QCOSTARICA TRAVEL – Canadians headed to Costa Rica take note, one hotel operator is now offering the loonie at par, eh!
Using Canadian dollars in Costa Rica isn’t easy, very few places recognize it, even fewer accept it. Typical prices for accommodations are in U.S. dollars.
With the Canadian dollar hovering around the 84 cents American, Canadians have to take the hit or wait around for their dollar to improve.
A number of hotels and tour operators say they take Canadian dollars, and in fact some do, but if the exchange rate is more than a couple of percentage points, the current rate is applied.
For example, you are ready to book your vacation, the total is US$2.500. As a Canadian you have two choices, pay CA$2.990 or wait.
At the Hotel Desire Costa Rica in the mountains of San José and Copacabana Desire in Jacó, Canadians can pay with their dollars at par when making a reservation. Payment can either by cheque (the Canadian way of spelling it), Visa, Mastercard, American Express or Paypal.
There are some conditions:
The dollar at par is available only on pre-booking (prior to arrival) on accommodations, meals and all-inclusive.
The offer is available only with direct bookings (that is not available if the booking is through third party like Tripadvisor.com or Booking.com)
Minimum stay is 9 nights. However, you can divide your time between the two hotels and your stay over 2 different times, that is you can stay a minimum of 4 nights on your first trip and then use up the remainder nights on subsequent trips of minimum 4 nights per stay.
Full payment is required at the time of booking. According to the hotel operator, payment is made through their Canadian merchant account to avoid the customer being charged the currency fee their your credit card.
If you book through the website, please tell the reservation agent that you are a Canadian and want to pay with Canadian dollars at par. The offer is only valid for Canadians, it may be withdrawn at any time, without notice, and not valid for groups of 5 rooms or more and coupons for unused nights are not transferable.
