Some Guests React To Siquijor Luxury Resort Booking Process, Extremely Limited Access
A Siquijor luxury resort earned criticisms from some guests over alleged “fixers” in the booking process and “scripted moves” or very limited access for guests.
The Philippines is gifted with lots of beautiful tourist spots from pristine beaches embellished with white sands which are mostly found in the Visayas region to vibrant coral reefs and majestic mountains and falls. In the recent years, one the provinces with a very booming tourism is Siquijor.
The Province of Siquijor is an island province which is known as the third smallest province in the Philippines in terms of land area and population. It is located south of Cebu, north of Mindanao, southeast of Negros Oriental, and southwest of Bohol. Its tourism boasts with a jam-packed offer for adventurers — mountain tops, serene beaches, amazing cliffs, and the popular waterfalls.
Siquijor is now definitely a dream destination of countless Filipinos from across the nation. Along with the rapid growth of its tourism, the number of resorts and restaurants in the province also multiplied.
Undeniably, there are several popular spots in Siquijor now — the Cambugahay Falls which many people want to visit for the “Fairy Walk”, the Pitogo Cliff, the Salagdoong Beach, the Sambulawan Underground River, and the Kawayan Holiday Resort (in the photo above) among others. However, on social media, the Kawayan Holiday Resort recently earned negative feedbacks from some netizens.
The Kawayan Holiday Resort is a luxury resort in Siquijor that is most popular for its spectacular cliff views — not to mention the black grill gate that many travel junkies dream of “opening” for an experience. Undeniably, this luxury resort that offers accommodations as well as a paid entrance for guests who just wants to see the beautiful cliff sights has one of the best that nature can offer. However, the alleged ill practice in the booking process has disappointed guests.
On social media, a netizen behind the Facebook user account Grasya Gree claimed that there were allegedly “fixers” in the booking for entry to the said Siquijor luxury resort. Thus, not everyone can easily enter it. The tour guides allegedly have to come very early, as early as 1:00 a.m., so they can book for their guests while the “fixers” can do things with no sweats at all.
The netizen claimed that she was able to confirm the presence of “fixers” in the booking for entrance to the said Siquijor luxury resort when she stayed at a store near the entrance of the resort. According to her, the guests who are on a DIY or Do-It-Yourself traveling were asked to pay big so they can enter the resort — as big as supposedly P1,000 for two (2) persons’ entrance.
The netizen raised a question on why can’t Kawayan Holiday Resort just implement the “first come, first serve” basis in the entrance to the place. She also stated that it is very unfair on the part of the tour guides who had to wake up early for the booking despite that they have to lead the travel of their guests after it. Here’s the post on the Facebook page Siquijor DIY Travel Tour.
In the comment section of the post, several other netizens suggested to netizen Grasya Gree to visit other resorts, instead. There were also several other netizens who shared their sentiments following a visit to the popular Siquijor luxury resort:
Aside from the alleged “fixers”, there were also complaints about the “scripted moves” or very limited access provided for guests who have actually paid for their entrance to the resort.
Those guests who paid for entrance to have some photo and video sessions cannot freely go around the area. You can just go down the popular staircase while having the photo or video shots and then return immediately. The resort management also puts a time limit as to how long a guest or a group of travelers can stay for snaps.