We booked a room at the last minute since plans of checking in at a resort were dampened by the weather. The hotel had a grand lobby that was very welcoming to a weary traveler. The staff at the front desk was even kind enough to inform us that they offered a discount which scraped about $20 from the original rate. The rooms were very modern, clean and cozy. They had a great attention to detail.

The hotel was also just a very short walk from SM Cebu. You could get a coffee from Starbucks and walk back without breaking a sweat. It was also just a 10-15min drive to the port area, which was a great convenience since we were set to take a ferry to Bohol the following morning. We loved the place so much that we went back right after our trip to Bohol.

The hotel is very spacious with an air of grandeur-rooms are nice and spacious while amenities are well-maintained. But the real draw here is the service- check in and check out and everything in between was done in a friendly and professional manner.

Location and ambience was great of course, but I was a little disappointed with the staff service.

I am a Filipino with my Japanese wife and baby -- we were on a short vacation to the country and had previously stayed at another five-star hotel a week before staying in Radisson so I could tell the difference in the service.

Things I can remember:

We had a room for 2, but were only set up with one pair of indoor slippers and one toothbrush.

After room cleaning, the used coffee cup was left on the table, and we did not get the complimentary coffee for the 2nd day.

We also did not get bathrobe replacements. I called 2 times requesting for bathrobes, and then after 30 minutes or so, the staff came with 2 glasses (instead of bathrobes) in hand. I was very disappointed at that time, and just gave up on this request. It gave my family a lot of laughs though after sharing this story :) Funny, but true.

On the first night, we requested for spoons and forks for our dinner. It took a very long time, so we decided to eat Filipino style (by hand) instead, thinking that maybe the staff had forgotten our request, and we were too hungry to follow-up. To our surprise, the spoon and fork came more than an hour later, too late in the night for a normal dinner. I asked the staff, and he apologized and said that they had lots of requests that night. To me this was unacceptable. Dinner-related requests should be granted promptly -- and in rare cases where it's not due to staff constraint, the customer should be informed about the delay, and given ETA. This is common sense.

The one-touch service does not seem to religiously take notes of my requests. On the 2nd night we requested for chicken noodle soup. I explicitly mentioned not to serve it to the room until the rest of the family finishes their orders. After 15 minutes (and the family had not yet finished orderingf for the other dishes), the staff served the chicken soup, so we had to deal with cold soup for our dinner.

I arranged for hotel van to send us off to airport on checkout. Since we needed to check out really early morning, I wanted to pay for the room bills the night before. After they had prepared the bill for my acknowledgment, I found out that the van had not been included on the bill. The lady added the van charge by hand, and then asked me to pay the new amount. To my surprise upon check-out, the front desk told me I had not paid for the van.... We resolved it after I asked her to re-verify but it seemed that there was a disconnect with their concierge and the frontdesk. (miscommunication? system problem? ). This was a little inconvenient as we wanted to leave soon for the flight.



In most of the misses above, staff did not even apologize, which just added to my stress.

Staff were not as smiling as the previous five-star hotel we stayed in.

To think that we only stayed two nights, I find it unbelievable that I could write a lot of things as above.

I am not thrilled to come back if this service is representative of what the hotel is offering on any given day.

I find that the other reviews are good regarding the staff though. Does this mean I was just unlucky? So many "unlucky" miscues if that's the case, it's very improbable. I can only guess other reasons. Recent change in staff perhaps? Or is this the case of reverse discrimination? I certainly hope not, but this wouldn't be the first establishment to do this to our kababayans if this is the case.

I hope this changes though. I don't mind coming back if someone from Radisson actually assures me of better service the next time I come. It's very near SM -- who wouldn't want to stay here otherwise?