Should I book an all inclusive resort or vacation rental by owner?

I get this question a lot from people walking to town from their resort on the beach. Sometimes the questions start like, “ How much further to town?” Or “where am I?” (Mexico duh) or “ Is it safe to walk around with my family in the town?”
One way or another the conversation gets to vacation rentals, because that’s what I do! And almost everyone says “we almost booked a vacation rental this year BUT We just decided to go with the all inclusive again… But Next year I think we really might do it!”

For all of you who have pondered over a vacation rental or all inclusive resort here’s my opinion:
Everything comes down to your temperament. I think temperament is responsible for how successful you are, how you see the world and how you deal with situations and how you solve problems.
If you don’t know your temperament it’s an interesting thing to look into. Under the Waldorf pedagogy (my daughter’s schooling brought this to my attention years ago) there are four temperaments; sanguine, phlegmatic, choleric, meloncolic. Or If you are really into this take a Enneagram test, there are nine different personality types.

Why is temperament important in your decision to stay at an all inclusive resort or a vacation rental? I have witnessed a situation over and over in 18 years of vacation rental management. One family is in love with a certain house rental or condominium and they come back to that same place year after year and they adore it. And Another family (same dynamic let’s say 2 parents 2 kids) rents the exact same place and has complaint after complaint and “they are sooooo disappointed with the (inserts one of the following): noise of the refrigerator or the livingroom furniture placement or the curtains are too transparent or the bed is too soft or too hard or the water does not stay hot long enough, tv doesn’t have English channels….
The house didn’t change, so how come one family adores it and the other is disappointed?
Some things to think about:

• If you are renting a property that is not in a resort you do not have a 24 hour receptionist available to you most likely. If you are the sort who would phone the lobby reception at 1 AM because you can’t get on the Internet or because the toilet won’t flush, you’ve locked yourself out of your room, you broke a glass and you need someone to come clean it up … then you will be better off at a resort.
• If you are curious, open minded , flexible and a creative problem solver, you are a great candidate to book outside of a resort.
• If you are a person that has to be in control of everything at all times and has ever said “we are just Soooooooooooooo Disappointed “ And that phrase is related to; the weather, not having hot water for five hours, not having fast internet…. stay at an all inclusive please.

Luckily most of our guests are repeat renters or referrals from people who have stayed at one of our properties. This make my job a lot easier but if someone has not been to Puerto Morelos or stayed outside of a resort, with a few emails I usually can predict pretty quickly if the properties that we have will be a good fit for somebody or not.
It Is the worst thing for me when someone comes with an expectation that does not match reality, and this happens when you don’t book with a reliable company.

Puerto Morelos is friendly, safe, lovely to walk around, eat out swim, snorkel, hit the beach club, shop, read a book and unwind… If that sounds like your style of vacation I can find you a great place for you to stay.

Be well,
Cg