TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

VIP is the new standard for Royalton Hideaway… TLDR: -Onsite staff were good. -Buffet = 6/10 & Restaurants (average 6.5-7/10) with very small portions. Hunter’s Steakhouse was a favourite. -Rooms looked newly renovated, below- average comfort. -Very pushy to do upgrades $$$$ -Long entry to hotel from main road (several speed stops). -Beach basically not useable. -Pools were nice, gym had adequate.equipment, lots of drink options at cafe. -Great view from the lobby. -Poor entertainment. **Preface** - This is my third time going to what I’d consider an entry level 5-star all-inclusive for the price and claims. I went with a small group, a couple couples and some friends/family, ranging from 25-36 years of age. We all chose to do adult only as there was a family side of the hotel and VIP sections throughout the property. Most of our party didn't drink (can’t say to much about how drinks were). After careful review and research, Royalton was picked for cost savings, reviews of having good food, and having gone through recent renovations. The tone was set when some of our party arrived were walking towards the check-in office, and the staff directing us to the office yelled to their colleague opening the office door for us “they’re regular”. We found out later that regular was the hideaway wrist band, and that the remark made was most likely to make us question what was regular which one of us did. VIP was offered to us and was misrepresented. As both of us couples were checking in separately the staff offered of us different percentage discounts for different amount of days claiming they don’t do this blah blah blah. Essentially, VIP is about $60 USD per day per person and gives the following, a butler, access to private pool area, a separate checkout area, separate beach area, some in room goodies and maybe a welcome drink when you check in. We weren’t interested. We booked through itravel and were asked to make 3 requests for our accommodation. One of those request was to be on a higher level. We weren’t thinking we’d be on the top floor (4) but we thought with making the request we would not be put on the ground…we were on the ground. And we have no way of confirming but we believe that the request we made was used against us to upgrade to a better room (we later were relieved that we stuck to our room which faced the garden as most of the balconies faced the pools). We also asked if the suites could be put relatively close and this was not possible unless we upgraded (note - the hotel was at 40% capacity from what was told to us). Our room also had issues with the AC (my wife was okay with it but I like to have the room cold, which our other friends and family were). The comfort of the bed (something you take into consideration apparently as you get older) was okay the pillows were not great at all. All restaurants are to be booked through the hotel app. Anyone having issues with booking, sign in first on the homepage then go to the restaurants. The restaurants I would say in general were decent. The best was Hunters Steakhouse which also had the only dessert we liked the chocolate cake. The worst was probably the Italian restaurant Grazie. Portions in general were very small. To paint a picture I got the mole from the Mexican restaurant which was small drumstick and half a thigh swimming in sauce with 1/3 cup of rice. This was consistent with the various plates that were ordered at the table and the different restaurants. A problem we found having was trying to sit together at some of the restaurants. Also just trying to book an available time slot. And when we booked what was the last time slot available for 2 or 4 or 6 people the restaurants had many vacant tables. The entertainment though I didn’t see them all was sub-par. The Mariachi night was 20 minutes of them singing/playing and 40 minutes of singing happy birthday 10x (im being dramatic) but my expectations was to enjoy singing, playing, more of a performance throughout the nights. The drive in to the hotel from the main road is approximately 7-8minutes because there’s a bout a dozen speed bumps. And after doing 3 excursions during the week, it feels like it takes a toll on you (but that might be my weak dizzy head talking). Some extra charges included, playing tennis, booking a cabana (180USD) for all areas of the hotel, $28 coconut drink, and services that we found had an interesting cost was the spa. It was $420 USD for a couples 80 minute massage that provided a bottle of tequila. We found that other guests felt similarly with the cost of things the constant offering of massages (many times in one day). Overall the experience was not great. Without hesitancy I will not be coming back to this hotel or hotel group. We were told by one of the guests that they were recently bought by Marriott and that they suspect that has had a change in their structures and practices. When you pay for an all inclusive you expect to have things like the drinks, all meals at restaurants (there were options to upgrade), all lounges at pool areas to be included. This was not the all inclusive experience I expected. There was very little value if any in this hotel package. Even if they offered a 50% discount to come back I would not.

5 star rating for staff, especially Julio the amazing barman. Had a very enjoyable stay on our second visit to the royalton, this time staying in the hideaway side, pool was always busy so we spent most of our time in the Royalton side main pool. Room was always clean and tidy. Drinks hit and miss. Food unfortunately was not the same as our last visit and this has been reflected in our 3 star rating, alough you can book via the app sometimes many of the restaurants are closed, yes it was off season but its still a 5 star hotel and if you want an al a carte meal it should be available. This is still a nice hotel but unfortunately its not 5 star unless you pay for the upgrades.

What a fantastic holiday. The staff are always smiling and make you feel welcome.

Rubi organized some arts and crafts for my children with a lot of patience and she was warm and funny. My kids loved the dream catchers!

I have traveled extensively in my lifetime and by far this trip was one of the worst vacations of my life. So bad in fact, we actually seriously considered leaving early and just going home as it would have been more enjoyable and less stressful than this vacation. I regret taking time off from work for this because we left more stressed than when we got there. We were literally stalked, harassed, and made uncomfortable by constant incessant pressure to get a time share from the moment we walked in the door to right before we left. On arrival we were told our room wasn’t ready yet but while we wait they would show us the benefits we have as Marriott elite members and it being a Diamond Club stay and then told to hand over $20US cash as a “deposit” and implied we had no choice in doing so, sign a form promising to come to a “special Marriott elite breakfast”-I.e. come listen to our timeshare spiel which they refused to say it was a timeshare presentation. They kept saying it was a special Marriott elite welcome breakfast but we aren’t stupid. We were handed a letter that was immediately taken back explaining the timeshare breakfast cancellation policy that I never even got a chance to finish reading because it was taken back so fast, told we HAD to present a credit card and id’s for both of us at the “Marriott elite breakfast”. Between being required to hand over $20 US (told was cash only and could not use a credit card) and told we HAD to present credit cards when we were to come to the breakfast we had alarms going off everywhere this isn’t normal and possibly a scam. We got hand written notes slipped under our door reminding us we had to come when we didn’t show up to the first “Marriott elite breakfast”. We got phone calls to our room that we had to come. When we were seen walking on the property to meals or the pool or frankly anywhere and any time of the day we were approached repeatedly separately and together reminding us we needed to commit to coming. It got so uncomfortable we ending up either hiding out in our room which we couldn’t escape because of the calls and handwritten letters under the door when we didn’t answer the door or planning alternate pathways to get where we wanted to go literally hiding behind people, plants, or buildings to get away from them. We would tell them (oftentimes the same couple of people pitching the sale) they already tried to sell us a timeshare and we weren’t interested and they continued to try to convince us after we called them out on already approaching us and still harassed us and would walk with us when we tried to walk away from them. We know all inclusive resorts use wrist bracelets to establish who is supposed to be here and if they have special status but here we feel like it’s also used as an easy way to label people to be targeted for upsales. We feel like branded cattle. These aren’t normal sales techniques, it’s a crime to stalk and harass people when they say no and try to walk away and follow them, slip handwritten notes under the door, call, etc. We felt like prisoners in our room because we were made to feel so uncomfortable leaving our room. Otherwise, little things were also disappointing. We never got to enjoy the perks of the snacks, drinks, etc of the Diamond Club lounge because that was a central location for selling the timeshares. The escalator was frequently out of service requiring walking up some pretty steep stairs further down the hallway or walking a significantly longer distance to get up and down to the main lobby via the elevators. The elevators were frequently broken, incredibly slow and small for the volume of people using them, and often traveled in the opposite direction of the floor you requested. The safety rails in the elevator and some of the safety rails on our balcony were loose and easily could have caused a fall from multiple floors up through glass panels. We saw staff using the elevators but no one ever seemed to notice they were loose or if they did notice bothered to fix it. Our pool and room were absolutely stunning but the pool turned green a couple days there. Thankfully the butler was quick to call maintenance and they got it fixed quickly. We don’t understand why there are no sea activities being offered to us here. No kayaking, no tubing, parasailing, nothing which is odd for an all inclusive resort right on the beach. We understand the seaweed issue but it didn’t make it impossible to go out on the water if we wanted to. It would have been one of the few escapes from the room that we could have enjoyed. Housekeeping did any incredible job cleaning our room spotlessly but we noticed the hallways almost always had trash strewn throughout the floor, trash cans knocked over, and rumored that animals overnight would come through rummaging for food. If this is the case they have doors that could be closed which I don’t understand why they never closed them to keep animals out. There also is oppressive heat and humidity almost everywhere in the resort so we don’t understand why they don’t put fans almost anywhere on the resort to keep things cooler and more comfortable for everyone. At least in restaurants and other places people might linger like the lobby area. They would elevate the experience significantly and would utilize very little electricity to do it. We were not impressed with most of the food in the resort which usually well exceeds our expectations when we travel. The only reservation place we truly enjoyed was Dorado which was exceptional. The one place that we enjoyed time after time was the Marche Buffett but it was closed for several meals for unknown reasons even though it was listed as open. Room service options was very limited and well below the quality of food in the restaurants including the Diamond Club menu. Some of the food we got with room service was below the quality of cafeteria food served in an elementary school lunch line which was shocking. Frequently it was not even what we ordered. Oddly there are no drinks at all with room service orders except breakfast on the menu and hours long waiting for food. We’ve easily waited 2+ hrs for room service orders on most orders and had to special order basic drinks like tea, coffee, milk because there was no drinks on the menu and went through our butler to get it. We have a Nespresso machine in our room but were not given any Nespresso cups until specifically requested 2 nights before we were to depart informing room services we never got any. I will say our butlers were phenomenal trying everything they could to make things right and going above and beyond trying to fix problems they had nothing to do with and making special touches each time they came to our room. I think the only reason they missed the Nespresso machine was because they were so busy fixing bigger problems and trying to help with so many other things that were nice touches. We appreciated their stops by our room, communication, and special touches but we experienced anxiety with the number of visits from other random people stopping by or in our room sometimes unannounced, without any badges or even in a uniform, just street clothes. We had some woman come into our room one night after 1030 pm for an unknown reason, peek in the room, said hello, and promptly leave after we had already gone to bed with the lights out. No idea who she was or why she was there but it scared and concerned me and my husband a little bit. We felt uneasy not knowing who all these people coming and going were and finally put the do not disturb sign on our door for most of the day the last 2 days. To add insult to injury their company Royalton Excursions was the form of transportation back to the airport at the end of our trip. We are upset that the time of our transfer got moved a couple times until after 11am. While we can understand if the transport time changes due to our flight time and other passengers with earlier flights being notified would have been nice. We checked out of our room hours before we needed to literally sitting on rocks asking every person who walked by if they were our transport. I reached out twice the day before check out to confirm our transfer time and got no response. Our voucher had two different times 0900 and 0950 listed and no one could confirm the correct time so we sat outside from 0830 until close to noon. Because our bands were cut off at check out we no longer had access to anything within the resort so we had no choice but to sit on the curb and wait for hours. An email, text, phone call, voicemail, anything would have been very helpful or even just a response to my messages would have been great. I do have a medical condition that became a real problem sitting outside in the heat for hours that we could have been sitting in our room where there was air conditioning. We are very unhappy especially about this considering we paid for an upgraded airport transfer and it felt like we were the last priority for pick up. While housekeeping and the butlers were absolutely exceptional, I’ve never stayed anywhere where I’ve experienced this (and I’ve stayed in a lot of hotels and resorts!) and it gave both my husband and I a deep sense of unease in our room when we already felt uncomfortable and harassed outside of our room and to be totally honest anger at how we were treated. We used up valuable vacation time saved up, spent thousands of dollars on this trip on top of using almost 400,000 points for the stay. We want all our money and points back we spent here and we were flat out refused by Royalton when we brought these concerns to them discreetly. What we experienced there was unacceptable and illegal violating federal consumer protection laws in Mexico and I guess they figure if they can’t scam us into buying a time share they will refuse a refund or giving us back our points. We were willing to accept an apology and refund but now we will make sure everyone knows about our experiences. Stay anywhere but Royalton!!!!!