HAVANA, Cuba. – As if the complaints about the poor quality of guest service, gastronomy and infrastructure in hotels in Cuba were not enough, Varadero To understand why tourism on the island is failing to take off, very unpleasant incidents, almost always involving Cubans of the worst kind, occur in those places designed for enjoyment and relaxation during the holidays.
At the Iberostar Selection hotel, rated five stars by some entity that has not visited it recently, a man with a prison-like bearing and projection left a very bad taste in his mouth at midnight in August.
After leaving the nightclub, the individual, evidently drunk, threatened several hotel workers. In the lobby The situation at the bar became particularly tense, with no security personnel appearing to restrain the impertinent man. It was the employees themselves who intervened between a young man bartender and the aggressor, who, in order not to neglect the well-known sociological cliché, boasted of being abakuá since the age of 12, a condition that supposedly qualifies him to perpetrate and confront any act of violence.
The police never showed up despite calls made by the facility’s staff. Customers left the facility lobby when they saw the aggressive subject get up from the sofa where they were trying to keep him under control and approach the bar with the intention of attacking another person.
This is not the first time that this kind of show has taken place at the Iberostar Selection. “Every time this happens, they have to think that it is a Cuban. They don’t want to be looked at badly and treated badly. They are really a very difficult audience to work with and every time large families come there is at least one troublemaker like that,” said a worker on condition of anonymity.
These incidents are not unique to Cuba, of course, but the delay in the police response and the absence of security personnel to control aggressive clients are. For about half an hour the man was shouting rude words, threatening and making the other guests who paid a good amount of money for a few days of peace and quiet feel uncomfortable.
Eventually, as “a barking dog doesn’t bite”, he was placated by those who came with him, and who surely regretted having spent their money inviting a scoundrel who ended up ruining everyone’s vacation.
According to official data, Cubans who have emigrated or settled abroad constitute the third largest market for tourists to the island, a fact that, among other factors, has resulted in a deterioration in the quality of services, since national tourism is considered third or fourth class.
For a five-star hotel, the Iberostar Selection leaves much to be desired in terms of gastronomy and customer service. Its main strengths are the beach, clean pools, a water park that is a delight for children, carefully maintained green areas, specialized restaurants and comfortable rooms.
However, the buffet table is catastrophic, with half of the space unconditioned due to console breakdowns. Paradoxically, taking into account the shortage that plagues the IslandThe problem with Iberostar Selection is not so much the lack of food as its poor preparation. The almost raw rice, the flavourless grilled meats and fish, often difficult to chew even for the well-trained jaw of Cubans, the extremely watered-down coffee and milk, or the absence of good quality tropical fruits, such as pineapple and mango, make for a disappointing dining experience.
Added to this is the lack of crockery and cutlery, which causes delays at mealtimes, the small number of employees who cannot cope with the number of customers, the occasional cockroach hanging around the buffet and the meager portion of napkins made available to diners.
It is clear that the crisis of supplies, personnel and shame has reached the most select facilities of the famous spa, where they do not serve you if you do not tip, even if your stay has already been paid for in dollars or euros.
The worst thing about the matter is that, according to the hotel’s own employees, the Iberostar Selection is almost a daily stopover for the city’s tourism executives because that’s where the food is best. It’s horrifying to think of the conditions of the rest of the hotels, with their many Russians and Cubans, and their handful of Canadians plus the occasional Chinese, since the expected avalanche of Asians has not yet materialised.
If all these problems that clients have repeatedly reported are added to incidents such as the one shown in the images, very soon the few hotels that are worthwhile in Varadero will become gateways to the worst Cubanism, finishing off the decline of the once wonderful tourist enclave with the impossibility of having a peaceful vacation.
