When work tries to pin you down, one of the best things to do on a weekend is a perfect staycation. Concept of staycation is now a notch higher with full-service hotels. In the last few years, availability of wellness and fitness facilities and an expansive buffet spread are already exceptional services that hotels cater to guests. Now, a more premium and business model is being offered. Citadines Millennium Ortigas, one of the Ascott properties in Manila, offers apartment-style hotel rooms for both business and leisure travelers.
Arrival
From the busy Ortigas Avenue, the spread-out lobby of Citadines Millennium Ortigas is really an eye-candy. If not for the marbled-floor and the fully-carpeted lounge area, I would’ve thought that I was transported to a beach destination somewhere in the country. Yellow tabletops and couches really blend well with the ashen-colored floor. The massive wooden couches and metal leave art on the ceiling extends the creative impression on the hotel.
Check-in time is at 3 PM and this ensures that most of the checking-out guests are already out, allowing the front-desk crew to assist arriving guests. With that, dealing with the check-in process was a swift one. After handing the keycards, Wifi details, and few welcome spiels, I found myself scaling the building to the 19th floor.
Apartment Type Hotel Units
Citadines Millennium Ortigas has a total of 293 premier units, called as apart’hotel, spread on several types from studio to one-, two-, or three-bedroom units. The room assigned to us is a one-bedroom executive unit measuring around 75-82 square meters. Space will surely astound you the moment you get inside the unit. The colors from the lobby continued to ease my eyes with the accents integrated into the room’s interior design.
One-bedroom executive unit of Citadines Millennium Ortigas is not a hotel room, it’s a fully functional condo unit! On the living room is a tuxedo couch, an armchair sofa, flat-screen and cable-enabled television. The main hall turned into a movie theater when we closed the floor-to-ceiling window and tuned-in to a movie channel.
For the bedroom, the king-sized bed is furnished with cushy beddings and plushy pillows. There’s another flat-screen television inside the room so there’s no need to stay in the living area when you want to lie down and watch a movie. A working desk is placed next to the window that offers a view of the one of the high-end subdivisions in the metro, Corinthian Gardens. If you’re with your kids, an art set is available for your littles, just reach out to the front-office on how to get one.
As for the bathroom, it has two doors connected on both the bedroom and the living room. The shower area, enclosed on glass dividers, has both handheld and overhead shower spouts. Indulge in a relaxing bath with the award-winning Crabtree and Evelyn bath and body essentials offered. Added bonus is the availability of a bidet.
Dinner in the Room
On the other side is the dining area with a 4-seater dining table and a fully-equipped kitchen. The kitchenette has a cooker hob and hood, induction cooker, a microwave oven, refrigerator, and complete glassware, crockery, cutlery, and utensils. In addition, is a coffee and tea making facility with an electric kettle and complimentary packets of coffee and cream, and Twining’s tea. That doesn’t end there because there’s also a washing machine and dryer next to the kitchen sink.
Speaking of the kitchen, since the hotel is just a block away from a mall, we decided to hit the grocery and buy stuff to maximize the kitchen facilities. We hauled the grocery lanes and bought beef sirloin, pasta, and cheap bottles of wine. And since I’m the one who’s most exposed on cooking, I served as the chef of the night. We had a supposed-to-be medium steak (but turned out well done), pesto pasta, and fruits and cream.
It was a fun night sharing stories about travel and life over food that was shared with wine. This kind of experience makes apartment type hotels supersede the usual hotel experience. The staycation is an intimate venue for group of friends or families to bond more without compromising the time of leaving the hotel rooms just to have a nice meal.
Breakfast at Relish Luxe Cafe
Though the units already have fully-functional kitchen, hotel rates still include a breakfast. Buffet breakfast is served at Relish Luxe Café on the ground level of the hotel. Buffet sections are on a perimeter of a square ranging from soup, overnight oats, salad, cold cuts and cheese, meats, fruits, and bread and pastries. Coffee and beverages are within reach on the nearby counter.
Hotel Facilities
Citadines Millennium Ortigas facilities include a 25-meter indoor swimming pool open from 6AM up to 10PM. If you’re a long staying guest, you can use the laundry room service on the 3rd level of the hotel. Don’t skip leg day with the hotel’s fitness center equipped with handful treadmills, elliptical trainers, lat pulldown and leg curl machines, bench press, and weights. The hotel also has a wellness spa and a residential lounge on the third floor.
Overall, our stay at Citadines Millennium Ortigas was remarkable. To be honest, it was my first time to stay in a full-service apartment type hotel and I was really impressed. Considering most of your needs within your reach, this maximizes the staycation experience without leaving the corners of the hotel room, unit rather.
Citadines Millennium Ortigas
11 Ortigas Avenue, Ortigas Center
Pasig City, Manila
+632-814-6888
enquiry.manila@the-ascott.com
https://www.citadines.com
