Should Baguio Hotels Provide Airconditioning?
March 3, 2007 by lisa
Filed under business & economy
A lady from Germany emailed me an inquiry for lodging in July at my bed & breakfast inn, and she specifically insisted on airconditioned rooms. I explained to her that Baguio hotels and other lodging accommodations, not even those that charge Php4,000/night for a room for 2 provide airconditioning (see photo). The whole of Baguio, even our golf courses, are “naturally air-cooled!”
Of course, knowing that she’s coming from a really cold place like Germany, I thought she was concerned that it might be too hot here for them. When I assured her that late July in Baguio is particularly cold (and wet), she said that she saw some reviews online that recommended she select a hotel with airconditioned rooms.
I believe only one hotel in Baguio has airconditioning, and not because it’s warm here but because it’s located right in the center of town, at the corner of Abanao Extension and Magsaysay Avenue, across Maharlika Livelihood Center, which is adjacent to the Baguio City Market. This means they can’t let the natural air in due to noise and air pollution. Although well made, it’s located at the busiest intersection downtown, near all the jeepney loading areas.
You may have also noticed, ALL our thousands of of jeepneys park and pick up passengers around Burnham Park, the side streets off Session Road, by the market, and near the schools, a policy and practice that has to be changed if we are to keep the Central Business District pollution free. Ah, but the jeepney “system” here is the subject of a future article.
Back to airconditioning. I love the way Baguio is so chilly: that’s why I live here! Our temperature is always around 8 degrees lower than the rest of the country, and more or less the same temperature as an airconditioned room in Manila, about 2 degress higher than spring in Los Angeles California. Average temperature is 21 degrees celsius at high noon and 17 degrees at night. The only airconditioned businesses are the banks, and only for security reasons. They can’t have windows.
So is the concern really about the temperature or the pollution?
Please note that any air and noise pollution is pretty much limited to one area: the Central Business District. Because of the jeepney routes that ALL land in the “Plaza” (Burham Park / City Market areas), because diesel engines have a hard time heating up here (my Nissan Patrol would emit smoke in Baguio, but not in Manila), because the Plaza is at a low point and all vehicles have to climb uphill to get out of there, because that area is crowded with all the big universities located there, because the current residents and local government officials of Baguio are in love with concrete, galvanized iron and plastic.
When you suggest airconditioning to a Baguio resident or even electric fans, they actually feel insulted. After all, unlike Tagaytay that’s just windy, in Baguio you get chilled to the bone! In fact, the concern here is how to generate heat not cold. A month ago, the temperatures dropped to 7 degrees celsius! And during the wet season, everyone uses their fireplace.
So what is my suggestion? That the businesses in the Central Business District, especially the hotels:
- lobby to re-route the jeepneys (that are too numerous and empty for most of the day),
- disallow them from parking downtown (they “uglify” Baguio, too),
- use less cement and plastic,
- maintain their grounds, and set aside spaces for lush greenery (stop cutting trees to clear the area for building expansion),
- set their buildings back instead of maximizing the property and building firewalls (that have windows and glass anyway, in violation of the building code),
- provide ample parking for their guests (as on-street parking causes traffic, too)
- OR PROVIDE THEIR GUESTS WITH ROOM AIRCONDITIONING
Is it just me, or did you notice that Filipinos are “allergic” to wide, open spaces?
What is my suggestion for selecting lodging accommodations for visitors then? Check out Where to Stay in Baguio. You may also want to view maps so you can tell which part is the Central Business District. Avoid that area except to shop, and stay on the beautiful South and East Sides, where there are thousands of tall pine trees, where the properties are large and spacious, where Baguio is romantic.
We just...
Hi Lisa,
That was funny–> the German lady insisting for A/C. I did feel the rise in temperature when I was in Baguio last year(late March-early April) but compared to being in Manila, it’s nothing. It’s true, go where the trees are and experience the real Baguio.
OMG Tina, I love the way you summarized everything I said in one line! Go where the trees are…
hi lisa,
so can you save me a small lot to build my small retirement home near the log cabins that the former president joseph estrada built those log cabins. that’s the only place left where the trees are…. and hopefully not taken yet. i have googleearthed the place and i tell you that’s the baguio atmosphere i once knew. keep blogging!
Hi, Joe.
You’d better come here now and buy your lot before all the good ones are taken! You know how small Baguio is . . . In fact I’m calling on all ex-Baguio residents to come home and reclaim their hometown NOW! Leaving it to all the poor migrants from the lowlands will make Baguio look like, well, Pangasinan! Hahaha
Lisa,
Just merely stating the obvious. The Pine trees make all the difference, without them Baguio will not be Baguio anymore. With aliens(and the government turning blind eye) encroaching in watersheds and other forest reserves, water is becoming scarce. I hope to win the lottery here and come back to Baguio.
It’s sad that our once-green and almost forest-like property is now full of concrete apartments with very tacky architecture. What’s with the concrete love affair???
When and IF i’m able to buy my own property, I’ll get a lot up in Beckel or Ambuklao or Tiptop. I will plant some coffee trees and make my own coffee just as my dad did in our little forest. My hubby will have his own riding trail too… Oi, oi, gising! hahaha
OMG, we’ll be neighbors! That’s where I plan to buy too. Dreamers we are…
I think a lot of the current residents of Baguio have absolutely no taste in architecture and take the place for granted. They migrate from the lowlands think they have “arrived” if their house in made of cement, not wood. Hahaha!
Then of course, there’s the Chinese business style of buying a large property, cutting down all the trees, cementing it completely, building high walls with tall gates that can accommodate their cargo trucks), housing their factory or warehouse where they live. And I am talking about Leonard Wood Road! Haayyy…
That’s why, come back na! There is money to be made here (can teach you how to live for free) and schooling is good and cheap.
hahaha! Airconditioning in Baguio?!!! Although I must admit that we have an aircon unit at home and 3 electric fans “just in case” – or rather, even with the pine trees beside our house, it does get hot during the “summer” (anything above 24 degrees Celsius is hot for someone who was born in Baguio). Lisa, the average temperature of Baguio now from Baguio of old (1980s) had risen by 4 degrees – that’s why we have more mosquitoes and our pets get ticks now.
I hope and pray to God that people who love Baguio keep planting trees (And right now, I don’t mind if they plant them in a pot! Soon, they’ll realize it needs more BREATHING SPACE . . .), tell more ghost stories to discourage others from buying property (the kind of stories that will scare the building craze like knowing the EARTHQUAKE LINE), business owners to take their business in the outskirts of the city center (for instance, check out EVE’S GARDEN and MASTER’S FARM in Tamawan and that some universities like SLU and UP have building plans for outside the city center to de-clog the student population), politicians who manage Baguio have a strategic plan to keep Baguio green, clean, and cool (okay, it’s a challenge to name them), and citizenry who actively monitor our environment (volunteer)!
Do we need a fire? Shoot, that’s the reason for the love affair with the CONCRETE BUILDINGS, Chateau! Pre-1991, the Baguio Country Club was more than 70% wooden, and a fire broke out and the blaze could be seen as far as La Union. The reconstructed BCC is now mostly concrete and made to look like pine! Or another bomb raid to start over? I hope not!
Hey, we’ll be neighbors??! That would be great, LOL!
There is a warehouse now along Leonard Wood? I know that Henry Sy bought my dream house – the white haunted house. I hope it doesn’t become a warehouse, duh.
Yes, I agree schooling is good and cheap. My niece studies in a reputable pre-school for only 20k/year. Of course that would never compare to how much I paid back in high school- p550.00/year! But I hear the tuition in my high school is now as high as 20k, with the scholarship subsidy scrapped.
Hay, at the moment, our business is here, so i have to support hubby. But we have agreed that retirement will definitely be up there! Oh I hope we get to retire early!
Hi, Marie! Here is my list of things that make Baguio warmer than before — and all of them have MAN to blame:
>concrete (even concrete buildings get damaged irreparably by fire and BCC’s attempt at making cement posts look like tree trunks is kinda tacky)
>too many cars, too many passengerless jeeps and taxis moving around, too much on-the-road parking to impede traffic
>too little walking, whatever few sidewalks we have are used for commercial purposes like hawker stalls, “sale” items for stores, etc.
>too much body heat! too many people studying in one place. UB has, what, 15,000 students plus teachers and staff pa, in about just one hectare of property in the middle of town.
I’m glad to hear that the other schools have plans to move out. I’ve been suggesting to the younger Bautistas that they should buy 100 hectares in Ambuclao and create Bautista City there. They owe it to the students to allow them to breathe!
If we can fix all that, our temperature can return to normal. The ghost story ploy does not work, neither does the fault line. In fact, the ghost stories sometimes attract more visitors! Hahaha
Chateau, only if we earn enough to retire and buy in that area! And if somehow water can be pumped up to there. FYI, it was Lucio Tan who bought that beautiful house on Leonard Wood. And that “warehouse” is currently masquerading as a residence, but what kind of family has cargo trucks coming in and out at all times of the day?
My grandpa used to work for the Bureau of Forestry and he was always proud to say he played a big role in the planting of thousands of pine trees all over Baguio, Benguet and the Mountain Province. If he’d see the mountains now, he’d be very sad and angry.
“Do we need a fire? Shoot, that’s the reason for the love affair with the CONCRETE BUILDINGS, Chateau! Pre-1991, the Baguio Country Club was more than 70% wooden, and a fire broke out and the blaze could be seen as far as La Union.”
Oh yes, I remember that. I think it was in December 1990? I was in 4th year high school, and my first BF (enter nostalgic music here) and I watched the blaze from Quezon Hill. His parents were club members so…
Sorry, Lisa, I simply forgot (darn post-partum amnesia!). It’s Lucio Tan nga pala.
yeah that’s true … why do some tourists insist on finding a place to stay here in baguio with an aircon… they do not know the beauty of baguio…its having a centralized aircon…well not always but you can go along without any aircon…if you need more cool air go out there are a lot of trees…electric fans can do…
Aren’t they satisfied with our ‘aircon’ sitting on Mt Sto. Thomas?
I used to think air-cons and electric fans wouldn’t be needed here in Baguio but not anymore. Try the different supermarkets and different downtown department stores, they could be so stuffy at times. I’m glad for banks that are air-conditioned.
Yup, Chat, Baguio Country Club burned down TWICE! The first was the reason they rebuilt, then after the building was completed it burned down again! How about Pines Hotel (now SM City), burned, too! Mario’s at Manahan Building on Session Road (now KFC), burned! Baguio is so damp we don’t have forest fires. What’s this then? A ‘little’ negligent, wouldn’t you say?
Well, Evon, we can’t blame them. There are windowless hotel rooms in the middle of the city and the noise. We should just make them aware that not all lodging in Baguio is equal.
Katrina, who used to think the obsolete Ra-dars was aircon?
Hi Resty, banks, for security reasons should be sealed and airconditioned. The reason the older groceries had such dusty merchandise was because of the doors were wide open and there was no airconditioning.
But for one and all, my cousin drives her kids around in a mom mobile with closed windows. They have asthma, you see. A lot of folks have asthma in Baguio. The pollen I think.
hello! hehe. nice one!.. i’m a resident of baguio and its true that its rapidly being polluted. kapapatyo lang ulit ng isang building sa may baba ng S.M. at may dagdag flyover sa may BGH.. it sucks. very narrow..
Hello Kristine!
Hay naku, I just found out that Baguio has 4,437 REGISTERED jeepneys and 3,500 REGISTERED taxis. But my source in a government agency that monitors this on the national level says that there are there are 4,000 UNREGISTERED jeepneys and 4,000 unregistered taxis that are allowed to pollute the city.
That a DENR study conducted just on the number of times jeepneys would pass under Hotel Veniz reveals 43,000 passes from 8am-5pm. Imagine that!
Poor Baguio! It’s being mismanaged on all levels.
Hi Lisa,
I say implement the odd-even tags for vehicles. No rides on Sundays.
-ZigZag
GREETINGS!
WHEN BAGUIO CITY WAS STILL “YOUNG”, RESIDENCE OF BAGUIO REALLY ARE INSULTED IF SOMEONE WOULD MENTION ABOUT A/C OR ELECTRIC FANS.
AT THE PRESENT, GLOBAL WARMING HAD TAKEN PLACE AND AS A RESIDENT HERE FOR 35 YEARS, THE TEMPERATURE OF BAGUIO CITY HAD CLIMBED UP.
SOME HOTELS HERE, ESPECIALLY THOSE LOCATED AT THE CENTRAL BUSINESS AREA NEED A/C.
GOD BLESS!
Hi Zigzag,
I say move the big schools from the center of town and reroute the jeepneys!
Hi Vic,
I know! I still am insulted but we are so busy cutting down trees and planting concrete structures in their place! Honestly, the center of town is horrid. We contribute to global warming by not making Baguio the walking city it used to be. Why is the Baguio of today so allergic to gardens and plants?
Hello. I really think hotels and inns in baguio should have airconditioning. I am a frequent visitor in baguio and used to spend my whole summer vacation there when I was growing up and I have noticed that it gets warmer as the years pass. It gets stuffy and hot indoor at around ten in the morning to about 3 or 4 pm. I am sure people from other parts of the world would be more comfortable if they have an aircon to turn on and off at their whim.
Hi Sarah,
Thank you so much for your observations. I agree that there are some hotels, especially those in the city center, and those lodging places made of concrete and which are set so close to other buildings should offer airconditioning.
What of course folks must realize is the the price of a room will go up considerably once airconditioning is offered, whether or not the guest feels the need to turn the appliance on and regardless of the number of hours it is used.
There are still many Baguio hotels that enjoy relative cool even at high noon, mostly the tourist hotels in the East side of the city — Camp John Hay, Leonard Wood, so make sure you choose a place in these locations on your next few visits.
Again, thanks for your thoughts.