Pacific Grande

The good. The place was immaculately cleaned. Almost no insects in the room for my stay. It's a full one bedroom with a good sized living room, bathroom, and kitchenette. The fridge is large and new. There is a TV, which I didn’t test. The microwave and electric burner work fine. The two windows provide beautiful sunset views over the Cebu city and mountain sklyline. The windows are excellent quality and were perfectly clear, even after strong rain storms. There is a rooftop, but I didn’t go up there. Security seems good, in general, except the guards don’t seem to be armed. Grab drivers seem to be familiar enough with the place without getting lost, but I guess they are not allowed to deliver to the 4th floor, which means you have to hoof it down two flights per floor, and then back up. The internet was good, when it was working, with a fiber optic 60mbps throttle and better than 25ms latency, however, two separate days the internet went down for more than 6 hours each time, so have backup cellular (Global in the room is better than GOMO).

When I first arrived, this being my first time anywhere in The Philippines, I was going to rate this place 3/5 stars. The elevator doesn't work. On arrival, there are two sections of building 22 and both have rooms titled 406 and they are just one hallway apart. With no reviews, I thought this place might be a scam, but I explored and found the correct 406 room in short order and was able to enter. On arrival, there was a dank smell to the room. I had to plug in the router, plug in the fridge, and turn on the bathroom water. The water pressure is the worst I've seen, anywhere in the world. It’s so low that the installed water heater doesn’t even activate, so there is no hot water. There is no toilet bidet sprayer. The "window" AC units are haphazardly sealed with foam and packaging tape. There is a broken power-strip, so you need to unplug the wifi router to plug in and use the microwave (manager/owner had this replaced while I was there). There is a drip leak in the bathroom sink. The neighbors with the jungle property next door, burn wood (not trash, mostly) almost everyday and their dogs bark and whine throughout the day, and roosters crow, too. The smoke seems to get sucked in through the bedroom AC, but not the living room one (it has an outside air adjustment). On the weekend, the same neighbors blare loud music during the day for hours (thankfully, not into the night, much). Mind you, I'm on the 3/4th floor. To use the pool, you have to walk 1km (500m to and from) to pay 200PHP for a pass and it has ridiculous hours from 9am to 5pm.