You may have heard of ice hotels in Scandinavia, tree top hotels in the canopy of the rain forest, and capsule hotels in Asia (where people pay to sleep in a 3 X 3 X 6 foot boxes) but have you ever walked into a small-ish hotel room, looked at two double beds and no sofa, and then be told—with a straight face—“it sleeps eight?”
That was our conundrum as we toured the Reef Club – a not-so-swanky, but “exclusive” (by virtue of there being no other hotels within 50 miles) “club hotel” (read timeshare complete with annoying sales pitch.)
After spending two days in the port city of Progresso, on the NW side of the Yucatan peninsula, we drove east to explore the 30 miles of white sand beaches dotted with the multi-million dollar second homes of Merida’s wealthy. (We found out from our Dutch host in Progreso that Merida is actually home to more millionaires per capita than any city in Mexico.)
Back to the Reef Club, outside of Telchac Puerto. It was only after seeing several small rooms, each sleeping “six,” “eight,” or “ten” people that we established that every two hooks on opposite sides of the wall in the living room “slept one.” Suddenly, it all made sense: some rooms with two beds HAD six hooks – and slept ten. Those guys in the street selling hammocks? You really do need one, if you want to turn your “double” into a “suite.” The most expensive rooms had 8 to 12 hooks in the wall, making it feasible for a family of 6 or 8 to easily (but not comfortably) sleep in a standard size hotel room.
Needless to say, we were not overly impressed. Besides, once everyone is comfortably stacked-up like firewood at bedtime—how do you get to the bathroom in the middle of the night?
That was our conundrum as we toured the Reef Club – a not-so-swanky, but “exclusive” (by virtue of there being no other hotels within 50 miles) “club hotel” (read timeshare complete with annoying sales pitch.)
After spending two days in the port city of Progresso, on the NW side of the Yucatan peninsula, we drove east to explore the 30 miles of white sand beaches dotted with the multi-million dollar second homes of Merida’s wealthy. (We found out from our Dutch host in Progreso that Merida is actually home to more millionaires per capita than any city in Mexico.)
Back to the Reef Club, outside of Telchac Puerto. It was only after seeing several small rooms, each sleeping “six,” “eight,” or “ten” people that we established that every two hooks on opposite sides of the wall in the living room “slept one.” Suddenly, it all made sense: some rooms with two beds HAD six hooks – and slept ten. Those guys in the street selling hammocks? You really do need one, if you want to turn your “double” into a “suite.” The most expensive rooms had 8 to 12 hooks in the wall, making it feasible for a family of 6 or 8 to easily (but not comfortably) sleep in a standard size hotel room.
Needless to say, we were not overly impressed. Besides, once everyone is comfortably stacked-up like firewood at bedtime—how do you get to the bathroom in the middle of the night?
No comments:
Post a Comment