Alba Uno Residencia is a newer hotel situated in Apas, just 3 minutes away from Asiatown IT Park, Cebu City. We were looking for a room that could accommodate at least 3 adults and 1 child. Luckily, this hotel was able to provide us with a standard family room that’s good for 4 people. Two days before our scheduled stay, we were told that they didn’t have any family room available so we went ahead and reserved a Standard Room that could accommodate two people. This wasn’t a good option considering that you have to pay an additional P300 for the excess person plus another P300 for extra beddings. The room itself cost P1400 which would mean we’ll be paying P2000 instead of only P1900 for a family room.  The pricing seemed inappropriate if you do the math.

So, came the day before our reservation, I decided to give Alba Uno Residencia hotel a call again and fortunately, they were able to find a vacant Standard Family Room. This was definitely better since we’ll only be paying P1900 instead of P2000. The room itself was spacious and elegant. Its neutral colors and stylish décor contributed to its classy feel. The bed was great, sturdy, and clean.  Indeed, it was the kind of room that I’d like to stay in when I’m on vacation. They also had built-in closets which were big enough to store and hang several clothes. The bathroom was okay. I really liked the hot and cold shower since you need not adjust its temperature manually. What we also found cute were 2 tiny bottles of shampoo and conditioner all in one. Most hotels in Cebu City don’t usually have those. Of course, they also provided 4 towels, 2 small soaps, 2 toothbrushes, tissue paper, and 2 tiny tubes of toothpaste.  The room also came with a landline phone, cable ready LCD TV, and personal fridge. If you hate spending other charges, avoid drinking the cans of soda or alcohol that’s available on their fridge.  Obviously, they’re more expensive compared to buying a can of coke from Mercury Drug or a convenience store in IT Park.

Looking Up At Alba Uno Residencia

View From Our Room

The disadvantage and rather disappointing part of this hotel was the internet connection. It was annoyingly SLOW and unreliable! We started going online at around 3:30 PM but had difficulty connecting. When we tried searching for an available network, we could see that they had one available in the 3^rd, 4^th, and 5^th floors but couldn’t connect to any.  We were given the passkey but still couldn’t connect. It just kept saying limited access. My husband and I had sufficient background on networking so we did the basic troubleshooting steps but we finally decided to call their front desk clerk at around 4:20 PM.  Their front desk, who didn’t really practice the usual courtesy of saying “Good Afternoon”, sounded bored and tired when she answered our call. Not that I really cared much about this but I was honestly expecting more from Alba Uno since this was a newer hotel. Anyways, we were told that we had to go to their website in order to go online which was what we did. Our room was located at the 4^th floor but we still couldn’t connect to the network on the same floor. We tried connecting to the network on the 3^rd floor and luckily, we were online.

View of the Standard Family Room

LCD TV and Personal Refrigerator

Most people may think that the internet is not that important since it’s just for social networking, but in my case it’s different. The internet is my bread and butter since I need it to complete my work. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my friend’s SmartBro plug-it so my situation was hopeless.  Around 10:00 PM, the internet was slow again and from there it kept getting disconnected every now and then. I was already getting annoyed, so I called their front desk clerk again and told her that I couldn’t connect to their network. I was told that they would just reset it and that the internet was usually slow during night time. I got pissed really.  I mean, why couldn’t they inform people that when they call and ask if they had internet or wifi available in the room? What would you do if you really need to be online because this is your bread and butter and it turned out that the room you’re in has really slow  or intermittent connection? You might just end up at a café nearby just to get connected to the internet.  This would be the best option if you don’t mind paying for it elsewhere.  If you’re wondering maybe they might just be having problems with their internet on that day, I can’t really tell. However, I know someone who also stayed in Alba Uno with some blogger friends and also experienced the same difficulty with the hotel’s wifi.

Bathroom Interior View

Shower View

Freebies!!!

There were two other unfavorable incidents that happened on this hotel. First, when checked-in the front desk personnel asked us if we would push through with the 6 rooms we reserved. We were surprised since we only reserved one Standard Family Room and not 6. So, we told the personnel this but she seemed not to listen since she still insisted that we reserved 6 rooms. It turned out that they mistaken me for someone else whose family name sounded like mine. Though, I wasn’t impressed by the personnel’s demeanor but I just let this one slide. The second incident was when we checked out. The front desk personnel, a guy, told us we will be charged for one bottle of mineral water since it was lacking from the fridge. We informed him that we didn’t get any and in fact, we showed him that we still had 1 liter of bottled mineral water that was unused and unopened. Again, they were mistaken since they checked a different room, not ours, that lacked the mineral water. I’ve stayed in different hotels before but I never experienced these before.

Let me just sum up what I’ve been rambling about from the start, the room we stayed in was great compared to other hotels here in Cebu. The drawbacks are their personnel and internet connection. I can’t really identify if their personnel some sort of training, you can decide on that. If going online is not of importance to you, then Alba Uno Residencia is your best bet since their rooms are indeed elegant and classy yet affordable.

Door

4th Floor Hallway