Hotel Forum?

[paulpick]

Just wanted to echo the sentiment of how helpful this website is, particularly for first time visitors like me. Fortunately, I found it early enough and booked one of the hotels in town as a direct reult of this website and forum. I will also be patronizing those establishments recommended here and as part of the PDC card network, which I expect will be significant given all the money I saved by not going AI or cruise. (Feel free to share this observation in any of your efforts to attract more local businesses to your PDC card or Cozy Hotel networks.) I have already let the hotel I booked know that your website was the source of my patronage.

Also fortunately, I contacted a travel agent too early for her to be able to "help" me. She was defintitely steering me toward a cruise or an AI as the only options ("show me the money", I suppose). It was also ulikely that she would be able to do much within the budget I gave her. Sometimes my impatience can be a good thing. Instead of waiting for her, I started browsing on my own and the next thing I know, I'm my own travel agent.

But, and more to the point, I would like to recommend a forum specific to hotel questions as an improvement to the site. There is a whole lot out there and us rookies to making our own travel arrangements as well as being ignorant to PDC are an insecure lot. The antedotal cautionary tale of the $200 a night dive in Paris that looked so good on the web tends to make one a bit leery. I don't think a lot of people are willing to wade through the various searches in order to feel good about their selection and will end up simply defering to a travel agent or big name corporate resort. I, for one, was at it for a good three weeks for hours on end before fianlizing my selection. It may well be that there is no such thing as a bad hotel in PDC as some suggest, but ...

For example, I was frustrated by the lack of any information on the Carribean Paradise in this forum. It sure looked good on their website, they were very responsive to my e-mail inquiries and the price was good, but I ended up avoiding it because of a lack of any commentary. Maybe some kind of hotel poll or rating system would keep the hotel questions (which must get horribly redundant) out of the general forum and encourage more people to go local. It would also leave more room (or whatever) for the really cool 8) stuff like Critter's winterwonderland pictures.

See, the problem with asking for feedback is that you sometimes actually get it.

"No good deed goes unpunished"

[denisea]

Hey James, I think Paulpick might be onto something here. He's made some very valid points.

First, for those who are new to this forum and/or new to internet forums in general, learning the ins and outs of searching can be trying at times. Never mind the etiquette and personality of the forum. And it can be even more frustrating if you have a slow internet connection.

Second, is the fact that for many people vacation comes but once, maybe twice a year, and a trip to Playa is a big expense. People are looking for feedback about the places where they'll be staying from others who have gone before them because it helps them to rationalize and justify their decisions by pacifying those natural feelings of buyer's remorse. Case in point, we almost didn't book our stay at Posada Freud because when we were making our reservations last year, there was virtually no info available anywhere on the internet about them.

That said, since this site is devoted to promoting the small local establishments that make Playa so unique, it seems that a section dedicated to the small local hotels would be in keeping with the forum's mission. It would provide a great service to the forum members and at the same time be a great opportunity to give the small local hotels the recognition they deserve. The net effect being mutually beneficial to all....increased customer satisfaction and increased business.

[paulpick]

Thanks for the support Denisea. We'll definitely have to meet next December. By the way, I was going to take the penthouse at Posada Freud, but you apparently beat us to it. My Wife's bitter :lol:

[denisea]

Paulpick, You're welcome. I think it's a great idea.

I look forward to meeting you in December as well. Actually, we only have the penthouse for the second of our 2 weeks (January 3 - 10). Though I know through my correspondence with Monica that the penthouse is already rented the last week of December. We had had a tentative hold on it for that week, but opted to give it up because for the moment at least, it appears it will be just my husband and I for the first week and I'm too budget conscious to spend that much money if it's just going to be the two of us. I suspect it's all my fault for giving Posada Freud such rave reviews on the forum....last year we didn't book until August. Maybe that'll teach me to keep all my nices thoughts to myself in the future :wink: !

[ksw]

Hi all, I am a Travel Agent in Western Canada and I agree, I try and steer my clients to the small local hotels.

Many of my clients travel with children and its nice to have activities, know the safety in your chosen areas, and often there is little information out there. There is always alot of information on Cruise Ships and the ports they choose and of course their preferred shopping resources in their ports and the All Inclusives have alot of available information including the international star ratings that we utilize as a gauge for our clients. Unfortunately this does take away from the local economy, no doubt, if I had the ability to trust the information out there or if there was a trustworthy guide I would use it. Many of my clients do not want the huge resort experience.

For this matter most of my clients are travellers, but new travellers are nervous and I try and let them know not to go with Cruise Ship Organized Excursions get on shore and see the real local stuff and if they are in an AI, use the day services and get out in the evening and meet the locals and see the culture. Once educated in travelling clients do not want the AI or the Cruise experience they want to experience their destinations and the people there.

I am fortunate I found Playa last year, my husband and my children were on a Cruise Ship and we stopped in Playa for 10 hours, we immediately went to shore and got far away from other cruisers and fell in love with the area. We had such an enjoyable time we are coming back for 1 week in Coz and 1 week in Playa my reasons are to find the small hotel facilities that I can sell so my clients don't get the Living in America version of Mexico. I am staying at the Gran Porto because I could not find information on local hotels that I knew to be trust worthy and my boys are 9 and 7 so I still enjoy the security of the AI's and also the fact that we walked south and found it, it seemed smaller than most and at least we will be close to Playa and can enjoy our evenings out and hopefully this fat cat???? adventure.

This forum is fantastic, I wish I would have come across it earlier than I did, but I will now utilize it and will get my PDC Card before I get here and I hope to meet some of the people involved to get some info, if that is at all possible.

:o Can I use one PDC Card for my husband, myself and our two children?

Thanks from a TA in Canada, who will enjoy Playa alot more now that I've found your site and so will my clients. 4 more weeks and it -30 celcuis here today, yikes. :P