I always remember being told "its leaning". Or maybe that is how I interpreted what they were saying. We would drive by it and the kids would say "look there is the leaning building".
- Thread starter MiamiDRGuy
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Former Resort?
That could be it... I remember that there was nothing they could do to fix it, it just sat there.
Idk if you ever saw the mid to upper floors of Citibank tower on Lex. They had to go back and add diagonal supports around the inside perimeter of the building. You can see them in all of the window facing offices. It was so the building could take the wind shear
KC, The video I posted explains the problem of that building.
There was even a Large Office type Building literally next to the Monument in Santiago which also was abandoned.. I think they said it was pwned by an outfit which was Laundering Money and they got busted, so you guess may be spot on .
Going back to the theme of the thread, I am amazed at how many closed down businesses I am seeing these days. So many people and companies have come here, invested huge amounts and ended up with a pile of bricks and a pile of debt. The failure rate is astonishing and with so much construction going on I just think there's going to be considerably more.
I'm going to write a thread in the next few days reviewing the $50 a night all-inclusive we just stayed in, which was actually very good. Nobody could possibly be making money charging so little, and it just shows how desperate hotels are at the moment to get guests.
I'm going to write a thread in the next few days reviewing the $50 a night all-inclusive we just stayed in, which was actually very good. Nobody could possibly be making money charging so little, and it just shows how desperate hotels are at the moment to get guests.
Staying Open, even if Losing money on every single Guest is waybetter than Closing the Doors and letting employees Go .. They may never get those Employees back, and the place may also go into such Disrepair, and never brought back again. ( like the theme of this thread)
Losing money on every Sale, is a slow controlled burn, with a possible End to the problem in sight ..
No revenue will kill you for sure .
Plus the Low Rates may bring you new Loyal Customers who fall in love with the Hotel, and who will by word of mouth, like you are doing here bring even more Loyal customers.
So I think you answered your own question.
Some of the stuff you hear on this site is just so off the wall. Firstly, in response to the dama bella, many outsiders come to DR with some kind of vision that they can do better than the Doms, that they're smarter, more organized, etc. Only to find out the due diligence was simply not done well, or in some cases not at all. Folks are simply just not prepared to do business in the Dominican. For as much as the mouthpieces laude the current administration, infrastructure is horrible, power, workforce preparedness, the law working against you, especially the labor law. Lawyers who can't get stuff done, incompetent accountants, etc. Oh please I can't go on. I always ask folks that come to me do they know exactly how much it costs to lay a product or service into the hands of your customer? For example, so simple but yet so hard: how much did it cost you to put that tuna sandwich on the table in front of your customer? Don't forget we have to clean up when they leave too (analogy). Folks put businesses in odd places isn't that like the #1 thing???? I could go on. But I would need to drink heavily so I'll stop there.
So responding to others, you know who you are: when you have to sell your a-- to the customer to get them to buy a product/service, you have now set a standard with them. You never go up from there again. You set a bar with that customer population and you can't go back up. So when you have to sell your a--, it's the END, not an interim fix, it's just the beginning of the end.
So responding to others, you know who you are: when you have to sell your a-- to the customer to get them to buy a product/service, you have now set a standard with them. You never go up from there again. You set a bar with that customer population and you can't go back up. So when you have to sell your a--, it's the END, not an interim fix, it's just the beginning of the end.
I was hoping you were being facetious. Even jd must know that you can't slash prices. That's called a fire sale. It's amazing that folks think slashing is a recovery strategy. If I started giving away money, I'd have lots of people coming to my house singing praises to me. But in a month I'd be broke. You can't cut your income by 50%, not even 20 and most not even 15% and keep costs constant. It's not a solution - you wouldn't be able to run your business in a very very short period of time. You offer a customer a slashed price, you may win them over if they know nothing about money. Next quarter your rate goes back up to full price and you lose them. It's like day 1 stuff
Amazon did not make or better said did not SHOW a Profit for the first 8 Years , and as such paid ZERO Taxes as well.
they did not just "slash" Prices , or have a fire sale , and they certainly did not go out of Business in a Month.
Their Business Model was DOMINATING THE MARKET and Focusing on the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE..
while showing Zero Profit as long as it took.
Point is If you have a War Chest and a LONG TERM Plan , you Can take a "Loss" on every sale, as long as its not a Big Loss , For quite a while .
your generalizations are Amateurish at best.
ill leave it there .
they did not just "slash" Prices , or have a fire sale , and they certainly did not go out of Business in a Month.
Their Business Model was DOMINATING THE MARKET and Focusing on the CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE..
while showing Zero Profit as long as it took.
Point is If you have a War Chest and a LONG TERM Plan , you Can take a "Loss" on every sale, as long as its not a Big Loss , For quite a while .
your generalizations are Amateurish at best.
ill leave it there .
You can't handwave this by citing a case from Amazon. We are talking about two very different things. It’s very simple here, you said a “hotel” spec, an AI, in this case would be able to build loyalty with a 50 dollar a night rate (so an AI is selling off a night pp at cabaña rates!) The only thing you are building loyalty to is a price, not a brand! These are fundemental business principles. The other damage you do as a business by deeply discounting your products or services is cheapen your brand image (now you're a bargain brand). Not showing a profit is not what we are talking about here. Its not 1997 and you seem to have gotten your understanding about marketing from some SkyMiles magazine article. Dude you cant even write a post without misusing capital letters ie "Business Model", but you're some Lee Iacocca now? Come on. Deep discounts don't build loyalty in the long run. If you're going under and want to dump the fuel, then that's step 1. And we're def not talking about a remarkable startup scenario with deep deep pockets. But you'll leave it there. Maybe that's exactly where you should pick up 😒
You cant make this stuff up folks!
Every businessman has his angle, what works, what doesn't. Free samples, and/or trials. Guarantees, fixed prices etc. Mine is just to rely on my good looks, chiseled abs, dashing attire and congenial personality.
DR is known for money laundering, that is why you see too many buildings being built in ole days and became left out
1- have you ever even owned a Business yourself ?
2- So you are saying when business is SLOW , you would RAISE Prices . ( the Dominican Model).. Good luck with that .
3- if your Break even point is say 75 (at say 60% occupancy ), and you are Selling rooms at 50 a night .. to stay afloat and keep people who were loyal to you employed, yeagh this is what I would do .. call me stupid ..
All i was saying that this is a Better Plan. than to LAY people off or to close your doors until the market approves
You took my Amazon example and twisted into something completely different
The only point there is a giant Company made no profit for 8 years , and this was their Plan, UNHEARD of before then .
I listen to people who actually own and run companies.. not those who have run them into the ground .
Do me a favor and stop quoting me and then Twisting it into your Vapid arguments of hypotheticals .
again, YES I would rather take a Loss on every Room I rent, short term, to buy time ,
than to CLOSE up and stay vacant for ANY amount of time.
Real Bad things happen in the DR when a Place is Vacant ..
If you are losing Money every day,.. your " Brand" is already damaged, by having an Empty Hotel
not a good Image .. Its better to Look BUSY .
And you are just trying to stay alive and formulate a plan .
Loyalty most certainly can be earned ..if the quality is still there .
maybe you should start at the top of this thread .. study the photos .
but Hey , if you ENJOY a Vacant Hotel, there are Plenty Of opportunities for you to BUY one of them Cheap
and SHOW us what an Amazing Business man you really are .
Start with High Prices, and if you have no Customers , Raise them again .
Sir, I will now climb out of this rabbit hole to which I ignorantly allowed myself to go down. I will do better! 😭😭😭
Getting back to the topic...I would say many of these resorts if not all are more than likely not worth the effort of remodeling. The cost of remodeling, operations and maintaining them to make a profit is reason enough.
whatever the reason is these resorts failed on the North Coast is unknown to me. However, I have walked around many just exploring and power walking. Some have trees growing out of the windows and through the roof. One is in East Cabarete the other is near the Sea Horse ranch complex. It would not be possible to repair them. The cost to raze them would be a fortune, so they sit vacant.