What's going at Blue Angel?

[DandyDon]

If hotel rates are raised because of this then future guests are paying for previous guests' electricity use.

Hotel rooms are generally sold for as much or as little as possible, regardless of expenses. It's a competitive market. The whole incident was very unfortunate for the innocent property owner, poorly handled by the power company to my view - turning power off and requiring legal actions when they could have simply offered the catch-up solution at the first, hassles and expenses of having to send the guests to other hotels, etc. - but she handled it very well.

 

[Christi]

If hotel rates are raised because of this then future guests are paying for previous guests' electricity use.

Not sure how you deduce that from what I posted?

Electric rates just went up for EVERYONE, as did gasoline, and the sales tax is going up on Jan 1st - the higher electric and gas and tax increases everyone's cost of doing business.

And, if this situation at BA is the cause of a rate increase (I don't know if it will be or not) - it's based on what the rates should have been all along - and they would have been raised previously had this been known and if it is significant enough to warrant an increase. So the other way to look at that, based on your logic, would be that guests for the past however many years have been getting a discounted rate.

 

[DandyDon]

It is true that money from future guests at this hotel will be used to pay off past amounts now due, and there might be some impact on the future guests - but mostly it falls on the business and owner. I suspect the gadget was added by the guys who owned it during Wilma, but that's a wild guess.

Gasoline is going to costs as much as possible while the powers in control try to avoid killing business with increases. Pemex is a monopoly with the majority owned by the government, and I bet the 25% who own the minority wish they didn't since the government takes almost all Pemex profits in taxes & fees. I guess electricity is government controlled as well? Sales taxes going to 16% is aburd, but just more of the government bleeding as much as possible.

Mexico to keep pumping Pemex for tax money despite promised reforms

Oct 30 (Reuters) - Saddled with a tax rate of almost 100 percent, Mexican state oil company Pemex hands over so much cash to the government that it has only a fraction of the money it needs to invest in production and exploration.
So hopes were high when President Enrique Pena Nieto announced last month that a government fiscal reform would ease the burden on Pemex and create a tax structure for the 75-year-old monopoly "just like any other oil firm in the world."
But as details of the reform emerged, a more sober view has set in: that it would take years before Pemex can free itself from the grip of the Mexican tax collector.

continued at link above

 

[cvchief]

Not sure how you deduce that from what I posted?

Electric rates just went up for EVERYONE, as did gasoline, and the sales tax is going up on Jan 1st - the higher electric and gas and tax increases everyone's cost of doing business.

And, if this situation at BA is the cause of a rate increase (I don't know if it will be or not) - it's based on what the rates should have been all along - and they would have been raised previously had this been known and if it is significant enough to warrant an increase. So the other way to look at that, based on your logic, would be that guests for the past however many years have been getting a discounted rate.

I don't see that Ron said anything about what you said. Actually Gun said it. It would appear from what he says Eva will have to pay back some amount of settlements. So either Eva raises rates, cuts services, or eats it in the margin.

Indeed they are. My wife, mom, daughter and sister were there a few days ago on a cruise stopover. They spent some time with Eva and got the straight skinny on what happened, and here is what I gleaned from talking to my wife about it when she got back (DISCLAIMER: This is third hand information):

BA had some work done on the electrical system that required an inspection. In the course of the inspection the utility discovered some sort of device installed on the feeder to the hotel that somehow reduced the amount of consumed energy registering on the utility meter. I work in the energy sector and I deal with electrical services all the time, and I cannot conceive of what that device would be, but anyway, the device, whatever it was, had obviously been there a very long time, and Eva is not being accused of having it installed during her tenure as owner.

The utility shut down power to the hotel and refused to reconnect the service until Eva could come up with ~$60k to compensate them for the energy they estimated had been stolen from them during the time the device was in place. Eva had to get legal representation to help her negotiate with the utility, helping her make the point that if they shut down the hotel there is no way that Eva could ever pay them the money. Apparently they made a deal which allows her to pay them some sum of money over some interval of years, and power was restored.

---------- Post added November 10th, 2013 at 04:22 PM ----------

It is true that money from future guests at this hotel will be used to pay off past amounts now due, and there might be some impact on the future guests - but mostly it falls on the business and owner.

So the owners and the business has money coming in from something other than the business and the guests?? Is that new math? I wasn't an Econ major, but that seems wrong....

 

[Mike]

The blue angle's monthly expenses went up, since now her meter will be spinning at the normal rate. Wonder how much difference her first bill will be? Might be double what she is used to.

Cozumel seems like the perfect place for a business to invest in solar panels. Lots of sunny weather, and high local electricity prices would sure be a good inducement for a business to invest in them.

 

[DandyDon]

So the owners and the business has money coming in from something other than the business and the guests?? Is that new math? I wasn't an Econ major, but that seems wrong....

I didn't say that at all, nothing similar to that.

Yeah, most of Mexico's electricity is controlled by Comisión Federal de Electricidad or CFE, the second biggest state owned monopoly.

 

[Christi]

Actually Ron was quoting YOUR post chief

I referenced price increases overall due to increased operating expenses for all of us in post #41

I don't see that Ron said anything about what you said. Actually Gun said it. It would appear from what he says Eva will have to pay back some amount of settlements. So either Eva raises rates, cuts services, or eats it in the margin

 

[Ron Lee]

Someone made a statement that "suggested" that their rates may go up..possibly because of this.

My response merely stated the obvious that "IF" (note the "if") they do for that reason, future guests are paying for past guests.

If all those conditional statements and suppositions are true, then my statement is.

I suppose that I can make a statement like that if people can make subtle statements about who may be responsible for installing the device.

 

[judydivescoz]

The blue angle's monthly expenses went up, since now her meter will be spinning at the normal rate. Wonder how much difference her first bill will be? Might be double what she is used to.

Cozumel seems like the perfect place for a business to invest in solar panels. Lots of sunny weather, and high local electricity prices would sure be a good inducement for a business to invest in them.

Good friends installed solar panels on their home and have greatly reduced their electric bill. They are thinking about importing and installing them on the island.

 

[MMM]

I may be wrong, but I faintly recall solar panels were installed at BA a few years ago, although I may be mistaken.

Good friends installed solar panels on their home and have greatly reduced their electric bill. They are thinking about importing and installing them on the island.