It's my first time to stay overnight in Tagaytay at my own expense (previous trips were care of my company where we had team building and planning sessions). My first choice was actually at Keni Po since this is the same hotel I recommended to my friends which unfortunately I wasn't able to join them. I recommended it due to good reviews and very affordable accommodation. Since Keni Po was fully booked on my chosen date, we opted to stay in Famous Inn after several search on cheap accommodations in Tagaytay. You can read them here.
As what the name implies, Famous Inn is a small hotel providing lodging and food for travelers. It has 2 floors with about 15 rooms. They offer fan and air conditioned rooms good for 2 up to 8 persons. True to what they've posted on their website, the hotel is painted in bright yellow and their rooms were well painted in bright color as well. (As of this writing, they've already changed the design of their website but you can still view their rooms from here).
We reserved for a fan room since it'll be cold in Tagaytay on our travel date due to the rainy weather. The rate is Php 800 per night. The room offered double size bed, small tv, fan, small table with 2 chairs and a bathroom with hot and cold shower. They have a small restaurant and parking space is provided. I was surprised that the room they gave us has air conditioning unit. I thought maybe all their rooms have it. I just learned upon check out that the room they gave us was indeed for an aircon room when the receptionist was charging us Php 1,000 for the aircon room. Well that's no longer my fault. And besides, we never used the aircon due to the cold weather (we even turned off the electric fan).
Now for my review... To get to Famous Inn, you still need to walk 300 meters from the main road. But from the main road, it is about 5 minutes away from Picnic Grove. I didn't expect the room to have big mirrors beside the bed as it was not in any pictures of the room I've searched. It was like motels in Manila. It felt awkward and it really didn't seem like a romantic room (honestly, some motel rooms in Manila were better than this). The headboard of the bed have some black ants crawling that it can get to your bed. Towels were provided but it was really thin as if it shrunk due to frequent wash. Good thing we brought our own towels. No toiletries were provided except for toilet paper which were half consumed (see, motels in Manila were better! haha!). The receptionist told us that blankets will just be delivered to our room. It didn't came so we just use their thin blanket on a cold night. The water from the shower is strong and you can adjust the temperature. The only problem is that the bathroom can get clogged but the water subsides after a few minutes. Wifi is provided up to the room though there are certain areas when the signal is weak. We were not able to try their food but their prices are quite cheap. By the way, breakfast was not included in their rates. Even if the inn is walking distance from the main road, it's not scary to walk there at night as there were lights alongside the houses.
If you don't mind sleeping in a motel-like lodging and if you will just be sleeping there, then Famous Inn is ok. It's cheap and somehow clean. Just bring your own towel. Overall, I'll give this small hotel a 6 rating out of 10. I personally didn't like the mirror and the towel. All the rest are ok.
