⌛ Via Bohol Tourist Inn - Where NOT to Stay in Bohol

We stayed in Via Bohol Tourist Inn in Tagbilaran for 3 days, and for all of these 3 days we kept requesting to see the manager, but the manager remained ‘unavailable’ for all of the 3 days and did not bother to see us and talk to us in spite of our repeated requests.
We wanted to complain about:
- nobody of the hotel staff bothering to clean our room during the whole day we had left for the Bohol tour, and when returning after 8 hours at about 4pm, dirty and tired dreaming of a hot shower and a clean bed, we found our room and shower unattended as we had left it in the morning,
- In the morning all of the reception clerks together with all the restaurant staff, kitchen staff and housekeepers were too busy watching TV in the restaurant/karaoke, nobody finding the time or being in the mood to ask what we wanted for breakfast or to bring us a menu or, at least, put some tissues on our table (clearly looking like a hotel without an in-house manager, nobody giving a d*mn).
- When we checked in and found a non working water tap in the bathroom, I went down to request somebody to repair it; the reception clerk went off to get me mineral water. I told her to forget it.
In response to our complaints the supervisor confirmed she had passed on our complaints to the manager (I never found out what the so-called ‘supervisor’ supervised: The TV watching hotel staff? The unwilling and incapable restaurant staff? The non-working accessories in the ‘deluxe’ bathrooms? The housekeepers not cleaning their customers’ rooms?). As mentioned above, we never succeeded to see the manager who remained ‘unavailable’ for all of the 3 days.
I have stayed in enough 1,000p/night hotels in the Philippines, like the Bethel in Dumaguete and others, but have never encountered such a poor service anywhere.
Via Bohol Tourist Inn and its ‘unavailable’ manager spoiled our otherwise extremely pleasant visit to the lovely island.

 

Thanks for passing on the advice! I do plan on visiting beautiful Bohol again and will keep this in mind. It ruins a trip to receive such bad service and on top of that to PAY WELL for it too!?! I had a friend staying at a top hotel in DUMA. I was so EXCITED at the thought of BREWED coffee yet every morning when I went there to have breakfast they only had INSTANT coffee. Also, every morning they apologized for the broken coffee maker. I understood the first morning since they needed time to buy a NEW coffee maker.... but every day after that? I wondered just HOW LONG had the coffee maker been broken? This was a high priced resort. Things like this always amaze me at how things are run. Apologizing and saying "sorry sir" does not bode well for a tourist establishment. I worked in hotels/restaurants to pay for my college and we were well trained to FIX the problem and quickly for the guests OR make-up in some other way (i.e. giving another free item or discount). I am curious as to the training for hotel/restaurant in the PHL.

 

Cindy, I am 7 years here in the tourist business in the PI now, it is hard to get someone at all who speaks a kind of proper english and can calculate 7+8 without using a cell or a calculator. The level of "college" and "university" degrees here is sometimes shocking... They all know how to "chat" and to have 1000 "friends in friendster" but "WORD or EXCEL" no way ... it is a real shame.

going back to tommy's post... thank you for the info, it will go on my black-list, as I have to go Bohol in a few days.

cheers

Rhoody

 

Sad to hear the hotel ruined a lot of your trip to Bohol, if you wanna stay in Tagbilaran, then Bohol Tropics is a reasonable alternative.

My next Bohol trip, I will probably stay on Panglao in stead, beaches are preffered over cities on my vacations

It certainly pays to give local businesses a review here:

bohol tourist inn - Google Search

 

The Dane, what does it help. I clicked you link and that thread is on top. But this is new now, all others say it is a ok/good place, so your side is one out of hundreds.

Tommy I agree that this is unacceptable, did you pay the whole amount? My hubby would freak out about that and they would be happy to get rid of him/us...

Kind regards

Maryfee

 

Cyndi was just trying to air her/his rights as customer in that hotel for not getting brewed coffee instead he/she got instant because their coffee maker was broken, and they kept making some excuses, and she/he questioned how they were trained to work in hotels/restaurant. It should have been replaced with a new one immediately, so they can brew fresh coffee as most customers prefer to have brewed instead of instant. Cyndi clearly got bad service. Cyndi was not talking about speaking proper English and using cellphone or calculator, but the guy brought it up anyway. Quote : the level of "college and university" degrees here is sometime shocking (What does he mean "shocking"?)". Again, this has nothing to do with what Cyndi was talking about. One must realize that the person himself doesn't speak proper English sometimes. It's best not to be critical, it's gonna be like a boomerang. What you hurled will eventually come back to you.

Hi Cyndi and tommytnf, sorry to hear about your bad experiences. You guys have a great week-end.

 

Swany, I think that Rhoody was referring to was the lack of good training. Whether that be through education or on the job or both for the tourism industry. I know that Cebu has a bachelors degree program for people wanting to go into the hotel/resort/tourism business. I wonder if Silliman or the other schools in Dumaguete have this?
Boomerang? Reminds me of a joke, What do you call a boomerang that won't come back to you?
STICK!

 

No, he was just being critical that's all. Maybe SMB gets the blame.
tubigboy, that's what I did I hurled it back to the person who hurled. It doesn't matter if only one person is doing it's still a boomerang!

Quote; I know that Cebu has a bachelors degree program for people wanting to go into the hotel/resort/tourism business. I wonder if Silliman or the other schools in Dumaguete have this?

Tubigboy, I'm sure Silliman, NORSU and Foundation U have this bachelors degree program. I'm not sure of St. Pauls U. I will look it up in their websites (of the three schools I mentioned above), if I get the chance.

 

Are you sure?

An example of a business who screwed me over while I lived in Dumaguete:

it outlook dumaguete - Google Search

So long term effects are certainly there...

HEre is an example from another web site on a totally different matter:

abes of maine - Google Search

Onemansblog.com wrote a bad review of Abe's of Maine and is now #2 on search eninges... Abe's of Maine even logged on to the blog now and is starting to work with the site / owner / visitors to solve the problem...

lots of examples where good and bad reviews written by customers / visitors / users have effect...

 

I have never encountered this lousy service either in Angeles, or Olangapo, or Subic Bay, just to name a few, though I don't think they have got more "college" and "university" degrees in the North.
I love eating in local restaurants wherever I travel, so today we decided to have dinner in "GIMMICK". I ordered a pepper steak (which was very good, even medium rare, as ordered) and asked if I could get French fries instead of rice; the friendly waitress told me "yes, of course", but when the very same friendly waitress brought me the bill one hour later, she had deducted two (2!) pesos for the canceled rice and charged me 90 pesos for the french fries. Not wanting to make a big fuss for 88pesos, I paid the bill, but left no tip to the friendly waitress, in spite of her apologies.