Microtel by Wyndham Mall of Asia — Hotel in Pasay

(I) Long Story Short

Wyndham MOA does not answer their phones, and Wyndham corporate does not take responsibility for the management practices of their hotel franchisees (e.g. Wyndham MOA)

(II) A Detailed Account

I booked the Wyndham MOA for my wife and sister-in-law to stay at since it’s walking distance to the Mall of Asia. I booked the hotel under my wife’s name. Since my wife is traveling from California and her sister from Leyte, there was a good chance my sister-in-law would arrive in Manila before my wife. Knowing this I called the hotel to inform them of the situation so that my sister-in-law could check-in without my wife.

I called the Philippine number posted on the Wyndham website associated with this particular hotel. I was on hold for at least a half hour with no answer, so I called Wyndham cooperate in the United States to verify I had the correct number. They verified I did have the right number, so I called it again. This time I was on hold for an hour with no answer.

The next day I received an email (likely automated) informing me that the hotel was only accepting guests for quarantine, and not for leisure. In other words my wife and sister-in-law would not be permitted to stay at the hotel they had a reservation at. This was despite the Philippine government lifting quarantine restrictions for fully vaccinated travelers from within the Philippines and from “green” and “yellow” countries effective February 1st.

Given my wife and sister-in-law meet those requirements and were to stay after February 1st, quarantine should not have been an issue. However, to be safe I attempted to call the hotel once again. Again I was on hold for a substantial time with no answer. So I called cooperate once again explaining the situation. Cooperate informed me they had no control over the management practices of individual franchisees, and there was nothing they could do.

The only bright spot (if you can call it that) about this whole ordeal was that I was able to cancel the reservation without being charged.

I finally sucked it up, called several Marriotts and a Hilton. All of whom (surprise, surprise) answered their phones despite also being franchisees themselves. So Marriott and Hilton are able to ensure a minimum level of quality control that is apparently beyond the scope of Wyndham’s capabilities. It’s more likely they Wyndham just can’t be bothered.

I ended up booking the Conrad (Hilton) near the Mall of Asia which I know from experience is a lovely hotel. I would 100% recommend the Conrad. Obviously I would not extend the same recommendation to any Wyndham properties.

(III) Conclusion/Recommendations

Do not book this hotel, especially if you are doing so from overseas. You will be wasting your time, and potentially your money. I wouldn’t even do it if you were in Manila at the time of booking. Just don’t waste your time and money. Especially once the restrictions are lifted and things return to normal, stay at an Airbnb if you want to save money. I’ve not had a single issue with Airbnb in the Philippines or Metro Manila. There has always been a quick response when we needed one. Obviously if you’re not afraid to spend, Marriott, Hilton, Hyatt, Shangri-La, etc are always very nice options. Stay away...

For the location and the price of the hotel it is definitely low quality for the $151 per night fee. There are very few positives about our experience here and will likely avoid this hotel because of the high price and low quality. We've stayed in hotels for less with a better experience.

1st Impression: The outside of the hotel and the lobby is really nice and makes it appear high class. When we went to our room on the 5th floor, the air itself was warm and smelled strange as if there was no air conditioning in the hallways (which there isn't). Upon entering our room, I was shocked by the hospital like feel and smell. I honestly wondered if it was once a nursing home or hospital since there were metal rails on both sides of the toilet. The walls were different colors and appeared as if it had been painted over multiple times. The room did not look extremely clean. I checked the sheets and there were a few stains and an obvious stain they could not remove from previous use. (I did smell it to make sure it was freshly washed.) We were told that our luggage would be sent up to our room but after 20 mins of waiting and feeling the need to unpack and shower after hours on a plane, we went downstairs and got the luggage ourselves. The staff clearly saw us and stood and stared.

Overall Impression: Positives: Our view was really nice and the air conditioner worked quickly to cool our room. -Housekeeping was very prompt about providing us with requested items but they can be slow with answering the phone. After calling Housekeeping and getting no response, I had to hang up and call the front office. After a couple of rings they responded and relayed my message. Free shuttle to the SM Mall The location is super convenient to restaurants and stores you may want to go to.

Negatives: -The breakfast buffet was okay but definitely not great. Some of the food was not fully cooked like the beans and their french toast was hard (if that's even possible) with no syrup available for it. -There are very few channels available on TV and what is on is a segment that reloops every 30 minutes. I've never seen this before in a hotel. -Holy hell the walls are thin and even more so the conjoining doors to the next hotel room. I was woken up at 7 am by someone next door who decided to have morning sex. I had to blast the TV on to drown out the noise. My mother and sister were in one room while my bf and I were in another. We had to extend our stay by a few hours since our flight wasn't until 11 pm. At 11:35 am we were given a courtesy call that we had to check out at 12 pm. We didn't realize my mother had extended it for her room only so we quickly dragged our things to her room in order to "check out" in time. After being in her room for maybe 20 minutes we get a knock on our door from the housekeeper who was asking us about 2 missing hangers from our room. 🤯 What. I know housekeeping is only doing their job but how cheap must the hotel be to count the hangers and knock on the door about it? We didn't and wouldn't steal a hotel hanger. Especially when we're still technically in the hotel for a couple...

Everything was good, except....

I traveled with my husband and 2 adult children. We stayed in Room 806. The room had an oblique view of Manila Bay and the Ferris wheel. We've stayed at the Microtel Baguio before and so we expected the same excellent level of service -- in this, we were not disappointed. Everything was clean. No smell of mold or mildew anywhere. There was ample supply of toiletries. We were provided free slippers and additional pillows upon request. They even had an Avis counter where we arranged transportation to the airport to pick up a family member. Everything was reasonably priced. The price for the room included the breakfast buffet. The food was good, although, unlike in Microtel Baguio where the buffet offered salad greens as well as fruit, Microtel MOA only offered fruit, not salad greens. I liked that it was so near the sea wall that we could walk and watch the sunset. The hotel also had a shuttle service to the MOA. We were walking distance from a Gong Cha, Starbucks and a Via Mare. That gave us a good choice of dining experiences. I had difficulty booking a room because they expected me to download a confirmation form, sign it, scan it and send it back to them. They also expected me to give a deposit even if I paid for the room in full. What was mind boggling was, they held the room for me just the same even if I did not send the confirmation form. Why make customers go through so much trouble? Reservation and booking over the phone should be a more streamlined process. The overarching consideration is the convenience of the guests.

Over all, the experience was positive except for one thing that I could not ignore. Microtel MOA has a pool on the rooftop. And this is where my disappointment began. The pool and the pool lounge were not wheelchair accessible. There was a steep flight of stairs from the 12th floor to the rooftop, but there was no ramp. Senior citizens would find it difficult using the stairs. The hotel management, perhaps, does not think that the disabled may wish to enjoy the pool? Or even watch their loved ones enjoying the pool? I don't know. I don't understand why the pool area was not accessible to PWDs. The view from the poolside was great. PWDs using wheelchair would not enjoy the view. Besides, because it was not wheelchair accessible, our family member who used a wheelchair was excluded from the fun. For this reason, we will not stay at this Microtel again. We will probably stay at the Conrad across the...