CEBU, Philippines – You are in Cebu for business. After a whole day of meetings with potential clients, you come home to your hotel tired and sleepy. You take a quick hot shower and then decide to sleep early to recharge for another hectic day the next day. In the morning, you get your wake up call. No, not from the hotel staff at the front desk like what you always experience from the other hotels you have stayed in. Your wake up call is the crow of the rooster. Yup, that same refreshing sound you heard when on vacation in your hometown.
Impossible? Not really. You can have that feeling of being at home even while staying at a hotel when you are at Montebello Villa Hotel, Cebu’s only garden hotel.
Just because you are on a business trip does not mean that you cannot have a relaxing stay in a hotel and be confined only to the four walls of your room, seeing nothing but concrete.
Cecil Apuhin, Montebello’s front office manager said that business travelers who check into Montebello are transported into a different world, a world of tranquility, with the hotel’s sprawling gardens and peaceful atmosphere. “We make sure that we contribute to the success of business travelers by helping them with their non-business needs,” she added.
While most city hotels are high rise hotels, Montebello, already considered a landmark hotel in the city, has maintained its positioning as a garden hotel where business travelers can relax and refresh, leaving the hustle and bustle of city living and the pressures of closing business deals behind. But while the hotel maintains its reputation of being the only garden hotel in the city, it is constantly improving its services and facilities to keep up with the times.
Business Development Manager Francis Dexter Bandala shared that the hotel is currently undergoing many changes in its rooms, facilities and restaurants. Refurbishing of Montebello’s 150 rooms has started and 50 newly-refurbished rooms are ready to accommodate guests. By August of this year, 80 rooms are expected to be fully refurbished. The management expects all rooms to be finished before end of this year. The restaurants in the hotel will also be repositioned, and will have air-conditioned and al fresco areas.
“We have hired new people to revitalize our F & B staff. We will still be serving intercontinental dishes but this time we will put more emphasis on more laidback types of cuisine. More like resort type dishes,” he said.
While Montebello gets a hefty share of business travelers, the hotel also gets quite a number of European guests, according to Sales Manager Nitz Cera. “We are also a favorite of leisure travelers, mostly Europeans, who are either married to Filipinas or those who are curious about Cebu City and the tropical environment of the country,” she said.
Among the many things that fascinate European travelers in the hotel is its sprawling 4 hectare garden which boasts of tropical plants, like the Gumamela. “Gumamelas are normal to us,” said Ms. Cera, “but show it to an Italian and he will be fascinated.”
Quiet, peaceful, relaxing, laidback and most of all something that is close to home, this is what Montebello Villa Hotel is all about. Who wouldn’t want to wake up to such an environment?