Rockin' the All-Inclusive

[trip style = all-inclusive]

Pretty soon you'll be able to literally rock the all-inclusive, with the opening of the 1,700+ room Hard Rock Hotel All-inclusive in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.

Just when you thought there wasn't any more room for another all-inclusive on the white sand and azul shores of the Dominican Republic, Hard Rock Hotels undertakes a MASSIVE project. Set to soft-open November 1st---maybe my invite's still in the mail?---this swimming pool-jammed monolith will rock 121 acres of the existing Palace Resort with the complete transition expected by spring 2011.

And if you think this excuse to party like a rock star is only for adults (that was my assumption at first), think again; kids are not only allowed, they are catered to with water slides and mini golf. For adults, in case rocking out to tunes all day long and gazing at rock star memorabilia isn't your thing, there's a Rock Spa or Jack Nicklaus golf couse. Then again, if you're entertaining the thought of going to the Hard Rock's first all-inclusive, then features like theme clubs and lounges, photobooths, live performances and the Caribbean's largest Vegas-style casino will probably suit your fancy.

Rock on!

Trip Styler Tip: It's basically implied that the non-intrusive renovations will be taking place from Nov 1, 2010 to spring 2011, so if you're looking for a 5-star, reduced-rate all-inclusive, this transitioning property might be a good bet.

Related Content Don't Judge an All-Inclusive Until Day 3 :: Why waiting a few days to evaluate your experience is a best bet All-Inclusive Tricks of the Trade :: Tips on booking for the best experience A Redo trip :: What to do when an all-inclusive experience goes belly-up Update on my Redo Trip :: An overview of the highs and lows of the Sandals WhiteHouse

[via hotelchatter.com] [photo by palace resorts]

Don't Judge an All-Inclusive Until Day 3

[trip style = all-inclusive]

I've been to my fair share of all-inclusives. They're an excellent trip style when seeking a vacation where you don't have to lift a finger and want the option of round-the-clock access to food, bevs, beach, activities, entertainment, etc...

Learning In between going on trips of alternate travel styles, I've frequented various all-inclusive star levels and companies (Sandals, Superclubs, Barcelo, Bahia Principe) in a handful of sun-drenched destinations. This combined experience has reminded me not to judge my experience until Day 3. Here's why:

• Tired upon arrival.  Between packing late, getting up early, rushing through the airport and flying for up to 10 hours, I usually arrive at my destination tired to the point of semi-delirium--not the best state to evaluate my surroundings or initial experience.
• Outsourcing.  In addition to being tired, unless you're paying thousands of dollars to be picked up in a Rolls Royce and stay in a suite at Sandals, most all-inclusive companies OUTSOURCE their transport--even if they say the resort is super all-inclusive from the moment you get off the plane.  This means the porters and drivers will ask for and expect a tip, and the level of service will unlikely be on-par with the resort's 4 or 5-star promise.  I've had some 'doozie' experiences with all-inclusive drivers, which more often than not, can start off your experience on a bad note.  In other words, between tiredness and transport, there's the potential to arrive at the resort with '2 stikes.'
• Check-in.  Although this is an obvious statment, it needs to be said: other countries don't do things the same way  things are done in North America or Europe.  Thinking back, I don't know that I've ever had a smooth check-in process--except for at the Grand Lido Negril, now Grand Breezes Negril.  If you spend a significant amount of time reading Trip Advisor reviews for package-style vacations, transport and check-in are often people's biggest beefs!
• 7-day rotation.  Like cruise ships, most all-inclusives operate on a 7-day activity schedule. Therefore, if you're not partial to the activities, meals or events happening on your first or second day, you may write-off an experience which could improve over the next 5 days...
• Getting acquainted. Getting used to the resort's daily flow takes time.  Knowing this now, I always take the first and second day to acquaint myself with the grounds and check out the offerings, so I don't realize there's something I love on day 6.  I want to stress this point because discovering and activity or restaurant you love on the last day is the worst, and happens to people more often than not.
• Finding your niche. After a day or two, travelers find their niche at the resort.  This is a source of comfort for people as they tend to find peace and calm when they get into the swing of things like: where and when to eat, lounging at the beach or pool, finding a bartender with whom to develop rapport, discovering the ebb and flow of their daily schedule, etc...
• People.  Meeting or not meeting others at the resort can make or break an experience, yet getting to know others can take time, which is a commodity on a short week escape.

Context All this is to say, after day three you have context to evaluate your experience properly and with a clear head.  This is the formula I use to form my make or break opinion.  Also, looking on the bright side, if you don't love your first two days, the resort has 5 days to make it up to you.

Don't Love it? What to do First and foremost, my general bent is to always try and make the best of the situation.  Having been involved in a few all-inclusive experiences that haven't exactly gone my way (see accounts below), if you don't have any luck pleading your case with the resort's managers, wait until you get home and write a letter.  Most resorts take letters of complaint very seriously.  See a detailed account of best practices for 'holding an all-inclusive accountable' here ('complimenting and complaining' section).

Related articles All-Inclusive Tricks of the Trade :: Tips on booking for the best experience A Redo trip :: What to do when an all-inclusive experience goes belly-up Update on my Redo Trip :: An overview of the highs and lows of the Sandals WhiteHouse

All-Inclusive Tricks of the Trade

[trip style = all-inclusive]

Booking your Trip

• Who to book with
  • Resort direct.  If you have a preferred all-inclusive, get on their newsletter list.  This way, you'll be the first to know about insider-only deals.
  • Resellers.  Here are a few of my faves:
    • Canada - itravel2000.com, aircanadavacations.com
    • USA - applevacations.com, resortvacationstogo.com
• What to Ask for
  • Top-floor, many all-inclusives have tile floors which can be loud if you're on a bottom or middle floor
  • Quiet room away from elevators or stair wells
  • Room away from the resort's night club or cabaret
  • Some resorts have two sections: regular + enhanced.  Prior to booking, double check if your resort has this offering.  Sometimes the prices are cheaper than expected for a far superior offering.  Once when I was in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, the Resort offered us an upgrade to their premium area for only $10 extra/day. Stupidly we said no.  After being at the resort for a few days and seeing the premium area, I wish we'd said yes.
• When to Book
  • Find most discounted prices: fall, spring, late summer.
  • With the exception of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao, hurricane season hits the Caribbean from June - November with September usually being the most problematic month.  Note that most major resort chains like Superclubs and Club Med offer weather and hurricane guarantees.
• Double Check
  • Does the resort require reservations for restaurants?
  • What's the dress code?
  • Does the resort offer premium-brand drinks?
  • Do they have a tipping policy (ie - some resorts forbid it, others unofficially encourage it)
  • Are motorized sports included?

Getting There Most resorts outsource the airport transfer, therefore, make sure you have a few extra dollars (between 2 - 5) for tipping the driver to and from the airport.

While There

• If you go in high season and want a premium spot on the beach or at the pool, you may have to get up early to reserve your preferred spot.  This is not true for every resort.  I just stayed at the Sandals Whitehouse and always got an excellent spot on the beach between 10 - 11am.  This depends on occupancy, time of year and beach chair to guest ratio.
• Bring an insulated travel mug to minimize trips to the bar and keep your drink cool.
• Also make sure to pack some sort of beach bag.  When you're catchin' rays away from your room for the better part of the day, you'll want a place to store items like camera, room key, water bottle, books, mags, ipod, cover-up, etc...
• Don't come back with bites all over your legs (don't laugh, I see it happen to guests every time I visit all-inclusives in the Caribbean).  Always bring insect repellant just in case.  The Caribbean is lush and sandy, hence noseeums, sand flies, etc...

Related Don't Judge an All-Inclusive until Day 3 :: 7 Reason to Wait to Evaluate A Redo trip :: What to do when an all-inclusive experience goes belly-up Update on my Redo Trip :: An overview of the highs and lows of the Sandals WhiteHouse

Update on my Redo Trip

[trip style = all-inclusive]

Recently, I wrote about the upcoming Redo Trip I was about to embark upon.  I had a voucher from a stay at the Sandals Royal Bahamian, which I used toward the Sandals WhiteHouse.  A week later, I'm back from Jamaica with lots to share!  But first, here's how the Sandals collection of resorts compares...

Sandals Resort Collection As of this writing, the Caribbean-focused, Sandals all-inclusive Resorts have the following brands:

• Sandals: Adults-only/Couples.  Sandals Resorts, Sandals flagship brand, features 15 resorts (including the unpublicized Sandals Cuba) focusing on a romantic, all-inclusive experience in the warm Caribbean sun.  Like a high-end camp for adults, Sandals resorts offer multiple restaurants, motorized water sports, games and activities, premium drinks and much more.
• Beaches: Family-oriented.  Similar to the Sandals offering, Beaches also has children's Sesame Street and teenage DJ'ing programs so parents can relax and sip margaritas while their kids are occupied.  With 4 locations, around the Caribbean, the Turks & Caicos location is literally a super resort with 16 restaurants, 12 miles of beach and a 45,000 square foot water park.
• Grand Pineapple: The most affordable getaway option of the 4 brands. Both the Jamaica and Antigua value-driven resorts are less about "Luxury Included" and more about relaxing in the Sun.  Sure, you might not be able to water ski or drink premium brand drinks, but the Caribbean's natural beauty should make up for it.
• Royal Plantation Collection:  According to Sandals, Royal Plantation is for those of you who "insist only upon the very best", in other words, it is the most luxurious offering within the entire Sandals brand.  Currently featuring 3 properties in Jamaican and the Bahamas, each resort in the collection is very different.  One is in Jamaica at "Butch," the Sandals Chairman's private Villas. The second is also in Jamaica featuring a beach-front locale, colonial-style architecture and distinction as part of the "Leading Small Hotels of the World."  The final property is on a 50-acre private island in the Bahamas (this one has my vote).

Sandals WhiteHouse Set in a Jamaican nature reserve, the six-year-old Sandals WhiteHouse offers water views from every room and a far-reaching, spacious beach.  As one of Sandals' bigger resorts, couples can either find a private spot on the beach, or sit poolside and get involved in 'battle of sexes' activities or water aerobics.  I liked having the choice between quiet and rowdy; I chose quiet.  See my full Trip Advisor review here.

Sandals shines in the way they treat return guests, adorning them with receptions, t-shirts, a bottle of rum, etc... to show their appreciation..and hopefully get a return booking.

My only hesitation is suggesting Sandals to others is their phone and email service prior to leaving for our trip.  I dealt with multiple people via phone at Sandals head office and none of them was overly helpful, to put it politely.  Similarly, I submitted an email inquiry after I tried to check-in online and never got a response.

Overall, Sandals does a good job (in certain areas of their business) and appeals primarily to boomers and secondarily to honeymooners.   There are not many gen-x couples mulling around their resorts.  Either way, if you want a getaway where you don't have to lift a finger, want to eat at nice, varied restaurants and have a few sips of premium brand alcohol, Sandals may be a good option for you.

Some Additional Pictures of the Sandals WhiteHouse

A Redo Trip

[trip style = all-inclusive]

Tomorrow I'm embarking on redo trip to the Sandals WhiteHouse with my husband.  What I mean by this, is we had a bad experience, wrote a letter and this upcoming trip is the company's attempt to gain back our business and loyalty.   Have you ever done a redo trip?

Situation Last year we booked a last-minute trip at New Years to the Bahamas, and it turned out badly.  We have never moved rooms at any hotel, but had to move three times during the first half of one week! From toilets semi-exploding and flooding our bathroom, to the resort almost refusing to wash the clothes that were caught-up in the mess, to our airport transfer driver taking half an hour to eat his lunch at the airport when we'd all loaded on to the bus, our time away was a little stressful.

Our Challenges Our challenges with the Sandals Royal Bahamian reached their peak before dinner New Year's night. We had to decide whether we were going to leave the resort or put our bad experiences aside and try to enjoy the rest of our trip. We chose the latter and made the most of our remaining days.

Writing a Letter Rather than writing a hateful review on Trip Advisor and dismissing the entire Sandals brand forever, upon my return, I wrote an email to the Resort's GM telling him what we appreciated about the resort as well as explaining what had happened to make our trip less-than-ideal.  [Note that I addressed the letter to the GM because I had already unsuccessfully dealt with multiple middle managers while at the resort.]  I was impressed.  Within 3 days I received a response addressing each point, as well as a voucher for 3 nights.

A Redo With the voucher, rather than returning to the Royal Bahamian, we decided to try another resort within the brand --one that won consistent awards both in the past and present-day. We opted for the Sandals WhiteHouse. When I heard they were closed for renovations in November I was excited, but then I learned that the upgrades were mostly electrical. Either way, it will be nice to laze on the beach for a week, soak in the Caribbean sun and hopefully turn last year's negative experience into a positive!

Complementing/Complaining in the Right Way There are constructive and deconstructive ways to provide feedback.   We've all seen people freak at baristas for making the wrong drink or yell at servers for bringing the wrong dish.  These people are only discrediting themselves.  After experiencing and observing many 'harry situations' in my travels, here are some of the rules I live by when providing feedback:

• Don't just tell people when you're disgruntled, tell people when you're happy with service too.  Whether travel-related or not, companies value positive feedback and reinforcement.
• If you are disgruntled, try to express a few positives in order to show level-headedness.
• If you are going to complement or complain, do so with class by ensuring
  • you tactfully tell the staff member and the manager
  • you understand the chain of command, and give the worker or manager an opportunity to respond before going directly to the VP or GM
• Before complaining, take a deep breath or time-out.  Don't let yourself get angry; approach the situation with dignity and a clear head.  You'll be taken more seriously when calm.
• Approach the challenge as an opportunity.
• Don't ever speak down to anyone --whether a housekeeper, server, manager or CEO.  Treat everyone with respect.
• Provide some background (if required) so your comment is taken with due credibility.
• We're human.  We all make mistakes.  Keep this in mind before complaining.
• Finally, do not spout-off on Trip Advisor before giving the hotel or resort an opportunity to make it right.  This is poor form.

More Pictures of the Sandals Royal Bahamian