30/07/2026
I want to be unambiguous about something before this piece goes any further: I am, in no way, bashing this hotel. Golden Peak graciously extended an ex-deal to a writer who had been off the radar for six years, with no guarantee of what I would write once I checked out.
That is a real act of trust on their part, and I do not take it lightly.
But I am writing this from a Marketing Communications Officer’s perspective as much as a guest’s — someone who has sat on the property side of exactly this kind of arrangement and knows what it costs a hotel, in both money and exposure, to say yes to a reviewer. I am also, plainly, a frequent traveler, booking and staying in hotels across this country and abroad long before I ever wrote about one.
I may not have paid for this particular stay, but that does not loosen my obligation, it tightens it. Not paying for a room does not exempt a writer from telling the truth about it; if anything, it makes the truth the only fair currency left to hand back in return.
I am morally and ethically bound to put down facts rather than whitewash them with flattery, because a reader trusting this piece has no way of knowing which parts were earned through comfort and which were earned through honesty, unless I hold that line myself.
Read more about my experience with Golden Peak Hotel & Suites Cebu on a recent stay.
Disclosure: This stay was arranged on an ex-deal basis between Golden Peak Hotel and Suites and Inner Self Sojourns / , covering one night’s accommodation in a Junior Suite and breakfast for two. No other food and beverage arrangements were extended, and all observations in this piece reflect the author’s direct, first-person experience during the stay of July 25–26, 2026.
Or how I had managed to get a night’s shut eye amidst inconveniences. A factual say on our STAY.
