Casa Blanca Hotel |
Rating:  |
Phone: |
Website: http://www.casablancacabarete.com |
| Location: North Coast |
Fax: |
E-Mail: |
| City: Cabarete |
Contact: |
Value for money: Horrible |
| Food: Above average |
Decor: Horrible |
Service: Horrible |
| Comments: |
Be careful here!
OK. I admit parts of this story are going to sound crazy, but I swear they are all true (and I have e-mail and personal witnesses to verify). I have been coming to Cabarete for the last 7 years, staying for 2-3 months every year, and have always stayed at Casa Blanca. I work for a bank in the US as an engineer, and my boss lets me come and do my service work (I teach an English class to poor kids in a nearby barrio, other years I volunteered at Integracion Juvenil which is a great place, they have a website, they work with kids that have been sexually abused, or are living on the streets, etc) while I telecommute to my real job in the US.
Last year was my first year with the new owner, William Oosterman. All the other years I never had any problems with the previous owner. That isn’t to say everything was always perfect, but the previous owner tried to make things right, and his heart was always in the right spot. William is whole different kettle of fish. Since arriving in Cabarete he has offended/bullied/lied to just about every vendor/partner/restaurant (a few months ago he so incensed one of the restaurant owners in town that the owner slapped him…William was complaining about the size of his pizza…which was being consumed during happy hour at ½ price).
Prior to coming to Cabarete William was a pastor in Canada until his congregation left him for what William describes as a pedophile (which probably really says something if these people chose a pedophile over him). You can Google his name for some of the details. It is quite apparent William has no skills or training in hotel management. His strategy appears to be trying to leverage his blemished Pastor collar into his business to attract customers (he has prominent links on his site and his real estate site…he also sells real estate… with pictures, etc that from people I have talked to in town, greatly exaggerate his connections/contributions to the needy here). I personally find it kind-of tacky to mingle your business with images of you doing “God’s work”, especially if another link seems completely inconsistent with allegedly Christian values (you don’t have to look much further than his real estate website…yes…he sells real estate too, can’t imagine how scary that would be to be involved in a real estate transaction with him…where he describes an example sale/rental property scenario that will return 30% annually, which goes beyond any acceptable reasonableness test), but that is something he has to live with.
Anyway, In the 12 months I have know him he has lied to me and others on many occasions, and asked others to lie for him. Just one example, after the post from SKCDN81 (on trip advisor) back in July he e-mailed me, provided the link to Travel Advisor, said this couple had lied about Casa Blanca, and TOLD (not asked) me to give him a 5 star rating. I read what was written and completely believed what the couple had said. I had seen most if not all of these things in the past (no hot water, tarp for a roof, cockroaches, break in’s, etc). In fact I had moved into my apartment the day that couple had moved out, and William had confirmed all of these details (break in, fight, bite, etc) but blamed it on the couple for being “stupid” for leaving a very small window open while the apartment was occupied rather than dealing with the real problem, which is his lack of providing adequate security. Most (if not all) hotels here have security people at least at night. Not here. There was another break-in a couple of weeks ago where one of the guests lost a fair amount of cash, valuables, etc. And I know there have been others.
I wrote William back saying I would write a review, but it would be an honest review, and definitely not a 5. He knew what that meant, and didn’t ask a second time.
Here is this year’s nightmare (again, I have e-mail documentation or witnesses for all of it…I had learned to require all business communications with William to be in the form of an e-mail…it didn’t really have any practical results in his behavior because he would just decide in his head what the facts were, but at least it was comforting to me to know that I was not crazy, and he truly was lying/misrepresenting facts, and more importantly, was doing it intentionally).
This year I booked for 3 months, sent a deposit of the first month’s rent (4 months early), with an agreement that he would upgrade the internet to the highest level. Because I telecommute to the US while I am there, I need a reliable/fast internet connection, and there had been intermittent problems in the past. To avoid this I offered to pay more than the cost of the internet upgrade if he would assure me it would be available when I arrived. He agreed.
Two weeks before I arrived I sent a reminder e-mail that I was coming, and checking on the internet. William said he would upgrade it by the end of that week. When I arrived nothing had been done with the internet. After a couple of days he did attempt something over the phone and said it would take 24-48 hours. When nothing happened for 48 hours he told me to wait some more. I asked him to call the service provider but he wouldn’t (he said he doesn’t speak Spanish, so he couldn’t talk to them, and would need to find someone else to do it…I found it unusual that a “top selling” realtor and hotel owner of the “world renowned Casa Blanca” couldn’t speak the business language of the country he is doing business in, and didn’t at least having access to someone immediately in cases where it is needed).
After being here for almost 2 weeks, in which I asked him both verbally and in e-mail to get this resolved, nothing happened, and it really burned me when I saw him parading in and out of Casa Blanca with his swimsuit on (he said “C’mon, my kids are here…give me a break…next week I will start working hard again”).
During this time I heard none of the guests at Casa Blanca, or clients at the restaurant could connect to the internet, or only for very short periods of time. Customers of the restaurant said this had been going on for months, and William had been saying he was going to resolve it, but to this day it still doesn’t work properly. My connection works because I have a hardwire connection (which I had to install/pay for myself last year, and again this year when it wasn’t working when I arrived).
Finally I sent William an e-mail telling him to forget the internet, I was going to start looking for a new place. He immediately confronted me in my apt, saying he was doubling my rent because I had been there during “high season” (even though the place was virtually empty, other than his mother and 3 sets of his children that were occupying places). He was implying (although he didn’t actually use the words) that I would have to leave immediately if I didn’t accept his terms. And he knew I had no place to go.
I was really bummed. I told him I was trying to do the ethical thing and give him 2 weeks notice (so he could find another renter), but this turned out to be a mistake. It did get him to (finally) resolve the issue with the internet though (the next morning he did actually drive to the internet place, follow the proper procedure, and in another day the speed had increased), but he again started pushing for more money. He said his rent was due and he really needed the money early.
This explained part of the problems I was seeing. He is not being proactive…or even active…in fixing things. He keeps money in his pocket until the last moment, and only if it will have an immediate payback (like he will immediately lose a paying customer). Each day he didn’t have to pay the increased speed of the internet (which I was paying for in higher rent) was more money in his pocket. I sympathized with him for having money problems, but he was, after all, a vendor, and if he doesn’t have money to fix things, and something (like the internet connection) requires a maintenance investment, I had real concerns whether he would be able to perform it from either a financial or competence standpoint, and I would have to go back to the US quickly for my job.
The final straw was when he was asking me to pay for all of January when it was only the middle of December. I told him I was uncomfortable paying the whole month because I than had no leverage for him to fix things. I e-mailed an offer to pre-pay on the 1st and the 15th, and the amount would be funded to his account within 2 days of his e-mail acceptance. He e-mailed back a refusal, so I thought we were done. We had reached an impasse. I immediately went out and found another apt paying only 1/3 the “special” rate I had been paying at Casa Blanca.
On December 29th, 3 days before my rent period was over (I had prepaid until the 1st) I moved my stuff out of the apartment to my new place (I did it at nighttime because I didn’t want a confrontation), sent him an e-mail that I had moved, and explaining why. Done.
The next morning I started getting really strange and threatening e-mails from William saying, among other things, he was going to “follow up” with the authorities both here in the US for an unpaid balance. There were all kinds of items on the bill…trips to Puerto Plata…what he would have gotten with the “rack rate” for this pretty crummy apt (even though there was no one really there until Christmas)…other bizarre stuff. The magical number was $850 US.
I didn’t respond to any of these e-mails, thinking it would not do any good, and would only inflame the situation. My girlfriend and I went out, enjoyed the beach for the day.
This is when it gets really weird, and again, it is ALL TRUE. When we got back the manager of my new hotel said the police were asking for me. I knew immediately what it was about. My Spanish is not that good, so luckily the hotel manager could help translate (something that would not have been possible at Casa Blanca).
The police officer asked me to go with them to the police station, so my girlfriend and I jumped on the back of the police officers motorcycle (it was a little snug), and a few minutes later we are at the really grungy Cabarete police station. To be honest, it was kind-of interesting to see. They had one “really nice” holding cell, and one “equally nice” interrogation room. By the way, the “nice” part was sarcasm.
The police called William. The suspect (along with his girlfriend) was in custody. Soon William was there. Only one of the Police Officers spoke English, and it was only a little bit. I was unsure of the process, but I guess it was supposed to be sort-of a mediation session where William and I were supposed to talk about this. The police were not actively involved. In fact the only one that spoke a little English left the room, so I think they were just there to make sure there was no physical fighting. It was clear they were not interested in the sorting through, or even monitoring the facts.
William than announced the rules. I would pay him $500, immediately, or I would go to jail (I wasn’t sure why it was now $500, and not the $800 he threatened me with earlier, but it probably had just as much reason behind it as the first number so I didn’t ask for an explanation). My girlfriend had brought my video camera to tape anything that looked funny, and so she started to take out the camera to document what he was saying. William than started pointing his index finger inches from her eye (she is a tiny Asian woman, 4’7”, maybe 100 lbs, and William is maybe 6’, 250). I had had enough of his bullying and pushed his hand away. He then started screaming wildly “arrest him…arrest him for assault!”, even though the officer spoke no English. The officer moved William’s chair, and the conversation continued.
I first told him I was not going to pay him anything out of principal (he had not lived up to the agreement with having the internet connection, there were quality issues at the hotel…the previous week I didn’t have any hot water for like 4-5 days, and most importantly, there were security issues at Casa Blanca). He said he finally installed bars on the windows, but he didn’t seem to understand there are personal security issues there, someone could get hurt/robbed, and he should have a security guard at least at night.
We sat there a while longer, and in my mind, I thought there was nothing left to taIk about, and was preparing myself to go to jail, trying to figure out who my girlfriend should call, etc. I told William I was going to tell everyone in town what he had done to me (after all, I had e-mail documentation of the agreement, me asking him to get it resolved, me telling him I was leaving 3 days early), one of the long term residents of Casa Blanca, and I was also going to write up Trip Advisor report of this whole incident (he had me arrested on New Years Eve when he knew I was going to be here for 2 more months). The offer was suddenly reduced to $200 if I didn’t write to Trip Advisor. And, he said if I said anything about this to anyone in town he would have me arrested for Libel, and because he was a now Dominican citizen, this would be much more serious than this current charge.
I refused the discounted offer, but realizing I didn’t want to go to jail, wreck my girlfriends vacation on this stuff (she is only here for a few more days), and wouldn’t have time to sort this whole thing out in the Puerto Plata court system, I offered to pay the whole $500 (my integrity was worth more than a $300 discount, and being able to warn others about this guy probably ranked up there almost as high as the service work I do here). William then said the Trip Advisor report wasn’t that important to him because would get a chance to respond, and presumably attack me like he attacked the other couple (and that is fine, I don’t need anything from anyone here, I pay my bills…I have already paid for all of January at my new place, and will be paying for all of February in a couple of days…even though they are not asking for it), tip well, do my service work, have a beer on the beach at night, I don’t have any financial/other entanglements that I need to consider before telling the truth. After all, I would have $300 more in my pocket for just not writing to Trip Advisor.
The police officer drove me back to my hotel, I got the money, came back, paid William, and I thought we were finally done (realizing I had made the mistake thinking were done several times now). William wasn’t. He was standing in the doorway trying to tell the police officer to warn me that I can’t say anything to anyone about this or I would be arrested again. I told the officer in my so-so Spanish that I had paid, and I didn’t want to talk to him anymore. He agreed, and motioned for William to move.
Bottom line, if you do decide to stay there be prepared to live with whatever you get. And if a situation happens where there is a long end of the stick and a short end of the stick, guess which end you get (or you too could get a tour of the Cabarete police station as well).
Oh, and one more thing, be a little suspicious of their restaurant recommendations. I have heard they demand (and in a very obnoxious way) comp meals in exchange for recommendations.
Have a good time in Cabarete. It is really a great place!
|
| Author E-Mail: tomgreene2@msn.com |
Review date: 01/1/2009 |
|
Comments |
This has all been very interesting reading to say the least! Strangely, my experience has been quite the opposite:
This is my second year here at the Casa Blanca. In 2008, I came for the jazz festival, and "telecommuted" to my job using the hotel's WiFi service. Barring the usual hiccups due to brief power outages, I personally had no issues. They were so concerned about providing their guests with internet access, that they allowed me to fix a couple of minor glitches in their network to improve service to their guests. As far as accommodations were concerned, I couldn't have been more pleased with their personal attention to my comfort and needs.
This year I am back for three months, and I have brought a significant amount of technology with me. Like Mr. Green, my livelihood is dependant on the internet. I was given an outstanding long-term rate on a comfortable room. I paid upfront, which was perfectly fine with me, and when the WiFi signal turned out to be a bit too weak for my needs, Mr. Oosterman added another access point just like that.
I can't comment on the statements made by Mr. Green because I was not here then; but, his experience with Mr. Oosterman is 100% the opposite of mine, and I am quite sure we are talking about the same person.
Interesting how two people can have opposite experiences in the same scenario. Unless Mr. Oosterman is a psychopath (and I pretty sure he's not), then I can only speculate that Mr. Green's own karma precipitated such an ugly mess.
To the person who believes that all the Travel Advisor reviews are fake: I can assure you that the one from "scoobadiver" is not. I didn't have to write a review at all, and I certainly didn't have to stay here again.
An interesting observation: Mr. Oosterman's livelihood is dependant on the internet as well; for bookings and for managing his websites. He could no more tolerate being "disconnected" anymore than Mr. Green could. Personally, I run two networked laptops locally, an a/v editing studio, two remote-controlled US-based servers, and have 3 digital telephone lines, all running off his connection. How much speed could Mr. Green possibly need out here in paradise?
Could it be that "one reaps what they sow"?
|
| Author: scoobadiver |
Posted at 20:28 10/28/2009 |
| William Oosterman was a Pastor at Westboro Baptist Church in Ottawa, Ontario Canada and he was fired, a man of ill-repute. These criticisms are all of a piece with his reputation or lack of it as a delinquint Pastor. |
| Author: Dave |
Posted at 23:40 08/21/2009 |
I guess my new place isn't that bad after all.
William just dropped off 2 of his hotel guests (I guess he overbooked). This is how he described it a few weeks ago (see previous post):
"He is not the type of guest we usually attract and he has moved to a lower class area where he belongs."
I wonder if he is going refund his clients the difference in what he charges for his 5 star hotel and what he must be paying for these lower class accomidations. |
| Author: Tomas2 |
Posted at 11:08 02/24/2009 |
Dear B.Batista
You are so grossly misinformed you are beyond hope. But you do prove what most of us know – that last place for accurate info is DR1 simply because anyone like you can spout off without knowing what they are talking about. Stop wasting your time here and go out and actually do something nice for some one, a random act of kindness, you will feel much better about your life (maybe…) and this wonderful place to live…BTW, in case you did not know, this page is for Hotel reviews, so as you have never stayed here at the number one rated (TA) Casa Blanca Hotel and obviously do not know my wife and I you are without credibility!
|
| Author: William Oosterman |
Posted at 20:34 01/13/2009 |
| Cut through all the verbiage, just the facts. He found a cheaper place and invented an excuse to leave after taking advantage of us during the peak Christmas season. He broke the 3 month contract and skipped out during the night owing the diff. of $820. We agreed on $500. He promised to do his utmost to ruin my wife and I, our reputation, and our Hotel. He has obviously been working hard on keeping that promise. And he does forget to mention the free use the first days of my motorcycle, and the many times my wife freely shared our supper with him and brought him popcorn in the evenings, and the two trips I made to Puerta Plata to get him his highest speed internet. What a child…and at 40 years of age there is little hope of maturity ever taking place. |
| Author: William Oosterman |
Posted at 20:18 01/13/2009 |
I am not going to respond to the personal attacks. I am pretty comfortable with where I am at these days, and I am sure most people don’t care to read back and forth accusations (maybe it is my cowardly side becoming dominant over my brawler side). I suspect most readers are just interested in accurate reviews of hotels so they can make informed decisions about where they want to stay.
Therefore I would recommend to the readers that they carefully consider William’s assertion that his stats on Trip Advisor are an objective measurement of the hotel. I don’t know if these are real people or not, or what prompted them to write these 5 star reviews, but it was clear in the e-mail he sent to me after the bad review that he has been manipulating (or at least attempting to manipulate) Trip Advisor. I don’t know a lot of reputable hotels that make personal plea's for 5 star reviews. In fact, this was the first time I have ever been asked to even write a favorable review, and I do a lot of traveling. And just the fact that he asked me not to mention his request to TA tells me he knew what he was doing was not on the up-and-up.
Here is the text of the e-mail:
Can you please write us a review on Tripadivsor - give us a five star if possible, and tell people what you liked about the hotel and staff....it will really help us a lot, we just got a bad review from people who stayed here a year ago, and lied about a number of things..... Tripadivsor is deliberately holding back good reviews on our hotel as I dared to challenge one of their policies and point out that they were wrong. We have solid proof they are holding back good reviews. People who stayed here three months ago, sent in a long good review, 5 star, and it was blocked for three weeks. After they emailed TA every day, it was finally posted for two days and then yanked off by TA. Very nasty people, and the staff have refused to give me contact info of any manager there. Please do not mention this email to TA people.
So, please help us out, send in a good review, email us a copy and tell us what date it was sent by you, so we can see if they are blocking other good reviews. Here is the link:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/UserReview-g317144-d678140-e__2F__ShowUserReviews__2D__g317144__2D__d678140__2D__r13990873__2D__Casa_Blanca_Hotel__2D__Cabarete_Dominican_Republic__2E__html-fbefirst_ShowUserReviews_writeareview_top-Casa_Blanca_Hotel-Cabarete_Dominican_Republic.html
THANKS!
William & Dorothy
|
| Author: Tomas2 |
Posted at 14:06 01/13/2009 |
| Life is full of choices. I choose to believe the client's story more than the hotel owner because he is the same man who claims to be a pastor on the forums and no pastor would speak like that. No pastor will call people names like he does. If he is not a true pastor and he claims to be then he is a liar and if he is a liar then I don't believe the defense he has posted here and the Trip Advisor reviews are all faked by him and that shows another level of dishonesty on his part. If the hotel owner is such a wonderful man like it is stated in all the Trip Advisor reports then why did he just get fired from his real estate job in Cabarete? I don't believe a word from his lips or fingers. |
| Author: B.Batista |
Posted at 13:52 01/13/2009 |
Tom Greene says HORRIBLE in his review, but he came here to our wonderful Hotel five years in a row to the same apartment. Then he breaks his three month contract over “high-speed internet?” We had the highest speed up and running two weeks before it was essential for his work. We have the email where he admits it is running fine. And before that we had medium, which worked for him five years in a row. Quite simply, he is a FLY BY NIGHT coward who left in the night a day before Jan. 1, 2009, and in spite refused to return the key till later so we could not rent the vacant room on the most busy night of the year. We rented our $70 per night apartment to him for $30, based on him staying through December to the end of February. He found a cheaper deal, wanted to break his contract so made up this excuse. He cost us the diff. the $40 per night and owed us $820 for December. Note this: EVERY HOTEL OWNER we have talked to agreed that he owes the regular rate as he left two months early and stayed during the top selling weeks of December. They all said they would have charged him the $820 to his Visa and some would add 22%.
That unit has been rented since for $70 per night.
So sift through all his BS, and there is lots, and you have a very simple situation. He skips out in the night, breaks his contract, tries to stiff us for $820, and then gets mad when we have the police arrange to pick him up to discuss payment. The police of course had him pay - we settled for $500 of the $820, and Tom Greene, employee at Wells Fargo Bank USA, promised to ruin our reputation as a hotel and mine as a person, all over the North Coast. One of our many friends heard him the other day in Janet's Supermercado, bad mouthing us to all who would listen. The poor little man does not realize that in the end it is his own reputation that he is ruining, what little there is of it.
Hotel Casa Blanca, in two years, under the management of Dorothy and I went from 37th out of 38 hotels in Cabarete, to the number one spot on Tripadvisor.
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g317144-d678140-r21903456-Casa_Blanca_Hotel-Cabarete_Dominican_Republic.html#TOPC
If you are reading this check out the above reviews. That is who we are. Then go and read Tom Greene, who left without paying his bill. That is who he is.
And here is more –a post in Tom Greene’s own words on DR1: I even got into my first fist fight last year late at night at Bambu (a really drunk obnoxious Brit...I think I won...not sure...I didn't see any marks on my face the next morning, and my fist hurt, so that is my story and I am sticking to it), and when the police arrived they just kind-of shushed me away. (Tom Greene)
So amigo’s, the good news is, this drunken brawler Tom Greene is not staying here. He is not the type of guest we usually attract and he has moved to a lower class area where he belongs. You can come and enjoy the peace and quiet we are known for at Casa Blanca Hotel! Hope to see you soon.
|
| Author: William Oosterman |
Posted at 13:00 01/12/2009 |
I truly want to be fair and accurate with this review. Since writing it I went back through all my records and e-mail, and see there MAY have been some ambiguousness in the initial agreement. I had proposed paying the higher rate with the understanding the faster internet connection would be available for the duration of my stay. During our communications I mentioned to William I would be on vacation a fair amount in December, and that a critical project kicked off for me Jan 1. Once the deal (price/dates/funding) had been agreed to William sent one more e-mail stating “we will start the highest possible speed two weeksbefore you go back to worktomake sureit is up and running.”. I took this to mean he would have the connection available 2 weeks before I got back to Cabarete (because he wouldn’t know my exact vacation schedule was, at that time I didn’t even know what my schedule was going to be, I just knew I would be working some days and on vacation some days).
In the interest of fairness, I will give him the benefit of the doubt, that he may have thought it didn’t need to be ready day 1 (although he never asked any further details on dates, indicating either he had no intention of having it available when it was truly needed, or that he did really understand it needed to be available on day 1).
That being said, the e-mail exchange between William and I in mid-November reveals there was no ambiguity that the internet connection would be at the higher speed when I arrived (and he was acting as if the agreement had been to have the upgrade in place when I arrived):
(Me: 11/13/2008) “I just wanted to check in to make sure you are ready for me …[some personal unrelated comments here]… that things are working (i.e. power is OK), and the internet is in good shape and will have the faster internet. Thanks.”
(William: 11/17/2008) “We are using the mid level service - I will have that swtiched this week to the top level - about $1000RD more a month.”
I don’t think this changes anything in the post, but wanted to make sure it was factual. I stand by the rest of my review (including that wonderful trip to the Cabarete police station).
|
| Author: Tomas2 |
Posted at 23:04 01/4/2009 |
|
|
