I have a quick overnight planned in Manila and thought I would try the Hyatt. However, on TripAdvisor there is complaint after complaint on the airport shuttle service (Hyatt apparently doesn't have their own and uses the complex where they are situated for this service. I am flying in on Air Asia and it sounds like the taxi situation in that terminal is problematic.
Does it make sense to do the Hyatt or just use the Marriott with a better shuttle service?
For p/u at the airport, the airport shuttle was nowhere to be found when I stayed there during the soft opening (last December), so I just grabbed a non-airport cab dropping off on the departures level and the guy was happy to get the fare.
The map/timetable the hotel emailed me showed p/u on the departures level, and I was there at the time it said, but there was no shuttle to be found up there, and it's more likely the shuttle only runs for drop offs and doesn't wait around or run empty for pickups.
Non-airport taxis can't p/u at the airport, so they have to leave empty. They will be happy for the relatively low fare they get for taking you to the City of Dreams because it means they don't have to run empty when leaving the airport.
The airport shuttle was ok for taking me to the airport, but I was going to one of the 2 terminals they serve with a shuttle. If you're going to a different one, just take a regular metered taxi from the hotel. It's not expensive. And in fact it might be better to take a regular taxi to the airport as well.
All the shuttle transportation is operated by the City of Dreams and it was certainly a problem during the soft opening. I had hoped it would get better over time. But it sounds like that's just the way it is.
-David