Hotel Location and Neighborhood
0:03 Hey YouTube, so I just wanted to show you kind of the elevator area. We're headed to my room here in Cebu. If you're kind of wondering where I'm located in the Cebu area, room 607. We're about a mile, maybe slightly less than a mile, from the Ayala Center.
0:26 For those who don't know, the Ayala mall is definitely one of the most prominent malls in the Cebu area. It's a chain of malls in the Philippines, well-known for having a variety of stores. They tend to be clean, they tend to have a big variety of food and drink options. They're really popular, and some would even call them lifestyle centers because they often have even like a gym facility in there, and you can get a massage, and there's just a big variety of things to do, a big variety of services. Some people will look at them as almost like all-in-ones.
1:10 If you consider the surrounding neighborhood, they probably have most types of businesses we're looking for. So anyway, here at Griffin Hotel and Suites, we're about a mile away from my Ayala. I want to say we're about a mile south of Ayala.
1:26 And here, the Hotel and Suites is near several doctors, hospitals. We're also near some other malls. I can't think of the name of one of the other malls off the top of my head, but we're kind of in the basically the Uptown Cebu area.
Room Power Card System
1:39 So why don't we go ahead and start this tour? So right off the bat, on the left, you've got your two switches for lights. On the right, you've got this device. If you're not familiar with it, this is common in some hotels.
1:54 We had one of these in my hotel in Phnom Penh. Unfortunately, I did not do a video of that hotel. I'm going to book it for one night when I go back in about three weeks, just to kind of show you guys what that hotel was like. I really enjoyed it; it was the new Seasons Riverside Hotel.
2:15 But anyway, to kind of explain this device, this hotel, they want to be efficient. They want to charge a reasonable room rate, and so they do things to try to mitigate excessive expenses, right? And so one of those excessive expenses that can kind of add up and raise the cost of them offering rooms is heavy use of electricity, even when guests aren't here.
2:37 Like, you guys want to do this, but some people, they would, you know, they might turn the AC all the way up to really cold and then just leave all day and then just have it running all day long. And that can run up an electric bill really quickly. Not to mention, you can put stress on the system if a lot of people were to do that. I imagine it could cause some power issues, certainly in the Philippines, they have some challenges of infrastructure due to there being basically a lot of highlands.
3:06 But anyway, what this card does is that when you pull this cord out, I'm not going to pull it out, but when you pull this card out, it cuts your electricity to your room. So, you know, if you're having things charging or if the AC is on or if the light's on, all these things are going to cut off when you pull that card out.
3:27 Now, you'll pull that card out to leave, so when you come back, you can use it to get back into your room. But like I said, this card, you have to have it. When you see this setup in a hotel room, you have to have it to use the electricity in the room. Typically, it's not connected to Wi-Fi from my understanding, but aside from the Wi-Fi access, you'll need to use this card, and it's associated with your room.
3:53 So, from my understanding, you're not going to be able to do something like, 'Oh, well, I have a credit card,' put it in there. I don't think that works. I wouldn't try it. So keep that in mind. You know, like it even says right off there, the other ones that I've seen didn't say this, but it says, 'Insert card for power.' So, you need to have the card inserted for power, and then when you're ready to leave, you just pull it out, slide it in your wallet, and head on out.
4:18 Now, the one complaint that I get about these, and that I could imagine about these, that I've, I guess, I've got myself, is that clearly, if you need to put this card in to have the electricity on, if you need to charge your devices, that can be problematic. So obviously, you're not going to be able to charge your devices when you're outside of the room.
4:38 To come back, that I recommend just making sure you charge things overnight. Do like a little checklist of your different devices. For me, I've got a power bank, I've got to set up Bose headphones, I've got a laptop, I've got my cell phone. Those are the four primary devices that need to be kept charged.
4:58 And so I try to put at least two or three, or even all of them, if I have the plugs for it, on the charger the night before I go to bed. And when I wake up, everything's charged. Even the power bank that takes the longest to charge will be fully charged if I put it on that way. When I'm ready to head out in the morning, I'm not kind of hanging around waiting for something to charge. I just pull the card, put it in my wallet, and I'm ready to go for the day.
Room Amenities TV and Remotes
5:26 So, kind of moving on from there, explaining that, what we've got here. So we've got a TV. This has been pretty standard so far in my time in the Philippines, and this looks to be, it's hard to say, 27-inch. It's another one of those TVs that's not, I'm not exactly sure from the size of it, but it's this one is a Sharp Aquos TV.
5:53 Moving on, we've got a telephone. The hotel let me know, the lady at the front desk let me know if I have any questions or concerns, I here at the Griffin Hotel and Suites, to just hit this at the zero zero, and I'll call down there and let them know anything, you know, that comes up.
6:11 You'll want to know, there's an executive order, you cannot smoke in here. Reduce the smoke. That's a pretty hefty $200 fine. And they've got as well, a $100 fine, thought basically a 5,000 peso cleaning fee to bring the room back to shape in the case that you do smoke.
6:30 So here we've got a remote for the aircon, aircon meaning air conditioner. This is a television remote, and this looks to be a remote for entertainment purposes. Maybe there's cable, I'm not totally certain. I tend not to watch a lot of TV.
Wi-Fi Policy and Room Pricing
6:46 What else? Personal effects. I've got nail clippers, sunglasses, a couple of slips of paper for the Wi-Fi. So they issue their Wi-Fi codes every single day. So another thing that they do to kind of go easy on the system and not have it bogged down by excessive traffic is that you'll need to go down here at this hotel to the front desk and get one code per device that you're planning on using each day.
7:16 And that's so that their Wi-Fi doesn't get, once again, get bogged down by gift things. And it, some people don't like you. But in my opinion, I feel like this hotel is reasonably priced. I want to say it runs anywhere from like $20 to $30 US per night for this standard room. That's pretty affordable in my book.
7:36 I could come hang around around 2,000 points per night, and we get that, I get that 25% bonus so on my card. So probably around $25 US per night. Once again, I can't guarantee if you, you know, if you get a double or a suite or something like that, it'll probably be more expensive. But it's a single guy, this room gives me just fine.
In-Room Safe and Storage
7:59 So you might be wondering what we're looking at here. We actually have a safe. I am, this is the first time I've seen a safe in my hotel room in the Philippines, and I don't think I'll be needing to use it, just because I tend not to travel with too many valuables. But it's cool to check out nonetheless.
8:24 So that's just some cash that I have. I've been going through and kind of doing inventory since I'm wrapping up my time here in the Philippines this week. We've got two glasses in case you're, you know, thirsty here. I did, I actually forgot to pick up water, so I'm probably after this video going to head out and get some water.
Baggage Storage and Air Conditioning
8:42 So moving on, we've got a nice little shelf here. I've got my baggage storage stored there. Fire extinguisher, which I really like for safety purposes.
8:59 Got a shelf up here. You've got some things to hang up. You can use these smile bars. Here's the air conditioning unit. It's a Sharp brand as well. It seems to work really quick and cool off the room really nicely.
Bed and Lighting Features
9:10 So moving on, I have been relaxing on this bed a little bit. It's pretty darn comfortable. I like this bed and I like this setup. It's got, one of the things I like about this, they've got this, they've got a shelf on either side, but then they also have plugs on either side. They have two on the right side and one on this side.
9:35 And as you can see here, they actually use that to create a soft sort of ambient light for people that like to read or kind of relax before they go to bed. See drawer here.
9:54 Yeah, I like these light fixtures too. They're just really nice, beautiful blue that they provide. For those who get hungry, this hotel actually has a sort of a restaurant in the lobby, and this is the menu to just kind of show you guys a few things from here.
Hotel Restaurant Menu and Pricing
10:09 They've got pasta and sandwiches, pasta, noodles, and chao. It's a Filipino dish, kind of like a seems like a stir-fry. All-day breakfast. Wow, they've got different kind of egg and rice-based dishes. Bacon with eggs on toast, 200 pesos. It's about $4 US dollars. Beef tapa. I'm not sure what the tapa preparation is, but it looks pretty good. That's going to run you 300 pesos, about $6 dollars.
10:50 They've got pancakes, about 200 pesos for US dollars. These skillet dishes. Now, something to note, they do have a 5% service charge.
11:13 Ribs, they've got fried chicken, fish and chips, Thai chicken curry, different kind of seafood dishes. These are the main courses, steak, Vietnamese cuisine, appetizer, and then this is their beverage menu.
Bathroom Features and Amenities
11:45 So the old chair here. Let's go ahead and move on and check out the shower. Oh, and I think that's a smoke detector. Yeah, I think that's the smoke.
11:50 Just mirror. They've got a standard toilet. They've got this design here, as I'm seeing a lot in the Philippines. You just press that button. This is the more of the water-saving one, and then you have a larger amount. You'll press this larger button here.
12:20 And they've included a couple of towels, and this is something I like. They've included a couple of toothbrushes. What else? It's just a standard sink here.
12:40 Toilet paper, which is nice. Two of my hotels here in the Philippines have not included toilet paper. I'm not sure if that was something I was supposed to ask for or not. I didn't know. Picking some up at the local convenience store. It's really nice to see that they've included that.
12:51 And coming in here, they've got a
12:58 Coming in here, they've got a couple of bars of soap, shampoo, and conditioner. I'm glad to see this, as it indicates we're going to get hot water in here. My last two hotels on Coron Island did not have hot water showers, so I had to kind of stand there and get used to the temperature slowly but surely to get a shower.
13:21 When I see this device, the Panasonic BH-3JL, I'm glad to see that. This is just a faucet, and it turns out normal. They do have that plugged end up pretty high above, so I guess that reduces or eliminates the risk for electric issues.
13:52 We've got a fan above that does automatic when you turn. Oh, cool. So they do have a drain, so if you do track a lot of water, it will try to drain out there, which is nice. It's nice that you step into a bathroom and have the floor dry.
Room Summary and Stay
14:18 So yeah, this is the standard room at the Griffin Hotel and Suites. I want to say I'm paying around 2,000 points per night, a very reasonable rate in my mind. I'm looking forward to my stay here, I really am. Thank you for watching, and I will see you guys next time.