Jannet and I met with Oasis Viva today regarding their upcoming new 'sexy adults only' concept. We felt very welcomed and had a full tour both inside and outside the hotel, spending a little short of 2 hours there. Oasis Viva seemed genuinely interested in cancuncare and were open to talk about any subject I raised. I did not feel that anything was hidden. We met with: The Director of the hotel The Assistant Director The Concept Manager All are young (early-mid thirties), clearly intelligent, innovative and undoubtedly leaders in their field. I will cover all the questions raised here and then some, but rather than one long post I'll split it up in to sections, as there is a lot of information to give. I probably wont be able to get it all done in one go. Lots of rumours to be squashed and some extra surprises that haven't been talked about before. Considering the level of the people we met with, you can consider this to be superior information than what you might read from other sources.
Nothing like a little suspense, eh? From the sounds of things I'm guessing TTR has a solid competitor soon on their hands, which is good news to me!
These must be very intelligent people you met with, getting cancuncare onboard, how could they ever find a better marketing tool !!!!
The Concept If you are looking for a second Temptation, I don't think the GOV will be it. They have their own spin on how they see their sexy adults only concept to be. They dont want to be viewed as a Temptation copy and are striving to be different. In my own words, I think they are looking for a more classy, less drunken crazy crazy vibe and a more sophisticated, refined, elegant vibe with some crazy on the side. Dare I say, a kind of middle ground between Temptation and Desire. But with similar (possibly more restrictive) rules to Temptation regarding the sexy side of things. Of course, this is a brand new concept and we should all expect things to evolve through time as experience and feedback dictates.
The Timing GOV explained that they have a soft opening and a hard opening. Hush your dirty minds! The soft opening was on 14th October, this is when they started to introduce some of their adult only concepts. However, their guests at this time were not aware of the forthcoming changes, so it is a little by little process. The hotel has been adults only since January, so definitely no kids at the hotel at the present, nor the future. At the same time, the current guests are not those seeking the new vibe. The hard opening will be 23 December, this is when almost all of the new adult themed concepts will be in place. The announcement of the new concept is recent, and some people book their vacations month in advance. So there will be guests who pre-booked before the news became public. As time progresses the number of people who booked under the old concept will reduce, and the number of people who book for the new concept will increase. So there will be a transition period where the ratios start out one way and end the other. They expect that by June 2014 all their guests will be those who have booked expecting the new. There is some work going on at the hotel at the moment, but this is exclusively on refurbishing blocks of rooms (more on that later). The outside infrastructure for the most part is either staying the same or has already been completed. There are several brand new restaurants that have been completed.
Singles Policy, groups of singles policy, takeovers Singles are welcome. Groups of singles are welcome. Groups of same sex singles are welcome. Takeovers - the hotel has 400+ rooms. It is unlikely that any one group would takeover the whole hotel, or even the majority of it. But yes, we should expect that there will be oragnised groups there who travel together from time to time. I did raise the issue of large groups of single males being something that people here generally didn't like. They replied that they have no plans to restrict such groups at the present time, but that their policies can always change. Personally I think that only fair, they should base their own policies on their own experience and how they deal with any problems that may arise. Start out with carte blanche and adapt if necessary.
so far so good on the report Steve...we are pretty much going to stay with Desire unless we start seeing great reviews.
Bar closing times, drink quality / brands The bars will close at 3am. Not 1am as previously reported from elsewhere. Obviously some bars will close earlier, they have 6 of them. But if you want to get a drink up until 3am you will be able to get one. All rooms have mini bars too. Drink quality - I messed up a bit here. I asked about Premium drinks at the regular bars, and was told there are none. I got my terminology wrong and should have asked about Imported drinks. Hotels generally have 3 levels of drinks. Domestic (cheap shit as we call it), Imported drinks like Smirnoff and Bacardi, and then Premium drinks like Grey Goose and Captain etc. There is a Premium bar, which is extra charge. Can be charged to your room or paid for at the time. I have sent an email to ask about Imported quality drinks at regular bars and also to ask what kind of draft beer (90% of hotels serve Dos Equis so I would expect it to be the same) Will update when I hear back
