Bluewater Panglao Beach Resort — Hotel in Panglao

First, the good: The hotel is beautiful with two nice pools, great rooms, pretty common areas, etc. The staff greets you everyday, smiles, and generally(more to follow) provides outstanding service. The breakfast was great, and we had lunch at the restaurant once, the portions were big and the food was good. This hotel is a little outside of the main Alona beach area, but they make getting back and forth easy with trikes on standby. I wouldn't hesitate to stay here again for the hotel as this is my second time here. Now the bad: I reached out to this hotel well in advance of my stay as I was taking my family for their first visit to the Philippines. I wanted to make sure that tours were set so that we didn't have to spend time doing this during our limited time here. Initial communication with the hotel was good offering options and prices. When it came time to book the tours however, I was told to just wait until check in and they could do it at the front desk. This unfortunately wasn't true, I had to wait until the next day to talk to a different desk that did tours. I wanted to set up two different tours, one to the interior of Bohol, and one to do some island hopping or snorkeling. The young man running the tour desk was happy to help me with the interior tour, but said he probably couldn't get me on an island hopping tour. He said he would look into it and follow up with me, this never happened. He wasn't anywhere to be found the next two days, and when I did find him on the third day he acted like he didn't know what I was talking about. I did find out however that there is a small tour and rental desk down by the beach, and they also offer island hopping tours. According to that desk they are a different company from the one that did the interior tour, and they could have got us into a variety of tours if they had more notice. If the hotel is going to advertise that they offer tour service from the hotel, then they need to do a better job with follow through. Some people travel from halfway around the world to see the Philippines and have limited time to make things happen. If the front desk has two different companies on premises, then they should let customers know that and provide contact information to both. Also, if a customer is requesting to set up tours ahead of time, just do it. Don't tell your customers to wait until they check in, only to have plans fall through. This isn't providing good customer service and shows a lack of commitment to this part of your service. The hotel was great and most of the staff were great, however the staff that I was emailing with that failed to provide all of the tour information and complete bookings on my behalf was not great. I'd like to see them up this level of service or do away with it all together as it really led to some disappointment for part...

I booked a deluxe room via agoda, seamless check-in with welcoming drinks and a cold towel. Resort has 2 pools, with the smaller pool near the beach and resto area, a good minute or two walk through a chinese bamboo-lined pavement from the deluxe building, while the bigger main pool is near the front desk/reception area. Pools are just 3.5 ft. in depth and not ideal for lap swimming. Beachfront is too rocky and shallow for bathing even on high tide. Resort is too far from Alona beach and main cbd, a good ~15 minute brisk walk, which no crazy glutha-injected locals would do on a sweltering day. If you need a ride, frontdesk will call baobao (local motorcycle with passenger seat that can accommodate 2 comfortably) to ferry you to the main cbd for P100 pesos, one way per ride and not per pax . The resort says they have shuttle service to bring you to Alona but you still need to pay P50 pesos pax and you need to call it in advance. Do what we did, rent a motorcycle for P350 day, economical and can bring you to different places around Tagbilaran and Panglao area at your own time and convenience. Lessor quoted P500 initially, but if more than a day, he brought it down to P400, but when we said 4 days, he gave in to P350/day. He will bring and fetch the motorbike fully gassed to and from your hotel. Deluxe room was huge but housekeeping was disappointing, they fixed the beddings but did not replaced some amenities, nor put things properly back at its place, and left the dirtied and wet bathroom mats where it was for 3D2N. Buffet breakfast offers the requisite bread and egg station, about 3-4 different proteins, cereals and rice, a kakanin and tsokolate-eh (Bohol version is slightly sourish because of the addition of coconut cream; it was to be poured into their local suman but server says it can be drank in itself; a salad station with few choices, they have to serve smaller cuts of fruits in the salad bowl (already being served at the fruit section) to augment the limited choices. Food were replenished slowly and waitstaffs were unsmiling. No need for pool cards though to get pool towels; resort asked for a 2k deposit only for our entire stay. The resort was expansive and quiet that it was really calming. I hope they fill the manmade aqueduct along the resto and bridge and fountain area with water to complete the tranquil ambiance. If they make some improvements then I'll reconsider coming back at...

There is so many feedback that me and my wife want to say but let me start by saying.. It was the BEST experience in our life. Last April 8 2019 this resort gave us a wedding day that we will never forget. 😊 Me and my wife wanted to thanks everyone from bluewater staff who showed love, care and comfort to me, my wife and all of our guest on our wedding day. Especially Sheila Baldo who assisted us from day 1. She go the extra mile in assisting us for the preparation for the reception of our wedding and for the management who approves every favor that we ask,. The room that they gave us for the wedding package is a villa and its so huge and elegant. When we ask for a late checkout on our wedding day so we can use the room for preparation, they even gave us another room to use make up room. 😊 they provided extra effort for the settings of our wedding. We can still remember that day when I have doubt when they decided to transfer our wedding reception to Kawayan hall from beach side, because they said it might rain which it did but only in the morning. But when we arrive at the place. We are speechless.. Its so elegant, they achieved the theme that we ask for and makes it so perfectly beautiful. Every gazed in awe especially our foreign guest. And the food. Wow, aside from it has many selections and huge amount of serving. Its so flavorsome and appetizing. I never heard of any negative feedback. Everyones feedback is delicious. And the cake, i never expected that they can create the design that my wife wants. Wow.. 😋 they even gave us our own tree with our name to plant inside the vicinity of the resort as a gift for our wedding. That so unique and special. 😍 to so many more things to say but to sum it all. It was a blast! A day that we will never forget. Thank you so much bluewater for making it so special and unforgetable. We will definitely recommend it. So let me end it by saying. Everyone goes home with a big smile and a...