dangerous appliances, closed amenities and lazy cleaning service. I’m not really sure where to start with my recent (prematurely ended) stay at Rizal Park Hotel. We arrived to find the pool was closed for the month - had this been advertised on their website, booking sites or social media we never would have booked our stay here. When you’re in stifling Manila heat, a pool is a must.

So we arrived to the hotel and noticed the pool was closed. Usually when this happens a hotel will try and make amends with the customers and offer them a free drink, an early check in, a room upgrade or whatever else that would cost them little to know money but to keep them happy. There was no proactive thoughts by the hotel management here and we had to beg to be able to check in 2 hours earlier as a “make do” for the pool not being available.

As we were finally heading to our room we noticed another couple was checking out a day early because they were so unhappy with their stay. Uh oh we thought but it can’t be that bad, can it?

Well we enter the room and while the bed was comfy the sheer tiredness and lack of upkeep of the hotel started showing. There were scuff marks everywhere, chairs and tables had rips, scratches, marks. There was a musty smell in the room and potentially worst of all the hair dryer which was next to the sink had live wires showing. It doesn’t need to be stated how unsafe this is.

We talked to the hotel about checking out after we saw the room for 15 minutes and they refused. We had already checked in so they can’t refund us. How do we know the condition of a room when we haven’t seen it or checked in? We decided the hassle of checking out, potentially not getting refunded and finding another hotel would be too much however that was our biggest mistake.

We decided to stay an extra sleepless night. A room where you can hear almost every sound whether it’s the water pipes from next door, movements from above, random jolts in the night etc.

The final night and when we decided, like the other couple to check out a night early was the last straw. We returned from lunch to find our room “cleaned”. The first day the toilet paper wasn’t replaced, which was we felt a small oversight. The second day the bed sheets were damp and wet when replaced and there were no bottles replenished (which is a major thing when the nearest 7/11 is a 10 min walk away.

The hotel offered to upgrade us to a bigger room which I thought was kind however if we were packing up our luggage to move to a room we may as well move to a different hotel in a better location which brings me to my next point.

The hotel location while near rizal park and intramuros was barely walkable. Other parts of Manila like Makati and BGC are easy to get around, clean and accessible. The area rizal park hotel is in has rubbish everywhere and does not appear to be very safe at all.

I’m glad we checked out on the final night and got to appreciate a hotel that cared about its guests and its property.

On each occasion I requested to speak to the management because I felt terrible for the staff that represented them however the manager not once was available.

Disappointing and lacklustre. Avoid...