Don’t Book at Olman’s View, Bohol, Philippines
I will not book our precious holiday at Olman’s View, Bohol, Philippines again.
Why?
Because.
They don’t have a beach. They claim to be a cliff resort—fine. They are a cliff resort and the sea is just really a few steps down. In pictures, this resort looks nice but listen… they are directly in front of the harbour. If you look out to the ocean… your view would be the harbour which is around 200 meters or less away. So you can imagine how slimy and icky Olman’s sea water would be. I personally have seen the swimming area and it looks indescribably disgusting. Well, they have a decent pool and if you are contented spending your tropical island get away swimming in a pool then go ahead.
Why don’t I like them?
Ok, I will tell you the whole story.
I booked a room at Olman’s through an online travel agency office who gave me so much praises about Olman’s View. And because there are no other available resort that time due to flocking of visitors for the Chinese New Year week, I took it. Now, IslandAccommodations.com (the freakin’ travel agency office) demanded that I pay the full amount before they can confirm my booking and so that’s what I did. And by the way, this incompetent travel agency doesn’t accept credit card payments so I have to withdraw the money from my bank account and deposit it to their bank which is not so popular and which has only a few branches. It took us a day to find the bank (no branch in our city so we have to go somewhere else) and finish the transaction. In good faith, I did all what the evil travel agency office told me to do. Pay in full, deposit in their bank account, fax the deposit receipt, etc.
But oh God, I was really pissed off when I saw the resort. It was so awful. I told myself, it is not the resort’s fault, it’s the stupid travel agency office’s fault. I mean, why would they recommend a place like that??? They’re just so stupid and totally incompetent. When I called them and complained… they denied that they recommend the place to me. WTF, right? I mean common, I wouldn’t know about the place if they didn’t tell me about it. And I particularly asked them if that resort have a beach/area of the sea where we CAN SWIM. And they assured me that Olman’s View has it. And they don’t.
So we cancelled our 7 night 8 days booking. We were just there for an hour and we’re off. Olman’s View was apologetic and offered to take us to another hotel. But wait… they are not that nice like they seem because they took a 50% cancellation fees. WTF again! I mean nobody in his/her right mind would like to spend their precious precious holiday in their hotel and they know that. They know that they don’t have a chance of earning from their hotel so this is how they earn money… from cancellation fees. Sneaky a-holes!
But anyway, I didn’t complain to the resort anymore since they weren’t the ones I talked to. After we transferred to a surprisingly cheaper but way more beautiful resort, I called Islandsaccomodations.com to ask them to pay for our accommodations (in the resort where we moved) and to refund some money to us. See, we paid 3,100PHP/night for a deluxe room at Olman’s and the rate of the room we got at Alona Tropical is only 1,240PHP/night (a standard fan room with NO hot shower and freshwater—the only available that time). There would be a cut for the travel agent office but it is still way too much. I honestly believe (until now) that we pay too much for the accommodations we got. And I wouldn’t like to shoulder Olman’s 50% of the full booking charge because it wasn’t our fault. WE WERE MISINFORMED by IslandsAccommodations.com. Is not like we didn’t show up or anything.
And you know, the f****n’ travel agency office wanted to charge us more!!!! Can you imagine!? Very stupid and incompetent, right!? I argued and fought with the a-holes from Islandsaccommodations.com until they succumbed and agreed to cover our accommodations at Alona Tropical and not charge us for more money. It wasn’t an easy task believe me. There were a lot of denying and blaming and raising of voices, etc. I didn’t get a refund but that’s okay….they will certainly pay in another way.
- Posted in Bitchy Rants, Holidays and Travel on February 19th, 2008
February 20th, 2008 at 9:07 pm
[…] got to the resort and we were like—how can IslandsAccomodations.com recommend a place like that? Olman’s View is so awful I also wrote a post about them in a separate blog. Olman’s View doesn’t have a decent beach to swim in. A harbour is about 200 meters in front of […]
June 9th, 2008 at 10:35 pm
sad to say, we have the same experience. we had our vacation last may 12 this year. below is my complaint to Bohol Tourism but unfortunately, they can do nothing about it. the male owner of Olmans view is a lawyer thats why his wife who is the manager of the resort is not affected at all of any complaints of their guests. its just a waste of time & money if we have to file any legal action against them. yes! you’re right, they’ll pay in other ways. i want to spread our experience to all so that nobody will book in their resort & no one will experience what we have gone through…..how would i do it? i hope you will also post yours in any website or chatroom.
here’s my complaint:
Dear Sir Dejaresco,
Good day!
We were all dismayed by Ms. Hontanosas response. We arrived at Olmans Resort around 9am. When the frontdesk told us that we have to pay the full amount, I was stunned but still we paid our accommodation in full in good faith. As practiced by all other resort/hotel, we are only require to deposit an amount but not to pay in full. Based on our experience in Alona Kew Resort, they didn’t even ask us to deposit an amount but only pay them upon checking out. Paying P 5,100.00 without even staying in the room for one hour is not worth it. Paying an hour is fine with us but paying P 5,100 for two rooms only to stay in less than an hour is VERY UNFAIR. She even stated in her letter that she just consider us with an extra bed. Why? Is it for free? We even paid for those extra beds! Is her resort the only one who can provide an extra bed? Ms. Hontanosas, pls. think it over.
About the beach incident, we asked her if we could let the driver dropped us at Doljo since the beach in Alona Kew was not good at that time. We have our children with us and with the kind of weather, the beach is not good for swimming. We were just trying to ask her since the staff in Alona Kew suggested that its better to spend swimmimg in Doljo coz the sea is more calm than in Alona. Then why bring us to BBC when the beach there is much more the same with Alona? We even asked her driver and he told us that Ms. Hontanosas refused so he can do nothing about it as he just only follow instructions. I don’t know if she knows about customer service coz she doesnt even think clients satisfaction in giving their services.
We, as bakasyunistas from cdo, trying to relax ourselves from work stress were felt even more stress with this kind of experience. We even asked the frontdesk to let the owner talk to us so that we can discuss it properly but she refused. As an owner, it is her responsibility to address the needs of her clients to settle things once and for all. Olmans View Resort should not be part of your list when travelling BOHOL as this could ruin the excitement of the people who want to relax. Try viewing their website and you will get amazed of the pictures. We came to realize upon our arrival that its not the place we expect it to be. Their website is so deceiving. Try to inspect the place Sir so you will know. You cannot even feel the hospitality of a Boholano because the owner herself doesn’t care about their guests.
When we decided to transfer to Alona Kew Resort, the frontdesk of Olamns even told us that there were a lot of complaints before us which is very contradicting to what Ms. Hontanosas is saying. We are complaining because we are not given due respect as individuals. She is right that this is a bad practice and won’t be tolerated in our society today, so better erase Olmans View in Bohol Tourism’s accredited resorts. Swindlers??? Ms. Hontanosas should better think twice. She accepted our payment for two hotel room accommodation without us staying there for one (1) whole day but just less than an hour. We are willing to pay for the length of stay in your resort which is less than an hour. We would like to clarify that we checked out from Olmans past 11AM just to get our things there and not 2PM. You may check it with Alona Kew Resort.
July 11th, 2008 at 3:23 am
Oh men… me and my family certainly experienced the same thing with Olman’s view. The only difference is that we booked directly w/ the owner, who despite our complaints while staying there, never even bother to face us in person. Of all the hotels and resorts i’ve been to, this is the only resort who asks full payment upon your arrival. Well, it appears that by doing so, they are sure to get your money since by the time you decide to transfer to another resort because of unattended complaints, they will never give you the refund. We even lodged our complaint at Bohol tourism which in turn refer it to Bohol Provincial Tourism Council hoping that they can assist us. Unfortunately, only 50% was refunded to us. The good thing is, i learned a lot from this experience. The next time i plan a vacation with my family, i will certainly search the blogs before deciding which resort i will be going to. Instead of relieving stress from a hard days work, Olman’s View certainly caused me a lot more stress during my last vacation.