I second this idea.Originally Posted by HarryS
I second this idea.
Out of curiosity, which hotels are not on the net?
Negril.com - For the vacation that never ends!
We returned home last Sat after a week in Negril. We missed a trip last year. We stayed at CSA for four nights. We did our usual, walked and swam. My initial reaction is that along the beach looked much improved. Lots of face lifts going on. Everything looked great, really. A pleasure. Absolutely no hassles. It was beyond quiet though. No parade of walkers at any time of day. On Sunday morning we walked pretty darn far toward town and only passed two other visitors. On our way the other way, none. While it was very relaxing the bit of buzz was missed. It was hot and still and the water was almost as hot. We headed to the cliffs for three nights. First time. Enjoyed our time there. Cathca was great for a first time stay. It was like we had the place to ourselves with between three or four other couples during our stay. Chatting one afternoon with another guest they relayed to us that they stopped referring people to Negril when the returning guests were not smitten with their trip due to the hustle. I told them I have had the situation. Seems you either love it or not. The street was empty. Also a good thing for a first time stay. We walked to the shops and restaurant at Tensing Pen. We found it to be overall clean, albeit a bit worn around the edges out along the road. But Catcha was sparkling. As was Tensing Pen. The ride to the cliffs revealed a much improved Bvd. The sidewalk was a great addition. So for us, Negril remains a destination. Next time we will do a split between Charela and LeMirage. Would prefer to stay on the cliffs at a place that does not open up for dinner guests. While there were few additional dinners I would rather have it darker and quieter at night.
For example, Moms Place. Sure, they have a Tripadvisor page, and a Facebook page that hasn't been updated for 5 years, but no website, no way to book online.
I may stay there next visit, but only because we've eaten there and asked to look at the rooms and discussed the rates.
I have a list I've made over the years of places I've passed by that I hadn't seen on the web. Some of the places may no longer be open, or since the list is a bit old, they may now have a web presence. I'll post it this evening.
HarryS...Mom's place has an online booking site when you search Google.
I can't think of one hotel that doesn't offer a way to book online...maybe I just can't think of any at the moment.
Bnewb, I'm guessing you mean booking.com. When I travel I like to research, and if all I can find is a booking.com page, and no actual website and very little traffic on their Facebook page.... well, if I hadn't been there before I don't think I (or many others) would take a chance. Not when other, similar places have a much more robust web presence. There's also that negril-videos website that has some information on some of these hotels, but it's old and outdated and you can't book there.
I will say it's gotten better, many of the places on the list I had now have a website of varying quality. The others with little to no web presence are Villa Mora, La Kaiser, Croton Grove, and Trombones Place. Maybe those are no longer open?
HarryS...I didn't mean booking.com.
Booking.com (Bookingsuites.com) unfortunately took over many of the hotelier's main websites...confusing people and not really providing fair service. This has happened all over the world not just in Negril. Booking.com did a he** of a sales job on these hotels.
Negril videos site was never completed even close to accurately and any updating seems to have stopped around 2011.
Some of the smaller properties may not have a strong presence merely because of their size or business situation...they're not ever going to be heavily mentioned anyways.
As far as the properties you've mentioned...without going into inappropriate detail, most are small family run properties or because of their business situation prefer to operate via word of mouth.
La Kaiser...has been closed for well over a decade.
If there's any other properties...I'd be happy to check on them.
I'm sorry... that's kind of an odd response... "without going into inappropriate detail"? These are hotels we're talking about, that presumably would like to rent rooms to people. I guess I don't understand "the runnings" if a hotel would rather stay vacant and hope they fill up by word of mouth, or stay empty.
La Kaisers, I thought it looked nice? Didn't appear to be a closed hotel? Sure, it looked empty but I typically go in the offseason... Odd that it appeared to be in decent condition if it's been closed for a decade.
My original comment was because there is a wide range of quality when it comes to the websites for hotels and resorts, and in this day and age a subpar web presence is business suicide. Websites without pics from this decade, websites without pricing, websites that are hard to navigate, or are lacking in basic information. No way to book directly through the hotel, and having to use booking engines I've never heard of, or have never used before? Not going to happen for me or for most anyone else.
Same with restaurants. Many don't have websites, or menus, or anything. It seems like Business 101, yet many businesses in Jamaica don't seem to get it? If you have a hotel, how hard would it be to add the menu to your restaurant to the website? For a small restaurant, would it be impossible to at the very least have a robust Facebook page with updates and menus and specials?
Last edited by HarryS; 10-09-2016 at 08:58 PM.
Posting Permissions
