Place: Tans Guesthouse (Namaste) at Boracay, Aklan

There must be literally hundreds of reviews about Tans Guesthouse in Boracay, whether in blogs, forums and review sites. I guess, one more wouldn't hurt.

Photo taken from TripAdvisor

When you're looking for cheap Boracay accommodation, Tans Guesthouse would always be among the first recommended establishments. Previous guests rave about their rates, rooms and friendly staff. But initially, I wasn't so keen on booking with Tans. Our first visit to Boracay coincided with the Chinese New Year (Feb 3) and when I checked Tans website, I saw that the room rates around this season go as high as P2500 for a standard room. So I set my eyes on another cheap alternative, Island Nook.

But as fate would have it, one forum member posted that Tans quoted her P1,500/night for their stay on the second week of February. I wondered if I can get the same price given our booking dates are only a few days apart. It was then I decided to inquire.


Booking

There are three options to get in touch with Tans: via their email address, cellphone number and YM ID, all of which are posted on their website. I sent an email first, inquiring about room availability and rates. After a few days without a reply, I decided to send them an SMS. Someone responded right away. She asked for my email address where they can send the quotation. I received it a day later. And lo, I was also quoted a room on Feb 2-5 for P1,500/night.

I was already corresponding with someone from Island Nook and all I needed to do was deposit the 50% down-payment to finalize the booking. But I switched gears on the last minute and thought that Tans would be a better deal since it's closer to the beach and the quoted room rate was P200 cheaper. Island Nook then was giving me a room on the same dates for P1,700.

Included in the quotation email was the instruction on how to book a reservation (by deposting 50% of the quoted amount to the bank account, also given in the email, and sending the proof of the deposit via fax or email). I did that within the week--made the deposit, sent a photo of the deposit slip and informed them about it, both via email and SMS. Someone replied to me and said that my confirmation receipt will be sent soon. But it took days, and a couple of follow-ups before it was finally delivered to my inbox.

The room that was given to us was Room 2. Upon checking on their gallery, the room looks nice although I feel it's a bit cramped. So again, prompted by a forum post that said it's possible to ask for a room upgrade, I contacted Tans via chat this time and made my inquiries. Yes, room upgrade is possible and our room was instantly changed from Room 2 to Namaste F1 according to the person I was chatting with. I asked if it's possible to send a new confirmation as proof of the upgrade. I was told it will be sent in a few days, but it never came.

A few weeks before the trip, I chatted with the same person again and confirmed the upgrade. She said yes and that it was already logged in their system. Once more, I asked for the new confirmation letter and got the same answer. It will be sent, but I received none. So a few days before we left for Aklan, I decided to call to confirm again (di naman ako makulit no?). For the third time, they told me, yes we were transferred from Room 2 to Namaste. I didn't request to be sent a new confirmation letter anymore.

I was contemplating to extend our stay in Tans for one more night but they told me that they are fully-booked for the weekend. If we want to stay longer, we will have to transfer to another room. I wasn't really sure if we'll stay for one more night. It was just a thought, a 'what if' [we had a grand time and wanted to extend our time in beach] thought--a premonition perhaps of how I will feel about Boracay. So I figured I'll just settle it once we're there already.

Overall, I had a pleasant experience dealing with Tans reservation. I got a bit confused at first because the person I was sending SMS to was not the same person I was chatting with. But everything turned out well in the end. We got Namaste F2, which was like a twin of F1 and I was more than happy because they didn't charge us additional pay for the upgrade.


Accommodation

We arrived in Boracay at 10 a.m. of February 2. I was given an instruction through SMS on how to find Tans Guesthouse. It was simple and easy to follow:

Alight in D'Mall. Walk towards the beach front. Facing the beach, go towards the left and look for Shenna's Resort. Beside Shenna's Resort is E.S. Pascual store. Enter the alley beside the store.

Tans Guesthouse is second to the last building in that alley. I saw Ms. Jeanette on the reception booth and made my introductions. I asked if an early check-in is possible (check-in time is 2:00 p.m.). It would have been ok if only our room was already vacant. So we just deposited our luggage to them and decided to have lunch and stroll along the beach until our room is ready.

We went back a few minutes after 2:00 p.m., our feet and legs spent and tired from walking. Ms. Jeanette asked someone to accompany us to our room. She said it was at the beachfront and I wondered which alley would take us there. But when the staff led us to what seemed like a narrow, dingy space between Island Souvenir and another building (it was Sea World I think), I was a bit apprehensive. It turned out our room was behind the Island Souvenir store. And honestly, the way to get there wasn't appealing.

But when the staff opened the door, we were welcomed by a pleasant surprise. Namaste F2 is spacious, with 1 queen-sized bed and 1 single bed on the left side. Opposite the beds are the closet (with enough cloth hangers inside) and a cable TV. On the right side of the door is where you'll find a small dining table, sink, a personal ref and the bathroom. The bathroom is spacious, too with a hot and cold shower, bath tub, toilet and vanity area. The walls looked like they were newly painted and the whole room looked and smelled clean as well. For P1,500/night, on what other hotels deemed to be a super-peak season (because of the Chinese New Year), it was truly a great deal.

However, (won't it be nicer if everything was perfect?) I wasn't able to connect to their Wi-Fi. They gave me two passwords but none worked. But I wondered if it was their Wi-Fi or my laptop that's having a problem because when I got home and tried to connect to our Wi-Fi, I was also getting errors.


Breakfast Buffet

Included in the room amenities is a free breakfast buffet for 2 guests. Breakfast is served from 7 a.m to 10 a.m. at the rooftop of the Tans Guesthouse. We were given a green stub that will serve as our meal ticket during our stay. I didn't know what to do with it when we first came for breakfast, and since Ms. Jeanette was there, I thought it's ok to start filling our plates with food. Then a group came in and I saw one of them showed the green stub to one of the servers. Nobody checked ours anyway, so we proceeded to eat our breakfast. But the next day, I did what I saw and showed the green stub.

We had 3 breakfast meals in Tans. We usually come at around 7 a.m. so the chaffing dishes were still full. Among the dishes that were served in the buffet were tocino, longganisa, cocktail hotdog, fried egg, crispy daing, daing na bangus, ginisang ampalaya and beef tapa. The food was ok, it wasn't stellar but it wasn't bad either. I actually like the tocino, longganisa and the crispy daing. They also have coffee sachets but we're not coffee drinkers so we just brought bottled juices or iced tea drinks everytime.


Verdict

Many claimed that Tans Guesthouse is one of the cheapest yet decent places to stay in Boracay. And I agree. Except for the not-so-appealing entrance to our room, I have nothing but good words to say about this budget accommodation. The location was great, the room was nice, the staff were friendly and best of all, the price was reasonable. In a highly-commercialized paradise such as Boracay, those things are hard to come by. I was just too glad that I chose to stay with them.