Review of Lady Luck Hotel, Lucena City

It looks like a seedy motel, but it was just beside Maryhill College where I was going to take the Teacher's Licensure Exam. The accommodations were ridiculously cheap, and I decided to make a reservation for three reasons:

1. I just needed a place to stay overnight. Just a quiet, air conditioned space with a window, table, shower, and bed.

2. The whole area would be teeming with fellow examinees looking for a place to stay so I needed to reserve early.

3. Even if it looked like a seedy motel with tricycle drivers eyeing every single lady who comes and goes to the place, there'd be plenty of other professionals taking the exam that Saturday. The whole area will teem with it, pushing out the lowlifes, at least for that particular day.

So I went on a Thursday. I finished my other business in Lucena City, and then made a reservation for Saturday. They showed me the room I wanted, with air conditioning, a window, a working shower, a table and bed. Great! They took 100% of the money and not the 50% as stated in their Room Reservation slip.

The people at the counter were nice and accommodating and I was relieved that I'd made a practical choice, since it was only a walking distance from Maryhill College.

Anyway, I arrived on Saturday, at lunchtime, and lo and behold. They already had someone else in my room. They asked me to either 

1. Wait for the guy to check out at 4pm, give them one hour to clean the place up, and come back at around 5pm. Or

2. Get another room, a windowless room with the same rate, or a cheaper room at 2 o'clock because there was a group checking out.

I was melting from the tropical heat, tired and hungry from a 3 hour bus ride, not to mention I needed to rest up and review a few maths problems for the test the next day that I had saved to review last so that it would still be fresh in my mind. 

They totally didn't honor their so-called "reservation" and they weren't even apologetic. No, I couldn't take the windowless room because I get claustrophobic. And that was the whole point of reserving a damn room anyway.

So I left my baggage at the counter, figured I needed to eat first before I make a decision while I was pissed off and hungry. I went out, ate lunch, found a really fabulous hotel Queen Margaret right across Maryhill. I didn't notice it the first time I went because the street was narrow and the sign was too high. 

When I went back to Lady Luck Hotel to get a refund, the hotel manager only told the cashier, "Sige ibigay mo na yung pera, madami pa namang dadating." (Sure, return the money, there'll be other customers.) 

Of course there will be other customers, there was a national licensure test the next day. But it only highlights what I'm trying to say. They took 100% of the room fee without ever intending to honor the reservation, weren't remotely apologetic, and they couldn't care less about the client they took money from. 

Their whole policy sucks. I won't be coming back there even as a walk in customer without reservation, because if there weren't a national test the next day, the place is actually too seedy to go to. Queen Margaret is a total gem. I'll write a review about that next.