I don't write many reviews but after my stay at Fairways & Bluewater Boracay, I thought it necessary to give everyone a heads up. A good review would have saved me a lot of time, money and trouble.
In short, this resort has a lot of issues that it needs to work out before it can really consider itself a decent destination resort, even a 2-3 star location, but I will let you make your own decision.
Day one - The transfer service the Resort offered from the airport to the hotel was great and went without a hitch. No issues on check in, either. We took a shuttle to our room, an Island Premier, and this is when things started to go downhill. The room had numerous problems: the A/C remote wouldn't work and we couldn't turn the A/C system off or make any changes, the toilet had issues (wouldn't flush properly), and the sliding door leading to the balcony wouldn't lock. Not really a big deal overall, but our biggest issue was the fact that the Island Premier rooms were located in the middle of nowhere. You have to take a shuttle to get to breakfast, a shuttle to get to the beach, a shuttle to get to the gym, a shuttle to get to the main shopping area, etc... As these shuttles can be anywhere from 5 to 30 minutes, this got old quick. Between this and the problems with the room, we decided to ask to be moved to one of the rooms closer to either where all the restaurants (they have a few) and gym where located or closer to the beach, either or. We were told that this would be a "downgrade" and "we would not be reimbursed", I told them that wasn't a problem and my girlfriend and I just preferred to be able to walk where we needed to go and not have to rely on shuttles. The staff didn't address our concern until the next day, after two more requests. We were moved to a updated room closer to the main dining area.
Day two - At first we saw this as a positive development, problem fixed. Vacation can commence with all this behind us. Sadly, not even close. As I tried to connect to check my email I realized that there was no internet, when I asked the desk if there was an issue, I was told that there was no internet in any of the buildings. I asked if this was just today, they said "the problem is being worked on, but we don't know when it will be fixed." Not to keep you in suspense, the answer would be NEVER. While my irritation meter ticked up a notch, my girlfriend and I got over it, hey, we were here for the beach anyway. We took the shuttle to the private beach, went for a swim, waited about 30 minutes for a shuttle back (along with a family with a shivering 2 year old - it was raining and colder that day - the guard calling for the shuttle kept saying on the radio to hurry up and that a kid was freezing here. When the shuttle did show up, the driver apologized saying that most of them were tied up with the mall.) When we got back to our room, we discovered that our hot water didn't work. A cold shower, another notch in my irritation belt, and another call to the desk and this is when the passive aggressive attitude began. It became obvious to us that we were starting to be seen as problem guests. Damn those Americans and their desire for hot water and internet, who do they think they are!!!
Day three - Up and out for breakfast at around 9 AM, Fairways uses a buffet-style system. We chose a table, put our stuff down, and were surprised to find that the table had already been occupied... by a large cockroach walking through the salt and pepper shaker. This is about the time in which I reached my tolerance limit. My girl and I had already begun talking about moving to another hotel, but were on the fence as it would just be throwing away all we paid for this place. Roaches in the dining area were the last straw. I might have been more sympathetic if it was the only one that I saw, but it most certainly wasn't. If keeping a clean kitchen is beyond your capabilities, you are not ready for prime time. By the time we got back to the room, we found that the hot water was not working again (they had come to fix it earlier). I asked the housekeeper if she could do something and she showed us the breaker switch that controlled the water heater. It appears that the water heater needs more power than the room can provide and keeps tripping the breaker. My girl and I learned the art of taking showers in turns, one person watching the switch, flipping it back on two or three times, while the other showers. I am not sure if this is safe but damn us for liking our hot water.
Needless to say, we were done. We found another hotel and checked out the following morning. read more