Thunderbird Resorts - Rizal

Beautiful hotel in Rizal. Clean and friendly staff. Breakfast gets delivered to your door. The hot water is extremely hot. The resort has a beautiful view.

Receptionist was very unfriendly and acted as if she was doing us a favour by speaking to us - couldn’t care less. This is the opposite to my other experiences in the Philippines. The room was nice but the view was the ****** end wall - horrible. Breakfast was very poor - in room on bed (only 1 chair in room) or in the ******. Very limited choice for breakfast like bacon or corned beef with rice or toast (not both). Coffee was very poor and you could only have coffee OR fruit juice, not both Checked Olives restaurant for dinner - nobody in the restaurant except staff. Meals were very expensive - so we left and ordered a meal from room service. In the room only 2 coffee sachets for 2 people. No hand towels and very few TV channels. ****** looks old and tired. The food available was the same as the room service menu which was quite limited. Resort is mostly run down and closed for maintenance. The only pool available closes at 6pm!! The other one is empty with tarp sheeting around it, which looks like it has been there for a long time with no work being done. No info on shuttle bus departure point so we missed the bus and security couldn’t help us. He phoned reception and they told him that there was no 6pm bus - but I think it left from the ******! The return from SM Angono was advertised on the leaflet to be at 8.30pm but my partner phoned to check and it was actually going to leave at 8pm. So we would have missed it and the next one was at 10pm. Why is it advertised on the sheet (in extremely small print, like size 6) at the wrong time? I am sure it was probably a great resort years ago - now, it is maybe ok as a Bed and Breakfast room, if you are not looking for a room with a view or a decent breakfast. We came from Scotland and stayed here on a recommendation from a local from Angono who uses the Golf Course nearby. We have updated him on our experience so that he will not recommend it again. It must be difficult to update and maintain such a large complex. However, if you don’t give a good experience to the few guests that you have then the business will not grow to allow for further improvements. Customer service needs a total review and retraining required. Views can be improved with gardens and the horrible walls could have murals on them to take away the look of a run down building. The resort has great potential- but management and staff need to care and they need to make guests feel special during their stay - not an inconvenience. We went to speak to a receptionist at 6pm after missing the shuttle but there was nobody on duty - they were on a break somewhere?? I feel the company needs to decide what to focus on for their business. Is it the rundown ******, good golf course or resort complex (accommodation, restaurant and pool). I will not return unless all these things change.

All the staff were courteous. The room I got at the villa was spacious & very comfortable. Loved the huge pool. The breakfast buffet was excellent but it would be nice to have a couple more dishes to choose.