Icove Beach Hotel — Hotel in Olongapo

iCove Beach Hotel is where male room attendants can sexually harass female guests and get away with it. It has been weeks after the incident, but iCove's management, who never seemed to be at the premises during our stay, still hasn't addressed the issue.||||Upon entering the hotel room, the refrigerator that was included in the booking we paid for wasn't there. A medical condition made the fridge a necessity for us, so we requested it. After back-and-forths with their receptionist and attendant who seemed hesistant to provide it, two male hotel staffs finally went to our room to deliver a refrigerator unit.||||My husband stayed in our room to accommodate the delivery. I happened to be at the corner of a stairway between 1st and 2nd floor, when I saw the 2 male iCove staff approaching, carrying the fridge.||||As they passed me, I heard one of them say "Sarap!" (Means delicious in English, and is commonly used in this country as a sexual remark) And followed it with "Sarap ng hagdan" (Means that the stairway is delicious).||||After a moment, I realized that it was a malicious remark aimed towards me. But I wasn't sure yet and wanted to observe the male iCove staff's behavior. I quietly followed them into our room, trying to gauge his reaction. I noticed that he kept on looking back at me.||||I remained quiet as I watched the two men go back down the stairs after delivering the refrigerator into our room. The one who was silent the whole time never looked back at me for the whole duration that I was following them, but the other one who made a sexual remark as he passed me, held a steady gaze at me even as he went down the stairs!||||It felt very uncomfortable, but that staring game allowed me to confirm that he was not innocent.||||I told my husband the details of my encounter with the perverted iCove staff, and and then we reported it through the receptionist and asked to confront him.||||The receptionist was female and seemed upset upon hearing about the sexual harassment that I have experienced from her fellow iCove staff. She apologized, handed me a pen and paper, and suggested that I write a letter to the management because as they were not in the premises.||||As I wrote the letter to formally complain about the sexual offender who is employed by iCove, the offender showed up, along with several other hotel staff in the reception room.||||The offender asked us why we wanted to talk to him. After I narrated the incident in everyone's presence, Roger said "Sorry po kung akala niyo na kayo ang tinutukoy namin. May iba po kaming pinag-uusapan noong nadaanan ka namin." (Means: Sorry if you thought that we were talking about you. We were talking about something else when we passed by you.) It found it strange for Roger to use "kami" (means "we") when he was the only one who was talking during the sexual harassment incident.||||I played along as he feined innocence and asked him, "So bakit ka nagsabi ng 'sarap' pagdaan nyo sakin, sabay bawi at ginawa mong 'sarap ng hagdan'?" (Means: So why did you say 'delicious' earlier, and then covered it up with 'the stairway is delicious'?)||||I was expecting him to make a lame but hard-to-debunk excuse such as "pinag-uusapan lang na masarap po yung ulam namin kanina" but no, The offender was a fish caught through its own mouth because of his next excuse for the sexual harassment: "Ma'am, iba po yung sinasabihan namin na masarap, hindi po kayo." (English: "Ma'am, we were talking about someone else; it's wasn't about you.")||||So there you have it, he was making sexual remarks about "someone" as he passed me. Regardless of who it was aimed at, it was extremely uncomfortable as a female, alone in the corner of a stairway, to hear a male hotel staff talk make sexual remarks as he passed by.||||I told him "Kahit hindi ako ang pinag-uusapan niyo, hindi ka dapat bastos." To which he couldn't respond anymore. He just stared at me, dumbfounded.||||The receptionist said that the manager will talk to me on the next day.||||Then came the next day, we were too uncomfortable to have breakfast in the hotel's restaurant in fear that The offender may retaliate with his friends in the kitchen, after being humiliated about his dirty deeds in front of his co-workers. After all, not many people in my country confront harassers like I do, so after the unexpected public confrontation, he must be really upset.||||To our dismay, on our way to eat breakfast outside of the hotel, we came across the sexual offender, attending to his housekeeping duties as if nothing happened! There was no one at the reception area so we ate breakfast outside first, despite already having paid for the hotel's breakfast.||||We found a different receptionist at the lobby when we came back to the hotel. According to her, the manager is still not in the hotel premises as they were attending an event. She assured us that manager will contact me via phone call soon as they are free. And now it's been weeks after the incident, and still not a single word from iCove Beach Hotel.||||For me, the stay at iCove Beach Hotel was traumatizing. Imagine being sexually harassed by a staff who is expected to treat guests with at least an ounce of courtesy. And imagine being sexually harassed by a room attendant, who may access your bedroom and do nasty things... As if that's not bad enough, there was never a manager on-site to address the issue!||||Our entire stay was filled with fear on my part, always watching my back, in case The offender tries something funny as payback for being humiliated. Humiliation is not a grave enough sanction when it comes to sexual harassment. There should have been a due process implemented by the manager, such as suspension from work. But the problem is that there doesn't seem to be anyone managing iCove Beach Hotel.||||I would also like to point out that in terms of cleanliness and atmosphere, the room itself was not very good. Aside from initially lacking the refrigerator that we paid for, the bed sheet had a small hole, and there were many red ants crawling on our stuff. ||||And regarding the atmosphere, the male staff manning the bar during our stay seemed grumpy and it made ordering a scary process. There's also the uncomfortable feeling that the sexual offender is a room attendant there, who was working as usual in the premises on the day after we reported him, as if nothing happened.||||Spend your money on a hotel that will make feel comfortable and safe, especially girls! Such a place is...

The location is front of a public beach. So anyone from the other establishments can lounge and interact with you. There are just so many vendors going around that there will always be atleast one man going to sell you something every hour. The hotel at the right of iCove was very noisy in the morning but I know this is not their fault but it may concern those who wants a serene & quiet stay.

The beach is swimmable but also watch out for boats that are always parked in front of the hotel.

We understand that room price doubled since we booked on a Christmas day but I was not expecting that a standard room worth P5,000 would NOT have a refrigerator and no hairdryer which is the top two things I expect in any hotel with that price. There were free toiletries but it's only good for one person and there is no free disposable slipper. There are some rust stains in the bedsheets but we still had a restful and good sleep. Aircon and TV were also okay.

Though serving portions were big during the dinner buffet, most of the food were too salty for my taste. I would normally finish my food completely but I couldn't stand the saltiness. They do have a food menu including a wide range of liquor but not all milkshake flavors are available. I also ordered juice for breakfast but they served ice tea, and I did not complain anymore as my child wanted to drink already.

The staff are actually nice and couldn't complain on their hospitality. Though there is no elevator and the hotel is upto the 4th floor so you have to carry your baggage up. There was a staff who helped me when we checked-in but upong checking out, I needed to bring it down by myself.

The only saving grace in this hotel is the live singing with a guitarist at night during dinner which made the ambiance chill and relaxed. It would be the only thing I would go back to as it is a nice location to sit down and stare...

We booked SIX rooms for FOUR days for our whole family. I can say that at first the place and staff were accommodating but as days went by our experience became worse. We booked the seaview room for my brother who just got married - it was very nice but I was very disappointed when I learned that their aircon never worked since Day 1 (my brother and sister in law asked one of the staff/maintenance and he told them ‘ganyan lang talaga yang aircon.’ Then they went to the reception to ask if they can make the temperature lower because it was 18 but it was still warm and the response was ‘hanggang dun nalang talaga.’) My brother and sister in law were not outspoken and gentle so they just shrugged it off. I told them at the end that they should have atleast told us so that we were the ones who chased it. I was very uncomfortable that they managed to stay and sleep in a room that has no aircon with a temperature of 35-36 😔 I am happy with the restaurant staff though, they were the only reason we still managed to stay. Maybe train other staff to be ‘service/person focused’ and not ‘business focused.’ We had six rooms and stayed there for four days. Whenever we try to ask for towels and toiletries, they seem hesitant. In the first place, none of us even ask for room clean in all of those days. I was also reading reviews and noticed that the wifi has been a significant problem and still when we stayed there it still was. Other guests may have online meetings, etc and the hotel said they have strong wifi connection. We had more comments/experiences but hoping that the hotel will surely listen so that the next guests will be able to enjoy and create...