Hotel Castillo Huatulco Hotel & Beach Club reviews
641 TripAdvisor reviews
Worst Vacation of a Lifetime. STAY AWAY!!!!!!
Dan's C (Toronto, Canada) on Mar 15, 2024
This was the worst holiday that we have ever experienced which makes us realize that you definitely get what you pay for. The nightmare began two days before we left. When we booked last minute, we were not made aware that the hotel pool was to be shut down during our stay, for a scheduled maintenance and repair. It had to be retiled and regrouted. We definitely would not have booked this vacation if we had have known this in advance of booking. Air Canada Vacations sent us a memo regarding this issue 2 days before departure. This made the only other pool (at the beach club) severely overcrowded, so we were unable to swim in the 34 degrees Celsius heat. Also the ocean's undertow made it impossible to swim there. As for the hotel, the exterior looked nice but that was as far as that went. The inside is dingy and dark. It feels like walking into a basement! The rooms are very basic (white) with little decor. The beds were comfortable, which was a good thing as severe food poisoning put us in them for 3 days straight. The hotel restaurant was very noisy and crowded. It served a small selection of basic food which overall was terrible. We noticed that they were recycling food. Breakfast included dried up broccoli, meatballs and cut up hot dogs (they were calling sausages) which had been served at dinner on previous nights. One dinner included chicken wings which we mistakenly ate at the beach club buffet the following day at lunch which brought on our food poisoning. Most of the hotel staff ignored us and catered to their Mexican guests (which was 90% of the hotel clientele). This might be a language issue as most staff didn't speak any English. The ones that attempted were tipped well. The only plus side is that the hotel is right in the town of Santa Cruz and a short walk to restaurants, the town square and the public beach (which is where we had to cool off).
Great dollar value but you get what you pay for
cher1504 (North Bay, Canada) on Mar 13, 2024
At first we were seriously disappointed. The hotel pool was down for retiling and the beach club was so crowded, we were unable to find a chair to sit at. We tried to move to another hotel but the price point was so high at the others we decided to make the best of it. This is a case of you get what you pay for. However if you are looking a very reasonable stay in Huatulco and want the local flavour then this might work out well. It is in a great location for going out to local restaurants and has some shopping close by. The breakfast at the hotel is OK and the lunch buffet at the beach club is exceptional. The dinner buffet at the hotel is sketchy at best and we ate out almost every night. The did have a really nice traditional dinner spread one night that I thought was great but my husband wasn't impressed. Don't forget to bring water shoes as the beach club sand and concrete surfaces are very rough. The pool at the hotel is nice but again the concrete is really rough. The beach is nice but it has a very steep incline once you are in and there is a undertow that could be problematic for weak or non-swimmers. On the plus side the price point is good. The rooms although dated and shabby were extremely clean with no smells. The bed was OK. We found the entertainment to be a little lame or non-existent at times but if you got into it and joined the local people we had a few nights of great fun. Overall for the dollar value and the great service I would go their again but my husband's opinion was never again.
Avoid this hotel at all cost if you don't want to get robbed
Daniel S on Mar 12, 2024
The hotel is very dated, mostly the older building, there was a lot of noise coming from the parties in the lobby at night, the AC was noisy, the bathroom was musty, moldy, and smelled bad and there was a leak in the sink, there were holes and cracks in floors, the buffet is good but it used to be better. The price is kind of high for what you get. If you are on a bed and breakfast plan you can't bring your drinks to the hotel areas or you will get approached and ask for a fee. The facilities are becoming overwhelmed because the owners keep building new room towers but no new bars, restaurants, or buffets so it's very crowded at breakfast hours with waiting time in the line of 15 minutes or more to get a table. The pool has a lot of lost tiles so it's dangerous, which was not a good thing. The hotel is kind of rustic and it's traditional for locals and recurring international guests, it is centrally located and great for walking to the surroundings. The staff is friendly except for an issue we had when they treated us very poorly. The beach club is good but the pool is very small and gets very crowded, the bathrooms are dirty because they are overwhelmed, we didn't use the shuttle, because we always wanted to see the sunset at the beach but the last shuttle had already left before it began. I could give the hotel 3.5 out of 5 but unfortunately, we were robbed in our room by one female worker of the hotel. My couple and I noticed mid of our stay that there was money missing from our cases, the next day a suspicious female worker accessed our room at noon when the cleaning had already been done hours before, but she didn't knock on the door, she just simply opened the door with her master key and when she saw us inside the room she got nervous, nonetheless, she just simply enter our room and walk around the bed saying that she lost a document, she didn't ask us our permit to search for it she just simply enter the room with out our consent, we reported this serious issue to the management and security of the hotel, they started the investigation and conclude that indeed she entered our room when she was not supposed to do it (the logs were stored an read from the lock) but they could not prove that she was the thief so it was the word of the female worker against ours and that she was recently recruited (yes she was a rookie) and firmly denied that she steal our money. In the hotel facilities, there's CCTV, however, in the aisle where our room was located, there was no camera..... So everything sums up, this female worker didn't have a career with the hotel, she indeed entered our room when she was not supposed to but the was no 'proof'. It's a shame because the hotel didn't take responsibility for the issue, the management staff didn't help us at all or at least took action against the female worker.
Canadians beware of this resort
Jane L on Mar 06, 2024
The resort is very dated, holes and cracks in floors, bathrooms musty and mould in areas, buffet only, no other restaurant on site and the food is NOT very good. The air conditioner in our bedroom was very noisy so had to leave it off at night in order to sleep. The price is relative to what you get. A lot of Canadians come here and it appears the 60 + crowd have been doing so for years! Hence most of the positive review’s. They closed the pool at the hotel for maintenance during our stay, which was not a good thing. On weekends expect a lot of locals with many children who come here and fill the one restaurant and the pool when it’s open! However, it is centrally located and great for walking to the surrounding village and town. The staff are friendly. The beach club is very nice and has a shuttle from the hotel or it’s a short walk to it. It’s safe and the weather was great. We discovered the pictures make the hotel area look far nicer than it is. Would I come back to this resort again….absolutely not.
Returing Guests Have No Value...
Cheryl L (Welland, Canada) on Feb 11, 2024
We have stayed many times at this resort since 2012 and have loved this little boutique resort... We stayed Jan 30-Feb 6/24 this year and another great time... The food was very good, always something to eat & plentiful.. We enjoyed an amazing oaxacan night of food, it was so good!.. The service at the resort was great.. The beach club was good as always. The only recommendation that I would make is that if you want a spot on the beach with a palapa then get the 1st bus to the beach club.. As we have always done, we have requested a particular road street terrace room and for many years have been accommodated.. However, upon checking in this time, we were promptly told that for our next stay we will have to pay $300 pesos a night for our room in future to have a road terrace... We were quite shocked!! Many of the regular return vacationers were shocked too & we were all quoted different rates... This is a completely unacceptable way to be treated for faithful return guests!! We were told that this decision was made by the new sales directer, who I asked the front desk repeatedly to speak with and was never given the opportunity to address this with him... So... Im guessing that those of us who are faithful and repeat guests have no value to this resort... It was very interesting to see that many nationals (right beside our room and further down) were given a terrace road room... I've got to wonder, did they pay extra.. I doubt it... Now, unfortunately, we will have to rethink about returning to this resort.. That has been the general consensus of the returning guests...