What is the best way to book a vacation at Desire....?

by **boto80** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 7:43 pm

Can anyone recommend a travel agent or website to book with Desire, or is booking with Desire thru the website the best place to do it?

by **CokeMann** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:37 pm

Unlike many other resorts Desire is rate controlled - ie you won't find any different prices on lodging only whether you book directly with Desire, through a TA or any of the online booking agencies.

With the online booking agencies they may be able to bundle a better price for the combination of airfare + ground transport+ Desire lodging than you could find separately. Any overall savings to you usually some out of the airfare side of the bundle.

Travel Agents that specialize in Desire provide personalized service, a real person on the other on of the telephone that knows Desire. Most of these TA's have actually been to Desire numerous times - Desire staff and management knows them and if you have any problems these TA's can usually sort things out very quickly for you. Many of these TA's also provide free or cost reduced ground transportation(transfers) when you book thru them. Finally with Desire being so popular for group bookings, when the Desire site and online agencies are showing no availability for a certain weeks the TA's that specialize in Desire can often find you space when no one else can.

Some TA's that specialize in Desire are as follows: CharTravel, Castaways Travel, DennyP Travel. NFN Travel, etc

by **boto80** » Wed Jul 13, 2011 11:30 pm

Thanks Cokemann, I appreciate the information...

by **johnjeri417** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 1:12 am

we always book online straight through desire no probs...including transbeach round trip transportation.

by **mande** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 1:35 am

agreei with cokeman on every aspect - for exmple - SDC travel is one such agency who can find you a room when Desire direct is "sold out"

We usually book direct but occasionally SDC has helped us when Desire is "sold out", and they have included free transport in the past.

by **tout.prest** » Thu Jul 14, 2011 9:07 am

4 of our 6 trips were all booked direct through the resort and i cant say that there were any problems really ,in any way. It is very convenient.

Our last trip however (#6) was booked with Char at Chartravel, and after having used her for the process, i highly doubt I will ever go back to anyone else. Char is always looking out for the guests best interest and gets things done ! We have booked next years trip with her already.

The best "Deal" we have ever had was when we booked through expedia once, and like Wayne says, the total cost dropped because of the reduction in the airfare when we bundled. These days however , Expedia shows sold out, almost always.

If you book through a TA that does a lot of business with Desire, it just makes logical sense that the resort listens when they speak, more so perhaps than an individual booking made online. (Disclaimer - not that I have any actual proof that they don't listen, cause the staff is simply awesome

)

Steve

by **hedotom** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 4:07 pm

There is one opportunity for a discounted lodging rate.....Skyauction.com

Normal Skyauction precautions apply:
1). Know the extra fees before bidding.... They are clearly posted, but some people don't read and then complain
2) Know the competing price before you bid... I've seen some people really overpay (they may not have done #1)
3). Remember it might take 3-5 days after you win the bid to get final confirmation that the days you want are available thru Skyauction for Desire

We used them for this booking and everything went as smooth as ever.

by **tout.prest** » Fri Jul 15, 2011 6:19 pm

hedotom wrote:We used them for this booking and everything went as smooth as ever.

So since you used them for your upcoming trip, how much did your nightly rate work out to? The best deal that you would normally get for a garden view room these days is $344/night/couple. Did skyauction come in a lot less ?

Steve

by **sdrv** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 6:29 pm

hi there guys
We booked thru hotelclub and we got 7 nights for $2100.00
(2) garden view and flights for $580.00 (2)rtn from miami so all up $2600.00 for 7 nights and airfares . i think they are cheap not each but in total
s&r

by **DnB** » Thu Jul 21, 2011 9:33 pm

One thing I had heard about booking directly with the resort, is that if they oversell you could get bumped. They honor the contracts with the TA's first. I think they may have changed how they display the rooms on their site and show them sold out if a TA has a contract on them. We always use a TA but we normally go when a group has a take over.

by **hedotom** » Fri Jul 22, 2011 5:02 pm

Our daily rate (the winning bid plus all add-on fees from Skyauction) was $302 per night. I had seen a couple of previous winning bids that were cheaper, but this was the best I could get at the time I was bidding.

Tom
(Moderators, I didn't see any rule about posting specific prices - like several other boards have - but if this is a no-no please delete with my sincere apologies).

tout.prest wrote:
hedotom wrote:We used them for this booking and everything went as smooth as ever.

So since you used them for your upcoming trip, how much did your nightly rate work out to? The best deal that you would normally get for a garden view room these days is $344/night/couple. Did skyauction come in a lot less ?

Steve

by **mfay** » Tue Apr 10, 2012 6:58 am

There hasn't been any discussion here for a while, but in doing a little credit card research for our upcoming Desire trip, I confirmed some info that fits into the debate.
For 90% of the people going to Desire, the choice will come down to either booking with a travel agent or booking direct through the resort. Besides the arguments above about the extra service TAs provide and my own feeling that they are critical in keeping Desire on it's toes and responding to guest
feedback, another thing we should all consider is credit card fees. All 4 of the cards we use right now are charging a total of 3% foreign transaction fees !
Since the rate is exactly the same through a TA or direct, that means that between the CC fees I save and the free transfers that many of the regular Desire TAs give for free- I save about 5% over the cost of booking direct with the resort. (And- as a US citizen- I help support US jobs with the TA even though I'm spending most of my vacation money in Mexico).

by **HandK** » Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:12 pm

We booked out second trip to Desire RM through a travel agent: cheapcaribben. We also are aware that the room rates are the same whether you book through a TA or direct with Desire. The reason we booked through a TA instead of directly with Desire, is that the package price was attractive. We booked 8 nights and non-stop, round-trip air fare from Chicago for $3,229. The room rate is $360/night which is $2,880 for our stay, which means the air fare for our trip was only $349 total for the two of us.

If you want to book directly with Desire and want to avoid foreign transaction fees, get a CapitalOne CC. They do not charge any foreign transaction fees whatsoever.

--H

by **CokeMann** » Fri Apr 13, 2012 3:46 pm

HandK wrote:We booked out second trip to Desire RM through a travel agent: cheapcaribben............

Just wanted to point out that they(cheapcaribbean) are NOT a travel agent - they are simply one of many of hundreds of on line travel aggregators that simply bundle rooms and flights with any savings you see typically coming out of the flight side of the package.

Please post a trip report after your vaction and let us know how it went, I've heard of a number of recent sad stories related to flight booked via cheapcaribbean

by **Peaches129** » Fri Apr 13, 2012 6:42 pm

We always book through Expedia. It's much cheaper. We save on average $500. As well if you shop through evrewards.com and search Expedia you can get cashback.Hope this helps!