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Bad Rate :: $509 Escape Package at the Westin Rio Mar

Where: 6000 Rio Mar Boulevard, Rio Grande, pr, Puerto Rico, 00745

January 23, 2007 at 11:06 AM | 0 Comments

[Ed. Note: This is the Bad Rate in our Good Rate/Bad Rate feature. This rate was valid on January 23, 2007 and is subject to change. Enjoy.]

There's a little secret in the lodging industry that when a hotel announces the completion of some multi-million dollar renovation, you'll soon be paying for that fancy new "Balinese-inspired spa" whether you use it or not. Apparently guests of the renovated Westin Rio Mar in Puerto Rico will really be paying for it--to the tune of $509 per night.

If you thought an escape to Puerto Rico would be a way to get a Caribbean deal without getting a passport, well, let's say you'd be better off going to a Westin in Florida than the one here. We thought something must be amiss when we saw rates of $429 for a "resort view" room and $499 for an "ocean view" room in March on a popular hotel booking site--no meals included. It was just a shade less than the rate for the island's Ritz-Carlton.

So we visited the hotel's own site to look for a package. The best we could do there was this screen shot: a tad less for the bad view rooms, but $509 for the ones with a glimpse of sea. Apparently the rooms look good enough to eat though. "Recalling the golden glow of beautifully tanned skin, the rooms' color palette includes a blend of chili, cinnamon and mahogany, with accent shades of olive and amber."

You don't get much out of this package besides breakfast, but at least the taxes and resort fee are folded into the room rate (as the latter should be anyway). So unless you can surf around and find a better nightly rate elsewhere, this is probably the best you're going to be able to do at the Westin. Add in another $450 to $700 each for a flight and you may be better off hitting Miami or the Keys instead--or finally getting your butt in gear to apply for a passport!