The Mandarin Oriental Manila is a staid if fairly popular choice on the Makati business hotels line-up though it has been somewhat becalmed in recent years with activity swirling away to the guest-rich neon-lit Makati area near the Shangri-La where shopping and nightlife have mushroomed. The Mandarin has fought back. It is no slouch when it comes to food. The eight restaurants and bars, including the smart and cosy street-side Martinis, make the accommodations seem like an afterthought. Rooms are elegant, traditional, and corporate, with light colours and rich deep-blue cushions and bed-runners. Nothing trendy here. Just useful, easy-on-the-eye space. The 30-storey twin tower Ascott Makati (formerly Oakwood Premier apartments) is right smack in the middle of the Ayala Center and the Glorietta 4 shopping mall. Its 306 apartments include studios, one to three-bedroom residences and penthouses. Make use of Broadband access in each apartment at US$20 per day or go Wireless in the public areas. Long-staying guests may also avail of special rates. Expect an outdoor pool, two outdoor tennis courts, spa and massage rooms. In-room facilities include TV, fridge, microwave, toaster, cooking range and coffee machine. Security may be a tad heavy at times. A Filipina friend of mine with a family pedigree demanding instant prostration has been stopped several times at the elevator by anxious guards suspicious of Asian faces. She told me she made it to the upper-floor restaurants, eventually. Another Makati service apartment and longstay option is its sister-property Somerset Olympia Makati. Close to The Peninsula, it is the cheapest of three Somersets in town, and with an excellent location though cabs are not the easiest to come by on Makati Avenue at peak hours.