How BookIt.com Censors Vacation Resort Customer Reviews

Sadly, this is my second consumer advocacy post in a row. We have recently came back from Cancun and I decided to share my experience with other users of BookIt.com website, through which I purchased our vacation. I have put a great deal of thought and time into putting together all the points (good and bad) to help future travelers choose the resort that meets their needs and expectations. To mu surprise, BookIt.com removed half of the negative points I raised in my review.

I understand that BookIt's interests do not align with consumer interests. BookIt is in the business of selling vacations, so it's not in their interest to have their customers post any negative reviews about resorts whose packages they sell.

While Yelp is being sued over their censorship of negative reviews, BookIt.com is freely censoring away!

Here is the entire original review which I submitted to BookIt

I have visited Finest in May 2016, with my mother and a one year old. We stayed at the Finest Club (building 5) swim up suite for five nights.

Let's start with the GOOD:

1) fantastic kid's facilities => but because we had a swim-up suite, we ended up using the toddler pool only once

2) great resort design => I love modernism!

3) great ice cream at the "Sweet Corner"

4) great food at the Tapas and Japanese restaurants

5) very friendly staff

6) fantastic swim up pools

7) great beach-side service for the Finest Club members

8) great White Party with great food

9) great night entertainment. Our baby loved to dance to all the music. We also loved the Mexican night.

10) the resort felt secure, as it was behind two sets of gates (the third gate was always open)

Now onto the BAD:

1) limited disabled/stroller access to the beach. Only one ramp available, and it requires you to walk through adults only part of the pool area.

2) although the Finest Club (bldg 5) is waterfront facing, we only saw a tiny piece of ocean from our room.

3) the food at the Italian place was small and poorly executed. The penne with pesto was small and swimming in plain olive oil (with a hint of pesto). After I asked for extra pesto, I received a big amount of olive oil with a smidge of pesto in it.

4) the lobster dish comprised of one half of one lobster tail. Boo.

5) the desserts look very pretty, are sweet, but lack flavor. I still can't understand how can someone make a fruit dessert that does not taste like fruit. Or a chocolate dessert that tastes like a hint of chocolate.

6) the sushi at the Market Kitchen is small (super thin slices of raw fish) and poorly executed

7) water in the swim-up pool was cold, until the very last day of our stay. Perhaps they change it once a week?

8) sugary watered down drinks

9) slow service => we requested early check-in and were told to wait for 1.5 hours. We were in the room about 2.5 hours later. I wish I have known this ahead of time, I would have taken bathing suits out of the luggage that stayed with the bell guys.

Now onto the UGLY:

1) Extremely offensive perfume in all common areas. This alone is reason enough to never come back. Bathrooms have the same smell, many times more concentrated. Upon the arrival, the room was scented as well (until I requested to not do it again). Perfumes have ingredients that are not controlled by authorities (such as FDA in the US). These ingredients are often toxic, causing all kinds of endocrine/hormone havoc, and are also linked to cancer. This is why perfumes are prohibited in infertility clinics. I felt very unhappy having a child in this environment. There was no way to avoid it. While waiting for check in at the Finest Club reception, the perfume was constantly shooting out from a device that looked similar to humidifier. When I asked them to turn it off (my child was sleeping on a sofa right next to it), I was told to move further away from it (and thus wake up the child).

2) One of the valet guys pointed out a big dent on the top of the rental car hood. I had a bit of a dispute with the front desk manager about whether the dent might have been caused by a basket ball (valet lot is right next to the basketball and tennis courts). After being shut down by the manager in person, I emailed their customer service and it took them six days to even acknowledge the receipt of my email. Luckily, the car rental company did not notice the dent, so I dropped my claim. But I really doubt that Finest would step up and do anything about it.

3) Room was too cold and could not be set to a warmer temperature. Our infant could not be inside in her summer clothes (exposed arms and legs). We had to change her every time we went in from the outside. The thermostat could be set to 72.6 F or something like that... but not higher. And it re-set every time we entered the room. So even when I turned of the A/C completely, it was back on and too cold by the time we came back to the room.

4) Mosquitoes everywhere. Immediately upon our arrival, the ceiling had multiple visible mosquitoes which I asked the front desk to send someone to exterminate. The exterminator did not speak English and only killed a handful of mosquitoes. That night my infant received 12 mosquito bites on her face.

5) Strange large bugs on the floor. These freaked my mom out, because they looked huge and looked like they might bite. Plus, our baby was crawling on the floor and could have picked them up. We took a couple of photos of these bugs and want to find out what they were.

CONCLUSION:

I am not coming back. I would expect a lot better food and better execution from a five star resort.

Petra

And here is the censored version posted on BookIt.com:

Why?

BookIt.com, why did you keep all 10 good comments but removed 7 out of 14 bad ones? You are putting words in my mouth while ommiting important information that can help future travelers with infants to choose a better resort. Needless to say, I am not going to use your services any more.