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.

Rooms in new wing are more modern. Very good shower and water pressure with easy to calibrate hot-n-cold system. We stayed in a Family Room with huge space and big bathroom. We had 2 double beds (not 1 queen and double as advertised) but they were very comfortable with soft beddings and pillows of good support. Our balcony was furnished with a pair of chairs and table but I heard not all rooms had them. Room was equipped with smart TV and Cignal cable although setting it up is complicated. WiFi is good. And resort staff are responsive and rectify issues within 15mins or less. Closet also already had extra pillows and adequate wooden hangers for clothes. The swimming pool in the new wing is BIG with a smaller kiddie pool at the end. There are ample cabanas and tables and showers are conveniently located on either end of the deck. Lifeguard and other staff are attentive. AREAS FOR IMPROVEMENT: Room towels are already GRAYISH and they don't equip rooms with hand towels. I had to requestfor them and the ones they provided were BADLY IN NEED OF REPLACEMENT.. Also not enough towel racks and hanging pegs in the toilet. Shower shelf looked as if it was about to fall off. There are no handrails in shower stall and near toilet seat for better accessibility. Toilet paper is only 1 ply (note room price is Php8000 A NIGHT). Our room was spacious but furnishings were sparse. For such a big room, an extra bench and desk chair would've been nice. Also the room key slot no longer works to automatically switch off room electricity so we had to switch lamps, TV, etc off 1 by 1. Also no centralised switches near the beds for easier access before sleeping. No room slippers or bathrobes provided. Swimming pool already shows signs of algae and foot ladder steps are too small to hold adult feet wc means you have no choice but to exit using the steps at the near end of the pool. Food is also quite expensive for ordinary fare although tasty. If you order from the pool, food takes a longer time to come as there are 2 different restaurants serving the resort. The impression we got is that management seems to have decided to go budget on some items (toilet paper, pool maintenance, room furnishings, towels) while investing in others (shower pressure, beddings, etc), leading to an INCONSISTENT EXPERIENCE in the overall stay of guests.

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 casino end wall - horrible. Breakfast was very poor - in room on bed (only 1 chair in room) or in the casino. 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. Casino 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 Casino! 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 casino, good golf course or resort complex (accommodation, restaurant and pool). I will not return unless all these things change.