Somerset Central Salcedo Makati

“Great services and accessible location.”

Don't believe everything you read on the reviews. I normally read just the bad reviews prior to booking. This place was awesome! The staff were very accommodating and veryvery helpful. The place is nice and clean. My room was very spacious and storage space was adequate. The breakfast is OUTSTANDIN… more

Don't believe everything you read on the reviews. I normally read just the bad reviews prior to booking. This place was awesome! The staff were very accommodating and veryvery helpful. The place is nice and clean. My room was very spacious and storage space was adequate. The breakfast is OUTSTANDING and we'll suited my needs. The Public House, which is an attached restaurant and bar serves excellent food. I highly recommend the PH Burger with bacon (can get messy eating but well worth). BOTTOM LINE: Love it, will visit again.

less

“Recommend !!!”

This was the first time for me in the Philippines. I found this accomodation very very nice and recommend it to everyone. I stayed in 2805. I was on a businesstrip. I booked this hotel from my companies internal hotel search engine. Via email I asked for airport transfer, they confirmed that they d… more

This was the first time for me in the Philippines. I found this accomodation very very nice and recommend it to everyone. I stayed in 2805. I was on a businesstrip. I booked this hotel from my companies internal hotel search engine. Via email I asked for airport transfer, they confirmed that they do ofer that and I asked them to book that aswell. I received confirmation from them regarding the transfer and gave them my exact itinerary. All of this was done in April but I did send them a reminder 4 days before arriving but got no answer. When I arrived on Manila Airport there was nobody to pick me up. After waiting about 30 minutes for someone to show up I called the hotel to ask for my transfer. I was told that they don't have any information about this transfer, but as he looked up the emails he found everything and apologized and said he will send the car immediately. After a short while a guy appeared with my name on a board. I finally arrived at the hotel. The check-in was fast as everything was already prepared. The AC was running, it was nice and cool in the room. I received an iced tea at the reception. The room was huge as was the bed. It was an apartment intended for two people. It had a kitchenette right in the entry, with an electric stove, water cooker, mircowave oven, cutlery and dishes for 2, a pan & pot and a small refrigerator. I liked the huge windows and the view was amazing. My room was located on the west side of the building, I was seeing the Salcedo Park Towers. The room was clean, bed nicely made, there was a flatscreen TV with cable and a dvd player with 2.1 speaker system. Both TV and dvd player had USB interface so I could watch and listen to my media colection. I considered the bathroom also pretty big, it had a showercabinet & bathtub. The bathroom was equiped with earsticks, toothbrush and paste, shavingkit, showercap, sewing kit, all nicely seeled and packed and of course shower gel, shampoo. I usually don't use these because I travel with my own stuff and prefer to use those. I believe the hot water was heated with a boiler, as I found it under the sink, and the showercabinet had a label saying to turn the water on for 5 minutes before your shower, to allow the water to warm. This is something I'm used to. The breakfast was included. It was between 6 and 10 AM. They had a guy making fresh omelette and pancakes with different extra ingredients on request. There was a salad selection, different bread types, and 4-5 different cooked meals which were different every day and, of course, rice. Cereal, coffee, juice, milk was also available. All in a buffet style. I pretty much enjoyed everything, but I must say that I have no problem with food in general and I like to eat and try everything. On the 6th floor there is a small indoor pool and a jacuzzi and a small fitness room. In another wing of the 6th floor there is a conference room, a pool table and some couches. Beneath the hotel are parking places and each room has its own parking spot which is included in the price. They provide room service with food and drinks, there is a pricelist in the room, and laundry service. There is wireless internet, each floor has 2-3 access points. The connection to the AP was OK, but their internet service was very bad. Website browsing was fine, but streaming was very slow and skype voice calls impossible. As all hotels, stores, malls and other institutions in Manila, there is a guard at the entrance with, usually, 2 or 3 other guys which open the door for everybody and greet them very nicely. They also call taxis and they write down for each room number the taxis information like license plate, company name and phone number. This is for security reasons and in case you forget something in the taxi. The same is done also upon arrival with taxi. When I arrived they instanly took over my luggage. I saw them helping everybody with their luggage, calling the elevator and even going up with guests if they had much to carry. All personnel at the reception was very nice, polite and helpfull. I enjoyed my stay very much, but there were also some issues. On the 2nd day, after I came home from work at about 6PM there was a huge amount of water on the floor. They brought a water dispenser into my room while I was out (probably with housekeeping), they put it on a table but it had a defect, water was dripping from the faucet. I couldn't know at what time they brought it in, but probably it was shortly after I left in the morning because the water amount on the floor was huge. I called the reception, told them about this, and in a few minutes a guy appeared. He wiped up the water, replaced the dispenser and apologized several times. Nothing from my things were affected or distroyed because of this so I had no issue with the incident but the laminate wood flooring got swollen pretty badly. Because it didn't actually bother me and I already placed my things through the room I didn't want to go through all the hassle of changing rooms because of this small incident. The next day I came home from work the trash was not taken out. I cannot say if the entire housekeeping was skipped because I usually make the bed on my own so that was made, and I didn't leave the bathroom to messy either. I called the reception to complain about this, they sent somebody up instantly. On the penultimate day of my stay I couldn't connect to the Wifi anymore with none of my devices. So I went out. At the reception I informed them, they offered to send somebody up to my room to check it out but I declined. When I came back it was still not working so I called the reception again and they now told me that they have a general issue with the APs and till the next day it will be fixed. The next day I still couldn't connect so I called them again. They restarted their APs a night before and also changed the password. After receiving the new password it was all working fine. One thing that I found very interesting was that in the elevators and hallways was very hot, almost like outside, but in the hotel lobby it was nice and cool. I didn't see any aircons in the hallways and elevators and I didn't quite understand why. So the elevator ride was mostly uncomfortable. On 2 days there was also an issue with one of the elevators, causing longer waiting times for the other one. Overall I cannot complain, in my opinion, for the Philippines this place was amazing. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

less

“There are better options in Makati”

The location is excellent, and some of the higher up rooms offer great views, but this hotel is badly in need of a renovation. The room designs and fittings are all very dated; it does not look like they have renovated anything other than the lobby since the 90s. Moreover, the hotel has a very mo… more

The location is excellent, and some of the higher up rooms offer great views, but this hotel is badly in need of a renovation. The room designs and fittings are all very dated; it does not look like they have renovated anything other than the lobby since the 90s. Moreover, the hotel has a very moldy smell throughout. I really did not feel comfortable in the room or at the hotel. I wouldn't stay here unless you were very cost conscious and you haven't been able to find anything better in the area (which would surprise me). I should also make note of an unfortunate incident that occurred at the hotel after I left. After my stay, I ended up moving into an apartment across the street. In April 2013, I returned from work to find the street blocked off with police cars everywhere. It turned out that the local owner and the foreign owner of the hotel was embroiled in a dispute. The foreign owner sent armed guards to evict the staff, and apparently one of the hotel guards accidentally shot another guard in the leg. You can confirm this incident with a Google search. The incident lead to a stand-off between security staff in the hotel and outside police for several days. At this point I believe all guests had left, but it was hairy business, with rumors swirling that the cops would be leading an operation into the joint. At some point, most of the hotels lobby windows got smashed and boarded up. The hotel did not open again for several months, but once it did, you wouldn't have thought anything happened. Everything as normal. It is what you make of it. Security guards in the Philippines are often well armed with little training. Shootings, accidental or otherwise, occur any time guns are around - and you will notice armed security guards at most public places in the Philippines. I never felt in danger while living across the street from the hotel, but it was clear the dispute, incident, and hotel is badly managed.

less