Grand Westside Hotel — Hotel in Parañaque

POSITIVES:

Breakfast buffet has a great selection. Waiter staff are very attentive. The waiter/waitresses were all very attentive, mostly smiley too.

NEGATIVES:

Sniffer dogs Airport level security Full pat downs Luggage scanners Medical Face masks in 2024 (Just insulting to intelligence) Feels insanely prison like...

ENTERING THE HOTEL: An extremely overpriced 3 star hotel with a big head. To get in, you must go through sniffer dogs, a full pat down, emptying pockets into trays and scanning all bags as you do airports. 100% unnecessary.

THE ROOMS: One of the smallest rooms we've ever stayed in anywhere. With all our luggage, we had to crab walk through the narrow hallway section just to get in and out of the tiny room.

1 toilet roll a day? I happened to have an allergic reaction the first night, so we had no toilet roll already.

RESTAURANT: First meal cold Adobo chicken, cold rice, small portions, everything overpriced.

THE RESTAURANT SIDE ELEVATORS: "Sorry sir, you cannot use these. They are out of service today" (all 4 of them?) so we needed to then walk to the other side of the building to use the other elevators.

GYM: Went to gym, but nobody working there. We're supposed to sign in with someone?

POOLSIDE BAR: what coffees do you have? We don't have coffee sir. What pool bar doesn't serve basic coffee? I later see other reviews asking the same thing. Sitting by the pool early hours of the morning, the last thing anyone wants is alcohol.

SAUNA AND STEAM ROOMS: Another guest notified us that APPARENTLY you're supposed to find someone who works to ask to use steam rooms.

ELEVATORS: (The working ones) Can't get back to room as keycard not working in elevator, tried a different one and it worked.

CALLING RECEPTION: Asked for HDMI support and they said someone would come up now. Around 40 minutes someone came to help us.

BACK TO GYM 2ND ATTEMPT: Another guest explaining how The bike machine kept resetting when being used. So avoiding the bike I went to use a treadmill and as I got up to speed 6, the belt started sticking and sliding under my feet faster and slower which nearly tripped me. The 2nd treadmill was OK.

2nd try steam rooms: The steam rooms weren't on. Nobody was at the desk again. Found someone who gave us locker keys, but we needed to request towels. Nobody came to turn on steam rooms once we were changed, so we went to return the keys, and still nobody around, so we put the keys back into the keybox behind the desk, and As we walked away a lady shouted at us for the keys we'd already returned because nobody was there.

BREAKFAST BUFFETS: Today My fiancée was humiliated by unjustified childish dress code A clear sign stating the dress code read:

No swimwear, robes, slippers, sleepwear Nowhere does it mention about shoulders.

My fiancée wore a full length dress, whilst hotel staff wore short kinky santa outfits with black tights. Ridiculous

I explained i would rather have a refund than be told how to dress. The manager realised how silly the rule was, apologised, and let us in.

The food was ok noticed a small cockroach crawling on food top Beef brisket was cold and taken back without apology.

ROOM CLEANING: Room cleaning happens between 10 and 11am. If we need cleaning we should then call reception to Re-arrange.

They have atm cash machine but it's out of order. (See photo)

The BBQ on Friday was OK. Mostly nice staff One guy always playing on his phone instead of working, ignoring us when trying to get his attention. Food was undercooked and needed to be cooked twice.

AGAIN STEAM ROOMS: This time, the steam room was on. I went to use the room and saw the gym staff enter the lockers. He walked past without checking if the steam room was being used and turned it off whilst i was inside for the first time. Guests are prohibited from entering the control room, so yet again, we couldn't use the steam rooms.

CONCLUSION: Silly rules, unprofessional. Felt more like a prison run by students than a hotel, and I'd not stay here again, even...

HOTEL LOBBY- huge lobby, nice smell, nice decor . The condo agents though made us uncomfortable because they constantly begs you to take the flyers. and when you came from a long flight, you just want peace and quiet and not be bothered. I understand that they are trying to earn a living too but maybe they should just allot a corner or table for them and wait for the guests to approach them. It's not a good impression when people are trying to sell in a hotel lobby. If you go to Bali, Singapore and Tokyo hotels you will never see anyone selling something at the lobby. RECEPTION - Anne was very polite and took time checking us in. The male staffs were very attentive as well. ROOMS- we got the family connecting rooms and we loved the space, cleanliness. But the smell of a paint puts us off. It was so strong that I had to request to be moved especially that my daughter has asthma. They quickly responded and helped us moved to the next floor. It wasn't that bad anymore but for some reason you could still smell the paint and we suspected that it's coming from their vents . The hallways would smell paint too. HOUSEKEEPING- they were exceptionally responsive to any of our requests. They did a great job keeping everything spotless. I'm a neat freak and I always checks the corners. I like it that they don't talk a lot or chatty it shows that they are mindful of everyone's privacy. WIFI- my husband works in the tech industry so he knows if it's a good one or a bad one. This hotel has consistent fast wifi signal. Really happy. POOL - my girls love the pool, really huge and clean but the noise from the construction in the nearby building is really annoying but it is what it is in Manila. BREAKFAST - Now, this is where they fell really short. They have one of the worst breakfast we ever had. The 2 star hotel that we stayed in Bicol was alot better than theirs. The arozcaldo and champorado were consistently watered down in all 3 days that we stayed. We even wondered if it's a Filipino chef or if he/she even knows what Filipino food should tastes like. Everything didn't taste good except for the fruits lol. We complained about the glasses under the beverage station because it all smelled dampy. I wonder if the person who wipes it to dry used a dirty or old towel or if the placemat that it is sitting on causes it to stink. I informed one of the female staff and replied- I'll have them pour hot water on it. Uh oh. I hope the cafe manager would regular closely checks on this little things. They also waited until the food is completely empty before they replaced it and other guests started getting frustrated. I had to ask for a refill of the pancit twice and the server replied "I'll check with the chef if there's still more coming". The coffee tasted awful. Rule of thumb: you have to have a good coffee to make a great impression. Seriously, the chef needs to be sent to Ascott BGC to get an idea of where they are missing out. You don't have to have a huge selection but make sure it's the best pandesal, authentic tasting champorado, great coffee, hot fried rice- just be mindful of the basics. I tried to eat in the same cafe for dinner with my friends thinking that it's not the chef. We ordered pancit, Satay chicken and some desserts. Everything taste awful. The Satays oil solidified quickly (masebo) few minutes after being served. The tiramisu was mushy and taste bad. Honestly, they need to re-train the chef or call for a replacement. Also, its only a year old but the upkeep and mainetenance of the fabric seats was lacking as indicated by the stains on multiple chairs.The only consistent about this cafe is the staff who were genuinely courteous/polite.

SHUTTLE - polite, helpful and on time.

Overall, for the price , this is a great hotel with so much potential. It will be perfect 5 for us if the food was good. Some of our friends were already asking for recommendations to stay in manila and we would still recommend this hotel but discourage them from...

The Grand Westside hotel which is climbing today a 4.5 or 5 star hotel, certainly does not live up to that in a number of areas.

The security at the place is ridiculous and makes people feel very uncomfortable. The price operates more like a prison than a hotel. Security are annoying and intrusive and want to look at everything you've got they want to look into a shopping bags, and even ask you what have you got in your pockets! What a disgrace! This is intrusive and is a disgraceful.manner.to treat guests. Instead it makes customers feel uncomfortable and is a breach of privacy and it's totally unnecessary.

Then there is the ridiculous policy of charging 2,000 pesos per night for a holding deposit! If you stay for a week, you're up for a ridiculous 14,000 pesos. This is an absurd policy as there's not even a mini bar in the room, and there's no need to charge these ridiculous excessive amounts, or any amount.

The rooms are quite small, and there's the hotel is new so is everything in the rooms, there is a very small sofa, a small desk and chair, a safe, tea and coffee making facilities and an medium size LCD TV which is disappointing. The TV is not a smart TV, so you can't watch netflix or youtube or anything, which is unusual for a brand new hotel. The bed is reasonably comfortable, but there are many issues.

The bathrooms definitely not 4 or 5 star,  the rooms are small, cramped and they have not even got shower screens in the bathroom just cheap old fashioned shower curtains which is pathetic The water pressure is just average and could be a lot better.

The rooms themselves lacksoundproofing, and you can hear staff vacuuming the corridors, and you can hear building construction noise through the rooms.

Where is security everywhere, and then when you go to the gym like coming annoy you and ask you to sign in, why? You've already signed in and have to use your access card to get about the place people want to stop and relax, not spend every 5 minutes filling out ridiculous unnecessary forms.

The swimming pool is ok, but it gets quite windy and there is a body but the drink prices at the bar expensive wanting you to pay 7 times the price of a beer you would buy in 7-eleven. There are 2 small spa's at the pool,  but the water in them is cold.

The wi-fi needs attention and keep dropping at...