The Blahger

A very personal blog

[Review] The Serviced Residences at Kasa Luntian

To celebrate my parent’s 31st wedding anniversary, I booked a staycation for the family at Kasa Luntian, Tagaytay. We all enjoyed our stay, and wished we could extend but oh well, we’ll just come back next time!

The Serviced Residences at Kasa Luntian is part of an Alveo Land development located along Tagaytay-Calamba road. Kasa Luntian is part hotel part residential area, with its hotel services managed by Hospitality Innovators, Inc. (HII).

The best thing I liked about the place is really the ambiance and how the suite is designed. The interior is soooo beautiful. Love the layout, decor, and patterns used in the room. The one-bedroom suite we booked looked super big at 55sqm, considering it has a fully equipped kitchen, a dining area, spacious shower and toilet, and a balcony you can actually chill at.

Check-in

Check-in at Kasa Luntian is okay. The front desk is situated at The Lanai building, which is different from where your actual unit will be. So once you get your key card you have to move to another building.

The front desk area is super lovely! What it lacks in space it made up for the beautiful design. Welcome drinks (pandan juice) is a nice touch too!

There’s temporary parking beside the reception area and after check-in you’ll be given a car pass you can use to drive in and out of the property. To check-out you also need to go back to the font-desk area. Mild hassle right but it’s fine if you have a car. Plus, walking around the place is such a delight! It’s quiet and serene and the landscape is truly relaxing. The guards are also super nice and polite.

There’s free open parking for hotel guests available beside each building. Covered parking is reserved for residents only. You can probably get in, but only to drop your luggage by the elevator. The Lanai also has a few restaurants and shops like 7-Eleven, Nailandia, and Taza Mia.

Before I move on to the things I liked and didn’t like about our stay, here’s a pic spam of the amenities and our room!


Amenities

Very relaxing ambiance.

Gorgeous pools, which reminds me of our condo lol. There’s some serious DMCI vibes to this place, considering it’s built by Ayala lol. Maybe because there’s a resort theme to it.

We didn’t really roam around that much so we only saw the pool and this small playground for kids. I’m not sure what else is there but I know there’s a function room somewhere hehe.

One-bedroom suite

Now onto our room…

Oh this room is soooo lovely!

There’s a fully equipped kitchen enclosed with a counter-top. There’s an electric stove/oven, exhaust, set of knives (which needs sharpening), cooking utensils, a pot and pan, microwave, kitchen sink with sponge and dishwashing liquid.

They also have this complimentary glass bottle of drinking water, which they will remind not to take with you, both during check-in and check-out. Yeah. Apparently, guests keep on taking it with them because it’s cute lol. There’s a tabletop sign beside it which we didn’t read lol. Perhaps it contained a note not to take the damned bottle, that it’s not a hotel hoardable if you know what I mean hehe, but guests probably don’t pay attention so management resorted to just keep on reminding everyone? Kinda condescending. For a while it felt insulting, being reminded TWICE, not to take something from the room. Sorry if I probably look like the kind who would request for extra bottles of shampoo lol, but heyy, you didn’t have to imply it.

So. Can you request for extra water? That’s 150 for you lol. There are better ways to remind your guests not to take the bottles with them, and drinking water should always be complimentary in the hospitality industry. If they care so much about losing glass bottles they should stick to the good ‘ol plastic ones. Urgh.

What else. They also have four sets of eating utensils, as well as bowls and plates. We loved the kitchen so much because we brought in a lot of food and cooked a lot as well! They have glasses and teacups too, complimentary instant coffee and tea, and electric kettle.

I loved the living area. There’s a big flat-screen smart TV equipped with cable. You can also watch Netflix and Youtube as soon as you connect it to the wifi (which wasn’t setup properly, I had to call the front desk to fix it). The daybed is amazing, I actually slept in it!

Dining is perfect for the four of us. 🙂

The bedroom is separated by a sliding door. The balcony is spacious enough you can actually hang out outside.
That’s fake turf by the way.

Closet space is enough for a staycation, there’s also a safety deposit box, hair dryer, iron, and ironing board. There’s an extra hidden storage behind this wall painting beside the bedroom door. Just slide the artwork aside and it will reveal more storage space for you.

Here the view from our balcony…

The pool is probably their greatest feature so I specifically requested to get a pool facing view, and also a high floor. Latter wasn’t granted but it was fine cos the pool view provided such a nice backdrop during breakfast!

Price point

We stayed overnight on a Saturday and our bill totaled to around ₱8,500. Which is too much, so I don’t recommend staying here on a weekend unless they have a promo. I mean if you’re gonna charge me 8k+ for a night you better submit to all my requests, but that didn’t happen so I think it’s overpriced.

For the quality of our stay, I’d say ₱5,000 tops. Room plus taxes cost us around 7k. Then remember they charged us for extra people so that’s additional 1.6k. The weekend rates can get really steep so I’d recommend staying from Sunday-Thursday if you can.

Price varies of course but Saturday rates are the worst.

Okay. Now down to the things I thought needed improvement:

  • For some reason our room smelled like paint. Anyway, we quickly got used to it.
  • There’s an apparent lack of mirrors in the suite. The only mirror present is in the vanity area, and the lighting is bad over there. Can’t glam yourself up and take OOTDs. Sad. Hope they get a full-body mirror in a well-lighted corner hehe.
  • Hairdryer cannot be plugged near the vanity area, where the only mirror is. I guess this was deliberate to avoid accidents? So at least add more mirrors diba so we can properly fix ourselves lol.
  • As mentioned, I didn’t like how they remind guests to leave the glass bottle behind, both during check-in and check-out. Reminder during check-in is enough, then they could charge any lost bottle from the security deposit. But to ask us if the water bottle is still there when we checked-out? I really find it insulting. Could’ve just put a note on the bottle’s packaging instead or highlighted it on the tabletop sign you know, something like “Take the water, but not the bottle”. Anyway.
  • Extra drinking water will cost you, so just bring your own.
  • The flooring is elevated as you enter the room, so be careful. I fkn tripped twice on my way in and hurt my nails. Arte no.
  • The TV remote control is makunat. Ang tigas nung Enter and up arrow haha!
  • No extra keycard.
  • Not really something they should improve on but they’re really strict with extra persons and guests. We’re 4 adults staying in a one-bedroom suite with a capacity of 2 adults and 2 kids, and we were charged 800/per extra person. Not like most hotels where you can sneak in more guests lol. Fair is fair so next time, we’ll just come in pairs. Visitors are only allowed until 10pm and they need to register at front desk before meeting you. Hmmm…
  • Hopefully they offer breakfast and other amenities too like a spa! That would really complete the serviced residences experience 😀
  • If you booked online via 3rd party agent (Agoda, Booking, etc.), check-in time is 3pm. You can probably request to check-in early though. We came in around 1pm and had to wait until 2:30pm to get our suite ready. We just happily waited at one of the gazebos. But srsly, if I hadn’t called front desk to follow up on our room (they said they would call), they’d probably let us wait ’til 3pm. That’s how I feel about the girl who attended to us lol. Parang ayaw nya kami pagbigyan sa kahit ano lol.

And to sandwich my feedback…

  • I’m probably coming back despite the mild annoyances and hopefully they’ve improved by then (ie. mirrors). 
  • Their official online photos did not disappoint!
  • We all had a good night’s sleep! Bed and linens are comfy, daybed in the living area is super comfy too.
  • I wasn’t able to swim because I got my darned period but their pool looks really awesome there’s even jacuzzi on one level. Plus two of the levels can be heated, I guess it depends on the weather. It wasn’t on the morning my parents swam.
  • The guards are super nice.
  • I really really enjoyed the TV haha. Netflix should be a standard in Hotels you know. As in. Nobody watches cable anymore.
  • I loved their bathroom essentials. The handwash, shampoo/body wash, and conditioner smelled sooo sooo good!
  • Toilet has bidet, hooray!
  • Place is perfect for 2 adults. More than that and your bill will make you feel unwelcome lol.

Finally, here’s short video tour of the place! Enjoy!

Hope you liked this post! I’d say Kasa Luntian is great for couples and those with at most 2 kids only. Hoping they’d considering catering larger groups but I would understand if they can’t to preserve the serenity of the place lol, after all it’s also a residence. Looking forward to our next stay.