05/21/2025

How can you avoid a scam resort booking in the Calamba Pansol Laguna area?

As a new resort owner, I was excited to operate my booking smoothly and nicely. We have prepared our resort for March 15, 2025, to open to the public.

Website: We have developed a resort website, incorporating a booking engine and back office, to ensure seamless resort operation. Everything is set, and our 1st booking was a surprise when I woke up. I saw the booking in the dashboard, and the guest paid using PayPal.

We are excited about how we will take care of guests. We are preparing and checking everything for our first guest in the resort. We walked around the resort and checked every single detail. A man and a woman, riding a motorbike, wanted to see the resort and were willing to book immediately. They like the place, and we have observed them talking to their BOSS and updating Information about the resort. We learn they were scammed at the Pansol resort.

I was with my wife and family there. I was also shocked by their attitude, as they wanted to book but were not trusting us. Despite our assurances that we are the owners of the resort, they were asking us for our IDs and another document, which was a total of different experiences we had faced since we built the resort. We cooled down and tried to ask them what happened.

The man opened his mouth, saying they were scammed, had their down payment, and went to the resort, but they didn't find the resort or the person they were talking to. The stories broke our hearts, and we felt terrible about them, which prompted us to write about them and share how we could be protected from this situation the next time.

By the way, we also faced a few questions on the FB page marketing, some of the guests asked Are you real? Do you have an absolute resort? How can we assure you that you are not a scammer on the Internet?

I was thinking about how to help future guests avoid this type of incident. I did my little research on the Internet and saw that a real scammer is doing this type of FAKE booking using their social media.

The guest and the resort owner have responsibilities to avoid this type of situation. Let's start with the Guest responsibilities as follows:-

Contact Details of Resort:

Trust no one on the Internet unless you have done your due diligence. If you know the resort name, do a Google search, you will find several links in the search results, and check the entire first page of Google. Those ranking pages are all about the resort, now you compare all the links with each other, PHONE Number, Email Address, Resort Name, Address, etc., if you find that they all are the same, you are in good hands for now. NOTE: If the email address and mobile number differ, you MUST be careful when dealing with the resort.

If the resort has a website, it will be beneficial. A scammer would not invest in a website for cheating; building a website requires a lot of effort. The right website is good, ensuring the resort is confident and has the proper process if the website is connected to the booking engine outside, VERY careful as well because it might also be dangerous for you to book unless that external link is trusted like cloud bed, agoda, booking.com, or even airbnb website. If the website has its own booking system, don't bring it to another website; it's safer than other websites.

Verify the FB page: If you find a resort has an FB page, you can check the page review, mention details, and ensure the page has the correct Information, such as mobile number, website details, address, etc. These are very important for you when you decide on your booking. Check the reviewer profile to see if they look trustworthy, check the comments on all the posts, and how people act and give feedback. As a guest, you need to use the analyses to make a good decision.

Google location is also critical; if the resort has Google Maps registration and reviews available, it will be advantageous in making a decision. Google will not approve the same business twice, or if they see any misinformation, will deactivate their account. Check all the reviews on Google; the people who give the review are key. Check the profile and personality to see if those are real people. Check that the Website connected to the Google account, Phone number, email address, and physical address are aligned with the FB page. Websites are important.

Business Documents:

Checking business names is easier than before due to the online presence of the government website. Ask the resort owner for the business name of the resort, and then you can research the validity of the business name. There are two types of business: 1) Single Proprietor, 2) Corporation.

For a Single proprietor resort, visit the DTI website https://bnrs.dti.gov.ph/search and look at the result you get if the Information aligns with the website, FB page, and Google location are exact.

For the Corporation resort, visit the SEC website https://checkwithsec.sec.gov.ph/check-with-sec/index and again check that all the Information is aligned with each other through the different platforms.

As a resort owner, I ensure all platforms have the same Information: email address, website name, mobile number, and physical address. Please have a good website. I strongly recommend www.resortsolutions.app, which is affordable and reliable for digitizing your resort. As SONALI RESORT, we have been using their service and are glad to announce them in this blog.

SONALI RESORT is a 100% legit resort, and we are here to help you make memories for friends, family, and relatives year-round. There are a huge number of resorts in Pansol, Calamba, Los Banos, and Laguna, but we stand out with our unique modern design and clean resort.

How can you avoid a scam resort booking in the Calamba Pansol Laguna area?

Contact

Quick Link