Terry Case Study

Stephen and Dirinda Terry of Denver Colorado
Clients of All-Inclusive Vacations since 2006. This interview was conducted on August 21st, 2010

In February of 2006, Steve and Dirinda Terry decided they would take a quick trip to Cancun Mexico.
As often happens, they jumped on the internet and searched for deals using a few of the on-line travel agencies. It looked easy, they could see pictures of the resort they’d chosen right away, they found a price they liked and booked their vacation. They got a screaming deal, or so they thought.

Their flight to Mexico went smoothly. Steve is 6’2”, so he made sure to call the airline and had them change his seat to an aisle. He didn’t mind waiting on hold but he didn’t have a frequent flyer account with this airline. So he’d have to call back once he logged onto their website to sign up for an account, explained the airline agent.

They landed in Mexico, followed the line of people getting off their airplane into the terminal building, and stood in line with everyone else for a visit with the immigration officer. Steve recalls, we took our first trip before Passports were mandatory so I had called my parents knowing they had a copy of my Birth Certificate. In retrospect, I’m glad my parents had taken a cruise the year before, because it was mother who told me that I had to have an original one; that a copy from the Xerox machine would not suffice. Steve recalls, this was the first time I started becoming concerned that our trip might not go smoothly…the on-line agency did not spell out the kind of Birth Certificate that would be valid.

The Passport requirement today is so much easier than having to fold a birth certificate in your wallet and Dirinda having to always carry a copy of our marriage certificate on trips along with her birth certificate.
He and Dirinda were cleared through immigration, picked up their bags and breezed through Customs. But now what? “Where do we go now”, he turned to Dirinda. They walked slowly down the corridor while Dirinda fumbled with their printed documents. We must have looked pretty “green”, Steve recalls. The Time Share people were asking us questions. I stopped once and you’d have thought “I was fresh meat to a pack of wolves.” We could not find any mention of transportation to the hotel on our documents. So, we thought, let’s get out of here. We’ll just hail a taxi. After discovering that you just can’t hail a taxi – you need to take a number and wait… we finally got one.

I think we got taken for a ride all right; $55 one way to our hotel in Cancun. I was sure my brother in law told me that his trip to Mexico included a van to the hotel. But I could not find any mention of that on the pages we had printed off from the web. Dirinda took the documents back, and said, did you remember to book the hotel? She was not impressed.

When we drove up to the hotel, the landscaping was very pretty. There was a bellman out front and he opened our taxi door. I remember thinking, now this is more like it. The lobby was equally pretty and it wasn’t long at all before we were checked into our room. I paid for an ocean view room and read a review where you can see more of the blue water if you ask for an upper floor. So that’s what I did, I asked for a high floor. But, the check-in guy said that only one of their two elevators was working right now, so he was placing guests on the lower floors for the time being. But he assured us we had a beautiful view.

And that we did. But, that is the only compliment I can make about our hotel room. The room we got needed a lot of repair. It didn’t look anything like the pictures on their web site. The legs of the furniture were marred and scratched, the bed linens were a bit thin and when I sat on the mattress, I could feel the springs through the covering. The bathroom really needed updating. There was mold between the tiles of the bath enclosure and while the water pressure was good, the temperature changed quite dramatically right in the middle of a shower. Water must have come through the ceiling from the unit above us because the patch job in the plaster in the ceiling was quite amateurish. This was not the quality I thought we were getting for our money. But, the view…wow.

All in all, we made it a good trip. When we got tired of the buffet food, we walked on down the street and ate at a couple of the local restaurants. But of course, like the taxi ride we had to pay for, this added to the overall cost of our trip. So, the next time we went to book a vacation, we vowed we’d talk to someone who had actually been to the resorts. What we thought was a screaming deal was just a low price on a bad hotel. All I’d seen was the window dressing. Too many details were missing.

In October of 2006, we got the itch to once again, take a vacation. This time, Dirinda went looking for a travel agent; “one who knew the destination we were interested in.” Dirinda felt that the one she chose should have a nice web site, friendly and full of information. She found that with All-Inclusive Vacations, Inc. She first spoke to Steve Lord. I remember telling Steve that we had spent the Summer getting our dive certification and were interested in the island of Cozumel. Steve commented that he was Dive Certified. OK, Dirinda thought, this was good.

I remember telling Steve that I had read some reviews about the Reef Club Cozumel and did he have an opinion about that one. Well, it turns out he did and he thought it was a poor choice. Gee, what’s wrong with it, I asked? The resort is quite good, Steve told me. But it’s for sale. For sale, I said, who’s buying it? Wyndham hotels, and whenever a hotel is sold, the staff’s afraid they’re going to lose their job, and service goes down the tubes. Oh, well… which hotels do you recommend then?

That was the beginning of a great relationship. Steve plans all our trips now. His style is “end to end”. We know he watches details like the expiration date on our Passports, our flight schedules, who to look for when we land and what to steer clear of. He gives us good advice about our hotels and what sorts of activities we can do there. We know we’re making better choices now and while ultimately it’s up to us what we do in the middle of our trip, the transitions go so smoothly. We’re taken care of and we feel like we have a plan. We love coming home and sharing updates about the hotels with Steve.

We’ve been to Cozumel with Steve, the Dominican Republic, and for our 5th Anniversary this year, we went to Jamaica. Here’s another example of how well Steve knows us…it was our 5th Anniversary in July of this year. We came to Steve with the idea of going back to the Resort on St Martin where we got married. He had a blank look on his face. You know, Steve was polite about it and all, but I could tell he was not keen on the idea. He said, ok Dirinda, let’s compromise, just spend 2 nights at that resort, but then move onto a different one. He continued, I understand the nostalgia of going back to where it all began for you two…but the problem is, you were younger then…your tastes have matured and you like finer accommodations now.
You know, he’s right.

Steve visited the Couples Tower Isle resort on Jamaica in May 2009. And he said, you know Dirinda, I think you and Steve would love this resort. We took his advise and went to the resort for our 5th Anniversary.

He was right. We had the best vacation ever at Couples Tower Isle.

This is a picture of my husband and I standing with Leonard Henry, the General Manager of the hotel.
Turns out Steve had called ahead to tell Mr. Henry it was our 5th Anniversary and we were surprised by an incredible room upgrade. We can’t say enough good things about Steve Lord and the team at All-Inclusive Vacations. We recommend them to everyone we know.