PROXY by The Oriental Albay

The only good thing was that they let us cut our stay short and refunded the unused nights. The staff themselves were nice, but they couldn't fix the problems with the place. I booked through Agoda without first checking reviews or social media, which was a huge mistake. The room was spacious but mostly empty, with very little furniture. The design was awful, the walls were badly painted, and paint was splattered across an already dirty floor. It smelled so bad that sleeping there felt disgusting. The TV was tiny, but worse, its recent activity showed porn sites and explicit videos. Seeing that made it hard to feel comfortable in the bed. The pool looks good in photos, but it's outside right beside a canal that smells terrible, ruining the experience. The hotel is next to that canal too. The photos are misleading, and what we found was nothing like the advertising. Avoid it.

We should've gone to McDonald's instead, hehe. We barely finished eating because the long wait killed our appetite, and the food wasn't good. It was honestly the funniest buffet experience I've had, but also very disappointing. Although we'd reserved, we still queued for a long time after arriving around 7 pm for a buffet running 6 to 10. We got into the hall around 7:30, then waited another 10-15 minutes for a table. By then most dishes were gone. My husband joked it looked more like a “fiestahan” than a proper buffet. The spread wasn't presentable, the food was just so-so and much of it tasted the same. There were no vegetables or fruit to be seen. Maybe there had been some earlier, but by 8 pm nearly everything was empty. Refills took ages, and some dishes never returned, even though service was meant to continue until 10. They seemed to have no proper control over guest numbers, especially compared with other Legazpi hotels offering similar Valentine's buffets. They should've planned ahead instead of focusing only on marketing.

We waited two hours, then were told to accept one room with a queen bed while the other two rooms still had twin beds. That wasn't what we'd booked or requested. When making the booking for all three rooms, I had specifically noted that we needed the beds arranged without twin singles and clearly wrote DO NOT give us twin single beds. The staff were rude, dismissive, and unprofessional. I stayed polite throughout and wasn't being demanding, but they showed no willingness to help and gave off really bad energy. I can't imagine that attitude working in hospitality. It ruined our stay. This was the worst customer service I've encountered, and I won't recommend the hotel.

The bathroom water was maddening to adjust. It would suddenly turn scalding hot, then very cold. Breakfast was supposed to start at 6:00 AM, but nothing was ready then. Once we finally got food, my husband waited 25 minutes for one egg, and only one egg per person was allowed. The lobby also smelled unpleasant, almost like cat urine. The room was just okay, with an uncomfortable bed and no cabinets or proper place for toiletries. The towel was brown rather than the usual clean white, which didn't feel hygienic. Our stay at Proxy Oriental was disappointing, and the hotel needs to improve comfort, cleanliness, and service before I'd recommend it.