My first ever trip to Boracay island started from this hotel. At that time, I was starting to realize that I’m jobless. And yet, I could not change my mind about going to Boracay, since that place was the very initial reason of my interest in the Philippines as a country. And I had my promo Cebu Pacific (900 pesos only) flight booked already 🙂
Still residing in Makati, with Boracay as planned destination for spending my birthday, I had to find an affordable stay in Boracay.
I’ve registered with the excellent Travelbook.ph website, which has extensive choice of cheaper hotels in the Philippines. Well, at least compared to Booking.com that we all know about.
As a new user on Travelbook, I could use a discount code to make my stay even more affordable. Based on my search on the site, I decided to stay my first 3 nights on Boracay at Boracay Royale Residence Inn.
Its official location is Station 2, D’mall (just behind Budget Mart), Balabag, Boracay, Philippines 5608.
I didn’t know much about Boracay at that time. I imagined in my head that D’mall is one big mall just because it has that word in it. However, it’s more like an alley of one floor buildings and small shops and restaurants which leads you to The White Beach.
Boracay Royale Residence Inn is located just behind the Budget Mart – one of the few grocery shops available on Boracay. It’s a good thing, because you can easily find water supply and fulfill whatever grocery needs you have. Well, not really whatever – it’s still just a small grocery.
I spent little time locating the inn by saving instructions to find it to my phone:
The alley mentioned is really narrow and there is a number of bikes at the entrances to it. You just walk that and turn right where you will be welcomed by guard. Going further you will find reception area.
With my luck something had to go wrong. I knew I had a successful booking at Travelbook. But things got to a little surprise when I realized I booked desired dates, but next month! Sadly, I realized that only when I arrived to hotel as late as 9pm (Cebu Pacific provides amazing pricing at the cost of amazing delays).
I’ve asked the reception girl to accommodate me and change my dates. She had to call the owner, so my booking was cancelled and I paid cash for the next 3 days of my stay. The amount was slightly bigger compared to what paid via Travelbook, so it is better not to make mistakes like I did.
First 3 days on Boracay at the affordable place was 5,100 pesos which is 1,700 per day. Not bad, compared to whopping 2,000 per day in Makati condo, which would lack any kind of access to the ocean 😉
My initial concern upon entering the room was that no locker seemed to be present. No deposit box. I was worried where would I put my belongings while going out to experience The White Beach and the warm waters of Boracay.
I asked the guard about it (the reception girl went away to sleep for good). He had seem to pocess little English skills. I read that the deposit box is there on the ground floor, in the reception area. Using my own intellectual, I had figured out that the wooden wardrobe IS the locker. The second key I had received could close it. However, it seems that all those wooden wardrobe locks provide little to no security – you can easily open them without a key.
If you are very very concerned about security of your belongings – I would not recommend the hotel. However, if you do trust the hotel stuff, you might save a bit of money at the cost of putting your things to risk.
That said, through my stay in hotel it seemed somewhat secure since they had guard present on the ground floor starting around 8pm. The building was undergoing renovation, and I hope the renovated rooms will have real safety deposit boxes made from bare metal.
I actually came to like that place in those few days of my stay. So I extended it for additional 3 days. I booked Deluxe room type which is one simple bed with TV and aircon. The accommodating reception staff upgraded my stay to what seemed to be a family type room, for free. The reason for that was the noise from renovation work. I did not mind the noise since I was out most of the time (to extent that I got sun burns :p ). But the free upgrade was welcome change in my stay there. The family room had 3 beds, a spacious shower room, and just had more space.
Internet
Between my two subsequent bookings of that same hotel, I experienced good Wi-Fi only at the reception area. All other times Wi-Fi was really bad. The rooms I had were on the third floor. The second floor might have had a better connection, but in my whole 6 days of stay on the third floor there was no to little Internet using provided Wi-Fi connection. It was just unbearably slow. I had to search better Internet elsewhere (which was a failed search anyway).
I would recommend this hotel to solo and family travellers who don’t mind having no safety deposit box and no Internet, but are going to Boracay on a tight budget.
Recap of Boracay Royale Residence Inn
- Quite affordable for Boracay
- Short walk to The White Beach
- No safety deposit box
- Almost zero Internet using Wi-Fi provided
- Stayed on: Nov 21-27, 2015