I recently stayed at the Dunn Inn for 5 days. Based upon what I heard that happened to my friend Boyd (BKTuna) I was skeptical, but kept my reservations since I was inside of their 8 day rule. (If you cancel reservations within 8 days, they charge you for 100% of your stay.)
Although I made my initial reservations thru Boyd, I was passed to Guy Grand who quoted me $80 via email for one of new King Suite rooms. My confirmation email came back at $60. To make sure I was not being erroneously moved to an undesirable room, I sent them a copy of the email from Guy Grand and ask if there was an error. Although I suspected that I would be given an unsatisfactory room, in fact the room (#25) was new and quite nice. However, they charged me $85 for the room. I pointed this out when I checked in and reminded them of the Guy Grand email, but they totally ignored me. For my entire 5 day stay, I never met Guy Grand and when I checked out, the room charge was still $85 and Guy Grand was no where around. Another thing Muy Tico.
My only complaint about the room (#25) is the complete lack of window coverings on some rather large windows. Since the sun comes up at 6:00 AM in Costa Rica, (about 3 hours after I went to bed) you can imagine that I said some nasty things about the idiot that chose not to put drapes on the windows before renting out the room. I asked the ladies at the front desk for a room change or something to cover the windows and was ignored.
The new bar is nice, but the design cannot accommodate live music. There are so many large glass windows on opposite sides of the room from each other that live music sounds only like noise – too many reverberations. At this point, I’m not sure it’s fixable. Just poor design. Makes the owners look like amateurs who don’t listen to anyone but themselves.
Some days I’m ready for breakfast after their 10:30 AM cutoff for the “free†breakfast. When I told the waitress that I was willing to pay for breakfast off of the menu, each day it was a major issue and they had to ask the manager. Each day, I reminded them that I could just go to Sportsmen’s to get breakfast if they can’t persuade the manager or the kitchen to cook bacon and eggs past 10:30. After a few minutes, they decided they could serve me breakfast – like they were doing me a favor.
Asta from Sportsmen’s fame is the bartender and it’s always nice to spend time with her. She’s a real class act. One night while sitting at the bar with my ex-novia and talking with Asta, I went to the restroom only to see the Dunn Inn Manager (Jack) had moved in while I was out. He set an appointment with her to “interview†her for a job as a barmaid and never mentioned it to Asta. I can’t interpret intentions – only actions. It was clear that Asta knew my ex-novia, but it’s unclear why any experienced manager would seek to employ anyone without discussing it with the lead person they would be working with - especially when it’s a person of Asta’s quality that also knows the person being interviewed. In addition, for my entire 5 day stay, neither Jack or the other guy who seemed to be always around acting like he was in charge reached out to meet me or make me feel welcome to the Dunn Inn. They just hung out with themselves and their Tico customers. I prefer a more hospitable environment.
My only conclusion from my stay is that these guys are just egotistical assholes with no experience who think having the Dunn Inn will help them meet chicas. Sad commentary when you know how really easy it is to meet chicas in Costa Rica.
Guys, there is no need to boycott Dunn Inn, these guys will kill it on their own. Except for Asta, there is no need to go there. If we can persuade Bill to bring Asta back to Sportsmen’s there will be no reason at all to go to Dunn Inn. If you agree with me about Asta, please be sure to mention it to Bill.
