This place probably wouldn't suit my neatnik Aunt Tillie, but it still has its positive points. The cheap-seat, studio room I was in was very spacious and unlike most rooms I have had in Manila, was painted in white tones giving the place a nice, open feel. There's a good sized frig in the room, a two burner hotplate, and an assortment of utensils and pans if you want to cook. The bed is comfortable. There is plenty of hot water at all times. My room on the 26th floor had it's own balcony, and I believe all rooms have this. From it, there's a nice view of the Makati skyline. There's a small gym on the top level with a treadmill and free weights. There's also a small pool. This condotel is on a quiet street with no traffic hassles.

On the bad side, the room had ants. They weren't the biting kind, and I had no problems with them, but I suppose some folks wouldn't like this. The bed creaked with any kind of vigorous movement, and I had to solve the problem by putting the mattress on the floor. The room is kind of worn -- some slight peeling of wall paper and a few crevices where dust collected were apparent. The place isn't really dirty, though, at least by my standards. It's just not middle class America clean. The exercise room is very hot which prevented me from getting a good workout. The treadmill, even though it reads as being at a 0% incline, is actually at what I would guess to be a 1.5 to 2% incline which threw my routine off.

What's really bad about this place? Location, location, location! I like to walk around the areas I stay in, and all I could find in an approximate 2 mile radius were banks (lots of banks...I thought the Phils was a poor country), Greenbelt and Landmark Malls, some tired ol' bars with no action, places like Starbucks and KFC, and other nondescript businesses. And getting a cab during rush hour to escape the location resulted in the rip off tune of something like, “I'll take you there for 300 pesos.” This never happened if a Filipina was with me, although during heavy traffic times we would still be hit up for a nominal 20 or 30 peso surcharge over the meter reading.

BSA Suites is located on Carlos Palanca Street, Legaspi Village, Makati. I paid 29 USD a night through asiahotels.com. I just checked their prices at the website for a couple of dates in June, and they're now quoting $38 a night. Maybe it's high season there during the Northern Hemisphere summer. In my opinion, 38 bucks is definitely too much to pay for this place. Stay at the Copa for less or at one of the 2000 peso a night hotels in Malate right near the action...unless you're my Aunt Tillie. Then you better book the Shangri La. ;-)