Iberostar fees

[parrotheaddiver]

I found this on another board. Why would they charge these fees?? Because they can?? :11:


To all who will be staying at Iberostar and not using hotel boats for fishing and diving. Be aware that you will be getting hit with a daily dock usage/pick up fee of $1.00 per person, just went into effect this month. Most of the boats that pick up there will be passing this cost onto the customers. If you are staying there you may want to lodge a complaint with them as I am sure that you are paying enough money to stay there.

 

[Dee]

I guess they're trying to make up for the loss of their 'boating' business. From what I understand, their dive operation isn't very popular so more off-property dive ops come to their dock than they would like. They tried, briefly, to ban other boats from docking at their facility but they had guests packing up and leaving on the spot. This only lasted a few days.

 

[Kat]

Who is collecting the fee? The dive-op or the hotel? It's such a small surcharge. I wonder why they don't just work it into (hide it) the operating costs. By letting the guests know they are being 'fined' for using another dive op, the Iberostar is just aggravating their guests. And being petty. Their Marketing Department needs to be slapped upside the head.

 

[Christi]

Who is collecting the fee? The dive-op or the hotel? It's such a small surcharge. I wonder why they don't just work it into (hide it) the operating costs. By letting the guests know they are being 'fined' for using another dive op, the Iberostar is just aggravating their guests. And being petty. Their Marketing Department needs to be slapped upside the head.

But we haven't picked anyone up there in the last couple of weeks.

Unfortunately, I will probably have to pass this on to customers staying there, because while $1 per person doesn't sound like alot, it adds up and cuts directly into the bottom line. If I had 6 divers from there for 6 days, that is $36 just to pick them up and drop them off. I will also have to pass it on probably to help send a message, and maybe enough people will complain.

If I were a customer staying there, I would find this insulting with the amount of money paid to stay there. I agree that the dock needs to be maintained and it has to be paid for somehow, but that is part of the hotels operating expenses and they could easily work it in rather than sending a message to their guests that they can't dive with their operation of choice.

This hotel has ALWAYS been unfriendly to outside operations/vendors of any type.

 

[Texas Diver]

I am confused. Why does a dive operator need to use Iberostar's dock? Why can't divers be picked up right off the beach? What am I missing?

 

[mtnredhed]

I've been in contact with DeepBlue. They've dealt with the "Dressel" dock at the Iberostar before too. Dressel evidently has some lock on diving at Iberostar resorts. I'll let the mgt know my feelings when I get there, but I'm guessing it's a corporate deal. It does seem like a pier is a fairly minor part of the cost. I assume Dressel is kicking back some fees for the "exlusive" use :dontgetit

You don't hear anything about the Allegro doing that stuff, and they have an onsite op too.

I'll be there 22-29 july and trip report DeepBlue and the 'star

 

[Christi]

I've been in contact with DeepBlue. They've dealt with the "Dressel" dock at the Iberostar before too. Dressel evidently has some lock on diving at Iberostar resorts. I'll let the mgt know my feelings when I get there, but I'm guessing it's a corporate deal. It does seem like a pier is a fairly minor part of the cost. I assume Dressel is kicking back some fees for the "exlusive" use :dontgetit

You don't hear anything about the Allegro doing that stuff, and they have an onsite op too.

I'll be there 22-29 july and trip report DeepBlue and the 'star

Iberostar is the ONLY hotel on the island doing this. The amount you pay as a guest to stay there is more than sufficient to "allow" you to dive with whomever you like without being penalized for it. This is Iberostar's way of trying to get more people to dive with the onsite operator.

One thing they cannot control however, is outside operators pulling up on the beach to pick people up. The beach is federal property.

 

[Texas Diver]

One thing they cannot control however, is outside operators pulling up on the beach to pick people up. The beach is federal property.

That is what I thought. So, just get picked up on their beach, save a buck and give it to the maid for extra water or booze!

 

[ggunn]

I am confused. Why does a dive operator need to use Iberostar's dock? Why can't divers be picked up right off the beach? What am I missing?

You could do that, certainly, but it's a lot easier to hand your gear down off a dock into a boat rather than up from standing hip deep in the water. And then there's the sand...
It may be that the Iberostar is the only hotel doing this, but some of the beach clubs were charging a docking fee a couple of years ago to dive boats bringing folks there for SIT, or so I was told by the DM on a boat I was diving from. Divers on SIT don't buy a lot of beer and tequila, y'know. I don't know if this is still going on. ;^)

 

[redacted]

Iberostar is the ONLY hotel on the island doing this. The amount you pay as a guest to stay there is more than sufficient to "allow" you to dive with whomever you like without being penalized for it. This is Iberostar's way of trying to get more people to dive with the onsite operator.

One thing they cannot control however, is outside operators pulling up on the beach to pick people up. The beach is federal property.

I guess some basic business decisions are done a little differently in Mex. But you have to wonder how many divers paying an extra $1.00 to use another op from their dock does it take to compensate for lost business from the hotel over this issue. I thought about trying Iberostar, but it sounds like the biggest difference between them and Allegro is probably outweight by the PITA factor.