While planning for our Boracay trip this year, Em-J was insistent that we stay at Shangri-La Boracay having been very impressed with the resort and the service when we stayed there. I, on the other hand, was adamant that we don't. I just didn't have the budget for it. :p
After a lot of research, we finally decided on Astoria Boracay. It had mostly positive, glowing reviews on TripAdvisor and I was confident that it was a good choice because the property was also fairly new.
Before I start with the review, let me just say that I had the flu when I was there so I was quite irritable, very uncomfortable and had a heightened sense of smell.
We arrived early morning and understandably so, our room wasn't ready. We took the time to walk along the beach and have brunch at Real Coffee. At around 12, we went back to Astoria but was informed that the room really won't be ready till 2pm. As I was already feeling faint, I was glad that Analyn and Mark were staying at Lugar Bonito and they were already able to check in as early as 8am with no extra charge.
The Good:
The place is really picture worthy. The design is very modern and we were very impressed with the overall look of the place.
The room is very spacious and while I am not a fan of their wall color, I overlooked that and was initially happy with it at first sight.
The bathroom is also very spacious.
They have fresh fruits as a welcome gift, I think. There was no note.
I particularly liked that they have rubber slippers, I ended up using it the whole time I was there.
Why I Wouldn't Stay There Again:
My first consideration in choosing a Boracay hotel is that it has to be beach front. I want to be able to leave my camera, towels, and stuff and swim carefree. Most beach front hotels offer that service. Astoria, on the other hand, while beach front and has beach chairs, can't offer that as the beach directly in front of the hotel is used as a pick-up point for all water activities. We had to walk a good length away to swim.
My second consideration is that it has to have WiFi. Astoria has free WiFi (limited to two devices per room) but it was excruciatingly slow and it was so difficult to connect, we ended up not using it at all.
We have data plans but we weren't able to use them as well because signal was very bad. My friends had to stay outside in order to get a faint signal.
The room had a strange unpleasant odor. It was so strong when we were first shown our room my eyes nearly watered. After settling down for half an hour, I had to call the maintenance guys and inform them about it. They were aware of it and brought along a room spray and advised us to just leave the door open to air out the room. I would later on determine that the odor was coming from the bathroom so I had the bathroom door closed the whole time and it made our stay bearable.
The water pressure is not strong and the water doesn't get hot. Just warm, like your coffee after half an hour on your desk.
After our first night, I moved the curtain to let in some light and this surprised me, certainly not ours as we didn't have any junk food with us when we checked in.
I know I was sick but that's not my dried spit below. My first pillow had henna stains, I informed the staff as I don't want to get charged for it and she just nodded and moved on with whatever it was she was doing like she couldn't be bothered.
The place is not well maintained. I'll let the pictures do the talking.
What a waste.
