Imperial Palace Suites

The room smelled awful, had bugs, and was missing lights. The towels were torn and not white. There was no hot water, and after 45 minutes I was still waiting for someone to come check it. They also tried to get us to sign for a bill that was wrong. The lobby is small and there's no bellman. Don't waste your time. You'd do better giving your money away.

(This review was written in 2015.) The reception staff were cheerful and professional, and the lobby gives a decent impression of class. There's a piano by the elevators that guests can play, and it was in tune when I checked. The attached Starbucks is a letdown for jet-lagged travelers, though, since it opens later than most would like. The rooms surprised me with how large they were, about the size of many suites, with a love seat and a fairly comfortable easy chair. There's a heated carafe for morning coffee, but coffee, creamer and sugar may be missing. The big-screen TV works, though the reception isn't great, and each room has a private balcony. At around $65/night American, the balcony sounds like a nice feature, but its floor was black with some unpleasant substance that tracked inside on shoes. Getting out there was hard too. The sliding door grinds instead of sliding, and it took effort for me to open; my wife couldn't manage it at all. The bathroom was small but adequately supplied, clean and mostly new. Still, the shower leaked and left shallow puddles on the floor. One flooded around the toilet and sent my toilet paper roll off its inadequate perch and into the water when I tried to unwind some tissue. At least the paper was absorbent. Housekeeping fell short in other ways over time. The floor was grimy in spots, the room needed sweeping, and we had no coffee supplies, stirrers, napkins, or clean drinking glasses, only a few dirty ones. A receptionist told me the two male housekeepers I'd met, who were polite and apologetic, were the entire housekeeping staff. The hotel has a pool, though it's not discussed much. It's small and amoeboid-shaped, nicely landscaped, with a waterfall on one side, but so filthy I could only see halfway down. We didn't see anyone swimming. The rooftop view is one of the best I've seen of Metro Manila, but the tiny restaurant and bar up there seemed never to open, so bring a picnic if you might get hungry or thirsty. The elevators are a different story. Most of the hotel looks recently refurbished, but the elevators seem like 80-year-old rust buckets, as if the original planners took them from a nearby demolition site. On the way to a room near the top of the eleven-story building, you might say a prayer or two. The Imperial Palace has potential: the rooms are big and nice, with a fine view of Manila. With better management and a housekeeping staff about 20 times its current size, it could turn around overnight. As things stand, for a stay longer than one night I'd bring cleaning supplies, extra pillows, and my own toiletries, especially tissue, and wouldn't count on housekeeping. Those few men are doing their best, but it's simply too much work for so few people.

The rooms are large, with a full-sized living area, so there's plenty of space to work if you're here on business. It's a great place to stay in the Timog area. At this three-star rating, though, you'll need to buy your food outside the hotel.

The room was old and badly in need of maintenance, and it was expensive for what we got. The wifi was down for two days, hot water didn't work, and the toilet tank wouldn't fill, so we had to pour water in. The flush didn't work either. The towels were old and no longer white. We weren't happy with the stay, especially since they charged us for a blood stain. That's hard to avoid, and if period stains on the bed aren't allowed, they should tell guests. For what we paid, we could've stayed in a nice hotel. This was an expensive, ugly room and not worth it.