Arterra Seaview Resort

The place is highly recommended for tourists.

We booked 7 rooms for a staycation through Agoda, including breakfast. The hotel is located in Punta Engaño, at the farthest part of Mactan Island, so it’s quite a bit away from the main areas. The rooms are spacious and okay overall and has a nice seaview, but I think the hotel really needs some maintenance. We had a few issues with the rooms. One bathtub didn’t have a drain stopper, one room had an aircon problem, and another room had a toilet flush that wasn’t working and a broken bidet. They fixed some of it though, but it’s much better if it is properly maintain or replace it. I was a bit concerned about the bathrooms, especially because the floor can be slippery. The bathtub is also where you take a shower, so you really have to be careful. This could be a safety concern, especially for kids and older guests. The pool was nice and child-friendly, though, since it’s not too deep. We also enjoyed the breakfast buffet—few selection but it was delicious especially the Spanish sardines and the pancit. But what really stood out to us was the staff. They were all very kind, friendly, and accommodating. They were even kind enough to give us a late check-out for all 7 rooms. We really appreciated this because the IRONMAN event was happening in Lapu-Lapu that day and the roads were closed until around 2 PM, so we were basically stuck at the hotel and couldn’t leave. Overall, we had a good stay. The hotel has a lot of potential, especially with the spacious rooms, nice pool, good breakfast, and wonderful staff. Hopefully, they can address the maintenance issues, particularly the bathrooms and room fixtures, because that would make the stay even better.

To sum it all up, my stay with Arterra was great! Although I was not impressed with the plated breakfast that came with my booking, the Carbonara I ordered for dinner was good :)

We booked our stay for a weekend (Saturday–Sunday). The staff were accommodating, and the ocean view from the hotel was beautiful. Unfortunately, what could have been a great experience was overshadowed by several issues after we were sent to our room. For around three hours, no internet connection. The location also had very limited mobile reception, so we couldn’t rely on our mobile data either (especially on our room, there isn’t any reception, too). We only found out after several follow-ups that the higher floors were experiencing the same internet issue, which the staff attributed to a sudden increase in guests. What disappointed us most was the lack of communication. We were not informed during check-in that there was an ongoing or intermittent internet problem. Had we known, at least we would have understood what to expect. We also felt that we had to initiate every follow-up ourselves. If we had not asked about possible solutions, such as transferring us to a room with a better connection, this option was not proactively offered. The issue was particularly frustrating because we were told that the internet was simply “slow,” when in reality, we had no usable connection for hours. With little to no mobile reception as well, we were essentially disconnected from the outside world. Even watching television was initially not possible because of the connection issue. After hours, the TV was eventually able to connect to the internet, but our mobile devices still couldn’t. When we were finally able to connect, the connection remained unstable and would disconnect from time to time. The hotel did provide complimentary cold coffee as an apology, which we appreciated. We also requested an additional complimentary bottle of water and were initially told that it would be provided, but no one came up. After another follow-up, we were informed that the additional bottled water was not complimentary. Eventually, they gave us two bottles free of charge, apparently as part of the resolution for the poor coordination and communication issue. What was most disappointing was that throughout all of this, we did not receive any personal acknowledgment or apology from a manager. The staff were the ones handling our concerns and trying to resolve the situation, but we felt that a manager should have stepped in to address the inconvenience directly. That said, the ocean view was genuinely beautiful, and it was one of the main reasons I chose this hotel and room. Unfortunately, the overall experience was affected so much by the internet issues, lack of communication, and how the concerns were handled that the beautiful view was not enough to make up for it. Overall, the stay had potential, but the experience left us disappointed.