Hotel Spa Republica

A decent basic hotel, clean and well-kept. There’s apparently an old and a new wing. Booking through Agoda usually lands you in whatever’s left, which in past experience has sometimes meant a converted broom closet sold as a room. This time wasn’t quite that bad. A few things stood out as odd. It was 10°C outside, but the central system had the AC set to cooling. The room had no bathrobe waiting and no instructions on where to find the spa or pick up the robes. Once I got the robes, there were no slippers, and I didn’t bother chasing those down. For a spa hotel, the onboarding to the actual spa could use some work. Breakfast was fine: coffee, banana, watermelon, possibly papaya, scrambled eggs, bread, and pastries. No omelette or made-to-order options. The hotel restaurant, on the other hand, was a real positive. I had dinner there twice, a ham and cheese toastie one evening and a salmon dish on another, and both were genuinely very good. The room itself was clean, the shower had hot water with good pressure. My room faced the inner courtyard and was reasonably quiet, although there was a pigeon cooing outside the window. Closing the kitchen door takes care of that. Quiet neighbours are of course something you just have to hope for. The location is solid: shopping hell right next door, and the beach is not far either.

One of the doesens usual city hotels in MDP: unobtrusive service and poor breakfast

First time at a spa, wonderful experience and facilities. Very affordable compared to USA.

DON’T STAY OR EAT HERE if you value customer service and want edible food. I asked for a reservation for their Christmas Eve dinner as a guest at the hotel giving them my details. The charge was $115.000 pesos each which is already a very expensive dinner. When I later enquired about the time for my reservation, the team told me that the reservation hadn’t been processed. Not sure why as the last message I received from the team was ‘we go ahead’ when translated into English with no further messages from them or requests for information. It then turns out that the price had dramatically increased to $145.000 pesos! It wasn’t made clear that it had increased and it’s not my local currency. In my panic to not have a Christmas reservation (which hadn’t been processed due to their incompetence) I paid it. What a mistake. They have not explained or apologised why my initial reservation and quote couldn’t be honoured and have been extremely rude and unreasonable. I have never stayed anywhere which would refuse such a reasonable request from a paying guest. I have experienced better service at 2 star hotels than I have here. I had clearly tried to make a reservation at the prior price. To make things worse, the food wasn’t worth the money. I couldn’t eat the main course or the dessert as they were so awful. The steak was honestly the worst I have ever eaten anywhere in the world (as pictured). I struggled through the small part that was edible because I knew how much money it had cost. The buffet courses were better quality but with no labels I wasn’t sure what anything was which was a real shame. Eggs at breakfast were also inedible so I don’t think the bad food quality is restricted to the holiday dinners unfortunately. They don’t care about the guests who stay there or your experience. They just see you as money machines. It is not 4* quality. I would go elsewhere.