One of my favorite vacations of all time was a trip to Bohol I made with my wife and two kids waaay back in 2007. We stayed at the Bohol Bee Farm and Dumaluan Beach Resort and I had a grand time at both places, some hiccups notwithstanding. I've been back there a number of times since, but always on business, and never really staying long enough to make an impression on me. Also, both times were before I got onto tripadvisor. Last week, though, I went to Bohol again for the first time in six years, and this time I was there from Monday all the way through Friday, as I had quite a bit of work to do. Again, this was about business, not pleasure, so I definitely was not expecting anything other than a place to rest my head at night, but even then the experience of staying at Arabelle Suites proved to be a distinctly unpleasant one, The bathroom, for one thing, was the kind I really don't like, with a shower area that was not at all separated from the rest of the bathroom, whether by a divider or a curtain. The water pressure in the bidet was depressingly weak, and worst of all, I left the hotel with a boil just under my butt, and given the fact that the only toilet I used for number two the entire time I was in Bohol was at that hotel, and given that I had NEVER had a boil on my butt at ANY time in the past prior to this, I think it's quite reasonable to say that the hotel's sanitation practices leave quite a bit to be desired. Speaking of which, the tiny swimming pool was disgusting. It may have had enough chlorine to burn my eyes out, but the water was still filthy with particulate matter, and it was basically impossible to move so much as a meter ahead without hitting a dead floating insect. The lobby wifi was the only wifi that worked properly; even though I saw a router blinking on the floor where I stayed, in all the five days I stayed there I was never once able to connect to it despite the fact that it was supposedly ”open.” Worse still, the lobby wifi couldn't even make it into the conference room that was less than two feet away. Also, this may not have been a matter of direct concern to me, but with steep stairs, no elevator, and no bedrooms on the ground floor, this hotel is a positive nightmare for persons with disabilities, and it isn't much of a picnic for elderly people either. The food was all right, but not great. It irked me that they didn't have any brewed coffee, and that they didn't actually have coffee cups but rather served the coffee in soup bowls. This wasn't a big thing, but on top of everything else it was really just annoying. The saving grace of this place was the service. It wasn't great, but the staff were always polite and accommodating. Still, I don't particularly feel like giving them good marks for doing something they were obviously supposed to do, especially since they've failed on so many other counts.
7 Reviews