Desire Prices

[werfun]

Ok I can't take it any more about LOYALTY PROGRAMS. I worked for the airlines as a customer service agent before they had loyalty programs and when they started the programs they opened a whole new can of worms. More than once while checking in a passenger they would ask me to enter their loyalty card number into the system. When asked what their number was they brought out a notebook that had every airline loyalty card in it, so much for loyalty to one airline. Now that the airline has almost everyone in their programs they are raising the miles needed to use them. The point is that you can get miles for almost every thing you buy from gas to food so they need to raise the miles needed to use them. Desire is the type of place that we do not mind paying the regular price to keep getting the outstanding service that we have been getting and would dislike seeing that service suffer because someone on their second, third, fourth trip to Desire believed that they should get a discount on their rate.
A program would have to be set up to track the guest,number of visits. ect. and that would require more staff. Just too much trouble for the company.
As it was pointed out in an earlier post Desire runs specials every so often and that would beat any loyalty program with out the hassle of keeping track of each visitor and the number of trips that they have made. What is next a bigger discount for each trip you take. Come on get real just like any other company Desire is there to make a profit for the owners and give a service to those willing to pay for it. For those that had been to DLC can see what happens when the property doesn't stay in the black, it is closed and sold to another hotel company and we have one less resort to go to. Lets hope that this doesn't happen to the remaining Desires. For those that don't believe that it can happen just look at Hedo III and several other LS resorts in Central America. It has happened before and will happen again if we are not careful. So look for specials and book your trip for that time frame and stop looking for loyalty discounts.

Now others can post their displeasure at my comments after all I don't have a degree in anything but life and I am one that keeps my mouth shut, listens, watches and learns things.

[sonomapair]

I've ranted about this before on the forum, but here's the point: I still haven't forgotten or forgiven. We are actively looking for other resorts to try, and as soon as one pops up, we're there. If Desire were to do what you suggest, and offer perks for repeat visitors, they'd be sending a message that there's no need to look elsewhere. But as it stands, guests have no more allegiance to them than they do to us. The rooms are nice, the food is nice, and the pool is nice. But the party is made by the guests, and the guests are portable.

True...more competition would be good for us guests... But I'm surprised you expected to be compensated for arriving late due to a flight delay. There's no way the resort can fill that room at the last minute. This kind of risk is exactly what one might purchase travel insurance to cover. We never buy that insurance either, but wouldn't expect the resort to cover us when things go wrong.

[candjwv]

True...more competition would be good for us guests... But I'm surprised you expected to be compensated for arriving late due to a flight delay. There's no way the resort can fill that room at the last minute. This kind of risk is exactly what one might purchase travel insurance to cover. We never buy that insurance either, but wouldn't expect the resort to cover us when things go wrong.

I'm not saying we expected compensation - the resort didn't screw up our flights. But they also didn't offer any acknowledgement that we didn't screw up either. If we had been late to the airport and missed our plane, then I wouldn't have even mentioned it.

My point was that since the resort wasn't full, and we asked to stay an additional night (not asking for a refund), they wouldn't have lost anything. They could have just offered a massage, or even sent a bottle of champagne (small c) to the room, with the $1000 that they profited from our absence. Anything to say "Sorry you had a bad trip, but we're glad you finally made it. Here's a token of appreciation, in hopes that your vacation turns around."

Any other time I was in that situation, the hotel tried to do something to cheer us up, at a minimum. To me, that's just common human decency, and good customer service. Instead, after they heard our travel nightmare, they tried to schedule us on a timeshare tour. Fail.

[canadiantakeover]

We booked Azul right next door and it was more expensive. We went there last February with kids and parents as a thank-you for watching our kids during our January RM excursions, so roughly the same season for more $$. They are a very kid-friendly resort with special kid menus, faster food service for kids, a genuinely good Nickelodeon partnership, etc.. Not a lot of places that compare.

Desire's membership program does bring the price down if you're willing to pre-pay for your next vacation(s). Our package has more than paid for itself already, with a lot of "days" left to use.