Mrs Penner

Glad to hear it Ancien. Mucho gracias.

Ancien Maestro

Do pull out the calculator.. I spent maybe 25 minutes to check out exactly how I wanted.. and double check everything that's on the invoice..

To the hotel's credit, the charges were pretty accurate.. and the exchange rate was fair.. and worked both ways.. to the benefit of both the hotel and me the client..

Have a Magnifico time..

makemoretospendmore

Our trip was quoted in USD and then paid in Pesos (early September). I seem to recall the front desk staff telling me that if I used my Amex (which I had to for FHR), then they would have to bill me in their local currency.

Ancien Maestro

I recall the Amex deposit slip made out in Pesos and deposited.. using the currency posted..

Again, credits and debits in Pesos to US currency works both rates based on the posted rate..

alveoli0

Yes the slip is in Pesos and your statement is then converted to CND (yes including the ~3% amex fee )

Ancien Maestro

I assume the 3% (I thought it was 2.5%) amex fee you are mentioning is the foreign exchange premium fee placed on the transaction..

Or are you saying that they charge the fee for credit card use on top of the total amount.. If they do, I don't remember this..

alveoli0

I was referring to the foreign exhange premium fee. You maybe correct- it might be 2.5%.

Ancien Maestro

That's what I thought..

My Aeroplat does have the foreign transaction fee set at 2.5%

US Platinum Card holders are lucky.. no foreign transaction fee..

Mrs Penner

Ay carumba

Me thinks I'll just avoid the whole mess and pay with good old cash - too much math for my sunburned brain on vacation

Ancien Maestro

The nice thing about the pesos charged onto credit card, is that as a Canadian, you would get charged for the conversion from pesos to cdn$.. not pesos, to US, to cdn$..

Which leaves room for additional calculation and slippage..

Plus if you use your Amex Gold, you get double miles for travel

bsaced

I recently stayed at the fairmont Mayakoba with my extended family and many friends (Full trip report to come). While we were there, a tropical storm occured and the hotel, wanting to keep everyone safe decided to set up a shelter in the conference center. They required all guests staying in the hotel to arrive at the shelter on the main day of the storm at 12pm and did not let anyone leave until 1am. Needless to say it made for some stir crazy people and funny moments.

While I appreciated Fairmont's work to keep everyone safe and secure despite it being a little excessive, there were some disappointing moments that seem unfitting given the incredible service and business practice I have come to expect from Fairmont. For one, at the shelter that everyone was required to stay, they only would serve a buffet for everyone that they then charged $20 - $30 USD per person. I can appreciate the difficulty of doing al al a carte options at a shelter but forcing people to either spend $25 on a buffet or go hungry seems kind of tacky.

I was however more disappointed at finding upon check out that the $30per day "resort fee" was still assessed for all of the days during which the majority (if not all) of the resort was closed. I asked them to waive the fee for those days, particularly the one when everything in the entire resort was shut down and they have initially decline. Is this worth escalating? Paying for overpriced food when there is no other option is one thing but paying for a resort usage fee when you can't use a resort just seems inappropriate. Thoughts?

Ancien Maestro

When I was at Turnberry, there was a hurricane warning.. and instead of evacuating to a school.. they let us stay quietly in our rooms, and the one breakfast restaurant stayed open..

Ultimately, my bill was taken care of for those days, because the managers, when I first called about the possible hurricane path, they said.. come on down, we're open for business.. no cancellations..

As soon as we arrived, the hurricane warning was in full force.. I said to the manager's at the time, I could have rebooked a week later, and enjoyed a full week at the hotel.. We ended up getting 4 or 5 nights comped as a result of the situation.. Stayed in a nice Apartment suite though..

At the very least, thank your lucky stars you weren't evacuated to a mexican school or something.. the huts that are in Mexico, looks like some of the roofs would lift, with a 40 mile and hour wind..

stinger

Tacky indeed! Paying for the resort fee for the days when everything is closed is ridiculous! I would escalate just our of principle. As far as the buffet, they could have left La Laguna open to give some different food options or if they wanted to keep everyone close to the main building, they could have opened up the other restaurant and changed the menu. Hey, they could have even opened the Fairmont staff cafeteria which is located in the basement of the main building and was quite nice when I had a tour a few years ago.

You would think they would have gave you a break on the buffet since they were forcing you to eat that.

My brother was in CUN at the same time at Azul Senatori, they closed the two beachfront restaurants and borded them up. All other restaurants stayed open and they instituted a 11pm curfew for people to be in their rooms. He was very impressed with the way the hotel handled the situation. Siginature/Sunwing on the other hand, according to him were useless.

Glad you were safe and sound in what turned out to be a minor tropical storm.

makemoretospendmore

Sounds like a perfect holiday . Did they also charge you full rate for your room since you were not able to use it for the entire day?

I suppose the devil's advocate side of it would be that rates are lower during this time of year because of the possibility of inclement weather, and guests looking for a good deal need to be aware of this. A bit of a stretch, but maybe?

Ancien Maestro

Hotels are on a no frills, pay for value add nowadays.. Just like the airlines..

But I agree, some bending of the rules would be in order in extenuating circumstances..

One thing about Mayakoba.. the staff treats everyone the same.. and has rules that they follow quite closely..

But in extenuating circumstances, it would be nice I agree to show some compassion..