I really love doing out of towns especially during weekends. Though I’m not much of a backpack traveler, I still loved it. And since I loved travelling, I was assigned the task to look for a venue for our quarterly team building.

The event will take place in one of the private resorts in Pansol Laguna. After one hour drive from Makati, finally, we’ve arrived at the heart of Pansol, Laguna where resorts are scattered everywhere. Looking for a Resort in Pansol Laguna is a little hard especially if it’s your first time to this kind of task. We spent three hours looking for a nice resort in Pansol Laguna considering our budget. We left Pansol Laguna at around 5.30PM and I was speeding away to get my hands to my laptop to write what we’ve learned while looking for a resort in Pansol Laguna.

I took the liberty to write what we’ve learned in looking for a resort in Pansol Laguna so that anyone who bumps onto this blog will know what to do and not commit the same mistakes again. Find helpful tips when finding a resort in Pansol Laguna and the list starts right now!

1. Google “Resorts In Pansol Laguna”

The title says it all, before jumping into your car or in a high-speed killer bus bound to Pansol Laguna to find a resort for your vacation, use the internet first! Do some scouting. It will take you 30 minutes to 2 hours of free clicking the links in google search. Write down all your prospect resorts. Write down as many as you can, it doesn’t matter how many, I’m sure you’ll be trimming down that list afterwards.

Some resorts have their websites but some of them don’t, especially those small resorts. Some websites of resorts in Laguna include important details that are very useful in your search. They cater to almost all your basic questions, including the price and amenities. But like what I’ve said, most small-sized resorts don’t have websites.

Take note of the name of the resort, contact number, its address and the initial price to rent the entire resort (if available). For now, these are the most important things you should do.

2. Fit In The Budget

Now you have long-listed all your prospect resorts, it’s now time to do the trimming. Remember that this long list is not the final list. Start crossing out your list of Pansol Laguna resorts by considering your budget.

Is your budget enough to pay the resort’s rent?

Common sense, if the answer is No then you can cross that out in the list. If yes, just leave it for now.

Question: Does the resorts in Pansol Laguna give discounts or “Tawad”? In our case, Yes. The owner of the resort gave us a Php2, 000 discount/tawad. He gave us his resort for Php12,000 for 24 hours. : )

I bet you have crossed out many in your list right now.

3. Ready. Set. Go!

This is the time for you to go to Pansol Laguna to visit the resorts that you’ve listed. Why are you doing this you may say? Because you want to see the actual place of your prospect private pool. Looking at the pictures provided by the websites is not that reliable. Paying a visit is the best thing to do. You also want to make arrangements with the owners of resorts. This time, you’ll do the inquiry face to face with the owner or the caretaker of the private pool.

4. Make The Inquiry.

You need few things before going to Pansol, Laguna.

• Your Resort List.
• Cash, at least half of your budget for Resort Rental deposit or advance payment.
• Mobile Phone, with lots of load.

Most of the time, the owner is not around and the only individuals to accommodate you are the caretakers. Make an initial inquiry about the resort. You have two (2) important and basic questions that needs to be answered by the caretaker if the owner is not around.

• Is the resort available for the day you’re planning to rent the place?
• How much to rent the place?

If the caretaker can’t answer your questions, ask him/her if you can talk to the owner. I’m pretty sure you can now get a clear answer from the owner. Ask any questions you want to ask relating to the resort such as how many rooms, how many persons the place can accommodate and other stuff.

5. Know What You Want.

Part of planning our quarterly team building is about the activities we’ll be doing on that day. As a requirement, the resort we should rent should have the following:

Conference room, spacious place for the team oriented games for the participants, Four (4) rooms with many beds that can accommodate 10 persons, a videoke machine, a jacuzzi, a pool with slide/s, a barbecue grill and a billiard table.

It is easier for you to decide if you will get the resort if you know what you want. If you see the place, you can easily analyze for yourself if you’re going to pay for it.

6. Money Down.

Most of the resorts in Pansol Laguna’s require having a down payment to reserve the resort for a certain date. It doesn’t matter if you talked to the owner and make them agree that you’ll be renting their place on a certain date. Both parties confirmation to rent the private pool doesn’t assure you that you’ll get it on your specified date; this requires a down payment to seal the deal. If you don’t this, they will give the resort to others who can provide a down payment. Make sure you ask for a receipt or any evidence that you paid them to prevent any problems in the future.

7. Talk To The Right Person

When looking for a resort in Pansol Laguna, make sure that you talk to the right person. Talk to the owner or the caretaker. This can be fully explained by what happened to us.

True Story:

This happened to us last February 5, 2012, before we went to Pansol Laguna, we Googled the available resorts in Pansol Laguna. We landed on this website that lists the majority of the private pools in Pansol Laguna. We made a list with names of the resorts, contact numbers and addresses. Mostly important details. While browsing the website we’ve noticed that the contact numbers of the all the resorts we’ve listed is all the same and pointing to one person. We contacted him and told him we would like to have an ocular visit with few resorts. He agreed and guided us how to go to Pansol.

We visited every single resort we’ve listed. When we had our choice, we texted him. We asked him if the place is available on February 14 and that we’re going to rent the place overnight. He said Yes. We sealed the deal and paid the down payment, Php6, 000. When we’re in the Makati near our office, an unknown number is calling my mobile phone. I answered and talk to the woman at the other end of the line. It was the owner of the resort. She said that the resort is not available on February 14 and that she’s very sorry for what happened. She said she will help us to book another resort. She also mentioned that the person we’re talking to all the time have no idea about the scheduling of the resort. He was just a sales guy who happens to have a website and working on commission basis. This guy happens to have a website and contracted resort owners of Pansol Laguna and let their resorts be published on his website. We we’re so pissed at that guy that he made us travel all the way back to Pansol!

We booked another resort and vowed that we will spread the word about this experience.

Never talk nor transact with any unauthorized person. Talk to the right person, preferably the owners or the caretakers of the resort.

8. There’s So Many Fish In The Sea

In our case, we don’t just choose the first resort we visited. We tried to visit every resort listed. We do this because there are so many resorts that can offer what we’re looking for. They only differ on their prices and the amenities. If you really want to book the best resort in Pansol Laguna with the cheapest price, you have to find it.

Time will come that I will be the one delegated to organize another event out of town, maybe in a different place. But my experience looking for a resort in Pansol Laguna taught me many things.

If you are looking for a resort in Pansol Laguna, where do you think you should start?