Tuesday, December 19, 2017

The rapidly-changing face of international airlines


BA's transatlantic services/capacity this winter has increased by 1%, compared to Norwegian's  111% and WOW Air's 31%. At this rate, the older established airlines will rapidly have to adapt to the new, low-cost, no frills international model or go out of business. Or have  Emirates, Etihad, Ethiopian and others found a third way?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/news/transatlantic-flight-statistics/


Sunday, April 23, 2017

Reviews: two Cancun area hotels

Beachscape Kin Ha Villas & Suites 


Located in the hotel zone of CancĂșn, Mexico, this is an unpleasant hotel with poor service, a generally hostile staff and a massive rip-off operation at its beachfront "restaurant".  From check-in to check out, no attempt was ever made to make us feel welcome after travelling for 24 hours to get here - not even a "thank you for coming" on check-out.  

We were given what was probably the worst room in the hotel, furthest away from the beach and right next to a construction site - not a lot of fun when you have construction workers looking into your room when you open the curtains or sit on the balcony. The Pool restaurant has terrible food and watered down cocktails and a staff attitude of serving rubbish food and drinks to 'Yankee 'tourists and then overcharge them.  Hostile security guards at beach entrance to the hotel made one feel uncomfortable. Stay away from this dump until they learn some manners, and understand what customer service and the word 'hospitality' actually mean. Photos above are of the lovely beach in from of the hotel and from the veranda of the room., facing a brick wall and a construction site.   


Hotel Playa La Media Luna 


An interesting hotel in a nice, peaceful corner of Isla Mujeres in Mexico.  

Even though not on an all-inclusive stay, we were still forced to wear a pathetic little wristband for  four days. We paid for breakfast for the 1st of the 4 days, but were told that it was not included (I have the bookings.com proof).  Our room was not cleaned for three days - a cleaning person came in reluctantly on day 3 after repeated requests, but I told her it was too late and not to bother as we were leaving the next morning. Our family room was on ground floor which was OK, but it meant we could not open the doors at night as we warned not to - too dangerous, is my guess.

There was very limited wifi in the room, and it was only available within a radius of about 12 feet from the router. How difficult can if be to cover the whole hotel with decent wifi, especially as if does not come cheap at US$220 plus taxes per night for a suite - almost every hotel in the world manage to do wifi properly nowadays. 

The biggest disappointment part was that we were not allowed to swim at a beautiful beach in front and to the side of the hotel and were chased out of the water several times by some thuggish-looking life-guard, because he claimed it was 'too dangerous"  - this was absolute nonsense, as it is as safe as a pool and the few rocks in the water were no problem whatsoever.  I cannot really blame the hotel for this but I think prospective guests should know about it. In addition, the derelict structure next to our hotel was manned by leering security staff day and night, making it impossible to lie on the beach without being under 24 hour 'surveylance'. 

In spite of all the negative aspects, the hotel had some charm, largely due to the fact that it was the exact opposite of the brash and noisy resorts in Cancun and adjacent areas.