Stay: February 17 - February 22, 2008

Room: Deluxe Room

Upgrades: Room Upgrade, Welcome Gift, Late Checkout

Comments: I booked this stay completely on points and had Gold SPG status at the time so the hotel was kind enough to give us a larger non-smoking room on the top floor. The staff was very pleasant leading up to our stay, I wanted to setup a few things before our arrival. In particular, the entire concierge staff was great. They recommended several excellent restaurants and set-up reservations for us at each of them, as well as gave us free access to the business center's computers for booking 3rd party excursions and to check email.

I stayed at this location on a recommendation from a friend who stayed there 6 months earlier but with a caveat that there will be funny business at the pool. Apparently, the staff will try to take bribes to "reserve" a palapa/loung chair/etc. even though this is against policy, and there are no reservations allowed in the first place. We experienced this on our first morning. I was told that beginning just before the pool opened, people would head downstairs and either a) pay off the staff for a prime location or b) drop their towels on a location and come back a few hours later. I proceeded to pick the best palapa I could find (there were no towels or personal affects from anybody else on it yet) and proceeded to settle in when a staff member came over to ask if I reserved it. I told him no, that I talked to the concierge to do so and they said there were no such thing as reservations. He walked away after that, and we enjoyed the rest of our day lounging. Another couple was out looking for a prime location too when I told them the little scheme that was going on and got them the palapa next to us. Later in the day, I saw the same staff member accept cash in front of my eyes for reserving lounge chairs for other guests. The hotel knows about this, it has been brought up to them and Starwood several times, but to no avail.

The pools truly are beautiful though, and the views are breathtaking. I recommend doing what I did, get a palapa, and eat breakfast and lunch from it. The poolside restaurant has very good food. We only had dessert at the main restaurant, and for being a beach location, they would not let me sit with sandals on, even though I was dressed in jeans and a polo shirt. Oh well, the rules don't really seem to make sense all the time there.

The room was very nice, but do not expect a directy beach view as all of the rooms but the large multi-room suites are on the sides of the hotel. Most hotels in Cancun are built long and narrow, so there is not a lot of beach in front of each property so to speak. The bathroom had a separate tub and large shower. There is a Club Lounge on the 7th floor, and a pretty nice health club as well. If you do not have a room with access to them, it will cost you around $15-20 per day for the health club. It is very easy to take the bus from this hotel into the main section of Cancun or the city, there is a bus stop in front of the Marriot next door. You can also walk in, 15 minutes max to the restaurants. Cambalache is a FANTASTIC Argentinean steak house that I recommend everybody should try. We went twice and they really serve it up. For being in a strip mall, the place is enormous and the quality of food is second to none, honestly.

We spent a few days on excursions, one to Xel-Ha, one to Chichin Itza, one on a reef snorkelling trip. I higly recommend Xel-Ha and Chichin Itza. Be sure to bring sun tan lotion and drink tons of water, shade is a premium. Blue Line Tours is fantastic though. The tour guides are wonderful and speak perfect English. They will really give you the details about something, and from so many different points of view. Make sure you stay long enough though, you'll be spent each day and will want time to relax.

If we go back, we may stay there again, but will likely want to try the Westin and see how that one is. As long as you know how to navigate the pool situation (and now you do), you'll be just fine. :)

We stayed at this resort on points and it was a great choice. There was some construction going on next to the property as a result of the previous years hurricanes.The rooms were well kept and the staff was excellent. This was a great property.

I cannot say enough about this hotel! We stayed there at the beginning of June 2008 and had a wonderful experience. From the second we got there, we were treated like royalty. We loved the small, Europen feel of the hotel. If you want a large scale, hustle bustle type of place, go to the Ritz or the JW Marriott. If you like individual attention and a more private and exclusive feel, this is the Hotel for you!
There are about 213 rooms here so it is much smaller than the other hotels in the Hotel Zone, but this was one of the best parts of the experience. We were made to feel special.
Now, when the others write about the construction going on next to the hotel, they are correct. However, we chose a room on the other side of the hotel so the contruction was not an issue. Even when we were at the pool, the contruction was not loud or bothersome and you are too busy looking at the beautiful pool area and ocean to even think twice about the construction. At least we were.
We acutally had the pleasure of staying in two different rooms while there. Our first room was very spacious with marbled bathroom and had wonderfully French style furniture with a great ocean view. We loved this room but were upgraded (at no cost) to a suite by the front desk manager . This room was amazing! It had a huge separate living room with a kitchen table and kitchen! There was a balcony in the living room and another one in the bedroom. The room had two huge marbled bathrooms with separate shower and tub. Both had hair dryers in there so you don't need to bring one with you. The decor in this room was different than the other room we were in, but equally as beautiful. This had a more modern flair, with silk lavender pillows. The separate bedroom had a huge and very comfortable king sized bed with another TV. There was PLENTY of drawer and closet space and we could have stayed there for weeks if we had the choice. They cleaned it twice a day and left these wonderful cookie cakes on our pillow when they turned down the bed.
The rest of the hotel is beautiful, as well. The lobby has a classy European feel to it with wonderful pieces of art work and architecture. It has such a warm feeling to it and this really drew us to it as opposed to the more commercial hotels in the area (which are nice, too, but just not as unique). The breakfast buffet was incredible and we ate this several times. It is not the cheapest thing in the world, but it was cheaper than the Ritz and Marriott breakfast buffets, which we also went to for a change of pace. It will cost you $24 where the Ritz is $31 and the JW Marriott was $28. We ordered room service twice and both times the service and food were great!
Now, on to the pool and spa. WOW! The pool is incredible and the service out there is bar-none. The pool is a 3-tier set up and when you are in there you feel like the pool meets the ocean because the water is filled to the brim. It is hard to explain, but it is totally a cool feeling. The bottom of the pool is covered in different hues of blue tile which give it a beautiful blue effect. There are plenty of comfortable lounge chairs. If you want shade (which you will because the sun is VERY strong there-definitely wear a high SPF), you can sit under an umbrella for free or you can rent out a cabana for $35. The people that were staying at the hotel were of quality and there were no loud kids running around.
The service at the pool is great. They come over to you and bring you towels and set up your chairs/umbrellas for you. They also come around with free snacks, such as fresh fruit kabobs or fresh fruit smoothies.There is a restaurant at the pool with great food and you can order from there, too. The servers come to you and you can eat at your lounge chair, or you can order and sit at the restaurant which is outdoors so you can look at the ocean. The bathrooms at the pool were nice and very well kept. They were always being cleaned and taken care of and this great because we didn't have to go back to our room to use the restroom. The staff in the pool area is exceptional. They are friendly, helpful, and genuinely wanted us to have a nice experience. The spa and workout facility are near the pool and these were also beautiful and the staff was great.
The best part of this hotel is the service. From the minute we walked in to the minute we left, we were treated well. From the bellhops to the concierge to the room service attendant to the wait staff- we did not encounter one person who wasn't smiling or accommodating. The whole trip we kept saying that we could not believe how truly nice everyone was and how this treatment really added to the enjoyment of the trip. We actually really bonded with the staff there and when we left, they gave us hugs and really were sad to see us leave. We were sad to leave, too, but definitely will stay there again!!!

We booked a few nights here using our Starwood points. We felt like we were treated as second class citizens when we checked in because we were NOT paying guests. We are "platinum" status members and have traveled extensively in order to earn the amount of points necessary to redeem for free nights here.

Every single request we put in were denied. First, we were denied our upgrade to a suite as a platinum member. Second, we were denied of our request of being on the side that "faces" construction. Third, we were put in a room directly adjacent to the hotel elevator and ice machine. We heard humming noises all night and we can hear people walking and talking as they enter/exit the elevators. Fourth, we were denied of a late check out which is supposed to be a platinum member privilege.

Our friends also joined us for this vacation and they did not use points to redeem their room as they were not Starwood members. They were given a nice room that faces that ocean and away from the elevator.

We were extremely disappointed that they would treat their members in this manner just because we chose to book our room using our accumulated points and not US Dollars. Platinum status is the "highest" status one can earn as a member. We did not feel special here at all.

To summarize:

Good
Pool area - very nice, the different pools have different temps.
Spa - very nice, it's expensive, but worth a try
Breakfast Buffet - worth every penny

Check in/Front Desk
Bad, unable to accomodate requests

Concierge
Excellent, very honest and friendly