Vidanta Riviera Maya now charges for parking

[dominidude]

I was aware that this resort increased its checkin fee from $75 (dollars) per unit to $11 (dollars) per person per night.
But I was not aware of the $100 (pesos) per day per vehicle charge for parking.
Apparently this parking fee took effect Jan 1. Caveat Emptor.
In my opinion this is terrible. This resort is gi-normous. They need to give people plenty of reasons to come back. Nickle and diming does not seem to me a good 'repeat business' strategy.
Also, another minor irritation is that they call this fee a 'Valet charge'. There's no valet service at this resort. You still have to drop off your car in the parking lot and pick it up at the parking lot, they do not pick up/ drop off in the lobby. The parking lot is 2 to 3 miles from the lobby, so you still have to take the shuttle back to the lobby, And they take upwards of 40 minutes to 1 hr to get your car, so call way ahead of pick up. When I said to the manager that the service was no valet parking, he said I was right, that the service is really a parking fee that they renamed valet because it sounds better.

 

[MuranoJo]

Thanks for the heads-up...I hadn't heard of that parking fee before. Also, a recent renter told me they were charged a flat ~$10 tax for a 'grounds fee.'
Somehow, I always thought that should be covered in the maintenance fees.

 

[NiteMaire]

Vidanta sure is proud of its product (especially for exchangers). I love their resorts. The price is just too prohibitive for me to buy. I still consider my exchange to be of great value, even with all the recent increases in fees. I'll be back in September. This May I've decided on a change of scenery and resorts. I'm going to compare other resorts. I'm slightly hesitant considering how much they spoil my family when we visit. I've met wonderful people at the resorts and look forward to each visit.

 

[dominidude]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Vidanta

Revenues: 750 millions
No of employees: over 15k

Revenue per employee: about $50,000.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriott_International

Revenue: $15 billion
No of employees: 200k

Revenue per employee: $75,000

It seems fees will need to increase dramatically at Vidanta resorts to come up to any semblance of parity with industry.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

Many owners have a annual MF cap - typically USA annual cpi (+/-) 5% for Mexican inflation .

Daily maid and towel service & over all service level means more employees / But they are paid in pesos while most of the revenue stream is in USD $

Privately held .

Awards from Mexican government for importance to the tourism economy .

Vidanta operates in a different country with a different model - so there is currently no need for "parity with industry"
IMO - their goal is to have the finest TS in the world / not just Mexico - so that the TS industry has to attempt to achieve
parity with them on service levels.

IMO - some of the recent exchange fee increases are to help their TS sales have another selling tool .

*****
IMO - the long term " fly in the ointment " is if (in 15-20 years )the cost of labour in Mexico is much closer to the US average ( in the resort business ).
Vidanta Nuevo Vallarta apparently has 5000 of the 15000 employees . It would be hard to keep the current service levels if you had close wage parity to USA.

They have lots of " shoulder season " room because they build in pesos for peak snowbird season ( and collect MF is USD $).
IMO - they are trying to fill summer with Mexican National contract to the growing Mexican middle class .

They can increase revenues by increasing the occupancy levels in the 9 or so months that are not snowbird season - without increasing MF beyond
the contractual agreement(s).
.

 

[Ty1on]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Vidanta

Revenues: 750 millions
No of employees: over 15k

Revenue per employee: about $50,000.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriott_International

Revenue: $15 billion
No of employees: 200k

Revenue per employee: $75,000

It seems fees will need to increase dramatically at Vidanta resorts to come up to any semblance of parity with industry.

Vidanta is all on the Mexican economy, Marriott is largely on the American economy. $50K goes a lot farther in Mexico (outside tourist traps) than $75K does in the US.

What incenses me about all these increases is that the Peso has dropped by, what, 70%? Velas is getting a LOT more pesos for my maintenance fee dollars, yet they felt the need to increase my maintenance fee by 10% and optional AI by 20%.

 

[dominidude]

Vidanta operates in a different country with a different model - so there is currently no need for "parity with industry"
IMO - their goal is to have the finest TS in the world / not just Mexico.

IMO - some of the recent exchange fee increases are to help their TS sales have another selling tool .

As far as operating in a different country, that should work in their favor, not against. They bill their custmers in dollars, yet they pay in Mexican pesos. Their revenue per employee should be lots higher, but what I see here is a company trying to appeal to the masses and trying to maintain a luxury brand. To me that seems competely incompatible, and the hallmark of incompetent management.
As far as Vidanta increasing fees to give TS sales people more room to negotiate, I thought as much also. That is a risky strategy though, for example, like me, thousands of other guests are not coming back due to the fee increases. It seems to me that the sales incentives come from the resort fees, however, I see the number of people paying those fees decreasing dramatically as fewer people come, so that the total take by Vidanta will probably be about the same as before the fee increases.
A washout in other words.

 

[T-Dot-Traveller]

RE : Vidanta resort fees - ( I am not defending the increases )

I am not entirely sure Vidanta wants folks coming back multiple times through exchanges and having no reason to buy .
The first time exchanger to their resorts -will probably still go for the reasonable TPU and will either buy or pay the $ 11 pp/ per day and decide not to come back - which makes room for the next newbie .
(I own Mayan Palace & also use RCI / Grand Mayan 2 bedrooms are generally less than 25 TPU's )

Vidanta has a long history of using RCI 1 in 3 ( & up to 1 in 5 ) rules to manage exchange flow .
Since the higher fee schedule only started mid to late 2016 we will see where it goes . It has a similarity to the airline baggage fee introduction .
Also only NV & RM are at the $ 11 figure . Their other properties vary in cost on the RCI website.

That said : IMO - the " hotel management side of Vidanta's operation does focus on " occupancy levels " and will work to maintain and increase those numbers . If they see a problem my guess is they will " fix it " . Time Share sales is just one arm of Vidanta .

Staff levels / revenue per employee :
When we were at the NV Sea Garden last year - there was an employee cleaning fingerprints off the elevator walls about every 2 hours .
I am sure Vidanta ownership could make more money by cutting employees and service levels . I do not think they feel that is in Vidanta's long term interest and probably neither does the federal government of Mexico or the various states in which Vidanta has operations .

 

[NiteMaire]

RE : Vidanta resort fees - ( I am not defending the increases )

I am not entirely sure Vidanta wants folks coming back multiple times through exchanges and having no reason to buy.

That's different than what the exit team told me at the end of my last presentation.

Bear with me. During my last visit/presentation, the first salesman was extremely nice. The second one was rather rude and tried to make me feel bad for wasting the initial salesman's time. On my paperwork (which he kept) he wrote something to the effect that I shouldn't be invited again. Interesting considering the nice lady at check-in offered great incentives (posted in a different thread) to attend, even after I mentioned I had no intention to buy and had done the presentation multiple times. The exit team asked me how I was treated and I told them about the second salesman. They told me Vidanta wants me to return. They acknowledged I may not buy the first, second, third, or fourth time, etc., but maybe the next time I would.

I'm returning in September...and I just might go to another presentation if the incentives are right

 

[dioxide45]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grupo_Vidanta

Revenues: 750 millions
No of employees: over 15k

Revenue per employee: about $50,000.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriott_International

Revenue: $15 billion
No of employees: 200k

Revenue per employee: $75,000

It seems fees will need to increase dramatically at Vidanta resorts to come up to any semblance of parity with industry.

You are comparing a timeshare company to the largest hotel company in the world. A better comparison would be of Vidanta to Marriott Vacations Worldwide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriott_Vacations_Worldwide_Corporation

Revenue: $1.75 billion
No of employees: 10k

Revenue per employee: $175,000

 

[MuranoJo]

Good point dioxide45 makes above.
Of course, revenue alone is not a complete picture.
Things may have changed, but Mr. Chavez was known for avoiding debt and practicing 'pay as you go' for ongoing development and expansion.

 

[Carrematalk]

I was aware that this resort increased its checkin fee from $75 (dollars) per unit to $11 (dollars) per person per night.
But I was not aware of the $100 (pesos) per day per vehicle charge for parking.
Apparently this parking fee took effect Jan 1. Caveat Emptor.
In my opinion this is terrible. This resort is gi-normous. They need to give people plenty of reasons to come back. Nickle and diming does not seem to me a good 'repeat business' strategy.
Also, another minor irritation is that they call this fee a 'Valet charge'. There's no valet service at this resort. You still have to drop off your car in the parking lot and pick it up at the parking lot, they do not pick up/ drop off in the lobby. The parking lot is 2 to 3 miles from the lobby, so you still have to take the shuttle back to the lobby, And they take upwards of 40 minutes to 1 hr to get your car, so call way ahead of pick up. When I said to the manager that the service was no valet parking, he said I was right, that the service is really a parking fee that they renamed valet because it sounds better.

We were there between Jan 7 and Jan 14. We drove right up to the Grand Mayan Lobby. They explained the new parking situation and described that we could self park in the lot by the entrance (no charge) or choose to Valet for $100 pesos a day. We chose to Valet because we had off-resort activities planned for most days. It was wonderful. We called about 20 minutes prior to heading down, and never once waited. The car was always there when we got to the lobby. We were never hassled by the front gate people, and it was well worth the roughly $5/day charge. By the way, when was the last time you were at a resort in the states with Valet parking and paid $5/night?? Never. It's well worth it.

Full disclosure, I am a member. However, the Valet people would have absolutely no way of knowing that before I checked in. This isn't a "members" benefit.

Hope that helps you next time or others that are curious about the same.

By the way, 2-3 miles? That's a tad overegagerated. It's not walkable, but it's also not 2-3 miles. Maybe 1/4 mile at most.

 

[dioxide45]

By the way, 2-3 miles? That's a tad overegagerated. It's not walkable, but it's also not 2-3 miles. Maybe 1/4 mile at most.

Looking at Google Maps, it doesn't even look like it is a mile from the beach to the main road.

 

[Carrematalk]

OK... had to settle this one with MapMyRide. It's .73 miles. The point is that the new parking situation is quite reasonable if you have reason to have a car, and you don't want to deal with the shuttle back and forth to the lot; especially if you are dragging a bunch of stuff from the day out exploring.

 

[dominidude]

We were there between Jan 7 and Jan 14. We drove right up to the Grand Mayan Lobby. They explained the new parking situation and described that we could self park in the lot by the entrance (no charge) or choose to Valet for $100 pesos a day. We chose to Valet because we had off-resort activities planned for most days. It was wonderful. We called about 20 minutes prior to heading down, and never once waited. The car was always there when we got to the lobby. We were never hassled by the front gate people, and it was well worth the roughly $5/day charge. By the way, when was the last time you were at a resort in the states with Valet parking and paid $5/night?? Never. It's well worth it.

Full disclosure, I am a member. However, the Valet people would have absolutely no way of knowing that before I checked in. This isn't a "members" benefit.

Hope that helps you next time or others that are curious about the same.

By the way, 2-3 miles? That's a tad overegagerated. It's not walkable, but it's also not 2-3 miles. Maybe 1/4 mile at most.

There's no Valet parking at this resort anymore, and also there's no free self parking either anywhere in the resort.
You get to pay for parking, you have to drop off and pick up your car at the parking lot by entrance. The name of the manager I had a lengthy discussion with regarding this subject is Jose Antonio Perez Alfaro, Guests Service Manager.
Once you pick up your car at the parking lot by the main entrance, you can drive to the lobby, but no one from the lobby will drive your car to the parking lot.
If you are bringing lots of stuff after a day out, they have bell boys bring it to your room in big plastic bins. Of course, the bell boy expects a tip.
I also stayed at the Grand Mayan.
I mentioned to the manager how weird that set up was, and he said that people where driving drunk on the premises, which I honestly thought was a near certainty. I guess that is one way of preventing drunk driving accidents, but I think charging (even $5) to make it difficult to drive in the premises is a tad harsh.
If they dropped off/ picked up the car in the lobby, I would most certainly agree the fee was worth it, but I could also see a drunk guest mowing down fellow guests in the lobby area if that were the case.
Weird, that's all I can say.
As far as the distance from where we stayed to the parking lot, remember that the walking paths are not straight, so that may add to the distance you'd need to walk. Also, in any case, the distance is not walkable, you have to wait for the shuttles, and those can sometimes take 30 minutes to pass by.
Finally, you can get lucky and get your car in 15 minutes, but I once had to wait for my car to be taken out about 15 minutes after I had given then a 20 minute lead time, not a major inconvenience, but time in Mexico seems to run slower than in the US, so I opted from that time on to give them at least 40 mins lead time.
It's a beatiful resort though. Better communication would go a long way to make the stay a better experience. Also, nickle and diming should stop, just charge one fee and be done with it.
For example, I just found out today that there's an additional $75 pesos daily charge that goes towards taxes. Nobody bothered to mention it at check in, much less before checkin.
Also, to people traveling with small children, be warned: the entrance door to the condo is easily opened by a small child. Our neighbors knocked our door late one night looking for their 2 year old, understandably distraught, the child was finally found outside the building in the area by where the shuttles run.
There's nothing that prevents a small child from opening the door to the condo, or the glass doors that lead to the balcony.

 

[Carrematalk]

Thanks for th further details! Perhaps we caught the last week of convenience in this regard.

 

[melissy123]

Can anyone confirm what the parking situation is currently at Vidanta Riviera Maya and what the charge is for self parking? Thank you.

 

[Paul E Morgan]

I reside in the Las Vegas area. Most of the hotel/casinos on the strip have recently began charging for parking. I previously resided in Washington, DC and Chicago. $100 Mexican Pesos is nothing per day to park in a secure garage. I believe it is most charitable of Vidanta to only charge $100 Mexican Pesos per day for the privilege of parking.