NOTE: I know it's a long read. But I suppose it's only fitting for the weekend that my friends and I had. Please bear with me and read through the whole thing. Thanks!
My
friends and I have been planning to go to a beach in time for summer. After a little bit of research, we found a
resort in Laiya, Batangas called Paseo Verde.
My friend then inquired about room availability and was told that a room
for 9 persons is available for our group (7 pax) for P7,000.00. She asked if it
was possible to get the smaller room and just add extra beds. She was told it
wasn’t possible. So we settled for the
bigger room and she made reservations for April 5-6. After the deposit
(P3,500.00), she then realized that she booked the wrong date. It’s supposed to
be April 6-7. She then called the resort to make the change, and was relieved
when the person she talked to told her that it was a good thing there was 1
room left for us.
When
we got to the resort, the security guard asked us if we had any reservations.
We told him yes and proceeded to give the name of our friend who made the
reservation. He then told us that he didn’t have that name on his list. So I
just asked him if we can talk to someone to clarify. We then headed to the
reception area. My friend gave her name to the woman who seemed to be a katiwala. The woman told her: “ah
kagabi ko pa kayo inaantay ah. Dapat kahapon kayo” I was there with my friend and upon hearing
this, I started to feel anxious. Then my friend told her, we were booked for
April 6, not April 5. The woman then insisted that we were booked for April 5.
Then proceeded to say that they wanted to call us to confirm, but they had no
contact number. She then said “hiningi ko
nga kay ma’am yung contact number nyo, para tawagan, pero wala naman kayong
iniwan na contact number.” The lady
who seemed to be the owner of the resort then said: “landline lang ang binigay nyong number. Kaya di naman kayo matawagan.
Ito yung sa resibo o, nakalagay 6 tapos binura ko kasi nag-usap tayo
pinapalitan mo ng 5.” The katiwala then said “inantay ko nga kayo hanggang 11:30pm.” My friend then insisted that
the correction she made was from 5-6 and not 6-5. But the owner was insistent.
She was sure that my friend was the one who made the mistake. The problem was,
the change in date was made over the phone (my friend called through her mobile
phone). And no confirmation was made by either parties. So at that moment, it
was their word against my friend’s. The owner then told my friend: “Pasalamat ka naaawa ako sa iyo ah” while
pointing her finger at my friend. Then told us that there was apparently a
last-minute cancellation, but it’s a smaller room than the one we originally
booked and was cheaper. But they will be charging us for the bigger room. This
was the last straw for me. I asked my friend if she had any proof of their
previous conversations. She turned her phone on (the battery had been dead when
we got there and had to be charged) and showed me the exchange where it was
clear that her original booking was for April 5 and was confirmed. This then
disproved the owner’s claim that the original date was for April 6. I told her
to show it to them. This was how their exchange went:
Owner: hindi ako yang kausap mo dyan.
Friend: eh sino
yung kausap ko?
O:
hindi ko alam sino ang kausap mo. Hindi
naman yan ang number namin. Ito yung number o. (She then showed her a flyer
where their number was shown)
I
told my friend to call the number and voila! The phone that the owner herself
was holding rang, proving that my friend called the right number and that she
was the one that my friend talked to. Then it gets even more interesting.
O:
kaya nga mahirap yang text text na iyan.
Sunod sunod na yung mga text kasi madami nag-b-book. Kaya tinatawagan na nga
namin.
We
then insisted that they can’t charge us P 7,000.00 for the cheaper and much
smaller room. After discussing it with each other, they agreed to charge us
just for the smaller room plus a fee for 2 extra people.
After
all the commotion, we were finally able to check in and settle in. We then got
our stuff from the car and decided to grab lunch. When we were about to leave,
one of our friends realized her wallet was missing. We looked for it
everywhere, in both cars, in all the bags and in the room. It couldn’t be found
anywhere. After about half an hour of searching, she decided to just try looking
for it later so we can all eat since it was almost 3pm already. After lunch, we
went back to the resort and she talked to the owner to ask for help. She told
the owner that she had lost her wallet and if it’s possible to talk to the
person who lent us the cookware and the person who delivered our free water.
Her immediate response was: “I can assure
you that the people here are honest. Hindi sila gagawa ng masama kasi mahal
nila trabaho nila.” My friend then answered that she wasn’t accusing
anyone. She just wanted to ask if anybody saw anything. The owner then called
in her staff and asked who lent us the cookware and who delivered our water.
The girl who lent us the cookware said that after leaving the cookware, she
immediately left and she didn’t notice a wallet. As for whoever delivered the
water, nobody was admitting anything. It took a while before anybody said
anything and even the owner was getting impatient and said: “sino bang nagdala nung tubig, alangan naman
naglakad mag-isa yan papunta dun” It was only then that one of the staff
spoke up and pointed out who delivered our water. He said: “di ba ikaw ang nagdala ng tubig dun sa
kwarto nila, sabay pa nga tayo, dun ako nag deliver.” The other man then
replied while scratching his head: “ah oo
nga pala no, ako nga nagdala.” Now, we don’t want to accuse anyone. But
this was just a few hours ago, it seemed suspicious that he wouldn’t admit that
he was the one who delivered our water. Of course he also denied seeing my friend’s
wallet, then that was that. The owner didn’t offer any sort of help or assistance
to try and find the wallet. Granted that it had been irresponsible of my friend
to leave her wallet in plain sight with no one “guarding” it, but she could
have at least tried to make an effort to help us look for it or to prove that
it wasn’t one of the staff who took it.
The
next day, a man who appeared to be an owner as well, asked my friend if she
found her wallet. She told him that we weren’t able to find it. He said that it
bothered him that such an incident had happened. But the lady that we talked to
the day before, whose name was Lita, just told my friend the same thing that
she said the day before. That she can assure us that her staff were honest
people and that they wouldn’t do anything to jeopardize their jobs. Talk about
bad customer service. And she said it in such a rude manner.
As
for a review of the place itself, I found nothing special about it. The airconditioner
wasn’t as cool as you’d hope it would be. Considering how small our room was, I
was expecting it to be cooler. The flush was broken and the toilet/bathroom was
roughly around 1x1 sq. meter only! The electricity seemed to be faulty as well
because the phones that were plugged in overnight didn’t reach 100% even after
so many hours.
We
do realize that we’re not entirely blameless. Perhaps we should have researched
better and we should have been more careful with our things. But the treatment
that we got from them was totally unacceptable. You don’t have to be a genius
to figure out that none of us will ever go back to that place. And we want to
make sure that people find out how badly they treat customers and how rude they
are.
