I was disappointed upon arrival at the Malayan Plaza hotel. The interior is okay, but it's old and the colors are rather dark. There was no special welcome feeling. The halls are not air-conditioned so once you step out of your cool hotel room, your glasses get wet because of water vapor.
The room was okay, but not what I would expect from a four star hotel. It's absolutely not luxurious and the bathroom is very old and full of limescale. The internet connection was rather slow and needed to reconnect often. The TV was fine and there were outlets for European devices.
The hotel uses real old door keys for the room. It's the first time that I've seen this and it was quite hard in the beginning to know how to lock/unlock your hotel room door.
Although you have a fridge and a small kitchenette, there are no pans and pots or cutlery to actually cook food in the room. You can take a coffee in the hotel room but there is no sugar provided, so you have to go around the block to find a supermarket to buy some.
The pool was closed for several days for maintenance, so I could only enjoy one morning of a good swim. It's not a big pool but certainly okay.
Breakfast was not good. Very little choice, no orange juice, not many kinds of bread to choose from, no freshly made omelettes...
The good thing about this hotel is that it's rather cheap, so if you don't visit Manila for a honeymoon or a great holiday this hotel is fine for you.