TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Checked in just after 7 PM last Saturday. No bellman. Checked in and was told where the room was on the 5 floor beach front. Eventually found the room. Stepped into an oven. The temperature in the room was 28° C. Check thermostat it was set at 20° C. Call down to the front desk to ask them to send somebody to fix it while we went out and had something to eat. Also asked them to fix the sliding door as it would not lock. Was told that since we didn’t make a reservation by noon by scanning their code we would have to eat at the buffet. We don’t go to all inclusive to eat at the buffet other than breakfast. But I walked upstairs to the seafood restaurant. There were only three couples in there, so there was plenty of seating, and they sat us by the windows overlooking the buffet. The meal was quite good. Returned to the room to find it still at 28° Celsius, and the sliding door was fixed. Went to close the blackout curtain to keep the morning sun from coming in and it was a foot short of the space. (Woke up at 6 o’clock because the sun light was coming through the door.) Unpacked went to put items in the safe and found that the safe was not bolted to the cabinet. Somebody could have come in and walked off with the safe and all of our valuables. The next morning, I asked again about the air conditioning and was told that they could give us another room, but it would be exactly the same. This hotel does not have AC that works in any of its rooms. I spoke with two other guests and they said the same thing. That they had complained about no AC and was told that that’s the way it is. Four Star all inclusive and no AC.! That morning, when I went to lock the sliding door the mechanism was broken again.. I mentioned it to the front desk. They said they would send somebody, but all they do is tighten the screw and when you go to move the latch that falls apart. I was surprised at the breakfast buffet, in that after ordering an omelet I went to find bread for the toaster, and there is bread, but no toaster. So I didn’t have toast with my omelet, the fella at the station give me two pieces of bacon I asked for more and he said that’s all there was per person. There was no other breakfast meat in the buffet. No hashbrowns no fried potatoes. Not much of a breakfast buffet. We had booked in for one week and the after dinner on the second night, Sunday, we decided we’d had enough of no AC and poor maintenance. I went online and booked four days at Secrets Vallarta Bay. The next morning for breakfast large buffet was closed and the Mexican restaurant was converted to the breakfast buffet. It was less than half the size of the other one and there were 8 to 10 stainless steel serving trays that had a variety of food in it. And three or four trays of fruit and again, no toaster. In my opinion, this is not what a four-star all inclusive resort should be. We have stayed at Secrets resorts in Mexico in the Caribbean for the last 12 years. They are what a true 5 Star all inclusive resort is. Their breakfast buffet second to none. They treat their guests and members members with respect. The restaurants are second to none. I read many of the reviews and saw the YouTube videos of the resort before making a decision to purchase this package. The reviews are false. The place is not a dive, but it is certainly not. Save your money, save your time, and avoid this 2 star excuse for an all inclusive resort.

I’ll start off by saying we know this place is not a 4 or 5 star resort going into our vacation, however we were expecting a little more courtesy and a lot better customer service from the front desk when we arrived. We will not return here in the future. Just to start with they can’t call themselves a five star resort if they don’t offer 24 /7 front desk service, we arrived and nobody was there at 6:30 am, only a security guard’s front door who didn’t speak English. We flew the redeye and arrived early. We also gave feedback to WestJet vacations at this particular hotel should not be am option in their vacation package deal. They were rude, Wouldn’t register us as Guest so that we could get pool cards and our wristbands. We were back-and-forth To the front desk four times between 6:30 AM and 10 AM. They left us sitting in a lounge area all morning weird no wifi or beverages. I will add these were not amateur employees. They have been there a while and definitely would know what to do. They also told us we had to wait till 9 AM to talk to concierge to get Wi-Fi at the hotel. I will add The Wi-Fi doesn’t work in a lot of the rooms and it took them forever to get us actually registered with Wi-Fi. Insane. We weren’t on Wi-Fi until 4 o’clock in the afternoon the day we arrived , none of that should happen in 2026 , and also this isn’t a Mexico thing I’ve been to Mexico many times and had no Wi-Fi issues. We knew we had to wait until 3pm for our room when we arrived however we are super disappointed with the service with the attitude some of the employees, especially the front desk.(Oscar) The place is a bit dilapidated. They really need to fix holes in roofs , upgrade some areas, clean it up, retire the pool, remove rust, the place is 50years old definitely needs a good power wash, replace some furniture, clean the day beds. A lot of things are broken or just worn down ,there is not air-conditioning in some of the restaurants, the food was definitely a 2 or 3 star. The disappointing thing is much of the little things that can improve an experience or fix is minimal cost. Eg: friendly customer service staff at the front desk , update the website, change the way the Wi-Fi works for Guest have a temporary password for a day, make the restaurant booking easier online , so you can cancel or amend orbook a large party, etc Super disappointed in our overall experience however we did enjoy the daybeds on the beach. We did enjoy the rooftop pool and the bartenders were friendly and the drinks were decent. The rooms are fine. It’s a very old building. However, the bath bathtub is really awkward to get in and out of so if you’re an elderly person or slightly disabled, you’ll have a heck of a time getting in and out of the raised bathtubs. The location was nice near the harbor. You could see the ships coming and going. But I return there no just because of the food and I felt that it was not a very clean resort. We never saw them power washing or cleaning areas that are highly populated, including the pool chairs. If you want to vacation and have mediocre food in a dilapidated building where there always seems to be a leak in the roof, Also the restaurants seems to only be able to accommodate a couple of table per hour in the à la carte restaurant, which was weird too. They were never full , so I guess lack of staff ? My impression is the owner is very cheap and doesn’t want to invest in maintaining this property, which is too bad; some new furniture, maintenance, a few good chefs, some customer service training, and a power wash, it could probably be a four star. We finished our trip with Nexus Forgetting to pick us up the WestJet vacation shuttle. That’s all!

Front desk needs to be more welcoming, the check-in process for early arrival was an absolute nightmare. We were made to feel like an inconvenience and were dismissed and ignored for HOURS without so much as a wristband or towel card so we could enjoy the resort prior to actually receiving our room. We were also refused WiFi access until we received our room, yet the following Saturday one of us couldn’t login because the WiFi was out for about 12 hours (which was ridiculous…we were told “we’re working on it”, I’m certain was a lie because front desk and concierge do NOT do anything before 9am) and when they couldn’t figure out why she couldn’t login, they simply punched in another random room number and guest name so she could have access for our last day. Seriously! Why couldn’t they have offered that same courtesy the week before when we waited nearly nine hours in limbo before we could message loved ones about our arrival. This is absolutely not a five or even four star resort, even though they advertise as such. I’d give it 2.5 or 3 stars at best. Customer service is seriously lacking, huge disappointment. Food was mid, drinks were good but selection was slim. Servers and bartenders were all lovely though. The resort is a bit rough around the edges, it’s probably nearly 60 years old and could use a few simple upgrades to give it a facelift. With a few policy changes to make guests actually feel welcome, instead of giving off “I don’t give a ??” and this could be a great resort. It does have great bones, we liked that it was smaller and very walkable, we loved that there were so many comfortable palapa daybeds and it was generally easy to find one on most days, we loved that there were various pool options, we also loved the music playlist at the rooftop pool ?? I would only recommend this resort if you’re ok with three star and arrive after 3pm. We booked a WestJet Vacation with an early arrival and were not made welcome at all, WestJet should remove this resort from their booking options because this is not a 24 hour front desk resort like other 4-5 stars are.

If you are a foreigner reading this, just skip it period. This place is very tailored to locals, overcrowded, no value, bad condition throughout everything. Don't be fool by the pictures and information on the website. 5 nights/6 days My kid got a stomach flu from this place. Not sure if it is the pool or food. Probably both. I also got deep cut on my toe from the pool. FOOD = Very Limited in terms of variety, quantity, and quality. POOL = Horrible, limited seatings, poor maintenance, injury potential, wild life ROOM = Fairly old and at very minimum condition SERVICE = Unable to handle requests, poor communication to guests and internally. I booked this via Air Canada Vacation, not worth a single penny. Honestly, I don't understand why this resort is offered.

We chose this hotel for its 4-star rating and kid-friendly marketing, but it is in our experience a gimmick. Cleanliness and disrepair were a consistent issue all over the resort. Sun chairs were constantly dirty with bird droppings and food residue on the vast majority, and the pools were cloudy with lots of hair that would get caught in between our fingers regularly and over the course of a week never improved. Outdoor showers were broken all over the resort and the children’s pirate ship water pool had exposed broken fiberglass and broken tiles. Several washrooms had overflowing toilets with what appeared to be fecal matter that didn’t get cleaned up or repaired for days. Our room also had a consistent smell of sewage.  Food options centered around hotdogs and nacho-style dishes made a variety of ways. Kids specialty drinks were just excessive amounts of food coloring in soda or slushes. The restaurants had to be booked at 9am each day and filled up quickly. Then when  we showed up they were mostly empty. And kids were only allowed at restaurant bookings before 7pm. Entertainment in the evening started at 8:30-9pm. Not really practical for kids under 8-10years old. Despite the “kid-friendly” branding, there was little to support it in practice. The bare minimum would be providing a quiet sleep environment for children. Instead the resort also hosted events with loud music to the point our door vibrated continuing until 11 PM, which is difficult to reconcile with a family-focused environment. The family branding is designed to increase appeal yet offers no real value. We’ve had better family experiences at resorts that don’t market themselves as kids focused in the same price range.