Cold

Grand. The hotel, even from from afar, is grand. Crown Legacy Hotel is strategically located in not-so-center of Baguio City, its proximity to Naguilian or Marcos Highways, the two national routes taken by those in the lowlands, is not much of a hassle. It is relatively near the shopping centers, Session Road, Burnham Park, Camp John Hay, a decent hospital. Along its frontage are the stuff which staycationers will find useful: an acoustic bar; a videoke bar; a small budget resto; a pharmacy and a convenience store. The main entrance leads to a lobby where a giant christmas tree stands, across large leather sofas, atop it a chandelier. The lobby area is about ten times the floor area of our house. A staircase curves to the right, massive in structure. Just below the staircase is a cafe, where a grand piano sits. A lady with a lovely voice sings there nightly, accompanied by an acoustic guitarist. One can sit and have coffee and pastries while listening to the nice music they make. The stairs lead to the hotel restaurant, which serves lousy food, but well, it looked so classy, one would think their steaks are fabulous, but will be terribly disappointed.

The rooms are clean, with beds, cabinets, comforters, few pillows, a safe that does not work, a flatscreen television on the wall, a round table and a chair in a corner by a window where one can see the thousand of cars plying the route in front of the hotel, and quite a few pinetrees. Nothing fancy. They provide towels, white enough and good-smelling, too. Toilletries are soap which smells like sulfur, body lotion I did not use, shampoo and disposable toothbrushes with small tubes of toothpaste which can barely clean teeth. But the bathrooms are reasonably clean, the shower working for hot and cold. But there is a faint smell of an unkempt bathroom somewhere, probably the cleaning stuff they use. They make up the rooms upon request, and they change the towels, too. The comforters and the sheets, pillowcases are not changed everyday, except maybe when request is made by the guests.

The front office staff are young, good-looking, pleasant and efficient. They seem to know what they are doing. There are numerous bellhops about, very helpful and eager to please. They rush to your luggages, and usher you to your rooms politely. The housekeeping needs to be trained, though. They take long to put up an extra bed. They bring to the rooms requests for cups, saucers, and drinking glasses quick enough but I did not trust the way the glasses looked, so I had to wash them with hot water from the sink. They brought us a water heater for coffee, but it was not working. 

The security people do not manage the parking well. They do not assist in grabbing cabs. And they look sad. But of course, they are not paid to be cheerful. Yet most of the time, stays in hotels are mostly defined by the small things. A clean glass, working water heater, convenient parking, being served with water and coffee at buffet breakfast even without asking, given a table for one's family when they are obviously looking around for somewhere to have the first meal of the day, clean tablecloths, or cleared tables for that matter. None of the restaurant staff were comcerned about  the last four things. They just collected the breakfast stubs, and basically leave guests to fend for themselves. It is not so much the grandeur of a hotel that matters to constant travellers, it is more of the feeling that one is welcome, one will be treated like a queen even if one is not royalty, it is in the warmth one feels while one is staying transient. Crown Legacy is a grand, beautiful hotel in its facade. But it is a cold, cold place. I wish that in time, it will evolve into a warmer, homey, cozier place, like a fireplace in the heart of Baguio City. It still has time.