I booked my Melia Marina Varadero with Tripcentral. I considered using this agency because I was…read morereferred to it through a travel app. Unfortunately the experience was misadvertised and I am still waiting 4+ mos for Anna T. of Tripcentral to respond.
Tripcentral tries their best to provide accuracy in their advertisement. Website will show regular price fluctuations. At the time of my booking, this upgrade would reflect a 400$ price increase based on my $1215 five day double occupancy. Having never travelled to Cuba, I opted not to upgrade.
Resort condition
On arrival it was very worn out, beat. Seats were stained and walls were damaged. There were constantly people walking around repairing areas. Holes in walls.
The room had no carpet, a dehumidifier, air conditioning, ceiling fan, lock box, balcony. The bathroom had a shower, tub and toilet. Bathroom had a foul odor during the stay, maybe from the mildew in the shower tiles. The sink plug was faulty and broken. Despite air filters visible in the ventilation, we found the rooms very dusty. There was ample of room to sleep. Dirty room.
Food
I asked how was the food and the experience to the Angela Wolfe of Tripcentral prior to booking, she expressed it was very nice, offering the oriental a le carte was quite nice. But did not offer any info on tipping gestures.
The foods for the general buffet were edible. Fresh fruit served for time of year. Freshly cooked food before you, but they expect tip, communicate if you want less oil and less salt. Occasionally hairs found on the food-low risk but something you would not find in a western 5 star.
Tried the International A le carte. The meal was average Canadian meal in a fine dining style. In addition to the house wine, there is a wine list ranging in price. We found the meal dessert was not served with coffee that would have been nice with the overly sweet dessert. Warning, cooking with generally include canned mushroom, so if you're not a fan, avoid. We also found misadvertising on the Tripcentral website, where the Grill a le carte was not available to customers.
Transactions at the resort
The agent assured me credit card could be accepted but would be converted in CUC so expect a conversion fee, that was nice to her to advise me of that. But Tripcentral did not warn that a 20% fee may be applied on top of the transaction at the resort. The hotel had an eerie way not to supply receipts for cash transactions.
There is a bank in the resort that does currency conversion. When we did Canadian currency we found the conversion at USD rate +5% conversion fee (a little steeper than the 2.5% most credit cards do).
Value
Overall, I felt that Tripcentral needed to update their understanding of the destination to really provide the customer the accurate experience to be expected. It felt more like a 3 star with edible food-occasionally there are hairs on the food and fruit flies in wine. Very similar to Florida accommodations at a 3 star hotel excluding the all inclusive meal.
For value, I dont think the value was here. In the elevator I could see a standard room could go for 30$ cuc per night. I understand on sale a flight can be booked 600$ cad round trip. Additionally Tripcentral advised me that credit card would be accepted but currency would be in CUC, so conversion fee would be expected-that was not accurate. The resort encourages cash because credit card transaction will be charged 20% more. There is no signage, all expressed verbally.
Beach access
Resort beach had colour coding for safety, green yellow and red. But when trying to book the included boat access the staff member was only available in the morning and so in repeat attempts to boat the weather was unfavourable and were unable to experience the included non motorized boating. The resort beach was clean the first day, but last three days, beach was not safe due to sharp objects in the unclean algae.
Shuttle arrangement to and from airport
Shuttle was arranged by Tripcentral sub Transat, I noticed that they tend to try to fill their shuttles so on arrival we had to wait 1 hr, with the bus driver associate with yellow shirt constantly offering local beer, pop and water in local and Canadian currency. On departure, I watched the bus associate scratch his butt while he scrutinized over Asian guest, but not caucasian guests.
Accuracy of experience by Tripcentral website and sale staff
Tripcentral tries their best to provide accuracy in their ad. We found inaccuracies of their ad offering 3 a le carts but on arrival the resort only offered 2. In contacting Tripcentral via email, agent Angela Wolfe did not offer to help and simply pointed to the sub agency she booked Transat-but her response was too late and the disputed a le cart quantities was with Tripcentral advertisement.
I felt Tripcentral misadvertised the overall experience to be expected and supported customers booking over the phone with misrepresented information.
