Thinking about a Karisma Hotel?

Krisma Hotels in the Riviera Maya:

Hotel Azul

El Dorado Royale Spa

El Dorado Seaside Suites

Mi Hotelito Resort

Marima Maroma Paradise

I edited this thread after working at Hotel Azul last night, and after a long talk with the wedding coordination staff, they were completely blown away by this news of the $500 fee or 3 nights... as it was "news to them".

Apparently, lomas travel is charging this fee as a representative of Karisma... The folks at Azul, including the owner of the hotel, were clueless to this... Can you believe it?

The original thread:

This thread is ALL about additional Fees at these hotels

I recommend you check out this BDWF post about a $500 Fee for an outside photographer for a little background on some BDWF members experiences. IF you are staying at Eldorado specifically,

Lomas Travel, the agency responsible for booking ALL weddings for these hotels, informs me that Karisma hotels have a new policy for outside vendors.

These people seem so disorganized to me, as they literally can't get their facts / policies consistent. They have recently started demanding a $500 fee (i'm calling it a penalty) for bringing in the photographer of your dreams instead of using their hotel photographer with the ameatur point and shoot camera.

umm, not cool. If the $500 fee was too much, you had an option a few weeks ago to book your photographer a room (making them a guest for 2 nights) to avoid the fee.

*NOTE* As of today, it is now 3 nights. Yep, thats right, these people are on a tear folks.

She said that brides are starting to complain about this fee... duh? go figure? So now they are demanding more and offering LESS... WAY TO GO, thats a great policy to attract more clients!

Your efforts to communicate your frustration is actually WORKING. Your travel agents are calling them out on their disorganized frivolous business policies... they are waiving fees to make the customer happy. Imagine that? Customer satisfaction? But only at a price? Please keep in mind that as a collective, your voice can change the world. If you want to stay at a Karisma Hotel, be forewarned that you will have fees and more fees... Make sure you ask what you are getting for them

She simply stated that they had millions of inquiries from brides and that they could charge anything they wanted. That says a lot about how they feel about their clients, huh?

I write this thread as a word of caution folks. I worry about their dedication to making your wedding as perfect as you actually envisioned!

Because we live here, we experience this first hand...thought you needed to know!

Cheers & best of luck getting married at one of these hotels!

Matt

Thank you so much for that post Matt, I am sure that will help a lot of people make decisions about the place and hopefully go elsewhere.

The fee is unfortunate, especially since the resorts are beautiful. Thanks for posting the info, Matt. Hopefully the reosrts will take the hint. They really are gorgeous, and it's they're own fault if they're missing out on some of us awesome brides!

thats ridiculous!!!

i put in a few complaints on my last EDR wedding. They are having many transitions there and until they get their act together I will hold off on booking anymore weddings there.

It's a shame that beautiful hotels like those don't think on the brides just in their pockets and how they can complicate more our lives, hope with the pressure they back up on this kind of ridiculous fees!!!

Thank you Matt, for posting this info.

- Edna

Thank-you Matt! I truly appreciate both yours and Sol taking the time to post this info and help fight the fight!

I am already an EDR bride to be (next may) and it is too late to back out. I love the resort, but know there will be some difficulties.

I have the photographer problem solved already. Our photographers are coming down for the week as our guests.

But what I was wondering is if you knew of any other potential problem areas or additional surprise fees!

Any help or advice you could give would be greatly appreciated!

I'll be interested in that one---- if we decide to proceed with a resort, Azul Beach and Dreams are the only ones we're were considering at this time... And Azul was higher on the list to us....

okay...I'm starting to panic a wee bit