Homecoming hotel

Filipinos are well known for their hospitality. Visitors and guests at our homes are treated better than family. This has always been a plus for Filipinos involved in the hotel business. Individually, Filipinos in the hospitality business have shown that they are a cut above the rest. This advantage, plus today’s reality of millions of Filipinos traveling as OFWs or coming home as balikbayans, have come together in a new type of hotel – one that welcomes fellow Filipinos back in Filipino style.

The Mabuhay Manor is a key facility of a new chain of hotels and inns that cater to the Filipino traveler. Be it an Ilocano businessman coming to Manila, new Cebuano graduates coming to review for the board, matrons from Davao on a shopping binge, or an overseas worker in transit back to the province – few establishments have catered to the distinctive needs of such travelers to Manila.

OFWs are usually sent off and met at the airport by the whole hometown (no exaggeration, judging by the hordes of non-passengers at our airports). Provincial OFWs bring at least their whole family and assorted relatives and they all need a comfy and reasonably priced place to stay. These parties used to stuff themselves in the standard cramped hotel room with extra beds ordered, or the younger ones having to do with the floor.

The Mabuhay Manor has taken this dilemma and turned it into an opportunity by reconfiguring rooms to be, well, roomier than normal, with space for up to 10 people. They do have the "normal" 22- to 28-sq.m. hotel rooms we are all familiar with. The three other room types they have, however, are surprisingly commodious and home-style comfy. The smaller of these units is a single room but with double beds and a sofa bed (so you don’t need to order an extra bed). The larger units come with an extra bedroom or an upper floor to provide privacy for the returning OFW and his or her spouse while the kids and relations are in the main room enjoying their pasalubong.

In all the rooms there seemed to be this large, empty space in one corner. I wondered about that out loud to Weng Eliscupides, the Manor’s property manager, and she explained that the corner had an important function – it was space for the balikbayan boxes! Part of the hotel’s service was in fact to assist the balikbayan traveler to unpack and repack the "goodies" from these balikbayan boxes and if you run out of pasalubong or forgot that third cousin who was your mother’s ring bearer at her wedding, well, the Manor provides a personal shopper service to fill in that gap. Innovative!

The hotel is located in Pasay, a stone’s throw from Roxas Boulevard and minutes away from the airport complex. For OFWs, it is also conveniently near many of the major embassies, the Department of Foreign Affairs and placement agencies. For provincial travelers it is near several large malls and the mother of them all – the SM Mall of Asia.

For food, the Manor has traditional home cooking with three F&B outlets bannered by Sutukil – from the Cebuano restaurant invention sugba, tulya and kilawin, although expanded to all sorts of grilled seafood and meats. Nearby the guest has a plethora of options, including the Blue Wave complex near the SM Mall of Asia, Manila’s Baywalk and Malate’s "eat, drink, and be merry" district.

The hotel was designed by architect/interior designer Nikki Magcase. He made good use of a cramped site (and an existing structure) and was able to fit 115 rooms with a pool and courtyard at the center. The scale of the reception and general spaces is small-inn homey; a better feel for those back after a few years overseas or in town for a visit. His palette of materials is local, plus touches of modern imported veneers and fixtures.

Hotels such as the Mabuhay Manor should be regular fixtures for our airport districts nationwide. The owners of the hotel, The Legend Hotels International Corporation, have already replicated the concept in Cubao (Kabayan Hotel), Pasig (their flagship Legend Hotel) and another location nearby with plans for more. They all have the same welcoming feel and celebrate Filipino life and new lifestyles in great Filipino style. I would give them the "hotel innovation and hospitality award," if the DOT had one.

The Mabuhay Manor is located at 2933 F.B. Harrison cor. Ortigas St., Pasay City, Metro Manila, Philippines, tel. 831-4641 to 44 and website at www.mabuhaymanor.com.ph.

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Feedback is welcome. Please e-mail the writer at Paulo.alcazaren@gmail.com.