Travel PH | Our Experience with Tin-Tin Apartelle
In our trip during Bantayog 2018 in Daet Camarines Norte, I came to the realization that there are a lot of hotels in part of Bicol. Prior visits only had me staying in a hotel or two, but for this time around, I was hotel hopping. For this review, we will give you our experience with Tintin Apartelle. Let me warn you ahead, I did not like my stay here so forgive my complaints/ rants.
Let me first fire off with the positives.
Quiet nights
Yes, nights are quiet here. Why wouldn't it be? Its located inside some back streets and alleys and within the residential part of Daet. Its a bit far from the main road and tricycles (the main transport in Daet) seldom passby. At nights, the streets are dark.
Parking
Yes they have parking inside. Secured? Maybe. I don't see any guards or person at the reception to watch over the vehicles, perhaps on the negative side vehicle security?
Warm Smiles
Yes this is a positive for them. As there are no more positives I can give. Maybe the rates would be cheap, another positive but for my stay here, it was taken cared of by my host. Try googling them and find out their updated rates (as per my google efforts found 2013 rates at Php450 per day). Maybe ill add that as a positive when I shall come back soon, that's a big if.
Now the Negatives.
Building designed for long stay tenants.
When this writer arrived at their place, I was given a room located at the 4th floor. I surmised that the second and third floors were for long stay tenants as the rest of the 4th floor rooms were vacant. The stairs are steep and the distance between floors are a bit far so climbing them stairs is difficult. I brought my own heavy backpack to my room and I had to stop at the third to catch my breath.
Broken TV
The TV was broken, not exactly. They they have cable channels and they have the usual favorites HBO and Star TV and Fox channels plus the foreign language ones. The TV is functioning EXCEPT that there's an annoying line on screen.
Aircon Unit was Inadequate
The AC was small for the room to begin with or it wasn't maintained well that it can't cool the room to comfortable levels.
Broken Water Heater
Funny how their water heater behaves. When you open the faucet, the water comes out, the heater lights up, YET the water does not get hot or warm.
Rough Towels, No Toiletries
Except for the roll of tissue in the shower room, there were no toiletries available. So bring your own soap, toothpaste, and shampoo. Now the towels are a bit old and rough to the skin. I assume the towels have seen much use and their laundry process must have skimped on fabric softeners. I used my own towel during my brief stay here.
Stairs with overhangs
The building is poorly designed that on the stairs, you can see overhangs on the left on your way up. These overhangs are not negligible and you must be aware of it on your way up 4 floors. Walking up these steep stairs made me forgot about this overhang and I hit my head squarely on the corner. I thought I was given a punch by Manny Pacquiao. I had to stop and re assess if I could continue climbing up the stairs. Good thing I did cut myself on this and no concussion. But they really need to address this.
Not Readily Accessible
The hotel or apartelle is located inside a residential area. Its not located near a busy road, so positive wise, he got a point on a quiet night, but this is a negative as well. Being far from a busy road means no tricycle or seldom they pass through here. If you don't have a car or arrange for a pick up, going around and going back to this place will not be that easy for you.
Poor WIFI experience
This I can't understand with them. They have a lot of passwords that they also have a hard time remembering which one was working. None of the ones they gave out was the correct one. Good thing I was good at guessing and finally I got it right. When I had that connection with their router, only to find out there's no internet. When I mentioned this to them, they said they were having difficulty with their Globe account. By morning, this was solved and I got finally an internet connection, but I was not able to work on my articles. If you are a blogger and needs to work during your stay here, good luck.
Dark room and cramped shower room
Even with light in the room, it wasn't enough to light up the whole space. Its a small room yet the lighting fixture was inadequate. The bed thank god was double sized but the shower room was a bit cramped. I had a bit of difficulty of using the shower. When I backed up while bathing, I hit the sink. Move a bit to my left, I hit the bowl. When you use the bowl and sit down, your shoulder will definitely hit the sink. That's how small the bathroom or shower.
Unreliable Intercom
With all these complaints on my part, you might think I am a spoiled brat and demanding so much from this apartelle. Actually I was not expecting much from them so as not to be frustrated with their service. Most of these complaints I withheld for a few minutes or hours as I can't use their Intercom to contact the reception to complain. The following reasons were 1) the intercom wasn't working 2) no one answering the intercom at the other end. With the intercom not working, remember I was stuck errr given the 4th floor room. I WONT not that I can't, walk down 4 floors to complain and go up again those same floors to wait for them to resolve the issues.
Poorly Trained Staff
They need to re train their staff on proper 1) housekeeping 2) telephone etiquette 3) problem solving and 4) security.
Housekeeping. The floor was not that clean. I can't blame them much for this as their floor tiles were of dark colored patterns. You can't see if its clean or not or if you missed a spot. Linens had an odd smell on them and when they told me I could check in my room, they left it open for me to come in. So I closed the room and I was wondering for my keys. A few minutes later, the staff who cleaned the room I presume, asked me if there was a key in the room. I was, what? they asked me for my room key?
Telephone etiquette. My intercom rang and I answered it. The other end did not say anything. It was as if they learned they called the wrong room and immediately they hung up. This was rude. Now remember I had a lot of complaints, so after they hung up, I called right away. This was the right time to call since 1) the intercom was working and 2) I know someone will answer me as they called me beforehand - still the phone was ringing - no answer. I was hoping they were busy when I called and someone should have at least called me back when they possibly can but no call back was made.
Problem solving. When I had trouble with my WIFI password and I was getting desperate. The man I talked to personally (when I went down 4 floors) and same one over the intercom, gave me three passwords to use. None worked. When I told them about it, they simply said, there's nothing more they can do for me. Very good problem solving skills.
Security. When I first went down to complain about the WIFI, there was not security nor a person manning the reception. By the way their reception area is stocked with alcohol and I mistook it for a bar. I had to wait awhile for someone to finally come out and attend to my concern.
As I have apologized already at the beginning of this article, I will be apologizing again for me being this detailed. All I wanted was to give you a great deal of detail so you will not be expecting much from this place. If they truly want a great customer experience for their guests, I do hope they check out my notes here and improve on them. I believe that hotels are important in Daet as tourist spots are continually being developed so the local tourism office will be expecting more and more visitor arrivals. It would be wise for this establishment to do these changes early prior to the increase of tourists in the region.
Now there are other hotels in Daet that are great to stay in. For our readers here, please don't assume that other hotels are similar. I beg to differ as I will be noting other great hotels in future articles. I believe Daet and the whole Camarines Norte has lots of beautiful scenes to see and experience and I will coming back more. For sure I will be staying in other hotels until they improve.
Let me thank also the local Tourism Office of Camarines Norte for inviting me to their wonderful promise. I really love coming back over and over again to see the beautiful beaches and islands and the wonderful people with whom I have known in my travels here.
