187marianelac
Google
Where do I start? I met a friend who was in town for a holiday and I hadn't seen him in over a decade. We met at El Sitio when a mutual friend actually owned the casino there, two decades ago. So, it was only logical we met there again (plus, he was spending the last night in the country at the hotel). We went to the restaurant for a drink and a meal. I ordered pasta with shrimp and mushroom and he ordered garlic shrimp with salad and white rice. Both meals were mediocre, disappointing truly. But what was worse than the meal was the customer service from the staff! My pasta was tasteless! Actually, it tasted like beef broth, no salt. I asked the waitress if she could take my dish back and ask the cook to fix it at least by adding some salt or bring me parmesan cheese and spicy oil instead. No, she did not do that. She called the cook to come to the table and she did not taste the dish and said it was done the way it was supposed to be done, so no problem at all! There were some packages of parmesan cheese on the table (they showed me) and brought the hot oil after requesting it a second time, and believe me, I had to add like four packages for my pasta to taste like something edible. My friend's meal was also mediocre but he chose not to say anything. We paid, even TIPPED!! Before finishing the meal, he went back to his bedroom to get some souvenir for the waitress, while I waited. He said he had one for me, too (a handkerchief or something like it). Really nice of him... ||Anyhow, since he's flying out tomorrow morning, and the rain stopped and I had to go back home on my motorcycle (I had my helmet with me at all times) we decided it was time to call it the night. But before bidding farewell, he asked me to go to his room to pick up the souvenir and see if the coffee he'd bought for his wife and daughter was good enough, otherwise he still had time to go and get more or better coffee before the supermarket closed. So, we were heading to his room when I (just me, BTW) got stopped by a security guy and was asked to go with him back to the front desk. As I am approaching the receptionist the guy tells me "The thing is... The guest just paid for one person, not two. You have to pay extra to spend the night". EXCUSE ME!!!??? By then, I'm in front of the receptionist and the lady also assumes I'm gonna be spending the night with my friend and repeats the same argument the guy told me. I interrupted her and told her I was just collecting some souvenirs he was giving me and that I was on my way out. When I'm telling her that I see my friend just reached us and asked what was happening, I explain to him the outrageous claim they were falsely accusing me of and he goes nuts, too!!! I mean, it's understandable they thought of that, for sure!! But they could've and SHOULD HAVE handled the situation way better before jumping to conclusions!! They could've asked me if I needed to use the restroom, and offer me the one closest to the front desk, or they could've been honest to me and politely asking to my face "I'm sorry, do you plan to spend the night, too?" Jeez!! So many options that did not include insulting me! ||Mind you, they saw us upset and I felt humiliated, and even though I had explained myself, there was not a single apology for the "misunderstanding". So, basically i wanted to spend some time before my friend left the country and another 10 years would go by without seeing him, but instead of having a truly pleasant time, I was insulted, and not appreciated as a paying customer (I had invited my friend for dinner, I was the one initially paying but he then insisted on picking up the tab). ||Now... funny story. A couple of years ago, a Welsh friend of mine was also staying at El Sitio, my reccommendation, funny enough. I went to the room where my friend was staying like three different times, to run some errands very quickly, in two different days. Nobody stopped me, nobody charged me extra money cuz I went into the bedroom... Why?? All I can think of is... because my friend, Gaynor Reader, was a woman, not a man. I will not be reccomending this place anymore!!! I was excited to finding out that the hotel was still owned and managed by the same family (the Parapini) and I have fond memories of the place when I worked as an interpreter at the casino, but those memores have been replaced, sadly.
