Thursday, July 11, 2013

ChilLine T House in Tagaytay.

Honestly, I tossed a coin to see what I would blog about first, the beauty of ChilLine's T house or the bad side? Unfortunately, heads meant bad, so here goes. 

It was a weekend that my gang and I were looking forward to. We were so excited that we planned everything a month before the date. We had Fifi as the "Chef", Windie as our "Donor" as it is part of her birthday celebration. The Dizon's were in charge of the transportation and the rest brought junk food, drinks and entertainment. 

The place is not very hard to find. We made one mistake but it wasn't too late until we figured it out. I didn't notice the travel time because I was hooked on New Girl which was playing on my iPad. 
(LOVE THAT SHOW)

The entrance looked promising. We entered the house and saw a staircase going down to the sala. At this point, we were still ecstatic at the beauty of the house. (More on the good part of the house in my next post.)

Like children, we ran into every room so we can call dibs on where we want to stay the night.  To tell you truthfully, we looked like headless chickens running around the place because we couldn't decide where we wanted to stay...not because all the rooms were beautiful but because they were all pretty bad. 

Let me introduce to you the Master's Bedroom. It has a HUGE view of the lake, a king size bed, a Lazy Boy, an indoor jacuzzi and a very spacious shower that's separate from the toilet (I love it when they are in separate rooms).

First thing we noticed was the smell of mold. As you may all know, wood and Tagaytay weather isn't really a perfect marriage. Much like mine, in which case, I am Tagaytay and my ex is the mold. 

This was the bedroom of Dr. Windie Hayano and Dorothy Neri.

Am I too snobby when I say that the bedsheets aren't fixed well? Call it my pet peeve when the bed is not well made. Ask my daughter, Jacqueline, who gets it from me when she doesn't flatten the sheets.

At the elevated area is where the dirty, dried up, bordering gross of a jacuzzi that has insect eggs and poo inside it. And yes, to the side of the cabinets is a filthy mattress just sitting there (this is for those who need an extra bed in the rooms). My vivid imagination just went wild on how much bedbugs it must have growing inside of it. 




The bathroom is most important to me. Chuvaness and I have that in common. It is the first thing to be checked out and this one absolutely failed. The grime made me vomit inside my mouth. I just had to swallow it again because I didn't want to wash up in the shower. 


I noticed the wood all bashed and messed up. 


It gets worse.... 
Let's go to bedroom number 2. 
 Mitzi Pangilinan-De Guzman, Mary Ann Olayvar and Jeff Wong stayed here. 

I went straight to the bathroom because I wanted to know if there's a safe one for me to use. 

When I left the bedroom, I felt despair. 



Because the 2 rooms were already taken by the others, I rushed downstairs to check out bedroom #3. It's Lucille and Janina's lair. The shower is spacious but obviously still grimy. 

In the room, there was a Lazy Boy that is too gross to sit on. I mean, really, this thing should be thrown out already. 

And finally, welcome to my room that I shared with Ginny and Anne. First stop, the toilet. I think we had it worst. The shower curtain was slimy. 


The worst part of it all, the house did NOT have water (except for Janina and Lucille's room, since it was on a lower floor and the pressure was enough for a shower) BUT in the other rooms, we had to take a bath TABO style!!! OMG. This is 2013!!! 
(Notice that I am typing this in BOLD letters.)

The only way that I was able to shower that evening was by getting PISSED DRUNK!! So drunk that I couldn't care less if I swallow an insect from our outdoor drinking session. 

When I got in the bathroom, low and behold, we had water in a TIMBA with a TABO inside. 
But wait.......what is that I see??? It's not Orocan, it's a BOYSEN paint plastic container. 
(Boysen would like this. In a way, I am plugging their brand.)

But really, seriously? 

I threw up. Seriously. It's partially the vodka and the dirt in the bathroom. But I thank the Raspberry Vodka and Sprite because it is what made me gain courage to wash up.

So anyway, on our way up to Tagaytay, Janina mentioned to us that she was told by the person in charge that there's an outdoor tub. We all got excited. The thought of the cold night time weather of the city and a tub under the stars was pretty exciting. 

When we got there, this is what we saw. 

No water. How can you even brag about having an outdoor tub when the guests can't use it? 

Never mind, since the showers in the bathrooms do not have water, we can probably use the poolside shower..........but how can you, when it looks like this?? What's worse? No water came out. Sigh..... Gretchen B. would not approve.


Now, please don't judge me and call me snooty. I can be a cowgirl. I can hack the timba and tabo system.  I can even sleep on the floor, as long as it is clean BUT......

yes BUT....

When the rental fee is P33,000 for one night, you expect it to be sparkling clean. Instead we all cringed at how expensive it is especially when the house does not give you hot/cold water in your shower, when the outdoor tub (the one that's bragged about) is not working and when there are dead insects and insect poo all over the place. There were no complimentary shampoo and conditioner, no towels, no bottled water in the rooms (am I asking for too much?) There was however one Safeguard sachet in each sink. The place mats used for our meals were old and seemed dirty. When we swam in the pool, Janina and I cut our feet from something sharp inside the water. My toe has a booboo and when there's blood, it becomes really really bad. 

It is WAY TOO SAD because the house is GORGEOUS!! It's beautiful and I can just imagine it when it was new. The view is outstanding and the lay out of the rooms, the structure, the build, the design...EVERYTHING is awesome....except for the extremely poor maintenance. In fact, it doesn't seem to have been maintained at all. 

If not for the wonderful company and the birthday treat of Windie, we would have all just gone back to Manila. 

I seriously want to go back and rent it again in the future but only when and if they refurbish, retile, redo the warped wooden floors and replace all the screens which have so much holes in them (thus the insects inside the house). I wish that ChilLine T's management would realize that cleanliness is next to Godliness. 

Charging P33,000/night with the present condition of the place is bordering cheating. 

Do not recommend this place for now. The outdoors is a different story. Aside from the tub, the poolside and the garden made me temporarily forget how bad it was inside the house. 

On my next post, I will blog on the good part of the ChilLine T house because in all things, there's always a positive side, like my ex-husband, at least he gave me 2 beautiful daughters. Yun lang. 

31 comments:

Me said...

please upload these pics to Trip Advisor so people will know!! especially foreigners!!

Anonymous said...

33,000 effing pesos for that filthy house!?!?!? No way!!! Glad you blogged this!! Guys beware!!!

Anonymous said...

Did you research about the house before making your reservations?

Razielle said...

My friend rented a house in Tagaytay for P27k for one full week. The house wasn't huge but it had 3 bedrooms and the toilet (the one I got to use when I visited her) wasn't grimy. I can't remember the name of the place now but it's near People's park. If I remember the name of the place, I'll leave another comment so you can maybe google the place and see if it's something you can stay in :)

mike said...

O-M-G. just looking at the pictures, i have a sudden urge to take a quick bath just to cleanse myself.

Candy B. Dizon said...

Yes, we researched. When you go to their website, the photos are all beautiful.

JJ said...

The Philippines unfortunately gets away with BERRY high fees for "hospitality" for BERRY crap places to stay. Its the reverse of Bangkok where there's so much to choose from that businesses go low on prices for really amazing digs. JJ Wanderlister.com

yadiyadayada said...

Candy,

We had the same gory experience. My family rented the same house, having been misled by the website. We just didn't have a choice as it was New Year's eve and we can't transfer anywhere - all the 26 of us.
I wonder what they do with the steep rental fee? We rented the house 5 years ago it was already really bad, it is probably at its worst now. The mattresses are still the same, really eeeew!

Anonymous said...

sa totoo lang parang yung mga tulad ng mga Wrong Turn movie or House of Wax mga ganyanan! nakakatakot seriously parang may biglang mangunguha sayo na nagtatago sa ilalim ng kama habang tulog ka! katakoooot!!

isateresa said...

I recommend you put the link of your blog in TripAdvisor. They have been getting good reviews and after seeing your post I don't understand why. My boyfriend and I ditched an overnight with friend in T house a few months ago and after reading this, I'm so glad we did!

Anyway, here's the link:

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g317121-d1048736-Reviews-T_House_Tagaytay-Tagaytay_Calabarzon_Region_Luzon.html

Anonymous said...

"low and behold" indeed. ;)

Anonymous said...

Omg i have to tell my friend about this.they booked this place for their wedding on sept!!

Anonymous said...

Upon arrival and seeing these bleak conditions, you should've already left and asked for a full refund, if you already paid. This is blatant misrepresentation and merits a formal complaint. It goes beyond aesthetics eh -- those grimy and infested corners pose health corners.

Pauline Torralba said...

hi...please write the owner and demand a refund. If not full, maybe half. This is not how business should be done. 33,000 worth of grossness. :(

leilani said...

you should ask for a full refund...in no way should you have used this place....aaarrrggghhhh....grabe...mga magnanakaw.

Anonymous said...

Would just like to ask. How come you guys didn't back out. With 33,000 you couldve booked another house or multiple rooms.

Anonymous said...

@isateresa:

I think Chilline's T House and T House Tagaytay are two different places.

http://www.chilline.com/tagaytay.html

VS

http://thousetagaytay.com/

It's just too bad that the better one might get a bad rep because of its namesake.

Candy B. Dizon said...

They require the full amount to be paid before the actual date of stay.

Anonymous said...

Thank God I did an ocular first before reserving the place. They kept telling me that Piolo and KC actually stayed in the house for a night, and even bragged in which room they stayed and I thought, huh? So what?! The place was really poorly maintained, it was nothing compared to "Balai Taal" which offers the same price yet their facilities are so well kept.

Anonymous said...

Stayed there during a friend's wedding and did the same thing. Had to be borderline comatose drunk before i take a shower. The room where the lazyboy is? The shower area there had a sliding door that got dislodged and had to be lifted by a guy friend so i could get out. And yeah no water at that too. That outside tub didnt work either. The views are gorgeous yes, but it's the comforts that make you stay and want to come back. Total rip-off - go somewhere else instead.

Anonymous said...

Also got completely suckered and felt incredibly underwhelmed at the site of the house. The was evening was only bearable as the darkness and dim lighting of the place concealed the horrors of the house left to rot. Certainly the price they charge is highway robbery for a dilapidated mess. In addition the person who was in charge of the booking was an idiot at best, and unbelievably rude calling my bf an 'asshole' via text then denied it.

Truly such a shame--and I echo the same sentiments someone had commented a bit back about how beautiful the house must have been back in the day. Depressing to see that it isn't being cared for.

The house was only tolerable because we had a wonderful group of friends, and lots of booze in order to drive our attention away from the obvious damage the house has weathered over the years. Apart from that, the lack of a functional hot tub and sauna which the website boasts was sadly disappointing.

I also must add that during our stay, and though we rented the house with a shocking 33,000 php tag--meaning that the joint was ours until we checked out--let other people come in to view the house while we are asleep.

Anonymous said...

To add during our stay in May 2013, my friend's toe was also cut in the pool and bled a hefty bit.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ms Candy,

I like how you did the review. I can tell you are a nice (and funny) person. :)

Anonymous said...

Oh no, I feel bad for the house. The photos all over the net show that it's a beautifully made house--it's heartbreaking to see it like this :(

I can tell that aside from sloppy maintenance, it also has been trashed by previous guests perhaps from a party? Just a hunch though haha

stacy | Traveltripsters.com said...

We had the same disappointment. But, have to admit the place is photogenic. I even got blisters from the cracks of the pool tiles but the looks beautiful when photographed >.< http://www.traveltripsters.com/2012/12/chilline-t-house-in-tagaytay-city.html

The Travel Archives said...

did you/your friend do an ocular before paying 33k? it's not advisable to entrust that big an amount for something we can't be sure of (especially 33k). lots of resorts look rosy online, but look like trash in reality. :/

Candy B. Dizon said...

No we didn't do an ocular. We trusted the website too much. Big mistake.

Unknown said...

Do you have any updates with ChiLine T?
I hope their fixing the place. and I was planning to celebrate my birthday there blah.

Unknown said...

Did they fix/renovate the place, any new news before I decide. thanks.

Mayenne said...

We booked chi line T for dec 26 to dec 28, 2013. Paid in advance and the biggest mistake we ever did. It was suppose to be a great family vacation with our 83 year old mother and visiting brother with his family. Needless to say we left the place the following day. It's a dump, the refrigerator , the oven were not working. When we booked it September they said hey were going to refurbish it. They never did. Everything is still the same way as the pictures in this blog. We shoukd have looked on this blog or should have done an ocular. They are not very nice people.

Candy B. Dizon said...

Thank you Mayenne! Did you take photos?

There goes your answer James.