Richmonde Hotel, Ortigas

Hi! This is my review for Richmonde Hotel in Ortigas, both for the room and the breakfast buffet at the Eastwood Cafe. We had an overnight stay in a deluxe room facing the city (overlooking Shangri La Hotel and other nearby buildings) with breakfast included in the room rate.

DISCLAIMER: I aim to be as factual as possible with my blogs so that I can help you guys out in my own little way, I know that that even the smallest input or info could help a lot in making decisions on certain topics. But I would also like to respectfully remind you, dear readers, that we all have our own tastes and standards.  What may work for me may not work for you and vice versa. So this is just something that I would like to share with you all, an experience being rated based on my preference, without any bias. Hope this blog helps you and if you have any comments, negative and / or positive, let me know in the comment section below and I will be happy to reply in the best way that I can 🙂 So here goes my full review 🙂

If you google (or yahoo) search Richmonde Hotel on the internet, you will see that this is rated as a 4-star hotel.  It’s located in Ortigas, about a 10-minute walk from Megamall and San Miguel Corporation (My hubby and I, we are always reminded of the chocolate Toblerone when we look at San Miguel’s building. Is it just us or is there someone else who thinks that way too sa building na yun? Na-open ko lang hehe 🙂 ) We were on the 20+th floor, and I seem to remember that the hotel has about 30 floors. The lobby is quite small (I don’t know why I read some reviews stating that the lobby is large. I have been to many hotels and in comparison, this is quite small) and to be honest, it’s not as grand as what you will think of a 4-star hotel. There’s a small cafe adjacent to the lobby, which is aptly called “The Lobby Cafe” (wow, what a creative name for a coffee place. And yes I was being sarcastic, di ba halata? hehe bad ko no?) There’s also a staircase leading to the Red Box if I’m not mistaken (we only stayed here for a short time, aside from the restaurant at the 2nd fl, the lobby (of course) and our room (duhhh), I wasn’t able to see the rest of the hotel). The elevator is really really small, as in like only 5 well-built people can fit in. And unfortunately, there are only 2 elevators in this hotel. I can’t imagine how crowded the elevators are during peak hours, like lunch or dinner time. There was a time that we had to wait for about 15 mins before we were able to take the elevator,  kasi may nauna sa amin about 9 people loaded with stuffs kaya ayun antagal naming nag-antay. The elevator is kinda slow too. Haisssttt 😦 But as we reached our floor, paglabas ng elevator, I was pleasantly surprised with the hallway’s carpet (babaw ko no? Hehe). There’s this thin colorful carpet on top of the usual thick red carpet. I really like what the top carpet did to the aesthetics of the hallway, it was a simple addition sa area but it added character to the hallway because of it’s bold colors. The lights are a little too dim for my taste, but it gave more elegance to the place. I fell in love with the hallway and I kept telling myself, what a weird thing, falling in love with a hallway. Adik lang hehehe.

Anyway, as we went inside the room, the old-fashioned look came back as I saw the style and structure of the place. Here’s the photo of the room.

It’s a deluxe room with 2 single beds again with the view of the city.  The room is just right I guess, not too big not too small, just average.

Here are the other positive and negative things about the room.

Positive:

> Free Wifi in the room for 1 device

> Very close to business and social establishments

> Like the usual 4-5 star hotels, they provided complete toiletries, 2 sets of slippers, complete sets of towels

> The usual TV with cable, mini-ref, room safe

> Complimentary Drinks

> Hair Dryer (which is located inside the drawer. I almost missed it)

Negative:

> Again, small and slow elevators

> Small Bath tub

> No bidet in the bathroom

> Needs a design / interior decorating upgrade in the room and replacement of carpet

> Can smell smoke inside the room (I hate the smell of cigarettes talaga)

> The wooden foldable door in the bathroom can’t be closed from outside. Why is this important? Because we stayed with our kids and I have a 1 yr-old boy who loves to go in the bathroom and play in the bathtub and toilet, as in he would dip his hand in the water closet and play with the water. As in eeewww! I know!!! But if you have a toddler, or experienced taking care of one, you know that this things happen. It’s also scary because my kid can already go inside the bathtub and knows how to open the faucet. He can accidentally get drowned (I know you’ll say that it’s the parents responsiblity to look after the children but I’m just saying that the risk of danger can be minimized. Anyway, when you see the bathroom door, while you’ll say that it makes sense to use a foldable one – to utilize smaller space, I think you would agree with me that they can replace it with something that has better style and functionality). So it’s very important for me that I can close my bathroom door from outside.

Those are my comments about the room. I said some good stuffs as well as mediocre stuffs about the room but overall, I really liked the place. It’s also a plus that we have our kids with us kaya nag-enjoy kami with our bonding time. I may sound critical in some ways, only because I need to be, it’s a review after all, just needed to be honest. But it’s a nice hotel, a little old-fashioned when it comes to interiors and design but I like the lobby and the restaurant area (Eastwood Cafe). Normally, I don’t like old-fashioned interiors but somehow the quiant look of this hotel worked for me. The room was, as I said, not as big and it was a little old and in my opinion, needs a little renovating overall to make it look more polished. Actually, my hubby being so used to staying in hotels (just the nature of his job) is not really satisfied with the room. It was ordinary for him and if he is to give his rate, it would probably be a 3.5. I am satisfied enough though. I just thought that he was being picky. If I am to rate this place, I’ll give it a 3.8 out of 5 rating. The bathroom has 1 small bathtub and basta may bathtub, my kids would go gaga! So our stay had been nice talaga, specially for the kids. I’m satisfied enough but there’s no longer the wow factor because I’ve seen all of this before. But the view in our room was amazing!

Now, let me talk about my fave subject, THE FOOD.

Just to give you an insight, I only had the chance to enjoy breakfast buffet in few hotels like at Mandarin Oriental, Vivere Alabang, Days Hotel (Tagaytay), Crowne Regency Manila Galleria, Regency Hotel Boracay and some other 3-3.5 star hotels. The rest are lunch / dinner buffet (Spiral Sofitel and Diamond Hotel in Manila) The best breakfast buffet is from Mandarin. I like the breakfast buffet at Seven Corners too! I remember complaining at their (Seven Corners) breakfast buffet and Vivere Alabang but the buffet in Richmonde doesn’t even cover half of what they serve. And not even as good. This is what they had: Tuna (lasang canned), bacon (not salty at all, just crunchy pero walang lasa), sausage, pork embutido (can you spell YUCK?!!!), siomai and some I don’t even remember anymore. Parang less than 10 dishes served. Not much options sa bread and I thought that this is the worst part, WALANG DANISH?!!! Di ba this is a staple food in a breakfast buffet?  Whenever I have a chance to enjoy a breakfast buffet in a hotel,  I always have 2 varieties of danish breads on my plate. I also got a stale bread 😦 Hay, it was a sad day for a foodie 😦 (OA much? hehe) Uy wait, there’s something that I really really love. This is their saving grace. The Omelet station. There’s nothing better than a hotel-cooked omelet. So I’m really happy they didn’t mess this up. Kasi pag hotel breakfast, automatic lahat ng nakainan ko, the omelet’s really good. So nasalba naman ang breakfast ko that day because of the omelet hehehe. Another thing I noticed, the refills are a little slow too 😦  But they have good service. It just took them a little while before they were able to provide me with a high chair for my baby. But the staffs are attentive.

For the desserts, they have about 5 fruit selections. 4-5 cold beverages, coffee, tea or hot choco for drinks. They have a cereal section with milk. But I guess that’s it. If I gave the room a 3.8 rating out of 5, well for the restaurant, I guess I’d give the food a 2.9-3 out of 5 rating. But I definitely definitely like the ambience. Though small, it’s very cozy and comfortable. I love the chairs, the tables, the low ceiling (weird di ba? Usually, people like high-ceilings but it gave the place a quaint and warm atmosphere talaga). So sa decor and ambience, I’ll give it a 4. So my rating for the resto is 3.5.

Overall, I think I’m gonna give this place a 3.7 out of 5 rating.  And If your gonna ask me if I will go back in the hotel, well it’s no Shangri La (wow wish ko lang maka-stay ako  dun), but considering the rate, I still would, especially since my kids love to stay in hotels and wherever they’re happy, I’m all for it. Although I really hope next time they can improve on the food.

BTW, for further info,the usual rates are from 4,500- 7,000 depending on the room. But they have a Valentine promo and when I did a mock booking, I saw some rates go down for 3,100+4000. Not bad right? And if you book 14 days in advance, they also give discount. I think this hotel is one of the least expensive in the 4-star category kaya I think  because of the rate, nagkakaroon na rin ng lapses in the quality of room, food and service. But as I said in a previous post, the place/experience is what you make it. If you choose to be happy, even the crappiest place can be the most fun. It’s just a matter of perspective hehehe.

That’s it for my review of Richmonde Hotel. Thanks for reading! Feel free to like, subscribe and comment on my blog.

Til my next blog! 🙂

Tins ❤ ❤ ❤