Angel

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.