At around 3:00a.m., barely an hour after, Billy, the househelp of Turo's cousin woke Tito Art (of UPLB's Batcave fame) pointing towards the backdoor where he saw a man scurrying out carrying with him several of our bags. The man realized he was seen and left the bags so he could escape. The lights went on and everyone was awake again except for the kids. Three celphones, one bag and Turo's walking shorts with his wallet were found missing. We called the police and also the attention of the Inn 's owner.
The Tagaytay Police arrived shortly. Billy recounted to the police what he saw: that earlier on a man was already observing our room from outside, and later the same person entered the room through an open window and crawled his way into a corner where all the missing items were placed, then snuck out through the back door. Billy positively identified the man as one of the helpers of Viewpoint Inn, whom he was able to have a short conversation with in the early evening The Inn 's owner, on the other hand, took more than an hour to walk from his house which was a few steps away. He was immediately defensive upon learning that one of his helpers was a suspect to the robbery. Of course it was natural for him to protect his "employees" (we later found out that the helpers who worked the night shift weren't exactly employees of the Inn but "tambays" who assisted visitors during their stay and get as their income the tips they receive from the customers), but we also expected him to take accountability for the incident as it happened within the vicinity of Viewpoint Inn, which he did not.
Turo, his dad, sister and brother, who owned the missing items, and Billy, the witness, went to the police station to give a statement while the rest of us waited in the Inn. The Inn 's owner also came along. The police urged the owner to agree to a settlement, which we are open to so as to avoid the hassle of police procedures but the Inn 's owner did not want to. In the end, three counts of robbery were filed against the Inn 's helper who would be detained for 15 days while the police continued the investigation and hearings were scheduled etc.
When they got back, we were all too tired, sleepless and upset about what happened so we packed our things and decided to go home. On our way out, one of the helpers stopped us and asked us to settle our bill (we have only paid 50% downpayment upon check-in). And although we no longer wanted to pay them after our horrible experience at their inn, we were civil enough to pay the remaining half. We don't know if the owners were crazy, insensitive or mukha lang talaga silang pera because they even charged us an additional P200/head because we exceeded the room capacity. We were not informed that the room has a maximum capacity limit, to begin with. In fact, the Inn offered such poor service that aside from the lack of security, their office was already closed after 7 or 8pm. Add to this the management's practice of getting tambays to man the Inn, not paying their services and expecting the customers to give them tips for a living. No wonder their helpers would resort to stealing from the visitors. The management of Viewpoint Inn is obviously accountable for what had happened but they refuse to take responsibility.
Viewpoint Inn & Restaurant in Tagaytay is not accredited by the Department of Tourism. I doubt if they could get one as they obviously don't meet the minimum accreditation standards set by DOT. A sign on their door says they are accredited by the Tagaytay Tourism Council, but, of course, we would be utilizing our contacts to have them de-listed.
Our weekend in Viewpoint Inn Tagaytay was such a dreadful experience that I had to write this down and send to all of you. It was bad enough that some of our stuff were stolen, but the fact that they were stolen with all of us there makes me think that all of our lives were also at risk that certain time, not just our belongings. So if you and your family or your friends are planning a trip to Tagaytay, please stay away from Viewpoint Inn.
I would not want you to end up the same way we did. Kindly tell your friends about this.
Thanks a lot.
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