acquisition of Albatros Royale by owners of Mosquito Blue

[ryberg]

Just thought I'd pass around, for what it's worth, that it seems the owners of the Mosquito Blue have recently purchased the Albatros Royale, one of our neighbors (on the beach at the end of 8th street, across from the Alhambra and next to El Faro). I don't know if there's been anything officially announced but a receptionist here who used to work at the Albatros and has many friends there got the news through them, and other hotel owners nearby also said that that seemed to be the case.

Steve

[james]

The Blue Albatros?

[cuffedlinks]

Originally Posted by ryberg

Just thought I'd pass around, for what it's worth, that it seems the owners of the Mosquito Blue have recently purchased the Albatros Royale, one of our neighbors (on the beach at the end of 8th street, across from the Alhambra and next to El Faro). I don't know if there's been anything officially announced but a receptionist here who used to work at the Albatros and has many friends there got the news through them, and other hotel owners nearby also said that that seemed to be the case.

Steve

"....dear readers you heard it here first, off the record, on the QT,
and very hush-hush...!"

(Name THAT movie?)

[jeevers]

LA confidential

[cuffedlinks]

Originally Posted by jeevers

LA confidential

...that's it!

[drbebop]

We are coming down on the 21st, next Tuesday, with reservations at the Albatros. Is there likely to be any problem because of change in ownership?
Howard

[ryberg]

Oh, I doubt it, but then I have not precise way of knowing that. In the 3 weeks since I posted that note, I haven't heard of a single case of any people coming by saying they had any trouble with a reservation or anything. Why not contact them just reassure yourself?

Steve

[sarita]

Hey Ryberg!! Do you have any idea when this transfer of ownership is officially getting underway? Because I'm moving down Feb 1 and still need a job. Maybe they'll be looking to hire some new, skilled, staff.........

[ryberg]

Word I heard was that it had already happened and new staff contracts and that sort of thing had already been taken care of. But I have no confirmation of any of that.

Steve

Is the Hotel Albatros and Albatros Royale one in the same? I see it called different things on the web. We got a last minute deal to come down to Albatros something or other two weeks from today and I wanted to make sure of exactly where I was staying.

[Headhunter]

xmas007girl,

We stayed @ the Albatros .. only 1 of them in Playa (Calle 8 and the beach)... thank G-d ... here's our post from that trip we put on trip advisor. You may not like what you read.

Andy766 can verify this because he spent many days in Playa listening to what was happening to us.


Playa del Carmen: Albatros Royal Hotel: "Do Not Stay@ This Hotel"
March 7, 2005: A TripAdvisor Member, Philadelphia PA

We booked online @ hotels dotcom for 14 nights Feb 8th - Feb 22nd. If I could have gotten our money back (like $1,500.00) we would have gone someplace else.
First we got there the manager was nice to us . even put us in an upgraded room. The A/C didnt work and the TV had like 5 stations on them and they were so snow it was hard to see picture.
That 1st night we had ants .. next morning we went to the front desk and told them and they had someone take a can of bug spray and sprayed the room.
Before dinner that 2nd evening we noticed still more ants.. we promptly went to the front desk to complain and they presented us with a can of bug spray.. here help yourself.
We sprayed and went out to dinner and to enjoy the nitelife. When we got back (approx. 11pm) .. the place was crawling with Silverfish (another type of bug). They were everywhere .. even in our bed!!!!! We kept killing them and more would appear.
At the point we both lost it.. I went to the front and yelled @ the poor girl @ the night desk telling her WE could not stay in that room 1 more minute that there were bugs everywhere and in our bed.
The girl gave us another room free from bugs and we had a good nights sleep.
The next morning we awoke and I went out into the courtyard where the manager (who was so nice to us when we arrived) now began yelling @ me in front of other guests stating that what I did was 'deceitful' and I only did what I did to get a better room. I told her that I wasnt going to sleep with bugs in my bed and why would I want to drag all my stuff across the place to another room @ 11:30pm when I was so tired?
To which she answered .. 'go complain to your travel agent but you have to vacate the room by 12noon as I have someone else arriving I'm putting in there'.. (btw ... no 1 occuppied the room for the next 2days after we left it)
We were given what was supposed to be our room, if she hadn't put us 1st into an upgraded room, for the rest of our stay.
Also we didnt have hot water as the heater was broken and the new owners that recently bought the hotel didnt want to replace it or for that matter put any money into the up keep as they plan to renovate sometime in the future.
Every morning if you didnt get outside and grab a lounge (ie put a beach towel on it) at 6 AM !!! .. you didnt get a chair. Just werent enough lounge chairs for every guest. (btw .. my beach shoes were stolen from their courtyard .. mine were the only 1s gone missing)
We never spoke to the manager again after that 3rd day .. my wife was courteous..smiled and said hello to the rest of the front desk people.
Except for the woman that made up our room everyday(she was the 1 bright spot of our stay @ that place) .. we had a very stressful association with the hotel and we wouldnt want anyone to have to go through what we did.

[andy766]

I verify all of the above details. Headhunter and his lovely wife were battling bugs the first few nights. As our battle against critters continues. I still can't predict who will win. The critters or the human beings. I will also verify that Headhunter had a great time in Playa. Andy

this is very disheartening news. While I realize the Albatros is a bare bones small hotel - the reviews I read on this board and trip advisor (before seeing yours), made me think it would be okay. We booked a last minute trip via Expedia/Funjet, and now I am worried. This will be my first time to Playa - after two years of trying to get there, and my kid sister's first adventure outside the US. I would hate to have it ruined by poor management and a crappy hotel. I have been in the tourist business for twenty years (my parents bought a resort when I was 12, and I have worked in a half dozen hotels myself, including, currently, an Irish guest house). If this is what we will experience when we are there - you can bet there will be a whole lot of people hearing from me until our room fees are refunded. While the deal itself was good, our room fees amount to about $114 per night, and I knew before I bought the package that the Albatros wasn't worth that - even if it is high season.

The Mosquito Blue looks like a really nice place and also has great reviews. If the same owners own Albatros, they are doing themselves a disservice by not keeping it up to standards (I've read in various places there was no hot water) before their renovations. The bad mouth advertising they are currently generating will hurt them down the road.

By the way - the trick with ants is baby powder or cayenne pepper. You splash them with baby powder and put it across their trail. It will kill them, make them get lost, and they bring the baby powder back to the Queen. This worked wonders for me in Puerto Vallarta - at a great place with an open air kitchen. The ants just wanted my pollo asado, understandably, but the baby powder prevailed.

[james]

I would expect an improvement with the new management (over time). We had to pull Albatros from our hotel page after they very poorly handled a guest that, again, involved Andy766. What's with that, Andy?

Blue Mosquito didn't become what they are today by dicking people over so I bet they'll figure things out soon enough. I doubt that they walked in and fired everyone first thing so there will surely be some cobwebs of the previous poor management around for a while.

the trick with ants is baby powder or cayenne pepper. You splash them with baby powder and put it across their trail. It will kill them, make them get lost, and they bring the baby powder back to the Queen.

my trick with ants is to not worry about them and just put my food away. most varieties are, after all, harmless and totally clean.

[Headhunter]

Andy .. thanks for the support .. yes eventhough the hotel was a BIG problem we had a great time .. thats why we're looking forward to returning in May for a month.


To answer James's post ... I had a meeting with Luis Flores .. the General Manager of Mosquito Blue over this incident...he was quite apologetic when I told him how we were treated by his manager @ Albatros .. but he really didnt offer us anything to make up for the behavior of his people... AND .. he may be knocking the Albatros down to build a bigger hotel so I can see why putting money into the 'old' hotel would be a waste. (something we didnt know b4 we made reservations)

Lets see..hmmmm 38rooms x $100 /night = alot of money ...minus 1 new water heater ..maybe $300 = 1 cheap Mosquito Blue...lol


(btw .. the 'old' management was given new contracts when Mosquito Blue bought the place .. I was told this)

Gee . and now with the Treetops up for sale .. those 2 lots would make a great project! (We just didnt have a spare $12,000,000 to buy the Albatros and Treetops...lol)

.