Travelbook PH Experience

One of my colleague introduced Travelbook to me because she saw me looking for a hotel near Manila Ocean Park. Most of the website I saw requires a credit card upon booking the room, but I don't have one and never will. My experience booking the first hotel I've been to was very smooth and pleasant. I never encountered any problems until we checked out.

Booking on a third party website usually saves you a lot of money than going directly to the hotel itself. I tried comparing prices before, in Travelbook, the rate is around 2027 pesos for two nights with taxes and deposit fee is waived. I called the hotel directly and their rate that time is 1500 pesos per night plus a security deposit. Big difference!

I have screenshots of how it looks like on mobile phone.

You can install it on your phone. It's for free! Sign up or Create your own account to earn points whenever you book. The App is very user friendly.

This is the main page.
Enter the name of the hotel or you can put the city as well and it will give you listings of hotels on that area.

This is the third button on the upper right side of the main page. What's good about TravelBook is that, you will earn points whenever you book. Click Rewards, you will see the points you have earned and pending points that you will earn after you check out as well as your transaction history. FYI, points can be used to lower down the rate of the hotel. Right now, I have earned 411 points. Total of 3 bookings.

You can send an eGift card to someone also. I haven't tried it but you can go to their page or just hit the eGift button on the app. Value starts from 500-50,000.

 If you need assistance, you can always call them. They are open 24 hours. I have tried calling them last week, Cj assisted me on my concern. He gave me a great customer service. Very friendly! He recommended some hotels in Bataan for me. Ms. Valerie called me twice also, super friendly and approachable. She's getting surveys from your previous stay.

WHY I ALWAYS CHOOSE TRAVELBOOK

Very easy to use!

Once you typed-in a specific place, it recommends nearby cities or areas which is actually great if you still can't decide where to go. Not all are familiar with the nearby areas on that location.

It gives you discounted rates and shows how many points you will earn.
 You will be able to see if the hotel is on the beach, has a pool, pet friendly, offers wifi and parking etc. without clicking it. Each hotel has its own star rating, under the star rating is the location then next to it is the important amenities of the hotel.

Hit Map button, and it will show you the hotels on that area or how far away they are from each other.

Filters all the amenities you would want to have in a hotel.

It provides photos, shows how many person can stay inside, if there is a breakfast included as well as the cancellation policy. If you need to modify your date no need to go back to the previous page.

Sometimes we tend to call the hotel directly to get some information about their property. Here in TravelBook, they already have the details on what's inside and additonal charges. Very convenient for us!
Map is ready!

Before purchasing a product, it's best to check reviews first from others. This is the same when it comes to hotel reservations. In TravelBook, you can easily read the reviews from different travellers either for business or leisure with the help of TripAdvisor.

WHAT I LIKE MOST!

Choose a specific room type and you'll see what is inside the room itself and maximum occupancy plus the charge for extra guest. Even the check in and check out time is there. Payment options and cancellation policy is indicated. 

Every peso counts!

Some websites doesn't include the fees that you are paying for. Here in TravelBook, it has the breakdown of the total rate without the discount and after the discount was applied. You are eligible for a certain amount of points depending on the total rate.

 Guaranteed no hidden charges!

  AND WHAT'S BEST!

Payment options.

I always choose to pay through 7-Eleven because it was very easy and the transaction is faster. Not everyone has a credit card. Here in the Philippines, we always prefer to pay in cash or over the counter. Once they recieved your payment, they will send you an email confirming your reservation. What you need to do next is to send an email or call the hotel directly to confirm that you are already on their list.

This review is based on my own experience with TravelBook.

You can visit their website at http://www.travelbook.ph/

Our Itinerary for Bohol

I have an upcoming trip to Bohol on July and Cebu in September. I was thinking either to make our own itinerary or just book a package. There is a thread in TripAdvisor about packages and they said it will cost you more to do a package and the time is very limited as well as the locations that you have to visit.

What to do:

Take note all the attractions you may want to visit.

Check for a hotel, choose whether you want to be on the city or on the beach.

We prefer to be on the beach so after we came from the attractions, we can relax, feel the wind and enjoy the breeze. Stargazing at night! Yay!

Don't spend too much for the hotel.

Budget your money for food, attractions and souvenirs.

Our flight is from 1PM-2:15PM. 

Once we landed, we'll go straight in the hotel to rest for the whole day. 

This is a 4 days-3 nights late summer getaway.

We already booked for our hotel which is in Doljo, Muro Ami Hotel (on the beach). It is 35 mins. away from the airport.

Here are the lists of the attractions that we want to visit. 

Our second day will be the city tour. This is in order, from nearest to farthest. We will start at 7AM-onwards.

Blood Compact Site

Baclayon Church

Loboc Tarsier Watching

Loboc River Cruise

Bilar Man-Made Forest

Simply Butterflies Conservation Center

Batuan Shiphaus

Mag-Aso Falls

Gift Shop

Third day is for Island Hopping.

Pamilacan Island 

Balicasag Island

Virgin Island

Hinagdanan Cave

We already checked for car rentals. Normally, the cost is around 2000-3000 pesos for Sedan good for 4-5 persons valid for 8 hours. The boat for island hoppping has the same amount also.

-To be continued-

Oppo R7Lite - MyOppoLoves

This is a quick review of the phone that I used for photography. Buying a mirrorless camera will cost you more when you can just have a mobile phone that has a great feature. But maybe before the year ends, I might buy one because I really love photography! Macro photography!

I never tried Oppo. To be honest, I'm kinda hesitant to spend 13,990p. My trust for iPhone was prodigious! Well, we'll never know unless we try, right? So after my shift, we went to the nearest mall and checked for discounts because I believe they give discounted rates if you will be buying around December.

         The front part of R7Lite. 

They thought I was using an iPhone again. It looks quite similar on some angle. I bought this for 12,990 pesos from 13,990 pesos. When my boyfriend bought his phone a month after, same unit, it was 11,990 pesos. Sad! 

Back view.

The speaker is on the lower right side. I love that "Oppo word" at the back! 

Oppo has a quick lock thingy. You just have to double tap the home button. It features a lot of gestures.
So far, here's what I have learned.
To turn on the flashlight (if the phone is locked), click the power button then double tap the home button. For screenshot, instead of clicking power and lower volume button, you can just slide your three fingers on the screen. To open your camera while it's off, just make a circular shape on the screen.

Oppo has its built in Music Player, no need to install a new player.

It looks like this:

There's a like button, share and shuffle. As you can see, it has 3 pages on top. This is the second page, first is for all your music saved on the phone, third is the lyrics.

Volume buttons and sim card location. R7Lite can have dual sim or one sim and one memory card.

Power button.

R7Lite is the slimmest phone I've ever had in my entire life. It has 5.0 inch screen size and battery is 2320 mah. I have many apps installed and I used my data in the office, the battery isn't that high in mah but mine can be used until the next day. I haven't experienced battery problems. It's fast in charging, normally on some phones it will take you 2-3 hours to have it fully charged. Mine will take only an hour to charge, sometimes, less than an hour.

Rear camera is 13-megapixels and frony is 8-megapixels. Built in camera already has an options almost the same as Camera360.

 It has different options. Slow shutter is best when taking photos of fireworks.

My favorite function in camera is the Super Macro. I bought a macro clip lens for my iphone before and I don't use it anymore. Play with the Expert Mode, you'll learn a lot of things in photography.

Expert Mode. 

I haven't tried it, maybe soon. I'm trying to get a good subject to practice. Will share soon!

Built in filters for my camera.

Very Camera360 😅
This can save a space on my phone.

Here's the specs of R7Lite:

gsmarena.com

The main reason why I bought this is because of the camera. I'm not a gamer, I just need a good quality of camera and a bigger RAM than iPhone 5. 

Always check your storage because it has 16GB internal and half of it is for built in Apps, the other half is for your Apps that you personally installed. By the way, the only downside that I can think of is the Apps. In R7Lite, there's no way you can move an app to your memory card to save space. I hope they make it better next time.  

You can follow my Instagram account: @shutterbuuug_ 

All photos posted there came from my Oppo R7Lite. 

- A phone worth buying -

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Feel free to comment or contact me if you have questions or suggestions.

The Exchange Regency Hotel Review

Hi there! So here is my review about a 4 star hotel that I found in Travelbook. If you are looking for a quick summer escape but can't leave the city because of work, this would be the best place to visit. I was checking out a lot of hotels nearby that has a pool and here's what I found. The Exchange Regency Hotel is located at Exchange Rd. cor Meralco Ave. Ortigas, Pasig infront of Lopez Museum very accessible to Megamall or Starmall. 

Lobby Area. 

They have a luggage rack inside and you can ask one of their staff to assist you. The elevator on the right side is for their service staff and then the two on the left is for guests.

Key card to our room. 

The first time we visited, we requested for a room with a good view and early check in but I forgot to mention that I want to be on a higher floor. When we went back a week after, I requested for a higher floor but I forgot the view. Very epic! I was tired when I made the reservation. They granted our request anyway!

Here's what it looks like inside the room. It has a double bed and the mattress is very comfortable! 

I would love to have a wardrobe like this in my own room.

I have tried their coffeemaker and yeah, they have 2 sachets of coffee, creamer and sugar which is complimentary, except for the food on the right side. If you don't want to pay more for food, I suggest you go out and just buy in Ministop (few steps away from the entrance of the hotel).

Inside the mini-fridge. 

In-room safe.

You can set your own password. If you want to leave your laptop inside the room, this is the safest place. Most of the guests are travelling for business, and it's really neccessary to have a safe box. They have working desk as well and extra sheets of paper and envelope.

View from 26th floor. (At morning)

(At night)

I took a lot of photos at night but some of them are blurry.

Bathroom interior.

No need to bring your own shampoo, conditioner and soap. Conditioner is best after you go on swimming. 

Let's go now to the pool area! I'm so excited to post my photos because it's actually the highlight of our stay.

Pool in the morning, exclusive for the guests and residents.

Pool area is open from 6AM to 10PM. 

Photo taken the second time we went there. On our first trip, we decided to rest at night and go to the pool early in the morning. Apparently, the pool was under construction for two days.

Jacuzzi. Superb! It's very relaxing! There is a kiddie pool on the other side and a playground.

Here's the policy in using their pool. They provide towels for guests. 

We have tried the fitness facility also. By the way, no need to pay for these amenities. 

Fitness Center.

I burned 200 calories here, and we ate after which is a sad thing. Haha!

By the way, the room type we booked in Travelbook was a Deluxe Room with Breakfast. They will give you a coupon that you have to present once you got to the restaurant. 

 Mario's Kitchen for Breakfast Buffet!

 This is the coupon that they gave us for breakfast. It was signed by the pretty and friendly front desk.

Combination of full and continental breakfast. There's a lot of food to choose from. I liked best the cereals and milk plus watermelon and papaya fruit. Not just that, they have viand also and drinks. 

We had a very nice stay here! Two thumbs up! The front desk is very approachable. We had a hard time communicating with them on the phone, so it's better to send them an E-mail. They respond quickly! I've been with Manila Peninsula, I had a tour there before, and Exchange Regency is very comparable! All the staff from guards to front desk even housekeeping are very friendly. They always smile. We were informed before we get there that they charge 1000p for deposit which is refundable upon check out. That's fine as long as you won't break something inside the room. I highly recommend Exchange Regency to everyone who wants to spend a day in a luxurious but not an exorbitant hotel with great amenities!