Aside from the name of a hotel chain, when people talk about Shangri-La, it is meant as “an imaginary, beautiful place, often far away, where everything is pleasant and you can get everything you want.”

The word emanates from novelist James Hilton’s fictional account of the Tibetan paradise Shambala. In the 1933 novel “Lost Horizon”, Hilton changes the name of the paradise to Shangri-La. It was made into a movie and re-released in 1942 with the title “Lost Horizon at Shangri-La”.

This blog is a review of our recent stay at Shangri-La at the Fort (Bonifacio Global City).

THE GOOD

• Ease in reservation through either its website or the Shangri-La Circle App
• Nicely decorated rooms especially the Horizon Floors, with amenities from L’Occitane.
• Loved the fact that this hotel has PWD accessibility in mind at almost every turn
• Excellent food
• Location to Bonifacio High Street shopping can be accessed through the hotel

THE BAD

• So yes, it was a holiday and they expected a deluge of guests. The cost of the Horizon Floors was nevertheless more expensive than the regular floors. The guests on the Horizon Floors should be given the exclusivity offered for paying to be on those floors. Those rules changed on check-in. Because of the New Year revelry, those occupying the Horizon Floors from Dec 30-Jan 1 will have breakfast in the Grand Ballroom, together with all the other guests of the hotel.
• While the hotel had collected the full payment for our stay, it took almost an hour to check-in on a slow day. While check-in was already available on the APP, the APP did not sync with the fact that the hotel had already collected full payment. When I inquired from the hotel why the APP was still charging me for rooms that I already paid in full, I was informed not to mind the APP and just check in at the hotel premises on the day itself. I would be double charged if I check-in through the APP. So much for technology with this hotel.
• Breakfast was in one whole Grand Ballroom. Which left you with no sense of privacy. Which was like one large school cafeteria where there was a melee in the battle for what food and what drink the hungry hippos were gunning for. And while we did get seats (we ate early), coffee was served cold and after breakfast was done. You couldn’t enjoy the breakfast as you would want to because the queue to the “Grand Buffet Breakfast” was so long, that I pitied those who were in queue. Yes, it extended from the ballroom all the way to the elevators.
• Even check out was a pain. Where was all the technology hype when the hotel isn’t even interconnected with their digital platforms?

Over-all, I’d give this staycation a 2.5 star rating.

It is, after all, touted to be a 5-star hotel.

It is, after all, a very expensive hotel.

It did not live up to its name and reputation.

Yes, this branch of the hotel chain called Shangri-La did not live up to its name. It’s like when you say you’re the best and yet you can’t claim it on all counts. You cannot be the best when under duress, you’re one of the worst.

Revelry or none, high occupancy or not, customers should be treated with the expectations the hotel touted it to be.

After all, the anatomy of disappointments are expectations.