Every year, during our little boy’s birthday, our small family make it a point to go out of town (or out of the country if time permits). This is our way of celebrating and giving thanks to another year given to his life.
This year was no exemption. We asked Neo where and how he wanted to celebrate his birthday. He specifically told us he wanted to spend it in a hotel near a beach. We wanted to honor his birthday wish and booked a staycation at Canyon Cove Resort in Nasugbu, Batangas. We booked two rooms using Agoda since Neo wanted to celebrate his birthday with his grandparents too.
Booking the room at Agoda was easy. No hassle and fuss. Going to Nasugbu, Batangas was no trouble too. Canyon Cove has one of the best facilities there is for a hotel resort. But we experienced a very bad customer service upon checking in that would make us think twice if we would ever go back.
Check-in time at Canyon Cove is at 3PM. We arrived a little past 3PM. We went to reception and told the staffs that we booked and paid two rooms and would like to request adjoining rooms. The staff told us that we only booked one room at Agoda. I gave them our confirmation letter showing two room bookings. They told us that they can only give us one room first as they would still verify in their head office our 2nd booking. They also told us to pay for the security deposit of Php2000 each for 2 rooms (total of Php4000) and asked us to wait. And so, wait we did.
We followed up our request at past 5PM. Again, they are still trying to contact their head office. By this time, I was a little bit cranky already. I have a family with me waiting in their lobby for more than an hour and they told us to wait still. I asked to talk to their manager. By this time, the staff told me that they can give us the second room but we have to pay for it first. In case their head office confirmed our reservation, they would refund us the payment. Now, I started to get pissed and told them the rooms were not reserved, the rooms were paid and I will not pay again just so we can get the booking we deserved. After that statement (I was pissed but stated all my arguments in a very professional manner so to say), the second room to our booking became available and we were able to check in past 6PM. I asked for late check out (normal check out is 11AM) to be adjusted to 12nn and they agreed.
Now, let me give you some review of Canyon Cove Hotel and Resort as we experienced.
Rooms – 4.0 out of 5.0. As requested, we were given adjoining rooms, one with twin bed and the other with king bed. Canyon Cove’s hotel rooms are spacious in hotel standards. It comes with a day bed and a view of the beach. LCD television, air-conditioning, mini ref, cabinet with hangers, a breakfast table, and complete bath toiletries were provided in this room. The bathroom is just your regular bathroom with shower and toilet, no bathtub, but is very spacious too. The room would have been very nice if it was up to hotel room standard. But it wasn’t. The doors creak, the mini ref leaks, the window’s wooden covers were missing, and a lot more signs that Canyon Cove Hotel’s rooms were old.
Canyon Cove was one of the hotels tasked to billet the SEAGAMES athletes and thus they were fully booked. The rooms given to us were at the far, right side of the hotel. Roughly 15mins walk from the lobby. It was so far but was still good since the view of the room is still facing the beach.
Amenities – 4.5 out of 5.0. Canyon Cove Hotel Resort offers one of the best amenities in all of Nasugbu resorts. I can attest to this as I joined our company’s organizing team for summer activity and was able to go and had ocular to other neighboring resorts. Canyon Cove has a big adult swimming pool and a big kiddie swimming pool. The beach is superb, with cream-colored fine sand. There are water sports that you can try but would have to pay for separately. We tried the Water Park and it was good. There’s a kids’ play area with high-tech facilities. This is the only kids’ play area in a hotel that I know where you need to pay to use it.
Staff – 1.0 out of 5.0. Needless to say, I was really unimpressed with how the staffs handled our check-in. The check-out was no different. As mentioned earlier, we were allowed during check-in to check-out an hour late. However, by 1045AM (check out time is 11AM), a staff rang our room telephone to inform us that we need to check out by 11AM or we have to pay for the next hour. We told them that we were allowed late check-out. Seems like the staffs/receptionists were not coordinated. During check-out we had to wait 30mins for the receptionists to be able to process our check-out. Such inefficient handling of customers if you ask me. The only reason I did not rate the staffs zero is because the staff who help us in leaks of the mini ref was courteous and the staff who assisted us in the Water Park was friendly.
Food – 4.0 out of 5.0. Buffet breakfast was included in our accommodation. Canyon Cove offers simple buffet breakfast that can fill your tummies before having a wonderful day at the beach. Nothing fancy and extraordinary at the buffet breakfast.
Location – 5.0 out of 5.0. Nasugbu is the closest part of Batangas from Manila that offers nice beaches and for this I rate Canyon Cove’s location a five.
Value for Money – 3.7 out of 5.0. Canyon Cove Hotel Resort has one of the best facilities in any hotel resort located in Nasugbu Batangas that is of value to your money.
Overall, our stay at Canyon Cove Hotel Resort was one of the stressful I had when it comes to checking in and checking out. The facilities were good but I am not sure if it can outweigh the inefficient handling of guests by the receptionists. Receptionists are front liners and should be one of the reasons you have a wonderful staycation – not a cause of the stress. Prior to booking Canyon Cove, we heard and read a lot of bad reviews about the resort and still gave it the benefit of the doubt and did a staycation. Minus the staffs at the reception, I think we had a wonderful stay in general.
Disclaimer: We paid for our accommodation at Canyon Cove Hotel and Resort and all opinions are mine.
