The Manila Hotel

“Kimberley place to stay”

Exceptional staff frony SHEENA thank you

“My favorite hotel but...”

We were here last Christmas and I gave a perfect rating then due to our flawless hotel experience. This time, it was somewhat different. Upon arriving at the drop-off area, the doormen in white were busy looking after the wealthy-looking guests, on-standby and ready to assist them, forgetting th… more

We were here last Christmas and I gave a perfect rating then due to our flawless hotel experience. This time, it was somewhat different. Upon arriving at the drop-off area, the doormen in white were busy looking after the wealthy-looking guests, on-standby and ready to assist them, forgetting that other guests were also arriving in ordinary-looking cars, who may also need their assistance. Check-in was a breeze since we arrived at almost 5pm, and the front desk lady was very friendly. Upon leaving our luggage in the room, we headed straight to the lobby lounge for dinner. We saw a vacant table near the piano, but the staff said that it was already "reserved"... I thought there was no reservation option at the lobby lounge? But we let it pass. We decided to have our dinner at the Tap Room instead since it was quieter at that time. The lady server at the Tap Room looks tired, she never smiled the entire time we were there. She didnt even place our drinks correctly on our table, and I was shocked when she placed the paper straws for our drinks directly on the table that obviously had food stains from previous customers. I did not leave a tip as we didnt feel at least the basic customer service you would expect from The Manila Hotel. We headed to the pool bar around 8pm. We sat on the sunken bar stools and none of the staff looked at us, as if we never existed. One was busy laughing while talking on the landline phone, while the other was also busy arranging stuff at the bar. I noticed that the other pool bar servers were very attentive with foreigners, that they tend to overlook local guests. After a good 10 minutes of waiting for any of the multiple bar staff to finally notice us, someone finally handed us the menu, and it took another perhaps quite a while before I was able to get the attention of another bar staff to take my order. I also didnt leave a tip due to the feeling of being ignored by the bunch of staff at the pool bar. Totally disappointing. The saving grace was the breakfast restaurant Cafe Ilang Ilang. From the very nice lady at the restaurant reception area, to the servers who were helpful and attentive. They reminded me that yes, this is The Manila Hotel where the staff are known to be friendly and helpful. All of the food we had were great. Loved the beef tapa and pancit malabon we ordered at the Tap Room, truffle fries and calamares at the pool bar, and of course, the great selection of breakfast at Cafe Ilang-Ilang. I've read a review here from April 9th, where the "General Manager" replied. The review stated about some staff lacking customer service. I'm not sure how long it should take from reading a customer feedback to actually correcting the staff behavior to make sure that they uphold this hotel's promise of warm Filipino hospitality. It doesnt need a classroom retraining for it to happen, they just need to be firmly reminded that each one of them represent the entire hotel brand. We are not expecting VIP service, just an attentive, warm, and friendly service that we've experience through years of staying in this hotel which made it our favorite hotel in Manila. It is with a heavy heart that I'm giving The Manila Hotel a mid-rating. But I have to do this to remind the management that something needs to be done ASAP. And hoping that on our next stay, we will experience again what The Manila Hotel felt like on our previous stays. Thank you.

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“Living off the former glory of black and white photos of famous people”

Over March and April 2026 we stayed in this hotel as tourists on five occasions for multiple days. The hotel has multiple convention and event halls where a lot of its guests connect from. It is a historical hotel but doesn't deliver for tourists. It may have once been a great hotel but standards a… more

Over March and April 2026 we stayed in this hotel as tourists on five occasions for multiple days. The hotel has multiple convention and event halls where a lot of its guests connect from. It is a historical hotel but doesn't deliver for tourists. It may have once been a great hotel but standards are only 3 stars these days. Staff are quite robotic how they interact with guests and much less engaged than all the other hotels we stayed in throughout Philippines. As an example guests need to step aside in passageways in the breakfast restaurant as staff just walk boldly often quite deliberately. Most staff do not even talk to you and just do the basic tasks. At bars there is a swarm of staff all watching two staff work. I counted 7 in the pool bar with 1 making drinks and the other running tables whilst the other 5 laughed and chatted. Same scenerio in the Tap Room bar. We had a strong discussion with the repairman over our faulty air-conditioner with no attempt to repair it. Another time our room safe wouldn't open and the repairman blamed me for inputting the wrong code. Once reset I demonstrated what I did and it was obvious the number pad had a faulty number 3. The repairman left without fixing it. The most serious was a very noisy elevator which sounded like it had serious issues with loose parts. I have a background in engineering and building so had a reasonable idea what was causing it. From one stay to the next with a 2 week gap I noted the noises were much worse as parts were progressively getting looser. Some staff told me they won't use the lift for fear of it crashing. We also avoided it. I reported it three times but the elevator still had issues and was still being used when we checked out. At the restaurant outside The Tap Room we had spaghetti and meatballs and wife had a beef roll. The meals were so horrible I told two staff the meals were absolutely awful and got no reaction. Clearly they were zapped in a microwave with bun soggy, 3 tiny meatballs dried, wedges dried and horrible and the spaghetti uneven temperature which results from being zapped rather than cooked fresh. Outward appearances of the hotel you would expect high quality meals especially because they are expensive. This hotel is in a grotty area of Manila and on a very busy mulri lane main road that is not easy to cross for pedestrians. On our last day we had paid for a late checkout to 6pm. During the day I received a phone call asking for feedback on our stay so I explained in details some of our issues. We went to the pool and on our return to the room found our room cards cancelled. At the front desk they would allow us access to remove our luggage. After some discussion they agreed to let us stay until 6pm which we had paid in advance although on checkout tried to bill us a second time. I recommend tourists look elsewhere for better accomodation.

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