Desire Resort Forums

Heading to Desire for the first time in September. Do we need to convert US dollars to pesos or can we get by with just dollars? We aren't planning on leaving the resort.

Thanks!

If you are going to use the money for tips or at the store at Desire, we take Pesos'. Being from Canada, we have to pay a conversion fee for either USD or Peso any way. Those who pay USD at Desire store would have to pay a conversion fee back to pesos', which they will do for you at their rate, so we go direct to peso. We purchase about $100 CDN a week into pesos' at our bank with a foreign money order that we do in other currencies. If you are coming from the US, bring USD as anything you may buy at the store, they will convert into Peso from USD and tips, they usually get more when getting a USD than Pesos' and they may prefer USD for this reason. If we extend our trip in Mexico, we will just use any ATM from our CDN bank, CDN$ to Pesos'. If using the money to pay any tab on check out, most Visa or MC will give bank rate on exchange rates and not 'their rate' which may be higher. Run a tab at the store or massages and pay with your card on check out.

We just use dollars.

We too have always used US dollars. Never been a problem for tipping or making purchases. As mentioned above, you will pay an extra "currency conversion fee" when making purchases with US dollars.

We also tend to stay at the resort. I normally bring about $250 in tip money for a 4 night trip, but tipping is entirely up to you. In our experience, the staff goes far above and beyond the call of duty, so we spread some of the fruits of our life with those at the resort.

We were once told by a member of the staff that they prefer pesos. Made sense to us because then they didn't have to pay a conversion fee, and could use it on the way home from work. We just go to our bank a week or so in advance and get peso notes. Just check the conversion rate though, sometimes it was as high as 20:1, others closer to 10:1

6 trips - never brought pesos. Everyone accepts US dollars.

we never take pesos, but we did find some shops in Playa Del Carmen that would only take pesos. But you can get them easily at exchange windows open all along the streets. Some of them offered better rates than our bank offered.

I was told by a couple of experienced Desire visitors that the staff loves $2 bills. Something about them being good luck. I did my share of tipping and over tipping last time and found any gratuities to be much appreciated and very worth while. The staff is well deserving of generous tipping.

Desire2424 wrote:I was told by a couple of experienced Desire visitors that the staff loves $2 bills. Something about them being good luck.

Actually not true at all(sort of a Mexican urban legend thing) - the local exchange places won't accept them. So generally the staff has to wait until they get about $20 worth and then ask one of the guests to exchange all the $2 bills for a $20 bill - don't get me wrong, the staff are more than happy to get the tips but the $2 bills are a PITA for them.....

I did my share of tipping and over tipping last time and found any gratuities to be much appreciated and very worth while. The staff is well deserving of generous tipping.

CokeMann wrote:

Desire2424 wrote:I was told by a couple of experienced Desire visitors that the staff loves $2 bills. Something about them being good luck.

Actually not true at all(sort of a Mexican urban legend thing) - the local exchange places won't accept them. So generally the staff has to wait until they get about $20 worth and then ask one of the guests to exchange all the $2 bills for a $20 bill - don't get me wrong, the staff are more than happy to get the tips but the $2 bills are a PITA for them.....

I did my share of tipping and over tipping last time and found any gratuities to be much appreciated and very worth while. The staff is well deserving of generous tipping.

Thanks Coke....last thing I’d want is to make it hard for the staff to spend their well earned tips.

We typically use pesos, easier for the staff. Swing by an ATM, no problem!

Calicouple69 wrote:We were once told by a member of the staff that they prefer pesos. Made sense to us because then they didn't have to pay a conversion fee, and could use it on the way home from work. We just go to our bank a week or so in advance and get peso notes. Just check the conversion rate though, sometimes it was as high as 20:1, others closer to 10:1

Current exchange rate is 19.18.

eddieandjojo wrote:We typically use pesos, easier for the staff. Swing by an ATM, no problem!

We always hit the ATM at the airport. A couple of times it has been down so we just had our USA Transfers guy stop at the ATM at the Chedruai in PM. Just avoid the ATMs that are not in a bank or store. There have been problems with card cloning devices placed on those around PM.

Yep, pesos are much better. What would you do if someone paid you in pesos in the U. S. or CA?
In order to fight money laundering the gov't has imposed a surcharge for exchanging dollars. Most local stores won't take dollars. The staff probably loses close to 15% to exchange dollars. We always (for the last 10 years) stop at the ATM outside of customs. It's either a Banomex or a Santander machine. you pay a fee of about $3 for $7000p. You can get that amount by hitting other amount.That's a little over $350 USD and should be plenty for a week. Exchange rate is about 18.87P right now. Getting pesos from your bank is costly and unnecessary.
Keep your pesos in good shape. If they are torn or missing a corner they are worthless.
We heard the $2 bill thing about 8 years ago and took a couple. Not too well received. They want something they can spend without any hassle. Pesos