Watergate Boutique Hotel

The boutique hotel provides decent accommodation in Butuan. However, the indoor air quality was a major concern for us. The windows on the second floor are locked, and there is no possibility of proper room ventilation. When we arrived, the room smelled strongly of scented cleaning products, and one could feel the VOCs irritating the nose and airways. The room does not provide face towels, and if you ask for one, you can rent it for 70 pesos per day. Toiletries were provided upon arrival, but we did not receive more toothpaste when the small initial one ran out, nor additional soap. Several times a day, there are power blackouts, usually lasting only a few minutes. Overall, the place falls short in terms of hospitality and indoor air quality. On the positive side, it is clean, the room is spacious, and the air conditioning works well.

Experience was okay. I slept fine in the beds and the staff is nice. We needed to extend our stay but the place was fully booked for a certain night. The staff made sure to put us in a room when a cancellation happened. Sadly, on the first morning at 6am, there was too much noise in the hallway because of the other guests. The hallway is quite echo-y in general. The swimming pool to nice to hang out in. It gets cleaned regularly. Breakfast has a good spread of choices. The last evening there was some loud music outside and I slept after putting in earplugs. Overal it was nice but a bit noisy.

The ventilation of the place isn’t great. Its giving claustrophobic. They won’t let you in your room without deposit even when the room is already paid and they charge you the towel that has some dirt on it (automatically deducted from the deposit). Some staff in the front desk aren’t very accommodating.