Medio Hotel, Zamboanga City: A Review

I lost all my photos of this hotel because of a USB stick virus.
I borrowed this photo from ph.openrice.com.  You can
check out their site for more travel infos.

It was more by chance rather than choice that we got to stay at Medio Hotel.  Our Airphil Express flight Manila-Zamboanga last October 7 was delayed for 5 hours, having us land at Zamboanga 10pm instead of 5pm.  The kind tricycle driver that serviced us from the airport led us here after finding out that our choice of Hotels and every other hotel in the city was fully booked.  When we got to Medio Hotel, I was at first hesitant given that the place did not look like a hotel at all except that it did have a reception counter.  They had only 1 room left and it was a deluxe room costing Php1,300 for an overnight stay.  We decided to take the room as I did not want us loitering the streets of Zamboanga at 12MN with a 6 year old.  Soon as we got the room, another tricycle came by with a passenger also in search of a room to spend the night.  Buti na lang nauna kami!

First impression of the hotel was really not so good.  It reminded me of the hotel Leonard De Caprio stayed in in his movie The Beach.  The staircase going to the room was dimly lighted, and the corridor was dark, narrow and creepy.  My husband and I figured that the reason this was named Medio Hotel and Restaurant was that it was still halfway to being a hotel and restaurant, because it is actually a department store.

The only photo saved thanks to openrice.com.
This is the photo I took of the room we occupied at
Medio Hotel.

Our room was located at the end of the hall.  Upon entering I felt relieved as the room was fairly good compared to the hotel’s facade.  The room was air-conditioned, spacious, and still smelled of fresh paint, the tiles seem new and the furniture looked brand new too.  There was one double bed and one single bed, a round table and 2 chairs, a closet for luggage, a dresser, a small television set with cable and a bathroom with built-in water heater which was a welcome treat for me and my son. (TV lang at maayos na banyo, okay na kami ng anak ko. He! He!) The room did not have a good view of anything.  All you see is a parking lot with a number of motorcycles parked.

Overall, I give the hotel a B- as it still has so much room for improvement especially the lobby.  The rates are reasonable and the room is fairly comfortable.  If I were in Zamboanga sometime in the future, I would consider staying at Medio Hotel again.