Cheryl N.
Yelp
Last year because of Covid travel ban, I ended up w a lot of credit from hotels & airlines. The credit was an ordeal to cash in, they made it impossible to use them. I spent 4 hours to finally be able to book a round trip flight from LAX to Cabo, it ended up costing $600, Alaska airlines was price gouging as United only charged $409 but my credit was w Alaska, it was only $260 before the reopening on 6/15/2021. Flushed w stimulus, people wanted to vacation no matter what the cost was, I should have waited till August when things calmed down.
After securing the flight, I was horrified most hotels I had in mind was booked solid and the flight was not refundable. I googled about 10x, each time BAHIA was always available, 2 sites had described it as ocean front, I trusted it as the name of the hotel said "beach house' but that was not a correct definition, it should described better that it was NOT OCEAN FRONT and the shuttle was one big hassle, the site I finally booked on did not mention this, after 4 grueling hours booking the air, I did not decipher the fine prints and not only I did not know it was NOT OCEAN FRONT, I DID NOT KNOW THEY CHARGED AN EXORBITANT RESORT FEE $25 a day!! Who in the world charges resort fee? The hotel rate is expensive enough for Mexico, I just came back from Puerto Vallarta and had a suite for $68 a day!!
Here the room rate was $262 but they added so many garbage fees, it ended up being $315 a night. I asked the receptionist if the owner was American to know this gimmick, he said yes, I figure that as I'm a world traveler and NOBODY ON PLANET EARTH CHARGED ME ANY RESORT FEE except the greedy owners in Vegas, Hawaii and South Beach. I have visited Mexico maybe 100x! and never ever once was charged this nonsense. Now to add insult to injury, for my stay I never was able to get to the beach, the shuttle to the beach was about 10 min, not 2 min walk as told by a reviewer, we usually tipped so that was not free either. The last day I told them we were leaving the day after they should give us beach chairs and an umbrella, I WAS TALKING TO MY KNEES, it was beyond outrageous I went to Cabo and never got to get into the water, I was wearing a dress and ran on the beach that was it. If they had good customer service they would have refunded me that resort fee at least $25 for 1 day or the entire length as it was never available, I did book 1 day but I was jet lagged from the flight and canceled but they should be able to book another one for me or to be fair, give me credit.
Customer service ZERO STAR, nobody cared, NOBODY. I booked w a balcony and they were going to cheat me out of my balcony, I had to fight, looked up my email to show them I had booked a room w a balcony and a king bed, I finally accept a room wo a king bed, it was 1 bed either double or a Queen bed. It started w bad vibes till it escalated to unbearable tension. The AC made such loud noise, we could not sleep so we turned it off at 100F at night (110F day) it was unbearable. The hotel had no ice machine and after the bar closed, you were out of luck.
The breakfast was the BIGGEST JOKE EVER. Continental breakfast should include some Danish, donut, here THERE'S NOTHING EXCEPT COFFEE, some fruit, JUICE and toast, the coffee was lame, the toast was lame so I had no breakfast. I wanted to make coffee in my room, I was shocked the attendant told me it cost about $3, that was another lie, it cost $5.49, I just lost it right there, I asked the manager the room description said it included a coffeemaker, 99.9% a coffeemaker came w coffee, it was not for me to stare at it! As I said even in 3rd world countries every 3 stars hotel came w coffee. I took the whole tray and returned it to the receptionist; I did not want it in my room to get me irritated. I should have asked for a receipt that I returned the tray, upon checking out; I was shocked they charged me $5.49 I had to fight w the manager to get it canceled.
The SUR restaurant was beautifully decorated but there are 2 problems, it was so dark, I had no idea what I was eating, DAMAS Y CABALLEROS, this was not a night club, but as a restaurant, please give us some light!!! Things tasted better when the room was better lit, seeing is eating too! Secondly everything was too sweet! Since when Mexican food was sweet that was typical of Thai food not Mexican! The restaurant BarEsquina in the hotel was better, we ordered lobster roll and it was so delicious.
Why did I book here you may ask? I read about 6 reviews and people were gushing how much cheaper this hotel was, I should have checked further as the reviewers inexperience might be why they rated 4 stars, they compared apples & oranges. CasaDorada $252 right in front of Bahia room has 901 sf! You can't compare an ocean front hotel w 901 sf to bahia which has no beach access and the room was only 344 sf!I Pueblo Bonito ALL INCLUSIVE, AYCE! had a sale 8/10 for $1,409 for 5 nights.I paid $1,577 no coffee, no beach access. 2 stars