Shangri-la the Fort BGC Christmas Staycation during COVID Honest Review
December 29, 2021
Shangrila had this really nice 50% off promo if you use your Golden Circle points to book. Since I have a plethora of points and really, nowhere to go, I decided to book Shangri-la the Fort for a Christmas staycation.
Booking was relatively seamless. I booked through the website, but hit a snag when I wanted to book a 2nd room as the website wouldn’t allow me to book 2 rooms under one name. A bit ridiculous, I’ve never had this issue before. Luckily, this was easily resolved by the Golden Circle customer representative.
A couple of days before our stay (December 25), I received an email from Shangri-la detailing out all the initiatives they were undertaking to ensure the safety and good health of their guests. The email was ridiculously long, but to summarize –
1) Fill up the google form beforehand with all the guest details
2) Download the StaySafe app and register beforehand (they didn’t ask for this though when I checked in)
3) Only the pool, gym and select restaurants are open. Also note – pool and gym needs to be booked in advance as there’s limited capacity
4) Respond to the email with guest names
You can check in at 2PM, but we arrived at 3PM. Good thing too because apparently, the check in queue at 2PM was ridiculously long.
Upon entry, I waited a bit at the check in counter, only to be told that they were only accommodating check outs. Instead, I was ushered to the 4th floor which was where the check in was temporarily during the times when check in and check out coincided. I would have appreciated them informing me this IN THE EMAIL. But props to their staff for recognizing I was a guest who was planning to check in and approaching me relatively quickly.
Upon check in, they requested for the IDs of the guests as well as their vaccination cards. If you don’t have the physical copies, you can email it to them instead. They xerox the IDs and have you fill up a form with your pertinent personal information details. Afterwards, check in was relatively smooth.
Assessment: I liked the fact that only I had to go through the check in process. My family just waited at the lobby. Having said that, from a safety protocols, it certainly doesn’t give me confidence that they had a good handle on their guests. This is slightly worrisome as Shangri-la was also serving as a quarantine hotel at this time.. Still, the staff were all very accommodating
The only security feature was pretty standard. No hotel room key, no way to go up to the room floors. Supposedly, for the quarantined customers, they’re locked into their rooms (no hotel key for them) and their are guards posted on those floors. So fine. But do they use the same elevators as us to go up to their rooms? Food for thought.
Rooms-wise, they gave us our requested handicapped room, which was very helpful for my grandparents as there was a lot more support in the shower that they can hold on to. My favorite feature was really their shower. High pressure, hot water, so so nice.
The view was good too – we were staying on the 32nd floor and had a bird’s eye view of High Street and even Laguna Bay and the Angono Windmills. Cool right?
Everything else was just okay though. The beds and pillows were way too soft. I requested for firmer pillows but they didn’t have! I missed Conrad suddenly. I felt their cost cutting too. In the past, the bathtub would have accompanying bath salts and loofah. Now you have to request for it!
And even the complimentary fruits – we had to request 🙁 (although they did give complimentary Christmas mugs – cute).
The Shangri-la Experience app is also really baffling to use. I couldn’t figure out how to book anything on it, so I ended up just calling operator service. Very bad UX.
As for the pool and gym, we were all too lazy to gym but I booked the pool for 7:15am, thinking there would be less people then and hopefully no sun yet. They aren’t strict at all. When I got there, they asked for the room number and number of people, but they didn’t check a list or anything. Also, our time was up at 8:15 but they allowed us to continue swimming. I suspect it was also because there were very few people, so maybe they’re more strict if there were more people.
The pool itself was okay. 4 feet, and 25 meters, I think. There’s one lane cordoned off for lap swimming, but everything else is for fun and leisure. The water was incredibly clear, and I liked that the chlorine wasn’t too overolpowering. At around 8:30am, the sun peeked out though then it became quite hot. So that was that.
Other activities we did while there was essentially eat – at both Canton Road and Samba. You can check out my blog posts on that experience here:
But aside from that, you can walk along High Street. It’s quite nice at night, all lit up with lots of Christmas decors. Plus, there was a plant market! Very cute. Very crowded too though, so best avoid if you’re leery of too much exposure to people.
Overall – this was a decent experience especially because it was essentially “free” since I used my points. If I had to pay for this, I wouldn’t. Honestly, I think 5-star hotels are largely overrated. Rooms and facilities are usually quite similar to other hotels. Service typically better with 5-star hotels though, so that’s a factor. Plus the loyalty program is always a nice additional perk, especially when I have lounge benefits. Having said that, during this pandemic period, I think still a lot safer to just rent out a house where it’s just you and your family so you can limit contact with others.