Hi Steve,
Thank you for your review. We appreciate it very much. It's always good to receive constructive reviews, both positive and negative, as they help us realize what improvements we can make to ensure our guests have a more comfortable experience during their stay. So, thanks again for your efforts here. In response to some of your points:
We completely agree with you about the "highway" out to our lodge from our local town, Puerto Jimenez. We have complained about the roads and lack of bridges since we first bought the property in 1991. Everybody has lost a vehicle at some point in those rivers. We were told 30 years ago they would build an all-weather road, and install bridges over all the main rivers, plus bring us electricity, water, sewerage systems, phone lines, garbage collection, etc., etc. But they give us nothing, unfortunately. The Costa Rican government simply doesn't care about their citizens in our area. They sure tax us as if they do, though!
Anyway, the only solution we can offer here is to send our own staff out to work on the roads (something we've had to do many times over the years). But you could possibly help us all here by complaining to Google Maps and the Costa Rican government? They were the ones who misled you here, not us. A little due diligence and research on your part would have also helped you understand the road conditions, however, as this is described in many websites and publications. We also recommend in our website to use 4WD vehicles. Something to think about, anyway.
That said, many of our guests are adventurous types who choose locations like ours precisely because of the natural environment and the off-road experience. They have actually written reviews stating that getting to our area was one of the highlights of their trip. But these are the more adventurous travelers and guests, we realize.
Regarding your other comments:
1. Air-conditioning (AC). As we pointed out above, and as I explained to you during our phone call, the government supplies no main grid electricity to anyone living past the town of Puerto Jimenez. All hotels, lodges, private homes and businesses must pay for and install their own electricity systems. As a result, none of the hotels in our area offer AC. Not one. We use solar power, and occasionally our generator. The problem with AC is that it consumes large amounts of power and our solar system could not handle it. We would need to have a battery of generators running 24/7 in order to keep you constantly cool with AC. We do, however, have ceiling fans in all our rooms and deck plunge pools with cool water. Our main swimming pool also helps our guests refresh themselves. We hope this helps you understand the situation a little better, Steve.
2. Insects & Bats. As you may or may not know, our lodge is located 2km from the Corcovado National Park, the most biodiverse area in the world, according to National Geographic. Biodiversity brings with it insects, naturally, along with many other species, including small fruit bats. We are so happy to note their existence at our lodge, because, and as you may or may not realize, they are declining rapidly in the rest of the world. Europe has lost 65% of its insects. In China, they have to pollinate their plants by hand now in order to be able to harvest fruit and vegetables. Such is the huge decline in insects. So, thank you very much for letting us know that our insect population at the lodge still appears healthy. We really appreciate it. Many of our guests and researchers are vitally concerned about rainforest insects and mammals, as well, and they will also appreciate your comments.
3. “Outdoor” Bathroom. This really comes down to one’s definition of “outdoor”, don’t you agree? All our bedrooms have secure doors which connect them directly to their bathrooms. They open the door in the bedroom and immediately they’re in the bathroom. Outdoors? We don’t think so. Both the bathrooms and bedrooms share the exact same roof, too. There is no walking “outdoors” to reach any of our bathrooms in any of our guest units, in fact. This is what we would define as “outdoors”. You would have to be completely outside the guest unit to qualify as being outdoors, Steve. Agreed? The guest units all have very large openings to allow guests to view and enjoy Nature while heeding the call of Nature. What could be better and more appropriate, yes? Some bathrooms, like yours, also have mesh screening covering the main opening to allow the view but stop insects and leaves, etc. entering. And it would simply take a brief check of other guest reviews to realize that the vast majority of our Nature-loving guests totally enjoy our bathroom designs. That said, we have no idea why you didn’t enjoy your call of Nature experience, Steve. But we’re sorry you weren’t able to.
4. Bed & Mattress. We were quite concerned, however, when we read your comments about your bed, and especially that the mattress was only 4in thick. We thought for a moment that our staff had somehow cut the mattress into two pieces. But when they sent us photos of your mattress showing it was a full 7in thick, we were very relieved. Btw, it is a mattress, not a box spring support or anything else, and we will send you a photo to prove its dimensions. We also reread our earlier reviews and could find no others mentioning the condition of the mattress in your room. Which makes wonder if perhaps there is some other issue at play here? In any case, we will review this situation and, if determined necessary, we will replace this mattress with one we hope will meet your exacting standards, i.e. premium box springs plus memory foam mattress preferably. It’s probably a fairly easy and cheap process to import such mattresses into San Jose and transport them 300 miles down to our small lodge in the rainforest.
5. Restaurants in the area. Although there are no restaurants in our area, there are other lodges, and it is not a problem at all to contact them and arrange meals at these places. Quite often, our guests enjoy meals at nearby hotels, and their guests come to our place. It works well for all involved. It's a pity you didn't ask about this in the very short time you spent at our lodge.
6. Dinner. Our staff informed us you arrived at 7pm on August 24. We do not keep fresh fish in our refrigerators for days at a time for obvious reasons. In order to prepare fish for you and the four other guests at the lodge, our chef would have had to thaw the blocks of fish out and begin cooking well after 7pm. Unfortunately, our meal schedule is for dinners to be served at 7pm. Our other guests were already in the restaurant and our staff had already decided the meal of the evening (chicken, etc). Had you arrived earlier and imparted your food desires to our staff, you would have been served fish, we're sure. Perhaps next time you could phone ahead and let us know what you would like to be served?
7. We're very pleased to read your generous comments about our staff. Thank you. And yes, you are correct, they do not speak English very well. They are all taking classes, however, with a local volunteer turtle foundation from the UK. Our staff very much hope to improve their level of fluency in the language. Just as, we are sure, the staff in Kansas City hotels and restaurants are improving the level of their Spanish abilities. Btw, Spanish is spoken by more people in the world than English. Interesting, don't you think? Many of our guests love practicing their Spanish with our staff, too, and it is part of the joy of being in a foreign country, learning about a new culture, with all its wonders and differences, including the language. But we're sure that was one of the main reasons you visited Costa Rica, yes?
8. Payment via Expedia. This part puzzled us, as we send all our guests welcome messages explaining, among other things, that booking sites such as Expedia and Booking.com are not authorized to charge anything to their clients who book rooms at our lodge. Nor do we charge anything to our guests' credit cards. The card data is purely to pre-authorize the booking itself. The Welcome Message we sent you on August 19 clearly stated: "As with all our guest bookings, we do require payment in advance in order to block your room and prepare for your arrival. Any credit card details you may have submitted to Booking.com are required by them only to preauthorize your reservation. Nothing has been or will be charged to your card in the online booking process. For any incidental onsite expenses while at LagunaVista, however, you are welcome to pay by credit card, cash or PayPal." And if our welcome message didn't sound correct to you, a simple check with your credit card company would have verified that you had not paid anything to anyone prior to arriving at our lodge. Anyway, if you had read and understood our welcome message, you would not have had this issue with our staff, who know quite well that nothing had been charged in advance. We informed them of this prior to your arrival, in fact. Anyway, this information should help with your next visit to LagunaVista, yes?
9. As you no doubt know, like most hotel businesses, we have a Cancellation Policy. This information is stated in the contract you accepted with Booking.com in order to stay at our lodge. By rights, due to your late cancellation, we could have charged you 100% for the other two nights you booked with us. Nor did you meet our standard requirement for advance payment prior to arrival in order to allow us to block your room and prepare for your arrival (fish for dinner?). We elected not to charge you anything in response to your decision to cancel your stay. Unfortunately, and after reading your review, we sadly realize that such a generous gesture on our part was not reciprocated in the least by you and Lillian. This left us wondering what we had done wrong here. We're now sorry we offered this to you. Please accept our apologies.
Finally, it should not be overlooked that the main reason people come to our area of Costa Rica is to enjoy the abundant wildlife and beauty of the rainforest and beaches. Our property is magnificent in having a freshwater lagoon and luxurious rainforest with many species of animals and other wildlife, not to mention aquatic birds, turtles on our beaches and migrating whales passing directly in front of the property. It is so sad to know that you traveled so far to be in such a magical place, and you didn't make one comment about this in your review. Perhaps if you were to visit us again, I would make sure I was there, too, to help point out all the beauty of the world right in front of your eyes. The same beauty and wonder that attracts so many of our guests to our lodge and the area surrounding it. Think about it, ok, Steve?
All the best back there in Kansas City. And thanks again for your constructive comments. We have learned a lot from you.
Greg & Keiko
