Holiday Inn Express Manila Newport World Resorts by IHG — Hotel in Pasay

Stayed on 2 separate occasions on this trip, with a 4 day break with a short side trip to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; and as an IHG Rewards Member, this is the 5th time we've stayed here in the last 13 months.

I like this hotel, I really do. I love the location, which is right across from MNL T3, and personally for us, half way between my wife's family in the south of the city and my family which is north of the city.

As an IHG Diamond member, I get to stay in the higher floors. Unfortunately, cell phone signals and wifi are horrible if you get rooms that are closer to the courtyard than the rooms facing the streets.

The outlets by the beds in all the rooms I've stayed at are still loose, so my electrical plugs do not stay in. I have to plug in my gadgets at the outlets by the coffee pot or by the desk. Also, there is no consistency with the light switches. Some switches you need to press the top part to turn on lights, while other switches the bottom part is press to turn on the lights. You really need to get your engineering department to work on this. Also, the shower doors don't tend to stay close. On both rooms I stayed at during this trip, water leaked out of the shower stalls. I understand that the Philippines is a tropical country, but pest control needs to be a higher priority. We had roaches both at our 8th floor and 9th floor rooms during this visit to the country. I grew up here, so it doesn't bother me much; but you have clientele who are not used to seeing these pests.

The gym equipment needs servicing. With only 2 treadmills, one treadmill was defective on one occasion, and on our second visit, both treadmills were out of order. They had one rowing machine and it was out of order as well. Without any machines to use, we had to make do with the free weights, but there's only one bench. You guys can really do better.

The free breakfast is really nothing to write home about; after all the times we've stayed here, it's practically always the same. Some type of Filipino breakfast meat with scrambled eggs and rice and porridge. The fruits and salads are ok. I feel sorry for visitors from the western world who do not eat Filipino breakfast. They're basically getting a continental breakfast with breads and jams. It broke my heart to see 2 caucasian kids upset that their breakfast was just breads and cereals. it would be great if there were more meat options. The tocino is TOO SWEET! So is the pineapple juice. We barely ate there, preferring to walk over to McDonald's in the same building or the Garden Cafe across the street at the Maxim/Casino.

But after everything I wrote above, nothing, and I mean nothing, beats the hospitality of the staff. Upon my arrival, one of the security guards manning the metal detector greeted me with "Welcome Back, Sir!" Very heartwarming to have staff remember me from my previous visits. The staff here is extremely accommodating. They go out of their way to find a way to say "yes" to requests, to the best of their abilities. I would like to give a big shout out the their staff here, and that's probably the only reason why I choose this hotel over the other hotels in this Newport complex, besides the value. Special mention goes to Rei Ann at the breakfast podium who has to listen to me whine about the limited selection of breakfast items. Louie at the front desk/bellhop, always willing to bring my stuff up to my room and would ask me how I was doing whenever I encounter him at the lobby. And Roger, housekeeping on the 9th floor. I asked Roger to get my room cleaned as soon as possible, and he accommodated my requests. Another compliment goes to the security guards, too many to name, but always cheerful and willing to assist guests in loading and unloading of bags. Come to think of it, it's not even their jobs to help guests with their bags but they cheerfully go about assisting guests with this task.

Somthing I'm going to throw out there; I don't really believe in ghosts, but our room on the 8th floor, the bathroom door closed and slid back open one night. And on our trip back and staying on the 9th floor, the bathroom lights would automatically turn on and off by themselves when all the lights in the room were turned off after 10pm. Maybe there's a short in the wiring (Room 0953), but I cannot find an explanation for the bathroom door sliding closed and opening by itself in our 8th floor room (forgot the room number, but it's in the part of the hotel facing Newport Drive). We just slept all those events off.

I really wished I could give you more stars, and more compliments like I've written before. But I think we will be changing hotels in our next visit to Manila. I'm a HH member as well, so most likely we'll be staying...

This hotel isn't worth staying at.

The staff and management here have no idea about customer service and the appallingly bad service here you wouldn't accept in a ghetto.

The security staff at the entry are lazy. They stand & talk to people like dirt, direct & point to people to put their cases through X-ray machines but stand & watch & refuse to help elderly people struggling & they just refuse to help. This hasn't changed in years.

The worst wifi, its a disgrace and drops out all the time. The worst internet in any hotel anywhere

The shower water pressure is weak and substandard.

They used to provide a shuttle to & from the airport but removed it so it's very difficult to get from the airport to this hotel because when you tell taxis you are taking a short trip they just won't take you. After waiting over 1.5hrs at the airport with numerous cancellations on grab & from taxi drivers, I had to walk over 1 km with all my luggage.

At the bar they rip you off blind & charge 5 times the price of a can of coke from what you'd pay from 7-11. At 207 pesos simply a blind rip off.

The only 4 star hotel anywhere, if you ask for a bucket of ice, they will NOT bring it to you. You have to go down to the ground floor bar, ask and they give you a small plastic take away container of ice! Absurd for a 4 start hotel

The food served in the restaurant is unhygenic and unsafe. Many people would suffer stomach problems after eating this food which is served at dangerously unsafe temperatures.

Many of the things like the juices are left empty. Most of the hot food is either cold or barely warm and its unhygenic due to the lazy incompetent staff who couldn't care less. When 1 of the chefs came out to finally replace some of the empty dishes I asked the chef can I get something hot he said No take what's here! Clearly the staff don't give a damn about their job or the customers. Management are incompetent, have the same bad attitude and they don't do anything to address problems. I emailed.the general manager who wouldn't even show common courtesy and reply! No wonder.the staff here are so bad.

Complaints about the poor quality food have been ongoing for years & its now at least 5 times worse than what it used to be. There's laws governing what temperatures food must be served at & this hotel would fail in every aspect putting customers heath & safety at risk.

Staff and management need replacing, so incompetent and unhelpful & have no idea how to carry out their jobs properly or efficiently

In a restaurant there were no glasses to get drinks & all of the drink containers were empty because the staff weren't replenishing items that would running low. Lack of management or supervision here is a disgrace and clearly the management need replacing because they are definitely not doing their job.

l had problems with my room when i checked in. Engineering couldn't fix it, which is ok, but it took staff 1.5 hrs to move me. Terribly bad service.

Most 2 or 3 star hotels leave this place for dead re customer service & it's got worse over the years.

When I wanted management I was told they are in the backroom. I was told no! give me the info & I will pass it on! I demanded to see management & finally a manager Tina spokr & just smirked as she thought the entire situation was funn. She told me 'that's what they learn & the staff there, this is their 1st day!

Management are a disgrace! Who in the right mind would put staff alone on their 1st day with noone to supervise?

Management sit on their backsides in a back room hidden away from everything & clearly don't care.

This hotel isn't worth 1 star You can get far better hotels at 1/3 of the price where they put this hotel to shame.

The entire Management team and many of the staff need replacing. With no supervision & the appalling behaviour is allowed to continue

Do not waste your money or time to stay at this disgracefully badly operated hotel.

It is simply not worth anywhere near the prices they charge. Far better service and hotels at 1/3 of the...

I would like to make a big complaint about this case. Here are how they did wrong:

First, I called the hotel and reported that I left my passport and i-phone cellphone inside the safety box when I left the room (#1036). The agent told me that they will try to find them. But, what they did was helpless. What they were supposed to do was (1) to check Lost and Found. If they could not find it, they should have checked the safety box. While it took almost an hour for me to go to the hotel from another hotel, nothing was done. Besides this, I informed my e-mail and phone number. The agent told me that she would send me an email. I got not response at all after I made phone call. If I did not go to the hotel, I would not be able to find my passport and cell phone.

Second, once I arrived at the hotel and asked this case, nobody acknowledged this at all. I had to explain again and ask help. They asked for me just wait. I had not heard anything even after I waited for a while. Then, I went to the front desk agent again and asked the process. He told me that they could not find them. Then, I was mad and worried about the situation since I had to leave Manila to Korea on the evening on the same date. Since I knew that I left them inside the safety box, I could not accept the loss. I asked to talk to the front desk manger telling him that I am a Diamond Elite member. He asked for me to wait again and went to a room where the manager stayed. After for a while, he came to me and asked for me just to wait again. I kept telling him that I wanted to meet the front desk manager or general manager. But, he did not explain why I can't meet them. He just kept told me that I can't meet them now without explaining why and kept asking for me to wait again. After I waited for a while, he approached me and told me that they finally found them.

This still made me very upset about the process and asked some questions to myself as follows:

What did the agent who made phone call with me did? If I did not physically come to the hotel, I got no response and i lost them and someone instead took or stole them?

(2) Why the front desk manager or general manager did not meet me while I asked as a Diamond Elite member?

(3) Even after I told where I exactly left them in which room, why they could not find them or did someone kept it and lied to me that they could not find them?

(4) The front desk agent told me that they found them after someone went to the room and opened the safety box. I do not buy this. The room is very small and the safety box is easily noticed located upper the refrigerator. Although the room was not occupied with other guests, the house keeper should have reported that the safety box was locked and closed so that someone should have already gone to the room and opened. Then, the hotel should have informed my loss through e-mail. But they did not go through all of these processes and just left the safety box keep locked and closed. Hmm... Should I believe this? If this is true, I still can't accept how the hotel manage

As a Diamond Elite member, (2) as a professor in Hospitality & Tourism Management and (3) as a frequent traveler who stays at hotels around 9 months every year, I can't understand this situation. I want you to investigate this case and make some penalty on the related people. I am very disappointing at their response and recovery after this service failure. They think this is not a big deal? This is big deal for me. If I did not come to the hotel and if I did not keep complaining or waiting, they would not give me the passport and cellphone and someone could just take mine since they are all very expensive and valuable things.

Please investigate this case and inform me how you handle this case. I will also discuss this case in my class such as Marketing class when I cover the chapter about the loyalty and service failure...