Boycott El Dorado Royale & Karisma Resorts-UPDATE policy REVISED!

Hi Everyone,

First of all, thank you for starting this post. If can just state: this is almost a "life saving" knowledge for many brides. I am sure not everyone thinks this way, but I happened to see brides crying in front of me asking if its possible to fix what was done by a "resort photographer". I am a photographer so this post will be more related to photography standpoint. I won't relate it directly to those particular resorts but write in general.

I've recently discussed this trend with my friends (photographers) and we agreed that this is growing issue those days. What happens is simple: hotel signs an agreement with a photographer behind the scenes in order to give you an all inclusive package. They are well aware that good photographers cost thousands in US and recently realized that uneducated couples will pay similar rates to a "resort photographer". Clients in fact receive photographers who "at least" don't care about who they shooting for. There is no personal commitment, but just a standard routine of having few posed shots here and there. What can you expect from a photographer who gets $100-$200 for a day? At most, you will get a bunch of portraits in front of palm trees.

Many will sacrifice a lot, just to have a wedding at a beautiful resort, including vendors they want to have, and thats helps resorts to dictate their rules.

I personally think this is BS and for those who are "stuck" with the resort that way, I would still suggest trying to bring a photographer as a friend.

I believe that if agreement has uncommon and unreasonable terms, this should be highlighted. This is totally unethical and simply a way to cheat clients who don't expect such terms and overlook them.

Bottom line, if the hotel won't give you a freedom of choice, consider getting married somewhere else, no matter how hard it is. There are plenty of resorts and new ones getting built every year. I will be shooting in Dreams Resort in Tulum and will post pictures and review later on in June.

In many cases, if this stated upfront, resorts tend to be much more flexible.

I wish everyone on this forum to have a wedding of their dreams.

Joseph

I just came back from my wedding at the EDR in early April. I had booked an Associate from Sol Tamargo and yes I had to pre-pay for $500. What really annoyed me was that when I arrived with 63 of my guests they informed me that my photographer was banned from their property and I was the only bride to allow them to come in. In other words they were making an exception for us. I spent nearly $20,000 on extras for my wedding including a private cocktail reception and private dinner & dance. They did an amazing job but you do feel like even though you are the customer you don't have any say in anything....

Another policy they should change is their policy for outside guests. They charged us around $100 per guest to come in for our wedding even though we already paid for a private dinner.

Heather

Christine is right - I think all AI resorts charge a day pass (though $100 is a little high, from what I've seen) - but it's the outside vendor fee that is the real issue here. They are going to start losing even more business if they don't change their ways!

just a quick reply on the day pass issue. I agree that a person should have to buy a guest pass if they are coming into the resort since that entitles them to eat 3 meals however in our case they still charged us for guests that were coming in for our wedding. We had to pay a lot of money for a private event meaning we paid out of pocket for the dinner for our 63 guests even though it is all inclusive.