South Palms Resort and Spa Panglao - MGallery Collection hotel in the Philippines captures the spirit of tropical island beauty. Set on a pristine private beach, our luxury hotel on Panglao Island in Bohol combines boutique elegance with more sustainable initiatives. Enjoy farm-to-table dining, sensory spa treatments and cultural experiences rooted in Boholano traditions. With its tranquil natural setting, lower-impact ethos and personalised service, it's an immersive retreat for meaningful escapes.
"The hotel room was beautifully designed and the bed was super comfortable. The bathroom area was spacious and I liked that the toilet was in a separate space.
We had breakfast and lunch at Restaurant Uma, and both the food and service there were good. The irony is that this is the only place where we received good service at the hotel.
From check-in, my name was repeatedly addressed incorrectly as 'Mr' instead of 'Ms', both verbally by staff and in emails and greetjng cards. Despite pointing this out to the manager on Day 2, I was still addressed as 'Mr' during check out on Day 3. This was very annoying and showed a lack of attention to detail.
We also noticed that some guests were served welcome drinks while others were not, which appeared quite selective. Our room was also missing the beach bag, although the staff sent one over immediately after I pointed this out.
What truly disappointed us was that on Day 1, when we returned to our room after dinner, we found that our room door had been left open by the turndown service staff. All our valuables and travel documents were inside the room. The hotel checked the CCTV and insisted that this was an “isolated case.” However, we have still not received any written incident report or follow-up email regarding what happened. Leaving a guest room unsecured after turndown service is a serious operational failure.
When we raised the issue with the manager, the hotel offered complimentary spa treatments and a bottle of wine as a gesture of goodwill. However, it was offered too late and we did not have time to use the spa, and we could not drink the wine. Given the seriousness of the incident, these gestures felt rather disconnected from the actual issue and did little to address our concerns. What we would have expected was a proper explanation, written follow-up and a meaningful response to the security lapse.
In addition, we booked a direct pool access room specifically to enjoy the convenience and privacy of having our own pool. However, during the day, I noticed that a staff member repeatedly entered our semi-private pool area for different tasks, including picking up leaves and flowers, testing the water quality and cleaning the pool. We had virtually no privacy while we were in the room, as he kept returning to carry out these tasks. In the end, I had to ask him to leave when he appeared for the 4th time!
This is a beautiful resort, but the service is severly lacking. Unfortunately, the overall experience was definitely not up to the standards I would expect from an Accor property."