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View Full Version : Just venting



yayow
02-22-2008, 01:15 PM
Prior to starting this I apologize because it will be long winded. But I want to get it out before I explode.

Well for the first time in my life I got kicked out of a hotel/condo, and believe it or not it happened in D.R. As some of you know I been living in Sosua since September of 2007, in a place called Las Canas. I actually like the place a lot, there are 90 one and two bedroom apartments. Some of the apts. are owned, some have long time renters like me, and others are treated like hotel rooms for short time stays. The only problem as I saw it was that it was out of town in La Mulatta past the Intl. school so you needed some sort of transportation, although they provided a shuttle bus to Playero about 5 times a day back and forth, last bus coming back at about 5:30 pm. The road to Las Canas is dark and long so if you stay in town after the last shuttle your options are a moto or taxi. The place is clean and well kept. They have a good restusrant, a cafe, a bar in the middle of the pool another bar in the restuarant, and you can get beers in the cafe for 50 pesos they cost more at the bar and restuarant. Maid service, laundry facility on site, wireless internet, all the bells and whistles, and for the most part a very friendly staff, except the G.M. who obviously doesn't like me.

I hae recommended it to many people since I lived there and I know of at least 3 who have taken my recommendation and have stayed there. SO WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

Well yesterday I received a terse and pointed letter that one of the staff handed to me from the GM. She didn't even have the decency to give it to me herself, but I guess that is what staff is for. The letter was written as follows, " You do not have an investment in this property and obviously, you are not happy with your choice of accommodations. I think the time has come for you to move on. You are welcome to stay until your rent has run out, but the next month will not be renewed. I wish you luck in your next home. If you find one with all the criteria you expect, please feel free to inform me and I will encourage a few more people to join you". This was signed by the GM, what a bitch.

I was obviously shocked, and somewhat angered at the same time. What I believe was the impetus for her action is as followed, however I am not certain because no one has spoken to me about it. Right now I do not want to respond because I may say or do something I regret, and I haven't yet found a new place to go, so I must keep myself under check. Just recently the past 4 - 5 weeks there have been some security issues at Las Canas, prior to that there were none. I had direct knowledge of one of the issues because it happened to one of the people who came due to my recommendation, he had his laptop $1500.00 worth and a few other items stolen, his first night there. All indications are that it was an inside job. One employee was seen exiting with a package and giving this package to a car that drove up, the employee was taken into custody and fired. Fair enough although there was no compensation to my friend. A couple of weeks later another long time renter had his moto stolen during broad daylight and another had his car stolen, lastly there were rumours of someone climbing over a back fence and burglarizing someone's apartment. The guy who told me about the incidents and I were having a drink and just like me we figured a lot of the residents were not aware of these occurrences, because of lack of information, I know speaking for myself It was welcomed information so that I could take whatever necessary precautions and maybe, be a little more aware of my surroundings. He suggested that we have a meeting and invite other residents to get the info out, and maybe come up with some suggestions for the staff to make the place safer for all. I was all for that it made sense to me, my only concern which I expressed to him was the GM, I felt she may feel that we were circumventing her and trying to usurp her authority. He assured me he got along with her famously and he would talk to her and propose the meeting to her. I said if she agreed I would do all I could. He got back and she agreed in fact he said she welcomed any feedback.

With that we set the meeting for this past Monday, I went about the business of informing all the residents I had met since Sept. he informed some others and we asked all to spread the word. The meeting went well approx. 12 including him and I were in attendance. He was the master of ceremony and said he and I formed this meeting with the blessing of the GM. He typed up the suggestions and submitted it to the GM. The day that he submitted the suggestions, I got the aforementioned reply from the GM about my unhappiness, and by the way I was the only one to receive the letter.

She and I have had a few disagreements in the past, but nothing I felt that warranted this, nor was anything discussed in that meeting negative in and of itself just suggestions trying to make a better living arrangement for all.

So I am currently looking for a new place probably Trade Winds, the Palms or the other apart/hotel up that road.

Thats my rant, thanks for listening.

MyTio
02-22-2008, 01:36 PM
yayow I am sorry to hear abought your trouble although I do not live in the DR I think this is typical complain that something is wrong and your out. I have heard from other that Las Canas is not a safe area I think I may have mentioned it to you maybe Fred from the bar you brought me to can let you stay in one of the girls room :biggrin:
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Beads
02-22-2008, 02:01 PM
I have heard the good reviews of Las Canas also but have had my own interactions with the GM lady (Judy I belive? a heavyset woman) and wasn't happy either. I pointed this out on DR1 a while ago and was met with a lot of resistance because apparently she is friendly with a lot of people on that site.

Heres my incident(s) report......

During one of my trips I heard about a place over by the carwash that had the nicest pool you could find in the area so we decided to go have a look.

A bunch of us took motos out to this place and the pool was UNBELIEVABLE!

It had a bridge you could walk across to the center to their bar and was setup like condos. We all went (a group of about 10 of us). The place was empty. I think the 10 of were about as many people as were staying there but we saw maybe 3 or 4 people that day. Place was a ghost town.

Anyhow we liked the bar and the pool was amazing so we decided to go there and spend more time at the place. On our second trip we met a guy who said he was an owner or the owner. Nice guy who said we were welcome to swim in the pool as long as we were buying drinks at his bar. (sounds fair enough). After hanging around a few times he asked us why we werent staying at the place. A few of us thought it could be fun to stay there but the location requires a car as it is too far away to walk to town.

On another visit myself and a friend decided to go back and really give the place a look at for renting or even purchase.

This was the first time the owner guy wasnt around so we were directed to the manager. She said she would show us some of the rooms as we told her we had already been there several times and knew our way around the grounds.

She showed a few of the empty rooms and we inquired about pricing and were given prices for purchase starting around 90K for a small 1 bedroom. I don't recall the exact rental rates but they were around the range I have been quoted around town. The rooms were about in the same shape as some of the lower end rooms in the Palms. Ok but if you intended on buying you would probably want to redo the interiors including the kitchen cabinets and appliances and a lot of the furniture etc.

This would bring the price of purchase to what a brand new Casa Linda would cost. The main difference was youd have the community large pool vs the private pool at Casa Linda. Ok hey still not too bad.

After being shown the rooms she went on her way and gave us her card.

On this trip I noticed several people around and starting talking to them mentioning we had interest in renting or even buying a place.

The 3 people I spoke to all liked the place a lot. Next I started asking questions about what they were paying and was baffled.

All 3 were long term renters 4+ months and all were paying completely different rates.

All of their rates were quite a bit less than what she quoted me!

One guy was paying like $250 a month!

Hey I understand negotiating in the DR for just about everything but you cant have 2 long term renters living nearly side by side with one paying 2x as much as another one for the same thing.

This just doesn't sit well with me and I was going to ask the owner but never ran into him again. I have since heard he was murdered so I wont get the chance to ask.

I still think the place is great for a daytime trip to swim in the pool and have a few drinks but its just too secluded and far away from everything for me to consider it a place to stay in or live in for that matter.

Now add in the security issues you've mentioned and this doesn't sound like a good place to stay thats for sure.

BTW on all my visits to this place security definitely seemed non existent. I never went there at night but during the day groups of us had NO PROBLEM walking in and just swimming in the pool and drinking at the bar and nobody ever asked us who we knew there or if we lived there.

And we did bring chicas with us too.

guttaman
02-22-2008, 02:29 PM
Stu, give Lou a call or get him tonight after 5 or 6 at the bar. They might still have some decent 1 bedrooms left where he is. 5 minute walk to Pedro Clisante.

ErikS
02-22-2008, 05:37 PM
And Yayow,

I'll be back at the Palms the beginning of March if you want to come check it out from the inside (just no more V&T stops on me please!) ;)

ChicaSeeka
02-22-2008, 06:26 PM
Yayow, Hang in there buddy, Chicaseeka will be comming to town soon.. we definatly need to hang......:D

3somefan
02-22-2008, 07:18 PM
Stuart...


Boy, what a fucked up situation!! And from what Beads added too, this sounds like a very shady place! :mad:

Good luck with your search, I'm sure you won't have too much of a problem as I think that there are many places in Sosua, plus you've got POP not too far either. I'd take Guttaman's advice and talk to Lou too!

Can't wait to hang again with you in June!! :D

Hemp
02-22-2008, 07:21 PM
Damn...:icontd: :icontd:

Bug Boy
02-22-2008, 07:41 PM
HMMMMMMMMMMM:eek: :icontd:

I had pretty much narrowed down where I was going to stay in May to here and one other place. The pool keeps enticing me to Las Canas. I have to say that between some of these reports, info gathered from talking to other people and the continued deterioration of the road leading to Las Canas I think I am scratching this off the list and will stay elsewhere. I'll wait untill one more trip report comes in from an ISOC member staying there.