Advertise Your Business with The Pinoy Wanderer

Red Planet Ortigas: A Review

POST UPDATE: Tune Hotel Ortigas is now RED PLANET Ortigas. The last time we stayed in this hotel was October 2018 and we received the same service and treatment as before, thus, this review still hold. Nothing major was different except that they already have a restaurant on the hotel's lobby. The photos on this post may be old (except for the one below where I'm sporting my new hairstyle) but the place look the same.

October 2018: From Tagaytay, we checked in at Red Planet Ortigas before heading to Bicol.
This post was published September 2014. Read on...

    It’s been more than a year since my brother and I gave up our apartment in Pasig that’s why now, we rely on friends for a place to stay whenever we’re visiting Manila or – we stay at a hotel which suits our budget. It was in July 2014 when I first stayed at Red Planet Ortigas when my brother came home from the US.  Like I mentioned on a previous post, I was browsing Agoda.com last July when my laptop died on me. It was barely 2 weeks after typhoon Glenda and electricity lines have been severely affected in our area. I went to Red Planet Ortigas and found out that there’s a huge price difference when booking directly at the hotel and booking through online sites like Agoda.com. Anyway, the first time I booked through Agoda, I paid approximately P3,500.00 (inclusive of taxes and fees) for 2 days and 2 nights stay at the hotel. I booked on that same day. The second time, I booked a week ahead and paid approximately P3,100 for the same room we had last time (Double Room) and for the same duration (2 days and 2 nights stay), still inclusive of taxes and other hotel fees. Interesting to note, however, that we could have paid a bit less if not for the higher exchange rate that Agoda.com implemented that time. Including all the other fees, we were charged around 69.70 US dollars -- and with Agoda’s exchange rate of P44.45 pesos to a dollar, it converted to P3,100. At that time, the exchange rate at my bank was barely above 43 against the dollar. I've found out just recently, while writing this post, that the same room can be availed at a lesser amount through Hotels.com. Will sure to check Hotels.com next time I book a hotel. We all need to be budget conscious. ☺
 

     Anyway, I’m not sure what areas I’m supposed to evaluate when reviewing hotels, but as far as a common guy like me knows, here goes:

Quick Post About Hotel and Taxi Drivers

I'll be brief.

(1) It's sort of advisable to book hotels using sites like agoda.com. I was not able to book online because my laptop died on me while I was checking out my options yesterday. Typhoon Glenda brought down many trees in our area, specially in our backyard, and of course, damaged a few electricity lines -- so no power for almost two weeks now. I've decided I'll just go to the hotel and inquire about the affordable room I saw from agoda.com before my laptop's screen went black. Lo and behold for when I got there, the only available room for the day is worth P2300. Not convinced and refusing to be out of options, I went to the nearest Starbucks and charged my laptop. Look, I was able to find a cheaper room and it's a wayyy BETTER room than the ones they've offered me. I booked for 2 nights while I do my business in the city. I'll probably review my stay in the hotel through a future post.


Current Western Union Rates for Domestic Money Transfer In The Philippines

     Because of their current location in the US, my brother occasionally accepts money remittance from his co-workers. Just like what happened last week when they were in an isolated area and his colleague's family in the Philippines really needed the cash. He does not do this all the time, only when I have spare money in my wallet. I pay for it initially then he just pays me later in bulk (wayyy later if I may say) so we can save on the remittance charges. We split what's left of what his friends paid him, less of course the amount we spent on sending. We normally accept when his friends will send money to a BPI account or a BDO account (I can visit these banks readily and they're convenient) but since it was an emergency, we obliged to send via Western Union. 


     Of course I needed to know how much I will be paying for sending the money via Western Union so I Googled how much they charge for $300 (approximately P13,200 at that time). I don't know why it isn't readily posted on the Western Union website so I looked elsewhere. I found some info, yeah, but too bad, it was erroneous information. So imagine my surprise when I was asked to pay P540.00 to send P13,200.00 to somewhere in Quezon. Well anyway, for your reference, I took a photo of the poster displaying the current rates for sending money domestically (to and from anywhere in the Philippines) via Western Union.