Lodging Accommodations in Baguio for Holy Week

The rush to secure suitable lodging accommodations for Holy Week 2007 is on!

I don’t understand why, since Baguio is most popular during Holy Week, that folks wait until the last minute to book hotel rooms and transient houses. By last minute, I mean one month before. That’s just too late already. The wise ones reserve as early as December or January.

This article will probably be lost in the depths of the internet but I must still say it — secure Baguio lodging early, peak season or off-peak (because Baguio does transform into a “convention city” from June to October). Since Baguio is not a day-trip from Manila, each visitor MUST have a room for the night, especially with little children in tow. So I do not see any reason why booking is done so late. Maybe folks just do not realize that Baguio is a very, very popular destination. Of course Boracay and Cebu have overtaken our little town in popularity since the 1990 earthquake and the Camp John Hay turnover in 1997, but still, we do see an increase in visitors every year!

There are always new hotels being built and more Baguio residents have entered into the “transient home” business and yet, there aren’t enough rooms sometimes. Those who do not have reservations rely on taxi drivers who, for a hefty commission of 20%-40%, will take their passengers to the lodging house that offers the highest rate. And these places are not necessarily in good neighborhoods and do not have ample water supply. I have “rescued” many a guest from this predicament once too often.

Since most Baguio hotels do not have websites (something I’ve been encouraging them to work on for years), I figured I would do them the favor of publishing their names, addresses and phone numbers at Go Baguio! for free. I published a “get listed for free” button on my website but in the past 10 months only two transient houses have availed of this. So during quiet moments, I actually copy the info from the Baguio telephone directories.

Now, those who do have websites concentrate on design and not on site marketing, which means that when you type “baguio hotels” in a major search engine, sometimes their sites are buried deep in the Google or Yahoo! pages. Very few supplement their sites with advertising, either directly with a Baguio portal or through Goodle Adwords. Haaayyy…. I guess some innkeepers know only how to keep house and just wait for customers. They have to understand that the world does not have a copy of the Baguio phone book or our weekly popular newspaper, Baguio Midland Courier (which, incidentally, does not also have a website).

Oh well, part of Baguio’s charm is that it sometimes is locked in time. That the folks here still walk ever so slowly and life can still be a bit graceful compared to other “highly urbanized cities.” But for those in the hospitality business, how do they expect to make money if they don’t have websites? They simply do not understand the power of the internet.

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