Dick Johnson wrote:
Last time I stayed at the Taormina was January. I was only there for 1 night and it was only because I wanted to watch the Saturday NFL playoffs (I like watching sports there). Anyway, regarding the Taormina two things of note happened on that trip.
(1) The previous time I was there (just a little over a month earlier) I got a massage from their in house service. One of the two ladies gave me a real good time. However this time I called her up and she said she couldn't come to the hotel because she got fired. Apparently she made an offer to one of the Eco Tourist patrons and they told on her... as a punishment she got fired. I found that real distasteful because the majority of the guests in the hotel are there for that reason; hell there are even working girls on site in the casino...….so why punish a good worker for doing the same thing? I thought there was more to the story so I just asked one of the people working the front desk....and to my surprise they cosigned the story. They simply said, "we don't want that kind of thing here. If our guests want that kind of service they can get it from elsewhere." That was pretty straight forward. I found it grossly hypocritical, but I didn't argue it.
(2) There is a lady that works the front desk. She's younger, but somehow looks older. Cute in her own way. For a few years now when I'm at the front desk registering a working girl I'd joke around with her. She was always friendly and made me feel welcome. However this last time she was dead silent...…..like she didn't know me. Like I wasn't the same guy from all those previous visits. And she looked at me and the girl with a look of disgust. I didn't immediately know why, but then I realized some Eco Tourists were nearby and I guess she was ashamed of them seeing her service a monger customer. Later that night I saw her again and ironically she was all smiles again. I guess since the Eco Tourists weren't around it was okay to joke with me.
After those two encounters I determined I wasn't going to stay at the Taormina anymore. It's a shame because I use to like the Taormina. It ranked fourth on my list......but during football season, or any other major sporting event, they became my number 1 spot. However the handwriting is on the wall. With each trip there seemed to be more and more European Eco Tourists frequenting the hotel. I saw the same thing happening with my former number 1 spot; Dunn Inn. And we all know how that turned out.
But Taormina is not the Dunn Inn. It's overall design is specifically for mongers (with the casino and sports bar); plus there is much more real estate. 90 rooms versus the Dunn Inn's 28 or 29 rooms. I just don't foresee the transition going as smoothly for them as it did for the Dunn Inn. For one thing we're scaring the crap out of these Eco Tourists and I think only the super cheap ones will actually be repeat customers or recommend the place to someone else who's super cheap.
That said, even though it may take a while, Taormina has shown us their hand. Long term they don't want us there anymore. And long term we won't be welcome. Right now we are just tolerated. They are content with using us until they get what they really want; the Eco Tourist business. I bet the minute the number of Eco Tourists outnumber the mongers they will automatically and officially turn into a non-chica friendly hotel.
Right after the country opens back up I can see everyplace being desperate. Taormina included. I bet they even drop the chica fee in an attempt to fill the place up with mongers or whoever. They will certainly welcome our business then. But as I said, we've already seen their hand. I say eff em. Why support a place that will eventually kick us to the curb?? I'm not going back there unless they start kissing some serious monger butt.
Of course they are going this direction...there is lots of pressure from all kinds of public organizations and from foreign organizations for hotels to totally ban sex tourism. So if they want to be anything other than an exclusive monger hotel this is the direction they have to go. I doubt that the virus thing will change any of that. You have all kinds of helpful organizations from the US and local that are campaigning to come down hard on sex tourism. And in the big scheme of tourism in Costa Rica our kind is not even a drop in the bucket. So move on I guess is the message.