| Received
by James December 5 2006 |
Hi
Guys,
What's up with the cruise? No one asked us about it, which seems strange
to us, especially since we've been told you guys are handling it and
after the last Burger Bash, you said you didn't want to get involved
anymore. I'm confused.
We survive off of our commissions from trips, including when the peeps
that we've brought together go out on excursions that they organize
on our site.
Monica's reply was that she didn't think we booked that, but, of course,
anyone with a pulse and a telephone can book anything, as anyone in
Playa knows, and anyway, if we don't book something, it's certainly
nice (and a term of use on our announcement) to ask us first because
maybe we don't book it for a reason and maybe we don't want it booked
on our site to dilute our other products (not saying that is the case,
but it is certainly plausibly deniable), or maybe some other reason.
Anyway, we ARE glad to have you guys participating again. Please do
get us in the loop on this excursion.
saludos,
James
|
| Our response |
Hola James,
We hope you and Anna and the kids are all well and thriving over there.
We don’t see the confusion over the Catamaya booking. When Monica and
Michael booked their rooms with the Luna Blue for March, they asked
us if they could arrange to book a day with the Catamaya for them and
a group of friends. We said sure and did so. We did not consider this
to be any sort of Playa Info event and had no knowledge of any claims
by Playa Info to management or promotion of this tour.
Our position is that we sell tours (like you) and that we sold a tour
to a guest who asked for a specific outing. We have not promoted that
outing on your website, nor have we attempted to use Playa Info to obtain
a commission. Michael and Monica booked with us and then went on the
forum to invite friends to join them. That was their choice. We are
a little surprised that you feel we should have asked you in advance
for permission, kept you in the loop or otherwise involved you in our
booking. We consider this a Luna Blue matter. Under no circumstances
would we attempt to “steal” a booking or otherwise direct people away
from your tours. At the same time, it’s not our obligation when people
book a tour with us to ask them whether or not they are going to be
discussing it on Playa Info.
Perhaps the solution is a little more clarity. While you may feel people
know that Playa Info can book any and all tours, that
is unclear from reading your website. Moreover, we have to point
out that while anyone in the travel industry can book all tours with
any and all companies, nobody does. We all have favored vendors and
specific niches. This allows us to control the quality of the tours
we recommend and the commissions and services we can negotiate. If you
want people to book other specific tours through Playa Info, you really
should make that specifically known. Otherwise, people could naturally
assume that your tour bookings are limited to the companies listed in
your trip planning section.
We hope this clears up your confusion. Again, we hope all is going well
with you and the family in your new life in Sweden.
Tony & Cheri |
| James’ response |
Quote:
| We did not consider this to be any sort of Playa Info
event and had no knowledge of any claims by Playa Info to management
or promotion of this tour. |
I
don't doubt that, however, I am letting you know that it IS a tour being
promoted on our site, comprised of people getting together via Playa.Info,
so it IS a Playa.Info event. |
| Our response |
Sorry
James we disagree. The Luna Blue booked the Catamaya for our guest.
We made all the arrangements. It is a tour arranged by us, and only
later talked about on your forum.
If our guest wants to invite people on the cruise by means of the forum
and you feel that is against forum rules, you can act accordingly. That's
your right as owner. However, our reservation does not become yours
by that posting.
By your reasoning if someone talks about a tour on the Playa.Info forum,
then Playa.Info then owns the reservation. What if the same tour is
also talked about on Tripadvisor, or Loco
Gringo or I love Playa? Whose reservation does it become? Obviously
the reservation belongs to who made it and that's the Luna Blue in this
case.
We hope you see that what you are asking is really out of the question.
We can't be expected to help our guests with reservations for tours,
do the work and make the arrangements and then because it later gets
mentioned on some forum, turn the over to that website. We have no control
over what is posted on forums and it isn't fair to us to lose our commision
in that circumstance.
Again, we suggest that if you have a policy that no event can be talked
about unless it is booked through you, you need to make that policy
clear. We do not think you have made that clear in the past.
Hope you understand our position.
T&C |
| James's response |
Here's the timeline.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Monica
Timeline:
ThrushJockey (Rob) said on the 10 days
in March thread
We really hope there will be numerous peeps to get together with
and hang out on the beach! Please post if you are planning to
be in town these dates as we will try to alter our time so as
to see as many peeps as possible.
If there will be enough of us it would be great to plan some nightlife
events or a Fat Cat, ect.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Then Shammy (Annalynne)
posted on that thread
*insert whining voice here*
Can we please do something other than the Fat Cat - if that's
the "boat cruise" you're talking about? Many of us have
been on it more than a few times (I lost count!), same ol,
same ol ya
know.
What about the Catamaya? Bigger boat AND they'll feed us! I know
a few peeps have wanted to go on it, I am one of um!
And David B responed
Gotta agree with Shamms.
We've done the Fat Cat the last three years. Lets
try something different.
I had suggested to Rob that he should look into the Catamaya…..and
that SarahB had a thread about it and that it was on Tony and
Cheri’s Blog and looked like fun. He said he was very busy and
asked if I could look into it for him and do the thread…..I looked
at the Catamaya site……I then contacted Tony and Cheri for advice
knowing they had been on it before….they told me that they had
a working relationship with the Catamaya and would be more than
willing to set things up….. |
You
can check all this out on the forum, where this tour was conceptualized
and initiated, as the latest chapter in our 5 years of forum organized
peep catamaran trips. |
| Our response |
James,
Sorry, but we still don’t see how this changes anything.
First of all, as we said previously, we are not responsible for other
people’s postings. We do not spend all day on the playa.info forum
tracking how events come about. Frankly, we don’t have time for
such things. If you think this entire tour was “conceptualized
and initiated” on your forum you should have stepped in at that time
and informed the forum members that they were REQUIRED to book this
tour through you It’s not our job to moderate your forum or figure
out which tours you think you have exclusive rights to book. Plain
and simple, a guest came to us and asked us to book a cruise.
We did not solicit them for that purpose; we did not review any “timeline”
or see who we could book tours for.
We
value our business relationship with playa.info
and believe it is a two way street. We’d like to remind you that
for two years running, when we held the Luna Blue Blender & Burger
Bashes, we limited them ONLY to playa.info peeps. Every aspect
of those events not only advertised our hotel but also promoted
playa.info. If you remember, we didn’t even allow
non-playa.info registered people to win any of the many prizes
we gave away. In short, in order to attend these bashes, people
had to register with your website—this despite the fact that we were told the first year
that we couldn’t even officially be part of Peep Fest.
Even
after the dispute following the first Peep Fest last year, we still
held Peepstock Burger Bash and invited you and allowed you to
sell your various shirts at our front desk
and work the crowd. And we must point out that we never once asked
you to contribute to any of the several thousands of dollars we spent
on these events which greatly benefitted playa.info.
We have always considered our business relationship with you to
be mutually beneficial. Certainly we have enjoyed great exposure
on playa.info. At the same time, we have returned the favor time
and time again. Therefore we are puzzled by this demand that you
are entitled to take over a reservation that was made by this hotel.
We simply will not do it. We respect that you have been booking
tours for five years in Playa del Carmen. However, that does not
give you exclusive rights to demand that any and all tours be booked
through you. If you do not want members of your forum to book
tours through our hotel, you should publicly say so. However,
if that is your policy and belief, that will substantially change our
relationship with playa.info
Let us recap for you: we booked a tour at the request of
a hotel guest. The guest then talked about that reservation on
your forum. As far as we know, they may have talked about it on
other forums, also. We have no idea. We were unaware that
there was any policy that members of the forum were required to book
their tours and trips through you exclusively. Clearly other people
are also unaware of such policy, or none of this would have ever happened.
We have done nothing wrong. We have only done our best to serve
our guests in the way they wish.
Tony & Cheri
|
| James’ response |
wow. we are really amazed
and shocked. and
saddened.
good bye.
James
|
| Our response |
So are we,
James. You act like we tried to rip you off for a commission and demanded
that we turn it over to you. You had no right to do that. We’re sorry
that you’re shocked and saddened. We feel the same way about your actions
in this matter. I’m sorry we couldn’t reach an agreement. |