Hotel Review: Hotel Lorenzana and the weird sound

Hotel Lorenza is conveniently located at the downtown area of Tacloban City. It houses 50 guest rooms and suites and they have their own in house restaurantcalled Lillybelle's Cafe on the ground floor where they also serve their breakfast buffet. But what's the most important thing to note is that they offer free wifi for guests that which, fortunately, has decent speed and does actually reach the rooms. Free wifi is a must you know. haha! Initially, we booked 4 rooms, 2 deluxe double and 2 premium deluxe as the standard rooms are all booked during our stay. We checked in only around 7pm and were greeted by their nice and polite front desk staff. We had a hard time finding a parking space as they only have 4 slots in front of the hotel and most of the time it's already occupied at night so that's one thing to take note of.

The lobby's interior was nice with just enough space for guests checking in and some chairs for those waiting for someone in the lobby. Checking in was a breeze, present your ID, fill up some guest details and they now give you your room key. Yes, literally a key to you room. :) You may opt to pay as you check out which is good as we decided to cut down the booked room to two. More on that later ;)

Room assignments among the 4 of us was unplanned so we just decided to randomly picked our room key and so I ended up with one of the deluxe double room. At first glance, room size is just the right size for one even though the room was supposed to be for 2 persons.

So this is how my room looked like

It has a queen sized bed with a side table and also a mirror on the side (not seen on the picture above) of the bed which is just kind of creepy. Who would want to see herself at night while trying to sleep? not me. Room also have cable tv with the mini fridge below. Bathroom was also kind of small but enough for one to do what needs to be done. Bath kit includes: shampoo with conditioner, soap, lotion and a dental kit. But what I appreciate more than anything is there power socket near the bed which some hotel often doesn't have. Free wifi access in the room and power socket near the bed? Check.

Before settling in to rest on our first night, we first had our dinner in the nearby Fahrenheit Food Center to have a taste of their famous cheeseburger. And it was honestly good! They also have rice meals in their menu but I haven't tried their fries with mayo which was also one of their bestsellers.

Got back to the hotel and ate our food together in one of our rooms. So here's how their premium deluxe room looks like

Premium deluxe is obviously more spacious. According to their website, this is suited for a family. It has the same queen sized bed but with additional single bed on the side.

Given that space, we can definitely opt to just share this room for two which we definitely did the next day, cancelling the 2 deluxe double room that we had for our first night which was slight because of me. haha! So here's what happened on our first night. After dinner we went back to each of our room. Alone in the room, I just went straight to bed and opened the tv just to have some noise in the background while I'm browsing the net. And some unexpected noise happened. Well, basically it just sound like a knock. Like a sound knocking three times. I thought it was just something that fell or moved from somewhere around the room so I just ignored it. Then after some minutes, I heard it again, same sound, same pattern and same side of the room (on the wall facing outside). Well ok, it was just a sound, nothing extraordinary if you look around. I would seriously sleep and just completely ignore it if only not for the ghost stories we heard earlier that day. After Typhoon Yolanda hit Tacloban, some people had heard voices crying and there was even one story that a jeepney driver had seen someone dripping wet while riding in the back of his jeep then turned out there wasn't really a person there. Okaaaaay. Alone in my room, it was almost midnight and I'm seriously starting to overthink. It happened again, and again. I turned up the volume of the tv but then I heard it again. I was planning to transfer to the other room as they have an extra bed there but I don't know how I can stand up and open the door to run to the room 2 doors beside my room in just a minute. I just can't. haha! So I just hid under the covers trying to sleep as in the morning I will definitely transfer to my colleagues room. So long story short, we just used the 2 premium deluxe room and cancelled the other 2 deluxe double rooms. I definitely need a roommate :) Front desk agreed with no charges for cancellation. Highly appreciate the easy transaction

So besides that creepy night, our stay was good. Still a good place to consider when other hotels nearby are already booked. Some things that they may also consider to improve is their hallway lighting as it was a bit dark. They could also definitely use some light ambiance music in the hallway to set the mood and contrast the dull interiors in the upper floors.

Oh, and for the breakfast buffet? 4-5 choices of viands to have with rice or by itself. They also have choices of bread and spread to choose from. An egg station is also available where you could choose on what to include in your egg omelette. Cereals are also available if you want. Coffee, tea, juice or water is what you could choose from for your drinks.
  
Will I stay again? Might consider if the other known hotels are already fully booked.