<b>Beyond Pink Stripes</b>

Random musings, stories, snapshots, and reviews from the "little" girl with several abandoned blogs who suddenly finds herself inspired to scribble once again after coming into her senses and realizing that there's more to LIFE than PINK STRIPES.☺

Friday, November 8, 2013

WIN A BORACAY TRAVEL AND TOUR PACKAGE!:)

I am pleased to share with everyone this exciting invite that I received from I-map Websolutions, Inc. :D


Greetings!


We are pleased to invite you to our “Expression of Love Blogging Contest.” Share a story of a captivating moment involving flowers and gifts that made your heart goes “awwwww”. Be it your own experience or someone’s magical moment as long as you can convey the expression of love into words. Be as creative as you can be!

MECHANICS
  • The topic should be about giving flowers and gifts in any occasions.
  • Must be an original composition with 500 words but not more than 600 words.
  • Should promote our products and business. (Philflora.com, ManilaBlossoms.com, PHgifts.com)
  • Willing to put up the article in their personal blogs.
  • Content must be in English.
  • Participants can submit one (1) entry per website. (Philflora.com, ManilaBlossoms.com, PHgifts.com)
NOTE: Participants can request photos for the writing purposes.

Deadline of Submission
Submit on or before November 20, 2013. 
Registration Form:

Announcement will be on December 07, 2013.

Criteria for Judging
                25% - originality
                25% - creativity (writing style)
                20% - use of media
                30% - promotional and marketing relevance, key wording and overall content

Exciting Prizes
                1st Prize – 3 days and 2 nights travel package and tour in Boracay
                2nd Prize – Blog website and 1 year hosting            
                3rd Prize – Ebook reader

If you have any questions or you would like to participate, please contact us by email. You can also forward this email to your blog’s followers and following.

Eagerly looking forward to your participation!

Best Regards,

Philflora, ManilaBlossoms, PHgifts
IMAP WEBSOLUTIONS, INC.
Address: 2E Patricia Bldg. 1050 EDSA Magallanes, Makati City
Website: www.imapwebsolutions.com www.philflora.com www.manilablossoms.com www.phgifts.com



Just a lil Boracay "visual aid" haha. Lifted off this old post of mine.

So what are you waiting for? Join “Expression of Love Blogging Contest” now and get a chance to fly to BORACAY for FREE!:D 

Good luck!

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Staycation at Tune Hotel Quezon City (The Good and The Bad))

Hubby and I took advantage of the recent holiday with what we've been desiring for some time --- a relaxing activity with just the two of us. Our ultimate consideration? Destination should be away from home but just within the metro as neither of us were in the mood to subject ourselves to long, tiring travel.:) All we wanted to do was simply chill out without much effort. Hence, our staycation.:)

Weeks prior, we booked a room in Tune Hotel Quezon City via Asia Rooms website. Located just along Timog Avenue, it seemed to be the perfect staycation venue for us. The hotel opened early October of the year making it one of the newest hotels in the city. It is part of a "limited service" hotel chain in the Philippines operated by a group under Tony Fernandes, the founder and CEO of AirAsia. (Notice the semblance between Tune's logo and that of Air Asia.^^) 

Because of the "limited service" feature, the hotel is perfect for the budget-conscious because one can opt to pay only for the basic offerings (but of high quality as claimed) to guarantee a 5-star sleeping experience at a 1-star price ---> 5-star bed and powerful hot shower. Customization can then be done by adding any of the optional services as deemed necessary like aircon, cable TV and internet access. Each add-on has a corresponding price. 

In our case, since we booked via Asia Rooms, we got a package inclusive of toiletries, cable TV and wifi. No breakfast though due to absence of restaurant/ cafe in Tune Hotel Quezon City for the time being. The total amount that we paid for was merely Php1320.00... yeah so affordable that our pockets danced for joy.:) 

Anyway, to know more about Tune Hotels, visit their website. 

So much for the introduction, now it's time to share the unanimous thoughts of Hubby and I on Tune Hotel Quezon City during our staycation. 


THE HOTEL

Facade during the day and at night.
Facade during the day and at night.

Tune Hotel Quezon City looked really new and clean to us. We were especially delighted by the sight of the lobby with an oh-so-modern feel plus the background of the reception...the coolest we have seen in a hotel so far. :)



We were given a room at the 4th floor. Upon stepping out of the elevator, we knew we were in the right place because of the huge number 4 in front of us. The hallways seemed a little narrow but we did not really feel claustrophobic because of the transparent door at the far end which let the light in.




THE ROOM

Compared to most that we've been into, the room's quite small but there was still enough space for the Hubby and I to navigate comfortably. We observed though the nonexistence of the usual stuff that can be seen in a hotel room such as refrigerator, bar, coffee maker, cabinet, bathrobe, slippers, laundry bag, complimetary water, paper and pen. 

But we would have to agree with the "5-star bed" claim as the mattress felt really soft and contributed a lot to the coziness that we experienced during our staycation. Not to mention, the TV that was cleverly installed on the wall made viewing while lying on the bed such a pleasure.




I happily picked  up some space-saving ideas which I could apply to our own room in the future.:) Such as the foldable wall table...


...and the compact acrylic desk.



We noticed the presence of a ceiling fan. So we thought, in case we opted to forgo the aircon (very unlikely to happen though haha) to save some cash, ventilation's still very much possible. One comment on the aircon though, it was a bit noisy that for several times, I though it was raining outside.



The fire sprinkler in the room was definitely a reassuring sight for both the Hubby and I. We're just glad that the safety feature wasn't actually put to use during our stay.:) 




TOILET AND BATHROOM

The cleanliness indeed met our expectation. Like the room, it's not really that big but the arrangement of the elements (the bowl, sink, shower,etc.) made it look spacious, well at least for us. (Another space-saving inspiration for our future T&B!^^)

Warning though, the door's translucent. It was alright for Hubby and I since we're married but we're not sure if everyone will be amenable to having a translucent toilet and bathroom door.:)




TOILETRIES

We were handed two bright red eco-drawstring bags, each containing towel, soap and shampoo. Had it been  other (and more expensive) hotels, there'd be more than soap and shampoo.:) Then again, we did not mind because we brought our own stuff. Besides, Hubby and I both agreed that the red bags compensated for the lack of toiletries LOL.:) 




STAYCATION

From check-in (at 12NN) until sleeping time, we truly enjoyed our stay at Tune Hotel Quezon City.:)

Minding our own businesses:
Me taking selfies and the Hubby so intent
on the program he's watching haha



MORNING AFTER (THE BAD)

The time we woke up was a different story though.:( 

While snuggling lazily in bed, we heard a person or two walking outside our window. And then a few minutes later, we smelled PAINT FUMES. The odor got stronger that we were compelled to get up and start fixing ourselves so we can leave already.

While the Hubby was showering, I slightly drew the edge of the curtain and secretly took a peek  on what's going on outside our window and I saw this!


So that's why we smelled PAINT FUMES! There was a painting job happening right outside our room!

Here are more of the ninja shots I took:



The incident sadly RUINED whatever good experience we had at Tune Hotel Quezon City. 

WHY?!
Firstly, we just couldn't take the smell of paint fumes. We would have wanted to stay snuggled for a little more time but we ended up vacating the room at 10AM, an hour before the official check-out time. @_@ 

Secondly, the presence of strangers right outside the window just felt creepy. It's as if our privacy was invaded. We're pretty sure that anyone who'd suddenly wake up with strangers so close to his hotel window, or any window for that matter, will also feel uncomfortable, if not threatened.  @_@

We informed the Manager of the situation and told her that we should have been placed in another room from the start since workers would be painting our side of the building come morning. To be fair, the Manager was apologetic about the lack of coordination. It seemed that she did not know/was not informed of the scheduled painting job. Even Manong Guard kindly asked us what happened and recorded it in his log book.

For the price we paid for the hotel, some might judge that ours was a petty complaint. But we did complain with the future guests in mind so they would not experience the same inconvenience. Hubby let me do the talking because of my more diplomatic personality haha. I did not raise my voice but I believe I was firm enough to convey our message. After all, service should always be of quality...doesn't matter if it's cheap or costly. Right?


FINAL THOUGHTS

If not for the paint fumes, our staycation at Tune Hotel Quezon City would have been a perfect one. Oh well, better luck next time.:)


********************
TUNE HOTEL QUEZON CITY
100 Timog Avenue,

Barangay Sacred Heart,

Quezon City

1103
Philippines