Angeles City Hotels & Accomodations

[RumBuddy]

I will stay at Devera again for my trip in a few days. I like it. Very Close to everything. Staff is very friendly. They will get me from Manila, for 2700 p. I have a few girls set up to meet, non bar girls, should be fun. I will update as I go along over the next week or so.

[BrainDrain]

To BD.

I like Devera also but the 1200 p J standard is always book solid you need to book 2 month ahead,

Fast eddie 48.

Oh, the times I have used them I have just rolled into the counter and paid.

[Fast Eddie 48]

Over the past few visits I've become a fan of the Devera Hotel. Current rate is P1200 for a basic room. Paid cash and presented passport on arrival but no credit card security required.

Staff were friendly, no questions about visitors. They also call the room if the visitor is leaving or arriving without me.

Only the one lift which can be a little frustrating. Not much faster than the stairs. Free wi-fi. Lots of cable stations. The basic room is pretty small. It's not really livable for an extended visit.

They do offer just one room service per day. So if you need the room made up between visitors it is P550 per time. Alternatively nice polite conversations with housekeeping may get this done much cheaper.

I'll be back.

BD.

To BD.

I like Devera also but the 1200 p J standard is always book solid you need to book 2 month ahead, yes is new the room is clean and bed is nice staff are friendly book direct on their website to get at the best rate and Maggie the manager is very helpful she always give me a hard time if I come back alone know her from back in the central park days.

Fast eddie 48.

[BrainDrain]

Over the past few visits I've become a fan of the Devera Hotel. Current rate is P1200 for a basic room. Paid cash and presented passport on arrival but no credit card security required.

Staff were friendly, no questions about visitors. They also call the room if the visitor is leaving or arriving without me.

Only the one lift which can be a little frustrating. Not much faster than the stairs. Free wi-fi. Lots of cable stations. The basic room is pretty small. It's not really livable for an extended visit.

They do offer just one room service per day. So if you need the room made up between visitors it is P550 per time. Alternatively nice polite conversations with housekeeping may get this done much cheaper.

I'll be back.

BD.

[PeeMan]

Howdy all,

Just came back from a 3-week trip. Went all over the Philippines, but spent a lot of time in AC. I stayed at four different places. Here are my thoughts on three of them; the fourth was ABC and there is already a ton of information on that hotel so I won't bore you with additional similar info. These three aren't mentioned much so I thought I would add it in. Just to give you guys more options. I liked the format and reports from Spidy so I thought I would do something simliar. Hopefully you guys find this useful.

Apollonia Reserved through agoda for approx. $30/ night. Seems like a new place. The rooms were immaculate, good water pressure, solid bed, overall a very nice room. The staff was extremely friendly: from the security guard up front (who calls trikes if you need them) to the front desk girls (they call you in the room anytime your "guest" leaves). Even had breakfast there in the tiny restaurant off the lobby-pretty good and prices were not that bad. As far as location, it is a block further from fields / Juico than La Teresita, corner of Felicitas and Federico (off Teodoro St). Most girls (and drivers) had no idea where this was, however; if you get onto Teodoro, you can see the big "Apollonia" sign on the building in the distance. Easy to find from there. Although my friends thought it was a bit far, I thought it was good. I could take the back roads and come out on Raymond (avoiding the beggars and traffic on Juico). Teodoro also has a money exchanger, Laundromat (good service by the way) and if you head to Juico, the pharmacy, 7-11, and JJ's market was all right there. (there is a smaller grocery store on Teodoro). The distance off the main road made this place very quiet (loved it).

Pros: Clean, new, inexpensive, very good value for the $$. Staff was excellent and friendly. Once you are off Juico (or on the back streets coming back from Raymond area) there is a significant drop in beggars and homeless makes the walk back a bit more pleasant.

Cons: Ok minor points: the AC was good, but in my friends room, it was aimed past the bed and towards the front door, so the room took a long time to cool down (mine was aimed low, almost parallel to the bed). Since they only gave 1 key per room, and since they had the typical power "slot" thing for the key, every time you left the room and took the key, the power would shut off (and therefore the AC) leaving the room very hot upon your return. Tried using one of my dive cert cards in the slot...did not work.


Good hunting.

Thanks for the useful report. I booked a suite in Appollonia for my may trip, based on your inputs. Got it cheap on Agora.

Now to hunt for a good place at subic.

Cheers.

[Mogwai]

Central Park Tower review.....

Bed. The bed was really comfortable. There is no blanket. The bedspread is plastic.

Plastic, really? That must be very uncomfortable because it's not breathing.

- The gym is not yet operational. Guests use the gym at Pacific Breeze and that gym is up three sets of stairs.

You want to go to a gym (!) and then you complain that it's up three sets of stairs? LOL!

[WWLL]

Central Park Tower review.

Three pics at.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...Region_Lu.html

I stayed in Room 818 for 15 days in February 2015.

Central Park Tower is spectacular. It is opulent yet not gaudy. Marble everywhere and granite tops in the bathroom.

These are the major good points:

View. The view from Room 818 is to the west and north. I could see most of the western part of Angeles City, SM Clark, and the mountains beyond. Sometimes I can see airplanes landing and taking off. I even caught a hot-air balloon festival though there were only 20 balloons and they flew for 30 minutes or less.

Location. Central Park Tower is about two blocks from the center of the entertainment district. It is far enough to be less noisy.

Clean- The hotel is absolutely clean.

Internet access. Included, stable and reasonably fast.

Bed. The bed was really comfortable. There is no blanket. The bedspread is plastic.

Air-conditioning. Powerful yet quiet and controllable.

The staff. The staff is unfailingly pleasant and helpful. They greet me by my first name, even in the street.

OK.

There is a restaurant on the top, 11th, floor with a pool. I tried the restaurant three times. I had breakfast there the first day, 250 pesos plus 45 pesos for a second cup of coffee. I had to run to the bathroom immediately. One evening I tried a chicken club sandwich and it took 45 minutes. On the last day after I checked out I had pancit canton. Again it took 45 minutes but it was piping hot.

The devil is in the details. I offer the following nitpicks for the benefit of the hotel owners. Central Park Tower was not fully open when I stayed there.

- The bathroom is beautiful, with a bathtub and a huge shower area. There is a rainforest shower and a regular shower. The problem is that it takes a long time, 5 to 10 minutes for the hot water to arrive and then I could not change it to warm or cold. The reason is that they use cheap hardware from China. How do I know this? The sink has the flip-coin type of stopper that was invented in China and probably patented.

- The gym is not yet operational. Guests use the gym at Pacific Breeze and that gym is up three sets of stairs.

- The front desk communicates with housekeeping staff via a loud public address system. This disturbs all the guests. They should switch to a walkie-talkie system.

- The bath towels are huge and thick but only two are supplied. There should be some hand towels and face clothe.

- Lighting for reading in bed is poor.

- The refrigerator is the size of my backpack.

- There is no hair dryer.

- There needs to be a booklet that detail the services offered by the hotel.

- The LG television is about 32 inches but the focus is off so text cannot be read. The set is mounted so that the HDMI port cannot be accessed.

"Hello. This is Guy. I am one of the managers / owners of the hotel. I hope that you don't mind me answering for Annie. I first want to thank you for the email and for the candid review of the Central Park Tower. We understand that we are not perfect and we welcome the feedback so that we know where we can improve. With regards to a few of the issues you mentioned, I would like to clarify a couple of facts that may not have been properly addressed by the staff.

1/ Although we don't put hair dryers in every room. They are available as requested if you just call the front desk.

2/ As for the lavatory / shower hardware, you are right in assuming that it came from China, but it was far from cheap. The fixtures we purchased were mid to upper price range. There were many choices at half the price but we did not select them. Why would be spend so much on marble and cheapen it with a Kmart branded plumbing device? We actually like the simplicity and robustness of the flipper type lavatory stopper.

3/ Hand towels are also available in the rooms by request if you call the front desk. However, we are already considering adding them to every room.

3/ We are currently writing the text for the information booklet. It should be posted in the rooms in the next couple of weeks.

4/ The executive and executive plus type rooms have 39" LED TVs, not 32". As for the clarity of the signal, we are addressing it too.

Again, thank you for the feedback that you have provided. We hope that you will consider staying with us again should your travels bring you to Angeles.

Have a Happy Easter.

Guy Breckenridge.

Manager.

Central Park Tower Resort."

[Capt Munch]

the ( Central Park ) rooftop vibe is really great.

I have been thee a couple of times. . . . agree that it is a nice escape from the local street scene and the other restaurants. Food was OK also.

There is also a rooftop bar and restaurant above the supermarket there on the main drag. The name of the supermarket escapes me. Decent and cheap Filipino food, she'll love it. X.

TUGS Restaurant is on the 5th floor above JJ's Supermarket (next to Margarita Station) It does have elevator access which is just inside the JJ's Supermarket on the left as you go in. Once you get up to the restaurant level, there are a spiral staircase that will take you up to the rooftop.

As X Man says the food is more Filipino oriented and is just fine. Like the Central Park, it is nice to get away from the street hustle. A good place to take a date or meet up with friends and enjoy a nice dinner.

The Penthouse Hotel also has a rooftop area that is around the pool and you can eat in small covered seating areas. Food was good the last time I ate there. Access is by elevator but it seems to me that there may have a step or two down to the pool area. There may have been a ramp that I didn't notice.

Any of these offer a slight change of pace.

Munch.

[X Man]

Two things. First, if you aren't in the room, you shouldn't have the ac on. Toughen up guys! It doesn't take long for the room to cool down after you return. Salty Pete, please don't waste energy. And, hug a tree while you're at it! LOL.

But this key card exchange reminded me of something else at Central Park. I want a second card so that I can charge my toys when I'm away -- not for the AC. WHen I explained this at Central Park reception, they offered the 2nd card. But for a fee! I just laughed.

I got a good rate when I was there, I think it was 2,800 pesos. I doubt I would pay much more than that, but the rooftop vibe is really great. They must have opened the (inside) restaurant by now. Any reviews or comments?

Since I hit on rooftops, ABC has a rooftop bar which I didn't care for much. I haven't been there in a few years though.

Queens has an interesting rooftop bar (the name is Living Room) which wasn't very popular in Dec14. But maybe these places get busy in the wee hours when ISGers bring the barfine home. I was there for sunset -- also known as happy hour.

There is also a rooftop bar and restaurant above the supermarket there on the main drag. The name of the supermarket escapes me. Decent and cheap Filipino food, she'll love it. X.

[SaltyPete]

Another significantly insignificant annoyance with the Grand Central that I forgot to cry about. They use a PA system on each floor to call Housekeeping to a room for check-out inspection. So if you are trying to catch up on sleep after a 30+ hour journey, expect to hear "Housekeeping to Room XXX, Housekeeping to Room XXX" periodically through the hours of 9 am-12.

Regards,

Sniff and the Tears.

[Oosik]

You are obviously more observant than most of us. And for some time I have meant to comment on your great handle. I actually have an oosik. I will leave it at that.

A friend of mine had one. His mother-in-law came to visit. He told her it was an Eskimo tradition to kiss them for good luck. He didn't tell her what it was. He's divorced now. Don't know if that was related.

[Soapy Smith]

This is, after all, the Hotels & Accomodations (sic) thread.

You are obviously more observant than most of us. And for some time I have meant to comment on your great handle. I actually have an oosik. I will leave it at that.

[Oosik]

I think it is important to clarify that, as shown by RK's commenting on it with suggested fixes, the information that the hotel won't issue second key cards is useful. This is, after all, the Hotels & Accomodations (sic) thread. With the reportedly poor air conditioning it would be a deal killer for me, but we all have our own peculiarities. My home is generally about 40 Celsius cooler than AC at this time of year. His issue is the dwelling on the matter. There are various thresholds of verbosity tolerance. Heaven knows I've been excoriated in the (recent) past and will again in the future.

[Red Kilt]

Red Kilt,

As an aside to your aside, if you re-read my original post, you'd see that I did think of some way around it. Leaving it in the key holder and getting security to let me back in. Still, it was a PITA.

If you do not think my information is significant, that's cool, but others might. Apparently, here you get busted for not contributing; or dinged for contributing too much.

For someone with 1 post (now 3), you are over-reacting.

If you go back and check out my 2000 plus posts you will see that most if not all are designed to assist others.

Your information about a bad smell in the room was important for others and I acknowledged it as such.

You went on at length about how you couldn't get 2 keys blah blah blah and it seemed that this had spoiled your fun, because no where did you refer to girls or mongering or having fun.

To come on a site like this, make ONE post and then get snarky because someone tells you to lighten up a bit tells me you are going to struggle to enjoy yourself in the Phils.

[SaltyPete]

...given only one key card without thinking of some way around it and then letting it get to you so much that you write about it seems a bit sad.

Red Kilt,

As an aside to your aside, if you re-read my original post, you'd see that I did think of some way around it. Leaving it in the key holder and getting security to let me back in. Still, it was a PITA.

If you do not think my information is significant, that's cool, but others might. Apparently, here you get busted for not contributing; or dinged for contributing too much.