Warm Cebu welcome at Maayo Hotel
Imagine a warm and welcoming Filipino home transformed into an upscale hotel – that’s Maayo Hotel in Cebu.
Maayo is a Visayan word that means good, kind or well and it is a fitting name for the property that welcomes guests with a contemporary Filipino ambience and authentic oldworld hospitality.
Located some 15 minutes away from the Cebu Mactan airport, the hotel offers a warm welcome with homey interiors that celebrate its uniquely Cebuano heritage. The lobby and the rooms are designed with elements that remind us of old houses, but with a refreshing modern twist.
Warm wood gives the property a rich, earthy feel and this is present in many iterations throughout the property, including the teak and acacia wood flooring and the driftwood artworks rendered by Mandaue-based British artist James Doran Webb displayed prominently in the lobby. One is a sculpture of the Philippine eagle that keeps watch over guests. Another is a colorful mango tree, representative of Cebu’s major export product of dried mangoes.
The tree wraps around a column at the heart of the building, a tribute to property owner Primary Structures’ solid foundations as a construction company.
The doors of the ballroom located on the 7th floor are adorned with wooden boat paddles or bugsay used by fishermen on their outrigger canoes.
Other prominent design elements give rise to feelings of nostalgia and a longing for one’s ancestral home. Patterns of the
solihiya rattan weave, once commonly found on the backs and seats of wooden chairs, adorn the room walls as murals. Abaca fabric covers an entire wall of the lobby, serving as backdrop for a metal art installation that represents birds in flight. Wide strips of banig mats serve as wall accents on the hallways.
The hotel offers three dining choices, popular not only with the hotel guests but also with Cebu locals who come to savor the specialties that Maayo’s kitchen has to offer. Dayun, which means welcome, is the sunny and spacious lobby café that serves snacks and a hearty daily merienda buffet that includes Filipino favorites such as champorado, kakanin and halo-halo. Ani, which means harvest, is a cozy modern restaurant on the 16th floor, perfect for fine dining with friends and family. Uma, which means farm or field in the vernacular, is the vibrant all-day dining place that is the venue for the hotel’s sumptuous breakfast buffet.
The 4-star property takes a practicable approach to wellness. The amenities focus on providing wellness benefits. There is a rooftop infinity pool with a breathtaking vista of the city skyline, along with a rooftop pocket garden with a jogging path and yoga space.
The hotel connects to the Maayo Wellness facility, which offers outpatient health and wellness services staffed by licensed medical professionals without the impersonal, clinical feel that one experiences in a regular hospital. Patients at the wellness center can simply stay at the hotel after their treatment to receive an extra dose of pampering.
At the heart of it all is the excellent service provided by the staff, who are trained to be attentive and anticipate guests’ needs. All these elements combined make Maayo definitely live up to its name.
Maayo Hotel is located along Plaridel Street in Mandaue City. For inquiries, call (32) 517-0200 or visit www.maayohotels.com