Help needed in Belize! Stranded by Porto fino

[calicant]

I would have caught the bus to Flores, Guatemala and visited the pyramids at Tikal if diving was cancelled for a day or two.

 

[vcblklion]

Hello, my name is Jan van Noord and I am the owner of Portofino Beach Resort. We are experiencing hurricane Ernesto at the moment and ..........I was informed that on the airport Mr. Walker started fighting with other guests of Portofino because they were picked up by their Destination Management Company and punched their driver. Mr. Walker was later picked up by the transport company we had arranged. When he arrived he called our resort and informed us that he didn't like the accommodations and demanded a refund. We tried to calm him down, and asked him to wait for our manager. Apparently at that time he threw the telephone at the front desk clerk and the conversation was terminated.......Kind Regards,
Jan van Noord
Portofino Beach Resort Belize

ROTFLMAO......Now we know why there were so little details in the OP....! If you misbehave and threaten your host...expect to me left "on your own"! LOL.....

 

[Magnolia3]

I would be careful about who I contacted. Some places and dive ops will tell you that the weather is fine come on down when a cat 4 is an hour offshore.. Get trip insurance its worth the ducats. In this particular case, the hotel had evacuated...most on the offshore islands do. For what I can gather from what athe OP said, I will just assume that he never bothered to check weather or much else. Then when things did not suit him, he tossed a childish tantrum. As I said before, he is lucky someone did not give him a night in jail to contemplate his behavior.

Someone commented, maybe in another thread, about having to fight to get their money back. Friend of mine got several phone calls from SW with your flight is delayed. Each time the time delay changed...then when they did show up at the airport there was NO warning call that the flight was canceled. She was smart enough to take a photo of the flight board with a time and date stamp. It was the only reason that the trip insurance paid off.

This time of year traveling in hurricane zones can be iffy..or fun... ymmv

Sounds like the hotel did a great job with their guests during a difficult situation. Personally, if I'm traveling to the Caribbean during hurricane season and there's a system heading right to where I'm going, and it's supposed to make landfall within a couple days of my arrival, I'm contacting my accommodations and the dive shop (if they're not the same place) directly and getting first-hand information on whether or not I should come as planned, delay a day or two, or cancel. Of course, whether the airline is flying or not also factors in. Just because the plane is going doesn't mean where your staying is able to receive you. Checking ahead would have told this guy that he shouldn't come. The fact that the hotel was still accommodating him when he chose to arrive on the day the were evacuating guests, I think, shows they have great customer service. He wasn't even checked in at their property, they really didn't have to do anything for him. For the sake of the guests were taking it all in stride, it's probably for the best that these people moved on to another hotel. It would have otherwise been a miserable experience for everyone.

 

[Mark Derail]

Kudos to the hotel for responding, in such a clear & concise manner.
Always nice to hear both sides to a story.

Mr. Walker started fighting with other guests of Portofino because they were picked up by their Destination Management Company and punched their driver...threw the telephone at the front desk clerk

Unacceptable behavior Mr. Walker, resorting to violence.

 

[Fish-R-Man]

We had a similar experience leaving Mazatlan just after 9/11. We were standing in the First class/MVP line at the airport and they were doing individual checked bag checks. There was an American women in front of us that was having a huge issue with the women wanting to open her bags. The situation really got out of hand when they took her hair spray and other aerosol cans away. This women was cussing and having a huge fit with the poor gal just trying to do her job in a difficult situation. I politely asked the women to calm down, that this was now mandatory and if she didn't shut the hell up, those nice gentlemen with the green clothes and automatic rifles would take her away and explain to her that her behavior was unacceptable. She didn't take my advise and was soon escorted away from the check in area. I also didn't see her on the flight.....

 

[chairmanTARAC]

This storm had been on this track for a long time, and booking in the Caribbean this time of year always is a risk and go to plan B. Based of the OP and anger you probably need a great vacation and relax. life will usually go on if things don,t go according to plan. It is helpful to keep reminding yourself and repeat the sentence "Life isn,t an emergency"

 

[Downing]

It always amazing when someone post something outlandish then when the facts come out. We never hear from them again.

Kind of like the time a guy claimed that every dive op in the entire country of Belize engages in unsafe scuba diving practices. The facts were really hard to come by in that thread, but in the end it turned out he was talking about only a couple of AC operators, although even that was iffy since he never actually named one.

 

[richh32]

nice damage control done by the resort owner. its all hearsay but it swayed everyone on here to be on his side. kudos!

 

[peterbj7]

As a general comment, do NOT rely on hotels/operators giving you your money back in these circumstances. Some will, and in this regard Portofino has certainly come up trumps, but I can think of several that will not. It is essential to take out good trip insurance to cover these eventualities, particularly if you're travelling in hurricane season. If you don't know when that is for your destination then you haven't done enough research. And don't wait until there are clear signs that the weather might not be good before you try to buy your insurance, as it won't then be available. If like me you like to travel at no notice then either get an annual policy (always the best bet) or take the loss on the chin. Throwing a tantrum when things don't go the way you had assumed they would will always be counter-productive. And remember that when you're travelling outside the USA the American litigation culture simply doesn't apply - it's always "caveat emptor".

 

[Downing]

nice damage control done by the resort owner. its all hearsay but it swayed everyone on here to be on his side. kudos!

Kind of hard to be on the side of a person who by his own admission decided to "yell bloody murder" and "threaten physical violence" just because he didn't like the hotel room that was arranged for him on quick notice due to a hurricane.

Mountain, meet mole hill.