Gamboa Resort AGAINST Local Communities
- May 6, 2008
- Rated 1 of 5 by
a traveler from Travelocity.com
I have frequented the Gamboa resort frequently over the past four years in frequent visits to Gamboa. This past week however, I had an experience that turned me completely against the hotel.
Members of the Gamboa community agreed to meet at the small discotheque in the resort, as they usually do every couple of weeks.
Only that this week the Panamanian members of the community were not let in. When talking to the head of security, Rolando, we were vehemently told that the hotel reserves the right to admission and at any time and is private property. There are no signs posted to indicate this and since the opening of the hotel, this has never been a policy and community members have never previously been denied entrance.
When I talked to the acting manager, Juan Peralta, and questioned why we (Gamboa residents, but foreigners, mostly US citizens) were let in and our friends were not, he again repeated that they reserve the right to admission at any time. Among us were dues-paying active members of the hotel, but this did not phase the manager.
At no point was anyone given an explanation, let alone any ounce of courtesy, as to why our middle class Panamanian friends were not let in. As you make your plan to come to this wonderful country, I urge you to consider not supporting a company that uses the community at its convenience and discards them whenever they feel like it.