You dirty robbing bastards

Sun, 12:15. In the 'white museumy building' area which now is definitely the main CI entrance, waiting for a bus to Merida.

The fuckers at the hotel have overcharged me by about 23 quid. Even at their own exchange rate of MXN12.5/dollar, the bil didn't match what I expected. Even applying the 10% discount I suspected they forgotten it seemed to much. (Of course, it doesn't help that hostelworld.com don't make it obvious which currency the booking is formally made in.)

I mentioned the 10% I'd already paid. The guy said there was a n% tax. Of course the bill showed nothing of this. But what the fuck could I do? I will write to hostelworld and if I can pursue this and claim the money back I will, although I am not optimistic. Man, that fucking hotel has just got on my wick in every way possible.

After all that I didn't want to ask the guy at the desk to call me a taxi. I was rather sullen to be honest. Fortunately there were some waiting down the street.

Man I am hacked off. I expect the bill to clearly show the fucking taxes, and the 10% I paid up front. Maybe I should have stayed and really argued the toss (ideally remaining calm but firm, digging out my laptop to check the hostelworld e-mail, etc) and at least wasted their time before coughing up. But I didn't.

While I'm still hacked off, I suspect the lessons here are:
- make sure I know what currency the deal was made in (if hostelworld.com doesn't show this, they should) and have the details in that currency on hand (here I had noted down USD, not sure if that was my choice or all hostelworld.com showed me, and they were billing in MXN)
- if there's some sort of strange tax or other surcharge which wasn't included, I want it on the bill in black and white before I pay it
- if the numbers don't match, I want my 10% upfront payment on the bill before I pay it
- make a commitment to myself I'm going to argue for at least 15 minutes before I cave in

Absolute fuckers.

12:30. There is a truck with a big cage on the back which has just pulled up and an enormous group of people are jumping out of the back. We are talking cattle truck kind of rammed here. A lot look very young and I might suspect it's a school party (though on a Sunday?). Weird all the same.