I've flown over 2 Million miles on just one airline so I have a lot of experience staying in hotels. After thousands of trips, I've never experienced the thievery I did at The Carmen in Playa. Like you, I looked at my options, price checked my preferred hotels on various websites, and booked my reservation by paying online at the best one using my cc. I got a confirmation from the site with my reservation number & the hotels contact information. A few days before my trip I even received an email with additional details from the website confirming my stay and offering transportation from the airport along with the email address for the hotel in case I had any personal requests. After a long tiring trip, I arrived forlorn but full of excitement at the hotel reception only to be told no reservation existed. Impossible I said with details in hand - here's confirmation letter, payment receipt and follow up from yesterday outlining my trip. The woman behind the desk smiled coquettishly and replied, "Oh that's RENATO, we don't work with them anymore". No problem I said, you may have stopped working with them but you had a relationship and if they are selling rooms, charging guests and confirming bookings after that relationship ends, you need your attorney to stop them but it's not my problem because regardless of YOUR breakup, I'm confirmed at this hotel and I've paid for a suite so I plan on staying here. Well yes she said, you can stay here because we do have available rooms but you'll have to pay for it directly to me now and get your money back from Renato later. There was something in the way her answer came so naturally that made me feel uncomfortable. It was as if she had said the same thing a few hundred times before and knew exactly how to play the conversation to her advantage.
After arguing loudly on why that didn't work for me, a man who had been lurking behind a curtain this whole time said "There's nothing WE can do about the booking site because they're part of the Drug Cartel." I suggested calling the police but he said they wouldn't do anything because they let it happen. Can we just absorb that insanity for a moment? Basically a Drug Cartel runs Playa & the booking sites hotels like The Carmen use, and the police tasked with protecting EVERYONE are complicit. It took all my restraint not to call a taxi and head back to the airport but after my travel companion reminded me I could dispute the charge later, I decided to stay.
Angry, tired and hungry I began the even more painful dance of negotiating for a room that started out being more than 3x my original cost but ended up being about 30% higher for a lower grade room. I paid reluctantly in cash and headed to our room. On the upside, the room had waves crashing just below our balcony , a view that was stunning, a well laid out floor plan and comfortable albeit worn furnishings. On the downside, the entire hotel needs a cleaning not only in the common areas like the long hallway that smells of mold but also in the rooms that look surface clean but detail dirty. Also, be aware if you're booking for the sounds of the waves, you'll only fully experience them between 4- 8am when the drunk revealers are in bed and the beach bunnies aren't up yet. Lastly, for my fellow Americans who have been puzzled by dirty toilet paper next to public toilets at home you'll learn whydirty toilet paper next to public toilets at home, you learn it's folks from countries with less sophisticated plumbing like at The Carmen. That's right, there's a sign by the toilet saying don't flush toilet paper with a mini trash can for your soiled paper. I've had a bit of practice but if you haven't had any, get ready for a very disgusting learning curve. My recommendation - if you an option of staying at the Carmen or anywhere else, I'd suggest anywhere else. And if you have safety concerns about Playa, you should probably go with your gut because crazy is a resort destination that allows drug cartels to control it but crazier are the travelers that find that out and go anyway. read more