M5682IKmichaelc
Google
My family and I have stayed over the years at ClubMeds in Punta Cana, Thailand (Phuket), Bali, Ixtapa, Saint Lucia (now closed), and others. This letter compares Le Boucaniers to all these other ClubMeds and Les Boucaniers was the worst, for the following reasons:||||1. The vast majority of its staff speak and understand only French. This is unacceptable for a resort that claims to cater to an international clientele. Even the main reception desk employees had a terrible time understanding simple English.||By contrast, GMs in all the other ClubMeds are multilingual and have a flag pinned on their shirts that indicates which languages they are conversant in.||||2. Amazingly for a French resort, the food was terrible. All beef dishes were undercooked by a large amount. The beef was raw inside; this may be OK for a cannibal but not for civilized patrons. Even the fish was raw inside. We always had to ask to have all beef and all fish cooked more, and what we got back was only mildly less raw, still undercooked.||The excuse “the French like it this way” is unacceptable for an international resort that supposedly caters to non-French patrons as well. Also, uncooked beef and fish are serious health risks because of bacteria.||Amazingly, even the supposedly exclusive separate restaurant that required reservations was the same way: the steaks were raw and we had to throw them away.||Please have your cooks attend one week of steak-cooking classes at any US restaurant.||||3. Unlike all of the many other ClubMeds we have been to listed above, Les Boucaniers excluded all children from participating in any of its shows. All other ClubMeds had shows that included the patrons’ children as performers for parts of the shows, and this pleased all these children’ parents. At Les Boucaniers, children were ostracized.||||4. Entertainment was pitifully bad and far worse than that in all other ClubMeds we have been to that were listed above. There were no scheduled games in the pool area (go to your Bali and Thailand resorts to learn how to do it right). It was all so dull.||||We recall one chief entertainer at your Thailand and, later, at your Punta Cana resorts, named Andy from the Maldives, who was an example that all of your entertainers should aspire to emulate. He was gifted, multilingual, entertaining, multi-talented, and enthusiastic. The entertainers at Ls Boucaniers had none of these qualities.||||5. The boutique store at Les Boucaniers was terrible. It only carried magazines in French, had no candy counter, had a pitifully limited selection of sandals and clothing, had no personal hygiene supplies (no aspirins, aftershave, mosquito repellent, razors, etc), and whatever little it carried was grotesquely overpriced compared to the identical items in the local economy half a mile outside the resort.||||6. There was simple no enthusiasm or even interest in your GMs at Les Boucaniers. They had zero interest in the guests’ welfare. Coupled with their inability to converse in any language other than French, they were aloof, useless, and irrelevant.||||By contrast, GMs in all the other ClubMeds we have been to were required to join guests at their tables for lunch and dinner, smile, encourage, and convey enthusiasm. At Les Boucaniers, GMs were the proverbial wet blanket.||||7. The “Discovery Desk” at Les Boucaniers was a disaster. The lady behind the counter spoke no usable English, and the “excursions” offered were dull and unimaginative. They involved no participation of attendees, as is the case, for example, in excursions in Bali (where guests can participate in white water rafting), Phuket (where guests can go the “Beach” and “007” islands and stroll around there). So, we took zero excursions at Les Boucaniers, and ClubMed earned zero money from us or any other US guests.||||8. None of the documentation you provide on Les Boucaniers mentions a plague there: the very small mosquito flies that are ever-present, and that sting all guests, and that are not repelled by mosquito-repellent. I believe the locals call them ying-ying or some such, and the itch they cause lasts for weeks after and it is maddening. This is in addition to the well known threat of Dengue fever and Zika virus in Martinique that is documented online.||||In talking with other American guests at Les Boucaniers, we found that all shared the above views and all planned to advise their respective friends and acquaintances to stay away from ClubMed.||||About the only way to fix this terrible state of affairs at Les Boucaniers is to fire the entire staff, and recruit multilingual staff from other ClubMeds like Punta Cana, Thailand (Phuket), Bali, etc.||Then, to sit them all down and explain to them in no uncertain terms that their role is to meet their international guests’ needs and expectations.
