xmas007girl

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.