Algo Inn side out

Staying in a hotel has always been equated with escaping from the daily pressures of urban life. The hotel has always been known as a place where people celebrate important events such as birthdays and honeymoons, hold business transactions, and go to to relax and have a good time; it has always been juxtaposed with paradise.

On average, most people stay in hotels for a week. Some, like filthy rich celebrities or politicians, stay for as long as 6 months. But Nineteen-year-old Ma. Nimfa S. Alicer, or Nisha for short -- she has been living in a hotel eversince she was born! She's a permanent resident in the Algo Inn which can be located at 866 Vito Cruz St., Malate, Metro Manila.

The name Algo Inn was taken from the word "algo" which means "pain" in Latin. Before it became a hotel, Algo Inn was an L-shaped house owned by the Alicer family. It was originally called the "White House" because of its color and because it was the biggest house along Vito Cruz during the pre-Algo Inn days. In 1983, Nisha's grandfather decided to convert the house into a hotel. However, during the construction, her grandfather got sick of lung cancer. Most of the funds for the construction of the hotel went to hospital bills so the construction of the hotel was never completed even after her grandfather's death.

At present, Algo Inn has 6 floors but only the first three floors are usable. Each floor has its own lobby. The hotel also has a mezzanine and a bar that has been converted into a billiards place. It used to have its own restaurant, but it was closed down. The space is now being occupied by the Pares Carenderia.

Most of us have grown to known hotel living as pure luxury -- fully airconditioned rooms, mini-bars, bell boys, the works. However, this is not the case for Nisha, who says "(in Ago Inn), there are chambermaids, receptionists. But we have our own maids. But (the chambermaids and receptionists) are always there to help -- i get my mail from the lobby, we ask them to buy our paper and have it delivered, we send them on errands." And even if they live inside a hotel, the rooms that Nisha's family occupies don't look anything like hotel rooms at all. "We don't like the hotel rooms. We furnished (our rooms) to make them look homey."

Most of the people who check in the hotel are friends of the family and some foreigners. Sometimes, people use it as a motel. "One time, while the chambermaid was cleaning a room, she found a used condom lying around..." Even students are not exempted from this. "My cousin who used to study in LaSalle (Taft) said that even students from LaSalle come to check in. Also high school students, but we don't allow them to check in because they were in uniform."

Well, living in a hotel isn't just about pure luxury afte all. Sooner or later, one is bound to be nostalgic of living in a normal home. When asked to choose between living in a hotel and a normal residential house, this is what Nisha said: "I will still want to have spent my childhood living in a hotel, but I want to live in a house someday."

So Nisha, define love.