My wife and I celebrated our 20th Anniversary and My 40th Birthday. We left our 2 children behind and chose to go to an all inclusive 5 star Adults Only hotel. My wife and I looked for weeks on end at all of the websites and picked through countless of hotels. We have travelled to Mexico every year, sometimes twice a year, for the past 15 years. So given our experience and our upcoming Anniversary, we wanted to make this extra special and splurge. We used Escapes.ca and Sunwing many, many times before and for this reason we continued to use their services.
We stumbled onto El Dorado Casitas Royal by Karisma in Riviera Maya on Escapes.ca. What attracted us to this resort, was the pictures on Escapes.ca that showed the Casitas and its own private pool on the upper deck and the ground floor rooms were equipped with its own private infinity pool.
When we picked this resort, Escapes.ca did not issue any options to upgrade rooms so given the pictures shown above, we believed we were getting what we were shown. We paid $5730.00 and this is a price we have NEVER paid before in any of our trips to Mexico.
Fast forward to our arrival date. We arrived to our upper floor suite and we were very excited to step outside to see what we were waiting for all along. And what we got was a total disappointment. A tiny regular balcony without the infinity pool as they had shown on booking site. The room over looked the back of a bar.
We thought it was a mistake and believed we were put in the wrong suite. We walked back to the office with bags in hand and informed staff that we were given the wrong suite by mistake. The staff apologized and informed us that it was not a mistake and that this was the only available suite. Our hearts fell to the floor with disappointment. I asked what suites have the pool on the upper floor and the staff member told me that these are NOT rental suites and belong only to executive members. I then asked if we could be put on the ground floor with the infinity pool and I was told that this was a different category within the Casitas and that it would be an extra charge of $100.00 U.S dollars per day.
I was speechless and felt absolutely defeated. I called Escapes.ca the minute I got back in my room and was told that there was nothing that could be done but the representative told me that I should have the Sunwing representative help with this situation. We slept the first night in the room given to us and spoke with Sunwing rep the next afternoon. Sunwing understood our concerns and believed this was an issue that needed to be rectified but he was of no help. He stated that we did not book directly through Sunwing and there was nothing that he was willing to do. Sunwing uses the same pictures shown by Escapes.ca and Sunwing is paid to deal with Escapes.ca customers while at the resort. It seems like the only reason you meet a Sunwing representative the next day is to have them sell you excursions and that's it!
In desperation, my wife marched back into the booking office and begged to have our room changed to something a little more pleasant than looking at the back of a pool bar. My wife expressed that it was our 20th Anniversary and my 40th birthday and that it was 10 years travelling with no kids. The staff brought a manager over and she showed him the pictures we were hoping to get into but we understood it was not a resort issue. The manager moved our room to another upper floor suite which had a limited view to the ocean.
Escapes.ca and Sunwing used pictures of suites that were NOT available to anyone other than those that buy timeshares at approx $35,000.00 US dollars. I paid almost $6000 on the belief that I was going to a place that showed me actual pictures of what I was paying for. This is misrepresentation and false advertisement. I firmly believe that in our many years of travel, we have always used Escapes.ca and Sunwing and have never had any major issues such as this one. My wife and I feel cheated and as hard as it is to forget and move forward, we feel it will take some time. We are only 40 years of age and have many travels ahead of us.
Be warned! Make sure you are getting what you are paying for cause once they take your money their is nothing that can be done. Will never use Sunwing and will never book with Escapes.ca. read more
