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LaPlaya Beach & Golf Resort
9891 Gulf Shore Drive
Naples, FL 34108
Saturday, February 01, 2003 12:01 PM
LaPlaya Beach Resort, Naples Florida
We spent our holiday week at LaPlaya, hoping for a nice, tranquil beach stay at a top
quality hotel. The hotel is beautiful and the beach is really nice.
Unfortunately, we were disappointed at every turn. Given the price of the room
($340 per night) we had certain expectations. For comparable service, you could
stay at the Best Western. We got the sense that they wanted to provide good service,
but seriously didn't know what that meant.
We should have had an indication of what was coming as soon as we made our reservation.
We booked the room (at set price), and several days later received a confirmation letter
in the mail--with a totally different ($100 higher) room rate. We called back and the
person said "well, I don't know who you talked to...but that rate was a mistake since
our 2003 rates will be kicking in." After some arguing, we convinced them to keep the
original rate.
While the LaPlaya seemed to be billed as a romantic spa getaway, in reality this is a
community beach club and the patio and pool area was full of local families with many
children. We were suprised to find it was actually a family hotel.
The LaPlaya seems to have a distorted view of "guest", making you feel as if you should
feel privileged to stay there, instead of welcomed. For example, when the waiter
misunderstood the breakfast order, and the omelette was sent back, after considerable
time passed, the same exact omelette, (now cold), was returned with some ingredients
added to it. We were treated as if this was our fault and were not given any apology.
A "Do not Disturb" sign on the door does not really mean "do not disturb" at LaPlaya.
Night after night, the hotel staff would call us to inquire about the "Do not disturb sign"
on the door, and "did we want a turndown service?" The keycard to our room failed like
clockwork every single afternoon. Again, the desk clerk treated this as if it were our
problem and we were somehow causing it. Time and time again, we would return from the
beach sandy and wet, to discover we were locked out of the room. One of us would have
to traipse back to the lobby to argue with the desk clerk again. The problem was never
resolved.
The room was beautiful but obviously suffering from a lack of maintenance. For example,
the showerhead in the bathroom was broken, and the towel rack was beginning to fall off
the wall.
The valet parking gets annoying and expensive because you don't have a choice not to use
it.
The LaPlaya lists a host of activities, including bike rentals. When we called the number
from their Guest Book about the bike rentals, the person who answered didn't know anything
about it, referred us to a different extension. The second person didn't know and tried
to refer us back to the first person, and so on...very disorganized.
When we left, there was no comment card, and we weren't asked how our stay was upon checking
out.
If LaPlaya would lower their attempts at service to the level they can really provide, and
then lower their prices accordingly, we wouldn't have been nearly as disappointed with the
value.
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