BajaNomad - Villas de Loreto

Villas de Loreto

marla - 3-14-2006 at 12:59 PM

This is the message I just emailed to the owner of Villas de Loreto.
I must say I was very disappointed at our visit to your hotel, after hearing glowing reports from so many friends. I can't believe I paid $393 for a room for three days for myself and my three children only to have to listen to concrete mixers all day long. If I wanted to listen to construction noise, I would have stayed home. We were basically driven out of the hotel by the noise all day when my intention was to park by the pool and watch my kids swim. In fairness to your guests, you should have warned them about the construction and given them the opportunity to cancel, or severely discount their rooms.
Also, after a windstorm there was concrete dust all over the patio chairs, which I discovered when I sat on them. Your staff should have cleaned them off. Other chairs were dirty as well.

Additionally, the waiter Uvaldo at the restaurant kept hitting on my friend and even came to her door one night, alarming her, even though she was trying to avoid him (He also hits on every other unattached female guest). And I could not believe you are charging $1.50 for a small bottle of drinking water. As a professional travel writer I have stayed in moderately priced hotels all over Mexico and I have never been charged once for drinking water, even in the least expensive establishment. This was offensive.

I was hoping to have a positive experience with you and your establishment but I am sorry to say that was not the case and I will certainly be telling all our mutal Baja friends as well.

Bob and Susan - 3-14-2006 at 01:49 PM

HA HA HA :lol:

They're closing!!!! :lol:

[Edited on 3-14-2006 by Bob and Susan]

marla - 3-14-2006 at 05:33 PM

Yes that is why they don't care. I got a response saying "you can't please all the people all the time." In other words, "F-you." Good thing I believe in karma.

David K - 3-14-2006 at 06:18 PM

Baja Cactus provides free bottled water (well it's probably not free but included in the $30 room fee)! :lol:

Thanks for the heads up Marla... Did you look at the Iguana Inn? I have read more good things about it for a Loreto stay, than the Villas I believe.

tim40 - 3-14-2006 at 11:27 PM

Marla, you did not mention if you personally reached out to Ron and Wendy? I have stayed with them with family and friends many times. Even though they are closing, I would not want anyone to think your experience is a shared one. Never heard of such a situation. We will miss this special place.

Bob and Susan - 3-15-2006 at 04:30 AM

This place was the BEST in Loreto...it truly will be a loss

capt. mike - 3-15-2006 at 06:14 AM

hey Marla.... :rolleyes:

you need to LOWER your expectations for baja travel.....anything else is whining, sorry - but you have to learn to expect at times inconsistancies with regard to promises and deliveries. This ain't stateside quality no matter where you go.
Perhaps you've been too many times to the glam areas of Mexico where they do deliver a tad better but at hugely inflated rates compared to what you get for your money in the good ol' USA......

roll with the action - it always varies. You'll mislead your readers if you report based on one experience. Villas De Loreto has had a majority of great press over the years, all places can have variations in delivered quality at times.

take a shot or two of reality with your tequila sunrises on a perfect beach somewhere. :lol:

Capt. George - 3-15-2006 at 07:11 AM

When in Loreto:

Want a pool, privacy and a caring owner? Look no further then Coco's Cabanas...

Quiet, CLEAN, close to town and very reasonable....call early for reservations.. Barrett's place becoming more and more popular.

I have nothing to do with Coco's other then having stayed there many times....you will not be disappointed!

Capt. George

movinguy - 3-15-2006 at 08:13 PM

We stayed there last year and had no problems. But . . .

Why is there construction going on if they are closing? Converting to ??? :?:

Bajaboy - 3-15-2006 at 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by capt. mike
hey Marla.... :rolleyes:

Hey Mike-I'd agree with you had she paid $93/night. She paid $393/night. First, I wouldn't pay that in Baja. Next, if I did, I'd expect a bit of service as well.

Just my thoughts-

zac

Sharksbaja - 3-15-2006 at 11:14 PM

"Hey Mike-I'd agree with you had she paid $93/night. She paid $393/night. First, I wouldn't pay that in Baja. Next, if I did, I'd expect a bit of service as well.

Just my thoughts-"

I don't think she meant that. I hope not. Yikes, that's more that the Posada de las Flores :lol:

Overpriced hotels are a pain in the burro....

Pompano - 3-16-2006 at 06:54 AM

How about rooms/bungalows from $500 - $2500 night?...."Palmilla". Of course, there is no charge for drinking water and you can hobnob with the rich and insignificant. We stayed there with a Mulege group one night to watch the storm surge pound against the cliffs below..for that much money I wanted the whole damn hurricane!

A memorable seaside 'snack', while watching the spray ruin Felipa's leather shoes, was a small plate of tiny, but watery, shrimps in some too-much-cilantro-red sauce and two insipid glasses of what they called wine. That little tidbit...which we threw to the gulls...cost me $90 US. I paid exactly that much for my first car...48 Ford 4-door sedan with a Columbia over-drive that I bought from a sheepherder who had used it to haul lambs. I would rather sleep in that car and eat the carpet than stay at any of these overpriced hotels again.

Jeez...it's FUN to rant! :biggrin:

capt. mike - 3-16-2006 at 07:06 AM

hahahahahahah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :biggrin:

anyone who'd pay $393 a nite to stay ANYWHERE in baja should not have travel writer credentials, and more importantly needs a serious CAT scan of the hubris major section of their brain to look for incontinency and/or leakage of common sense neurons......has to be a typo?!

and with all due respect to Marla, i know she's a good person at heart and i am only poking fun in my common manner to do so. :smug:

Bob and Susan - 3-16-2006 at 07:10 AM

She said....

"I can't believe I paid $393 for a room for three days for myself and my three children "

...that MUST have included the food unless....

there is a "small kid tax" :yes:

i'll have to look into that :yes:

bajajudy - 3-16-2006 at 07:24 AM

Some of their rooms are/were about $100, plus tax
My understanding is that they are building villas and condos, both for sale not to rent.
I have always found Uvaldo to be very nice. He owns the restaurant, is not a waiter.
That said, I would not be very happy to have to listen to construction noises when on vacation either.

Bob and Susan - 3-16-2006 at 07:27 AM

"construction noises when on vacation"

don't ever vacation in so california...it NEVER ends!!!

marla - 3-16-2006 at 01:12 PM

Capt. Mike, give me a break please. I have travelled all over the world including, in Mexico, to Chiapas, Jalisco, Mex. D.F., Michoacan, Oaxaca and Sinaloa not to mention of course Baja. You think I expect five star hotels? Would I belong to this board if I did? Not likely. I have also been a professional travel agent and worked in the travel field. I also have to travel on a budget. So paying nearly $100 a night for a hotel in Baja where the sound of concrete mixers never ends is quite unacceptable as is the rude attitude of the management about it. Apparently now that the owners are retiring they just don't care anymore. If I were by myself I would stay at the Iguana Inn which was highly recommended. But I have two small kids who want to swim. Coco Cabanas didn't want the kids, so we were left with the Hotel Oasis, which was lovely, had a better ocean view, better pool and was closer to town than Villas de Loreto anyway.

marla - 3-16-2006 at 01:16 PM

Uvaldo is the owner of the restaurant? I hope his wife doesnt' work there and watch him hit on other women all day long. Not only did he hit on my friend Laura and show up at her room late at night offering her an (unwelcome) nightcap, we also saw him hit on several other single women in the short time we were there.

Martyman - 3-16-2006 at 04:26 PM

Uvaldo is the man! Some of the best Huevos Rancheros ever. I didn't know he was scrambling eggs in some of the casitas.

tim40 - 3-16-2006 at 09:41 PM

Marla: unless I over looked it, I did not see a response to my question if you talked to Ron or Wendy about your concerns. If you did, and did not get satisfaction...I am beyond shocked...they are quality people period! Closing does not change quality people. If you did not reach directly out to them...well, sorry, you got what any of us deserve. If we choose not to vote...we choose to keep it to ourself.

Bob H - 3-17-2006 at 03:59 AM

So if you are paying over $100 a night to stay somewhere in Baja, why complain that a bottle of water costs $1.50. That is miniscule. Gimme a beer!
Bob H

marla - 3-17-2006 at 04:55 PM

Ron and Wendy were gone the entire time I was there. I emailed Wendy when I got back and she's the one who replied you can't please all the people all the time. And if I am not charged for water when I stay at an $11 a night room in Chiapas, I should not be charged for water at a $130 a night room in Loreto! Despite this I really love Loreto and am looking forward to going back! Now I have to figure out how I can move there....

Bob and Susan - 3-17-2006 at 04:59 PM

you better stay on the north side of the wash :lol:

elizabeth - 3-17-2006 at 05:32 PM

Do you think it's possible that you weren't given free water because the water is potable and safe? There are plenty of hotels in Mexico that do not provide "free" water including the Best Western de Cortes in Mexico City. They have their own filter. I've stayed in plenty of hotels all over Mexico from the $9 to the $130 range...there was no consistency in providing water.

Best "free" water experience I've had was the over $200 a night Napa hotel that had bottles of Fiji water sitting on the counter over the mini-bar...if you didn't read the small print on the room price list, you'd get charged $8 a bottle...small bottle...not a misprint!

Bob and Susan - 3-17-2006 at 07:12 PM

"Anti-Smoking N-zis" i'm still laughing and have read it a couple of times...

They did run a tight ship :lol:

tim40 - 3-17-2006 at 09:51 PM

We should have an instant death penalty for those that choose to smoke.....why not...save all of us tax payers some money when they start to have failing health and spend fortunes trying to slow it.....

Don Alley - 3-18-2006 at 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by tim40
We should have an instant death penalty for those that choose to smoke.....why not...save all of us tax payers some money when they start to have failing health and spend fortunes trying to slow it.....

Sooo...your health will NEVER fail? Congratulations, Immortal One!

I sometimes think cigarette packs should have a warning label saying something like:

Warning: Quitting smoking can turn you into a N-zi.

:lol:

SMOKERS!! UNITED WE STAND....COUGHING, WE FALL...

Pompano - 3-18-2006 at 09:13 AM

I love the smell of a good cigar....or I used to.

Interesting anecodote about Cuban cigars:

Some time back, just after the US embargo against Communist Cuba, the superb cigars from Fidel's island were prohibited in the US...this was SERIOUS business at the time.
So...at a posh Washington, DC c-cktail party a high-ranking Naval admiral was seen smoking a Cuban cigar. A young cub-reporter questioned the Admiral's choice of Fidel's cigars when he knew they were forbidden. "Son.", the admiral said, 'I prefer to think of it as burning his crops to the ground!"

HISTORY: Smoking was already under attack in Royal circles by the start of the 17th Century.

What is thought to be the first anti-smoking message dates back to 1604, when Scotland's King James VI, penned a scathing rant entitled "A Counterblaste to Tobacco".

He wrote: "A custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black, stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bottomless." Perhaps his words are now having an effect, 400 years on.

I personally quit smoking cigars on May 4, 1990 at 2:38 p.m.....sigh. Hey, is that a Montecristo I smell?

David K - 3-18-2006 at 12:06 PM

Wasn't John Kennedy's favorites from the island? Irony?

capt. mike - 3-20-2006 at 11:50 AM

tobacco is my favorite vegetable................ :wow:

Hey Marla.......they were filling those $1.50 water bottles with a hose out back......i think it was from hose "A"..........
now, have a glass of guadalupe "whine" and relax............... :smug:

elgatoloco - 3-21-2006 at 09:46 AM

We are sorry to hear of the demise of Villas de Loreto as a hotel. We had many good times there over the years. We stayed there on our honeymoon in October 1999 caught some fish and fed the whole place. We did not mind that the owners had chosen to make it non-smoking.

Hasta luego!