St Giles Hotel Makati

For my last four trips to Manila, I have selected this hotel as my primary base to explore other parts of the Philippines, as well as Manila. I typically stay five or six days at the start of my stay, and then the final three or four days at the end before leaving the islands. In all, counting the rooms that I have gotten for myself and my friends, I have paid for somewhere between 40 and 50 nights since 2022. I have always found that for the price, the St. Giles has been a solid deal - the rooms are relatively large and always clean, good hot water and water pressure, good AC, excellent breakfast, nice rooftop pool, and generally, friendly and helpful staff. But, now I am rethinking whether to stay here again. The reason is that while I have been a loyal patron of this establishment, when it comes to their front desk staff, there is absolutely no reciprocality. The first example is that of room upgrades, which I have asked for now multiple times in my most recent trips when I thought that the hotel was not very full. The standard room, the superior, is what I usually book, and I asked for an upgrade to the slightly larger deluxe room. DENIED! My past heavy usage of the hotel seemingly made no difference to the check-in staff. The final straw occurred on this most recent trip, were I made a mistake in what option I chose on the booking platform that I use, accidentally selecting an option that did not include breakfast. Oh well, no big deal, I thought, when I discovered it the day before arrival, because the price difference was only about two or three dollars per person extra to include the breakfast on the booking platform. I figured that I would have no problem working out something reasonable with the staff for a reduced price above their listed normal cost, which is around $11 or $12 per person (700 pesos). WRONG AGAIN!

Absolutely no flexibility by the staff, zero compromise - if I wanted breakfast, I would have to pay the exorbitant full retail price. For my five-nights stay, I calculate this was about $25 if I hadn’t made the selection error, versus the full retail walk-in price of about $110. Could I afford the roughly $85 difference? Sure! But the attitude and no-give attitude of the staff really set my teeth on edge, and has led me to write this lengthy review. It is my hope that the upper management at this hotel will provide their staff with more flexibility to work with customers in the future, because it is my guess that the staff was simply implementing the directives they had received from above on both the breakfast pricing and room upgrade issues. Anyways. In the future, at minimum, ties, or close cost and value comparisons with other accommodations will result in my choosing different lodging, unlike in the past, where I would always select the St. Giles even it was a bit more expensive than competitors of similar like kind and quality, of which there are many in the immediate area. I am posting this review on the various bookings that I have had on Agoda and Booking.com covering a total of 12 nights in August, 2026.

everything

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Staff well trained, professional, attentive to the traveler.

Exceeded all expectations.

Was in pretty good location (if you like 'that' side of the city). Very sizeable room. Had a desk and space to work.

Shower was a little bit weak. It was definitely dated. Elevator took a while to get me downstairs because not many in operation.