Tangerine T.
Google
Edit: I'm reducing my rating from 3 stars to 1 star because they lied in their reply to my review.
In their reply they said "Regarding the room upgrade, our team did offer the option to view other available rooms at check-in, but we understood and respected your preference to stay in your original room for greater privacy and comfort with your baby."
This is a lie. They never gave us they option to look at other rooms and never offered us the upgrade that we we qualified for.
In their reply they said "As for housekeeping, our standard service is every other day, though daily cleaning is always available upon request at no extra cost."
When we were there they only offered a cleaning every 3 days, not every other day.
In their reply they said "the 15% service fee is shared among all restaurant staff."
If this is true, someone from the restaurant staff lied to on our first day saying that the 15% is shared with every employee at the hotel.
Original 3 star review:
Overall, a disappointing stay that didn’t live up to the great reviews.
To start, I want to say that the employees at the hotel were very kind and attentive. The service was the highlight of the stay.
So why only 3 stars? A few reasons:
1. We booked through the AMEX hotel collection which guarantees us an upgrade if there’s a better room available but we were not given an upgrade when checking in. Talking to an employee later that day, I learned that the hotel has 22 total rooms, 3 weren’t available and just 5 rooms had guests. There were 14 rooms available when we arrived, most of which were better and/or bigger than ours, yet they didn’t give us our upgrade that we were supposed to get. That’s not okay.
2. They only clean the rooms once every 3 days. Other hotels at this price point offer cleanings at least once a day and many of them offer a second cleaning in the evening as a turn down service. It was so humid here in October that after taking a shower, the towels take about 48 hours to dry. The lack of cleanings meant that we had to use wet towels most of the time in addition to having sand all over the floor and sheets.
3. They add a 15% service fee onto all purchases at the bar and restaurant and they also expect you to tip on top of that. When I received my first check from the restaurant and saw the service fee I said to the waiter “oh a 15% tip is already included?” He said “that gets shared with everyone at the hotel”. In other words “yes, but it will get shared with 10-20 other people, so if you don’t add to the tip I’ll barely get anything”. Because of this, it felt like an obligation to leave a total of 30% on every check when 10-15% is customary in Mexico.
On top of that, there were some other annoyances… For example, they had some rules that felt like money grabs:
1. You can hire an outside masseuse for a massage but there’s a $100 usd fee in addition to whatever the service provider charges. But also you can’t use the on-site spa because it’s under construction.
2. You have a full kitchen that’s well stocked but there’s no outside food allowed and if you eat food or drinks that were purchased elsewhere there’s a $50 usd charge per meal.
3. They use the thin credit-card-like keys that most hotels use but there’s a $35 usd lost key fee.
4. They advertise the place as “breakfast included” but the included breakfast is a just a piece of bread and a very small plate of fruit.
If you don’t rent a car, it’s too far away from town to go anywhere else without taking an expensive taxi, so you’ll probably end up eating at the hotel restaurant most of the time. Breakfast for 2 will run you about $50 usd per day. Dinner for 2 will be about $100 usd per day with no alcohol. If you’re drinking, add another $15 per cocktail.
The good things are that even the smallest rooms are spacious and I really liked the bath products that they provide. The team does a good job to keep the grounds clean, they clean up the seaweed every day and the service was great for the most part.
