the story resort and spa — Hotel in Panglao

Only the second review for The Story Resort & Spa, as this place is very new. ||The location is a bit far from anything by walking, but fairly convenient if you rent a motorbike (aim for 350php a day) a quick 5 minutes to Alona area and the best part of the location is if you head the other direction on the main road you’ll find a gem of a restaurant called Ubecco, which had the best food we encountered on the island. Honestly, the breakfast at The Story was not too good. We always woke up too late to make use of it anyways and since the food was so great down the road, it wasn’t a big deal. ||The grounds of the hotel are really pretty, with nice landscaping and trees, and several long pools. If you want quiet then maybe don’t get a room that offers direct access to the pool, since the resort caters to mainland Chinese groups, it can get pretty noisy and there’s also no privacy unless you keep your blinds closed. The upstairs rooms seem nice and have balconies overlooking the pools. ||The room comfort was so so, they were still ironing out some details, which I’m sure they’ll continue to improve. The staff, every one we encountered, were warm and helpful. Each person you pass greets you, and not in a fake way. ||But the one single factor that made our stay fantastic, and the reason for my good rating of The Story, is the absolutely fantastic attention and service we got from the onsite manager. The first morning we had a few requests and he not only quickly addressed them, he went over and above what was needed on every item, and followed up professionally and courteously. I really could not believe how good this gentleman was to us. He even personally escorted us to our next hotel in a van, with all our belongings, just to see us off! For that alone The Story deserves a 5...

I give credit to the friendly staff and excellent service at their restaurant. We are too lazy to go to other restaurants so we had our breakfast and dinner at the hotel. There is always that one item that we order and it is not available. When we checked in to our rooms, we found that there are not enough space to put our stuff. There is an open closet where you hang your clothes and or use it as a shelf to hold your clothes as you empty your luggage. The bathroom has a toilet and the toilet seat is misaligned. The faucet is so dirty and needs to be wiped and cleaned to remove the accumulated hardened minerals. The shower has no door and so when you take a shower, the water is on the floor and everything is wet as you walk out of the bathroom door and your wet footwear makes the rest of the room wet. We were told that the hotel was built to suit Chinese and Korean tourists and if that is so you know what to expect and that is two star or three star hotel. There was one pitiful chair in the room and not safe for seniors...

Hotel is nice from the website. Not much difference from the actual. Facilities is considered quite new. Staff and reception is very nice and polite. The rooms comes with free breakfast which is quite a nice thought. Food wise it's OK not fussy though it could be better. The location is quite a bit away from the buzz but you get the peace you looking for. There's few good eateries close-by to explore. Overall will recommend this hotel. Only issue is their Internet connection in the room is very bad. It's literally off all the time and if you are someone who wants to be connected throughout the facilities then not recommended. But if you ok without the Internet, it's actually nice place to stay. The best thing is the pool access where it's so easy to just get into the pool right...