Hotels.com bugs the heck out their customers…don’t they?

I have to practically run and hide every time I book a trip with Hotels or just go onto their site. The amount of BS emails and marketing hacks they've come up with is beyond annoying. I think web app companies have just automated themselves into hell with all the weirdness they put a client through: "Please review this." Please review that". "Tell us about your experience" Tell us ...." Right? It's just nauseating.

So, if I was upset by a front desk person (yes, I mean you Grand Guayaquil Hotel), does my one review out of thousands mean anything? Sure, I get the satisfaction from ripping them. But other than that....what?

So, I've really started to ignore and try to unsubscribe as many types of emails as I possibly can. And despite clicking the "no more marketing email" button, they get around it by calling it a "special event" email or some other obtuse category for interrupting my weekend.

Today, while I'm getting ready for a much needed hammock event, sure enough, my phone vibrates me out of near sleep. And there they are, again, Hotels.com asking me about my CURRENT stay! Not how was my check in or how was my check out, but how are you doing! WTF! So, I opened it up to see what was so urgent and was getting ready to trash bin the thing when I realized that I like this hotel. It's really great. And I couldn't understand why their ratings were less than a solid 9 or 10. So the following is what I wrote:

I think who ever rated this place as less than a 9 or 10 must have been at a different hotel. How could you not LOVE the family that owns this amazing place. If you love the sea/ocean/maritime anything, this place is both a museum and a labor of love. The detail, the effort, the passion it must have taken...not to mention the decades of work..is incredible. I know this is just a place to sleep from those driving from Guayaquil to Salinas to Montanita/Olon to Puerto Lopez/Manta. But my goodness,If this were in Carmel or even Santa Cruz, CA it would be booked to 2022 and at $500 a night. But, this is Ecuador and gringos don't really come here as much as the glamor places of Medellin or Cartagena. It's a remarkable place with an attentive and happy staff. Never a frown. Always "do you need anything? can I do anything" "are you hungry" "do you need your room cleaned?" "can I clean your dirty laundry?---when have you been asked that!????". Can't say enough. What I could be mean about is that It's not an American style mattress or toilet. But the water pressure is great. The shower is perfect....and the views are out of this world.

The Hotel I'm at is actually a Hosteria. And it is worth looking up what that means. Host. or Inn. But I think this place is everything about how they 'Host" their clients.

Hosteria Farallon Dillon is a family owned hotel with 18 rooms right on the coast of Ballenita. it's incredibly eccentric and very much represents the incredible human been that is Douglas Dillon's (the current owner) father. The very famous (in Ecuador) Captain Dillon. A real seafarer who collected 1000's and I mean 1000's of artifacts from around the world's oceans and around Ecuador. There are anchors and Inca statues. There are harpoons and Inca Urns. You name it. It's in their hotel or their museum.

It's a must visit if not a must stay!

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