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| From What the eyes cannot see |
I have been to various hotels, pension houses and inns that offer roughly the same level of ineptitude in my 28 years of existence. But just like a stash of your old wardrobe, there’s always that one piece of clothing that makes you go, “What was I thinking!” A fortnight’s worth of stay for the two different times that I have been to Saint Illian’s I think is enough number of days for me to put up a fair assessment of my experiences; or to put it more accurately, my misadventures of that place.
Every traveller seeks a place to stay mainly to get some rest, wash up and go about his business, hence the location of the chosen bread and breakfast is at the top of every person’s list. This inn did not disappoint, it is located near a mall, Waltermart in Pasong Tamo, and you can literally walk for just 20 minutes to the heart of the financial center in Makati, the Ayala Triangle. This has 4 stars out of 5 for its location.
Appearance and architecture was also okay, it has this old Spanish, brick-laden, almost “Hansel and Gretel” – like feel to its walls and designs. Upon entering the place you are received by mood busting, ear tingling sputtering sound of the air conditioning located opposite to the front desk. The whole building is not really spick and span as you might expect the usual hotels to be, it has low lying ceilings and can get claustrophobic when roaming around its narrow nave. The rooms go anywhere from the first floor the fifth but guess what? They have no elevators! I had to drag my travel bag up to the highest floor, walk up and around their helix/circular steel stairs and it just felt wrong. What happened to the Building Code of the Philippines? 1 out of 5 stars.
The receptionists are professionally trained. They never fail to shoot a greeting to any visitor on sight! Sometimes it messes with your head as if the font desk people are saying, “I see you!” And oh by the way, I noticed after almost a total of 6 days of staying in this inn, that they actually do that because they want to make sure you did not slip the key outside the premises. A big kudos to them for masking the fake smile and a, “Good morning sir!” as really a “Sir, lalabas po ba kayo? Paki bigay po sa amin yung room key kasi bawal po yang ilabas.” For that they deserve 2 out of 5 stars.
Now to the most important part of every hotel review, the room. I have been with around three different rooms in this place and there is one common theme, there are no windows except for the ones beside the door, which by the way gives you a really relaxing sight of the hallway. The 3m x 2m room looked pretty standard with a cable tv, small fridge, a small table and two chairs, a cabinet for your clothes, some bath and toiletries stuff. One of the beds were bad though, it had this hollow depression on one side that tells me it’s an old, over-used bed that the St Illian’s staff did not even notice! And by the way, on all three rooms, the air conditioning sucks. It was at 17 the whole night and the temperature felt like a 30 ⁰C – ahhh.. nice and cozy, just like sleeping under the sun on a summer afternoon! And for all those folks out there that is 5’8 or taller, this place is not for you because you will find yourself very uncomfortable while taking a shower. They have a 2ft x 3ft shower room – try visualizing that! And be careful with your toes too, their faucet cover falls off without warning… I am not kidding ladies and gentlemen, my toe got smacked! 0 out of 5 stars for the bad sleeping quality, poor washroom space and the place is a health hazard.
Now on to the “face behind the name” – housekeeping, they make all our lives easy or a living hell. The people working there are honest and helpful as once I left my pants in the room and they were kind enough to return it to me. I also asked for a flat iron and they kindly brought one to my room without hesitation. However, when we had some fast food delivered to the place, we were shocked that the St Illian’s staff was so quick to bring the food to my room instead of first calling me over the intercom. Well, a second after she knocked at my door I realized it’s because they charge a 50php fee for the “delivery” from the front desk to the third floor where I was staying. So much for extortion! Be careful of your things too, because once you leave the room, their housekeeping would go inside to “check”. And guess what they did to my room? They unplugged my phone while it was charging, they also turned off the A/C (remember the 30 ⁰C???) and who knows what else they were doing inside there! Privacy is very critical in any type of accommodations and apparently not only did this inn fail in that category, but their housekeeping unplugs everything for them to save some money at your expense! Didn’t we all pay for our stay? Doesn’t that include 24 hours of air conditioning? Epic fail on this one, 0 out of 5 stars.
For a price of 1,790php a night, this is not so bad, isn’t it? Well, for Saint Illian’s, it is! In this place, they are the ones that got the bang for your buck, not you! You got bang’ed!
We chose this place because of a recommendation from a friend who had a relatively good experience with them but for me, it was just horrible. I strongly suggest that you walk the next block from Saint Illian’s and spend that extra 400 bucks a night on a more decent place as there are three or four hotels and inns around the vicinity. But if you want to prove me wrong, please feel free to check the place out.
