Hilton Malecon Bar 2 for 1... rip off alert..

[malko]

Just to add my 2 bit........
Depending on the wine 500rd a glass can be justified........ especially in the dr......

Chateau Minuty, the king of rose wines, 1000 rd a bottle at national for regular, 1600rd for premium......
8 €back in france....... And in switzerland in my restaurant, 7 chf a glass!!!!

But I agree in this case it seems to be a scam......

Was at Maimon for fish 2 days ago. 3 sevicios de "cotore" frito and 4 lb de cotore cruda a llevar......
Get back home, open bag, out of 4 lb de cotore, 1 lb of another tough bony nasty tasting fish........

 

[rubio_higuey]

House wine is no Chateau Minuty ... probably not even a Carlo Rossi.

Btw since Iberia (supermarket chain here in the East) started gauging on Carlo Rossi, jumping from RD$159 per bottle a year ago to RD$279 now *, I found quite nice and tasty imported wines from Spain in La Sirena for 25% less ...


Now Iberia has a "special" of some messy stuff called Baron de Villac for RD$199, which of course the educated clerk prints on a sticker special as "Varon de Bilac"

 

[cobraboy]

The waiter got 10% anyway.

 

[cobraboy]

Always...ALWAYS...ALWAYS!!!!...check your bar tab for accuracy and stand up to bar management. I use the sugar packet method: one sugar pack for every beverage my party gets. Little piles in front of me.

It's almost like doing business in a Rug market in Ankara.

 

[donP]

Gringos Taca?os

Some people are victims everywhere they go and some people aren't.

Quite right.
And nobody has to explain to me why a waiter would bow when Sr. 'Nariz Larga' leaves the restaurant after tipping a mere 100 pesos and when a gringo tips 5$ the waiter murmurs 'tacano'....


donP

 

[dv8]

I understand. Why do I get the distinct feeling that some people never tip no matter how the service is and justify not tipping by countless reasons beyond the control of the wait staff.
Its O.K , the wait staff in your nicer and more established restaurants are experts at profiling people and their class, they know when they are going to get stiffed.

i don't need to look for the excuses not to tip. if i did not like the service, i don't tip. straightforward. if i like the service, i tip. easy enough. you are wrong to think i send the food back to the kitchen, i never had a reason to do it. more importantly i am known to actually haul my ass to the kitchen to say thank you for a good meal to the chef him/herself (back in the UK many free desert samples were obtained that way, but i digress).

i give credit where credit's due. but i don't care for this "poor dominicano", "padre de familia" bullcrap. by rewarding mediocre you give no incentive to better the performance.

 

[cobraboy]

i give credit where credit's due. but i don't care for this "poor dominicano", "padre de familia" bullcrap. by rewarding mediocre you give no incentive to better the performance.

The OP never said the service was mediocre (who got his 10% anyway.)

His beef was with management policy.

The waiter is just a messenger boy for management policy.

He also said he was too buzzed to take up the issue with management-where the problem originated-yet he punished the messenger boy.

Makes little sense.

And with Dominican law, it's impossible to stiff a waiter. 10% of the tab is tips to begin with (like many European countries I'm told, except a higher amount there.) The worst a customer can do is not increase that 10%. So the waiter never felt "punished" at all...

 

[ROLLOUT]

I run a hotel, and you honestly don't have to put up with this sort of nonsense. Wine in Santo Domingo doesn't cost RD$500 per glass, clearly there is some sort of scam going on here. I suggest that you call the hotel and ask to speak to a manager tomorrow, say you want to complain, and say that you feel completely ripped off by their drinks prices. I imagine that the staff have decided to double the drinks prices tonight, and pocket the proceeds. If you don't get anywhere, then go to Hilton Hotels & Resorts | Hotel Rooms, Reservations & Business Hotels and use one of the Contact Us links to speak to guest relations and make a formal complaint. Knowing Hilton, I would be amazed if they don't do something about this, I've always found their complaint handling to be excellent.

Maybe also worth mentioning to Hilton when you speak to them that a lot of expats are commenting on this pricing on DR1.com, they will be concerned about this, trust me.

If all else fails, put a negative review on Tripadvisor.com, this always gets read.

All of us hoteliers are petrified of bad press on the internet, any bad reviews are analysed and analysed to see what we can learn from them. I'm not sure if customers realise how much impact a bad review on something like Tripadvisor.com has, but trust me it is very very serious.

I agree wholeheartedly with this. Having been a diamond member for many years, whenever I contact them via their toll-free number, I always get a timely response. It is usually in the form of a callback from the GM. This holds true, regardless of the country the property is located in.

Roll

 

[JayinRD]

Quite right.
And nobody has to explain to me why a waiter would bow when Sr. 'Nariz Larga' leaves the restaurant after tipping a mere 100 pesos and when a gringo tips 5$ the waiter murmurs 'tacano'....


donP

Nominated for the Top 10 classic DR1 Forum category..

 

[Criss Colon]

Why do some people feel it's "OK" to give someone who takes advantage of, or outright steals from you,a "Pass" just because they are poor????
They are the, "Poor people HAVE to steal" because they have no other way to feed their families", excuse Doctors!!!!!!!!!!
"BULL $HIT"!
"Screw Them"!!!!!!
If they want what we have, let them get it the "Old Fashioned Way" like we did!
"Earn It"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

 

[pauleast]

Quite right.
And nobody has to explain to me why a waiter would bow when Sr. 'Nariz Larga' leaves the restaurant after tipping a mere 100 pesos and when a gringo tips 5$ the waiter murmurs 'tacano'....


donP

5 dollar tip on a hundred dollar check, party of 4 is just that (tacano) . On a 25 dollar check its cool. The OP never said the service was bad. I tip for good service and I almost always get good service. Some people seem to attract bad service everywhere they go and are professional victims.Some people argue in the checkout line with the cashier over 25 pesos price tag discrepancy, like there to blame.

 

[cobraboy]

Why do some people feel it's "OK" to give someone who takes advantage of, or outright steals from you,a "Pass" just because they are poor????
They are the, "Poor people HAVE to steal" because they have no other way to feed their families", excuse Doctors!!!!!!!!!!
"BULL $HIT"!
"Screw Them"!!!!!!
If they want what we have, let them get it the "Old Fashioned Way" like we did!
"Earn It"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

This assumes the waiter was the one who developed the policy.

I'd be barking loudly at the waiter's boss...

 

[william webster]

Carlo Rossi loves you........ try Cru de Balzac ( something like that) the white is good

In LT, its the house wine at Mi Terrasse

Correction Notice for Tom Meyers

Baron de Valac (France) is the wine I referred to.... affordable and drinkable.

I stand by my statement above....

Amaze your friends and fool your enemies with 'value' wines - is my motto:chinese:

 

[pauleast]

Correction Notice for Tom Meyers

Baron de Valac (France) is the wine I referred to.... affordable and drinkable.

I stand by my statement above....

Amaze your friends and fool your enemies with 'value' wines - is my motto:chinese:

I have tried drinking cheap wine. I just cant do it. Its Cakebread chardonnay and Duckhorn merlot for me.Both Napa Valley.
Life is too short to drink cheap wine and wear cheap shoes- is my motto

 

[Criss Colon]

My "Motto" is,
"Life Is Too Short To Have Sex With Ugly Girls" even if they give you a good rate!
And I don't wear shoes anyway.
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC

 

[william webster]

Value, people... Value...

Never confuse that with cheap....

I may start a school on this... it seems there is a waiting market

 

[malko]

Bought an unknown champagne crate, demi sec ( real champagne from AOC champagne, none of the foreign fizzy wines tha k u very much ), for very, very cheap. Like7.50 € a bottle.
It was so good I went back for a crate of brut, a crate of blanc de blanc and another demi sec.
I had drunk the first bottle with my parents, who called the next day for the name, they liked it so much. A week later the brand came third in a "degustation a l'aveugle" of champagne....... and was number one in "60 millions de consomateurs".

I bought another couple of crates, by which time the price was 15.50€ a bottle, which is still cheap for a good champagne.

My friends used to think I was a prince when I brought them bottles the next year. The price was than up with all the big brands of commercial champagne (veuve cliquot, moet & chandon, tatinger.....). Upwards of 35 €.
Today 7 years later it is still up in the top brands......

Morality. In wines u have to find good wines early, when they havnt made themselves a name yet.
Or have money and buy good wine.

P.s. not to disapoint anyone, but "new world "wines are no where near french wines ( or even swiss and italian ), in terms of quality/price. No contest. A couple are very good, but the majority are very disapointing ( I have tried, I promised. But when u buy a californian chardonnay and it is sweet..... sweet chardonnay, god only knows what goes in there.....).

 

[william webster]

I have won over some very serious professionals with blind taste tests.....

Better yet, I put the value wine in the $50 bottle and listen to them thank me...

Better than the '97, much deeper - they say...

It has worked so well at times that I haven't been able to tell them the truth.... avoiding humiliating them.

Just change the price tag and it tastes better to them....

Not 500 pesos a glass better - to get back on track

 

[Xavier_Onassis]

My experience has been that Malbec is always good regardless of price.

 

[pauleast]

I am not much on sparkling wines (champagne) which the French are the best at making. I do like the California reds and their Chardonnay's, however they are not cheap but they are possible to get here.
If you were to replace the wine in a Beringer Private reserve bottle, almost any wine drinker would detect the switch, likewise with the Cakebread chardonnay. I suggest not drinking it, because once you do every other Chardonnay tastes sub-par.
Derfish I am going to round you up a bottle of Boones Farm for your 69th birthday