I stayed here in late April after booking over a month in advance. Traveling with a friend who came all the way from Australia, I asked prior to booking to make sure I could get two 1-one bedroom rooms close to each other. I was assured it would be no problem, so I ended up booking two rooms for 5 nights.When we arrived, I told the Customer Experience Manager my name and reminded her of the special request in my reservation. She acted like it was the first she’d heard of it. After a few minutes of waiting, she explained they did not have 2 rooms together in the hotel but they owned property nearby - and she had 2 of those apartments close together. We agreed to take the off-site rooms and set off with the Manager to check in.The apartments were in old historic buildings that would make wonderful accommodations if some investment was made to modernize the infrastructure, but the places are in terrible condition. Both apartments were clearly cleaned prior - but upon entering, were hot, humid, dark, and full of mosquitos. There was also an overwhelmingly strong odor of septic that pervaded both adjoining houses. Although it was laughably awkward to not even acknowledge the putrid smell, I didn’t say anything to the Manager. I live on a neighboring island and am used to transient septic smells, so I genuinely assumed it would dissipate. Except we stayed there 2 nights, and the entire area smelled like portable toilet the whole time we were there.Likewise, I initially ignored the massive infestation of mosquitoes in both places, thinking we could handle it. Within the first hour, we went to the nearest grocery and bought coils, candles, and spray to supplement the rackets they'd provided. But it never got any better. And it’s not even the rainy season here, so I cannot begin to explain this condition unless somehow related to water/sewage issues in the area.We struggled to sleep there at all, between the clouds of mosquitoes, putrid stench, and loud street noise, not to mention the stiff, scratchy bed linens. After the second night, we’d had enough. We walked down the Renaissance, where I begged them for a room. I paid another $1500 for it on top of the $1500 I’d already wasted at Bario, but felt it was worth it to get out of the place we eventually dubbed “Alcatraz.” We tidied the Bario apartments, then dropped off keys with the staff before 10am on the 2nd day.Interestingly, we never got any correspondence from the hotel staff that was not a fully-automated message. The management team either knows full well why we ditched and didn’t need to ask and/or doesn’t care, because no attempt was made to even talk to us about our experience. Any reputable place would have offered to refund us for the extra days if they’d stuck you in a completely uninhabitable room, but that obviously didn’t happen.The only redeeming feature of Bario was the food. There are several cuisine “themes” available, and all the food we tried was fresh, well-prepared, and tasty. The dining environment is also surrounded by trees and art and fresh breeze - truly can’t be beat. But after 5 meals there, rotating through a variety of servers and shifts, we found it interesting that none of the servers were friendly or even rarely cracked a smile unless talking amongst themselves. Amusingly to us, the servers all wear black shirts that read “Keep Walking” on the back of them. There was never any reference to it or explanation that we found, so we would entertain ourselves at each meal trying to figure out what it meant. We decided it was obviously just a warning to any tourists considering staying there - just KEEP WALKING.
