A Trip to Clark [Day 1: Tune Hotels Angeles City]

We finalized our plans of staying overnight in Clark for the 2013 Hot Air Balloon Festival last February only a few days before the event. As expected, almost all hotels near the site were fully booked. I was looking for an affordable and decent place to stay that is kid and senior citizen friendly. As I was surfing the net, I saw in one of the group buying sites an offer from Tune Hotels. I got curious and visited its website to know more about it. I also checked TripAdvisor for the positive and negative reviews.

I found the reviews acceptable. Aside from the Philippines, Tune Hotels can also be seen in Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and United Kingdom. So I’m sure they have high standards when it comes to hotel service. Aside from the hotel in Angeles City, they have branches in Ermita, Cebu and Makati.

The low rates I saw from the site got me intrigued so I searched for the reasons why. The husband of my aunt even thought it’s a motel but it’s not. Tune Hotels only offer limited hotel services such as a comfortable bed to sleep and a hot shower usually needed by travelers on a business trip. They don’t offer the costly services such as pool, spas and room service. So this is more of a business hotel.

They have a double room and twin room. A maximum of 2 adults comfortably fits a room. For me, Mark and Kelsea, I booked a double room (Php 1,571.36 inclusive of VAT)   and got their Cozy Package (24hr A/C + 24hr TV + 24hr Wifi + towel and toiletries) for an additional Php420 inclusive of VAT. That gave us a total of Php 1,991.36. Note: Room rate depends on the booked date and hotel branch. I booked thru their website and paid by Paypal. For our other companions, I booked double rooms and twin rooms.

Tip: If you book one double room and one twin room, it can be connecting rooms and can be requested upon check-in only if available.

You can make your own room package based on your needs 🙂 Ideal for an overnight stay.

Now let me give you a tour on what to expect in this hotel…..

Upon entering the doors of the hotel, the first thing we saw was the first picture above. Then the elevators. Now, where’s the reception area? It is located in the 2nd floor. We took the stairs first (maybe a little inconvenient). Those who were already booked don’t have to pass the reception area and can easily use the elevator using their key card. We cannot ride or open the elevator without a key card.

Elevators

Reception Area

I presented the booking invoice sent to my email to the receptionist. A valid government ID was required for validation. While waiting for the confirmation of our booking and room assignments, Mark and sleeping Kelsea stayed in the waiting area while my cousins surfed the internet for free.

Waiting Area

Internet Area

It took us about 20-30 minutes to check-in. We were given 4 rooms in the 7th floor. My family of 3 stayed in Rm 703. We were separated from the 3 other rooms. At first I thought this was bad but I’ll let you know later why I prefer this room over the other 3 rooms given to us.

Upon entering the room, we have to insert the key card to another device to activate the air-conditioning and the electricity. This was also where we could control the temperature of the a/c. If guests don’t like to avail of their air-conditioning, there was a ceiling fan located above the bed and its FREE to use.

The room is small but good enough for 2 adults and 1 kid. The interiors are modern in style and I love how comfortable the bed was. I felt like I was in a 5-star hotel.

The bed

See the two red Tune Hotels bag on the bed? Two sets per room were given to us. Here’s what’s inside the bags….

Clean white towel, conditioning shampoo and soap

 There was no toothbrush and toothpaste but guests can buy from the reception area. But we got to take home the red bag 🙂 I’m using it now to put footwear when traveling.

Here are more pictures inside our hotel room….

They have an LCD (or LED, I didn’t check) TV. But they don’t have a storage cabinet so we only hung our clothes on the steel rod you can see below. They were also still using a window-type a/c.

 

Since I still need to work for a few more hours, I was thankful they have this built-in desk which you can close when not in use. By the way, the Wifi that came with the package was very fast.

See the area where there are cars parked? That was full early morning the next day.

Not bad for a hotel, right? Just as long as you’re only looking for a place to sleep safely at night. We didn’t worry much about where to park because of the ample parking spaces of the hotel.  I also liked the area where it was built because there were no pubs, bars and noisy environment (especially during the evening) when you go out of the hotel. So, I was thankful we booked in Tune Hotels.

Our little girl Kelsea loved our stay there 🙂

Check-out time was 11 am. But since we were all so tired from the 2013 Hot Air Balloon Festival the next day, we paid for an additional Php300/room for a late check-out of 2 pm.

Tune Hotels in Clark, Angeles City is recommended for those looking for an affordable, clean and very comfortable hotel especially:
– Passengers (from Manila or far places) of flights in Diosdado Macapagal International Airport who need a good place to sleep and depart very early in the morning or arrived very late at night. It is 6.5km from the airport, approx. 10 minutes drive
– Businessmen going on a business meeting in the morning or afternoon and just want to spend the night to have a few drinks
– Families who will be attending the Hot Air Balloon Festival or those who want to check out activities to do in Clark

For budget-conscious mommas out there, this is good enough 🙂

Tune Hotel – Angeles City
Don Juico Avenue, Malabanias
Angeles City, Pampanga
Philippines
Tel : +63 45 4590888
http://www.tunehotels.com/our-hotels/angeles-city