Toyoko Inn Cebu — Complete Guide (Part 3 of 3)

Date: 2020-02-17

---

Continued from Part 2: Breakfast and facilities.

---

Sky Water Park

Directly beside the 6th-floor lobby: an outdoor pool area, accessible to all hotel guests at no charge. Public admission is 1,000 pesos — staying at Toyoko Inn makes this complimentary.

Two pools:

1. A shallower recreational pool with a water slide — suited for families and children.

2. A circular lap pool, deeper and designed for continuous swimming. A jacuzzi is beside it (unheated, but in Cebu's climate this is irrelevant).

3. At one end: a narrow infinity pool section with an open view over Mandaue Bay.

The outdoor area is exposed to the Cebu sky and sea breeze. After a hot day in the city, arriving back to a freely available pool is a genuine advantage over hotels that charge pool access or don't have one at all.

---

R-Spa: Japanese-Managed Massage

At the far end of the 6th-floor pool area: R-Spa, operated by a Japanese management team.

1 hour massage: 400 pesos + 50 pesos tip to the therapist = 450 pesos total (~¥970, ~£7).

Choice of oil or dry massage. A 90-minute course is also available. Before the session, a form is completed covering: pressure preference, any areas of fatigue or tension, specific focus areas. No verbal communication required — the form handles everything.

The methodology is the owner's proprietary approach, working along meridian lines to release accumulated tension. The effect afterwards is immediate — the body feels cleared and re-energised. The treatment rooms are clean and fully private (not curtained sections on a shared floor, which is the standard for budget massage in the Philippines). The beds have a proper face cradle for prone position — eliminating the neck strain that floor-mat massage often causes.

Context for pricing: London massage minimum: £1 per minute, £60 per hour. Toyoko Inn R-Spa: 450 pesos for an hour, equivalent to roughly £6.50. That is approximately one-tenth of London prices.

During an extended Cebu stay, we visit once or twice a week. After a day of walking in the heat, the recovery effect is considerable.

---

Staff Service

Three incidents worth recording, all illustrating the unusually high service standard:

Incident 1 — Hot water: On the first evening, we could not get the shower to produce hot water and called reception. A maintenance staff member arrived within 5 minutes. As it turned out, we had been operating it incorrectly. He showed us how it worked without any indication of annoyance. Five-minute response time in the Philippines — by any standard, this is exceptional.

Incident 2 — Power cut: On the second morning, the room electricity shut down. We reported it to reception. Two female staff members arrived within 5 minutes, checked the room circuit breakers (normal), relayed the situation by radio, and said they would return. Five minutes later, a male maintenance engineer arrived, diagnosed the problem — our Toyoko Inn room card was not properly registered in the door slot — and solved it on the spot, with a card update from reception.

The entire resolution: under 15 minutes, calm, professional, solution found. Not "Filipino time" — a phrase often used, not entirely unfairly, to describe local attitudes toward urgency. Here: different.

Incident 3 — Breakfast farewell: The 9am group send-off from the breakfast team — described in Part 2 — deserves mention again. The consistent smile, the joint Japanese-English delivery, the coordinated effort every morning regardless of how full or quiet the hall was. The staff training visible here exceeds what we have seen at 5-star hotels in Cebu, including Radisson Blu.

---

Rating: 10 out of 10

We would stay here again without hesitation.

For the price — 2,500 pesos/night for two, including breakfast — the combination of free airport transfer, good WiFi, Japanese breakfast, bathtub, washlet, pool, spa, and a bar with reasonable prices is not matched elsewhere in Cebu at this level.

The service quality, in a country where consistent service quality is genuinely challenging to maintain, is what elevates this hotel beyond its category.

Suggested itinerary for Cebu visitors: Use Toyoko Inn for the nights before and after arriving or departing via Mactan Airport. For the middle nights, base yourself at a Mactan Island beach resort. This combination gives you the practical, well-connected base for arrival and departure logistics, and the resort experience in the middle — without overpaying for resort rates on nights when you're mainly moving through.