TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

This was our second time going as a family and third for the adults. The resort did not disappoint for the return trip. Last year we had a delayed check-in as there was an issue getting our room ready but this year the whole check-in process was seamless and they even let us change our room to get a better view of the sunset from our balcony (on the left half of the tower is better for sunset views). We had the parlor room on the seventh floor with a king bed in the room and then two cots in the sitting area for the kids. Each restaurant continued to have high levels of service, interesting and delicious menu options, and the cocktail of the day was always exceptional (except the lemoncello at Lucca, it wasn't our favourite. All but one of our servers impressed, with Kevin at Pilaf being the most memorable. We only eat at the buffet (Azul) in the morning for breakfast, and the lady (sorry, forgot her name) who ran the omelet bar was very efficient and cooked the omelet's to perfection each time. We ate about half our lunches at the beach restaurant and Leonel made our first two days there enjoyable with the spanish lessons and good natured joking with the kids. Jose is the restaurant captain and he is exceptional at providing customer service. We found pool service was a bit more consistent than the beach service, but there was always someone willing to take an order, help move an umbrella, or just check-in for any issues. A couple of our favourite servers were Gabriel and Nydia, although all of the team did an excellent job. The grounds are meticulously kept and even when the gardening and cleaning teams were working it was done professionally, was not intrusive, and resulted in excellent views from everywhere in the resort. Our room was always in great shape, with the room staff providing lots of supplies as needed, everything was clean, and the little touches were noticed such as arranging our kids stuffed animals on the bed. Given we were travelling with kids aged 10 and 12, the activity staff was an important part of our resort experience. The whole crew was wonderful and provided a great experience for the young and old alike. At the beach, Carlos is always a joy to be around and was diligent in making sure we knew when it was safe or not to go in the ocean. Beach volleyball, water basketball, soccer, and water aerobics with Sherie, Ian, Sebastian, and Marano (so sorry if I spelt the names incorrect) was always fun and they were so good with the kids. The two young gentlemen who ran the Teens club was also courteous, helpful, and great with the kids. Overall, we loved our time at the resort, hence the reason we retuned again after last year and the return trip did not disappoint. Can't wait to go again!!

We have been visiting Grand Velas for a number of years, and it's unfortunate to see the quality of their customer service deteriorate. We originally booked a pool view room for our stay (2 connecting rooms), and were given a garden view room in a poor location. We kindly gave the hotel a chance to rectify this. Upon several apologies, the hotel manager said that they'd find us the right room the following day and asked us to just "temporarily" unpack and be patient with them for a day. We kindly obliged. It later turned out that we spent more time chasing them to correct this issue than needed and had to burden our "vacation time" to solve a screw up on their end. They later resorted to giving us two rooms on two different levels with a bed configuration different than what we had originally requested. We had a representative from the hotel that couldn't empathize with my wife (a concerned parent explaining how having a room on a different floor was not suitable with children). In a hostile tone, the lady insinuated that we had to take this and had no other alternative. She was rude, unprofessional, and quite frankly, didn't care about our concerns. Noticing that this woman's attitude had escalated and had lead us nowhere, we went to hotel manager ("Ler" to be specific) to see if he can further help with the situation. He said he'd look into it. 4 days later, we never received a call nor did we get a follow up. We did our best to enjoy the trip; however, the service was below average at best. Upon check out, they offered us a "complimentary upgrade" for our next trip. They (Lily Medina to be specific) also insisted that I sign a hold harmless agreement and not post any negative review. Knowing this experience would be critical to future guests (not only as a recent traveler but also as a Costco shareholder), I felt it was imperative to reject signing a foolish document in order to make my voice heard through the Costco Travel community. Lily was not going to get her way. Clearly, they have a financial interest in mind and didn't quite care about the concerns their guest had. I'm rather disappointed that Grand Vellas is showing signs of decaying customer care. My family and I can now only reminisce on the enjoyable experience we used to have when we originally were treated as a valued guest. Those days seem long fetched now. Unfortunately, we will reconsider choosing Grand Velas in our future visits to these destinations. I'm not one to leave a negative review, but our experience needs to resonate with those that will be paying an inflated price for a trip their "hoping" will have some customer care to go with it. Hope this sheds some light on our recent experience out of the many we've had with Grand Vellas. Best of luck....

We stayed at Grand Velas, Puerto Vallarta during spring break April 2024 along with my husband and my 2 daughters (4 and 7 ) and had the best time of our life. The property is good and the service is exceptional. The staff were very helpful, and the food and drinks were good too. Ruth our personal assistant was very caring and amazing. The staff at kids club were exceptional. They really cared about the kids and they had activities lined up and made sure the kids were engaged throughout. (Dome, CAro, Isis, Pilar, Camila, Fernanda )- they were all exceptional and took good care of our kids. Definitely going back there.

Leticia was absolutely phenomenal. We couldn’t have asked for a better coordinator, along with her team of Esmeralda and Fernanda. Lety did an amazing job helping us through our entire wedding process. We’re so glad we had her and her team to help us prepare and on our wedding day. She was always attentive to our needs and went above and beyond to ensure that our needs were met. Always ready to answer and if she didn’t know something, she’d always find an answer and/or a resolution. She was very communicative and helped ease a lot of worries as time went on. Whenever we met with her, she always had an agenda and we’d recap at the end of the meetings with tasks that were completed and anything new or outstanding. She communicated our needs to vendors and fought for what we would love to have at our wedding on our behalf. Overall, we couldn’t have asked for a better and more determined and compassionate planner. Always calmed our nerves, reassured us that the wedding will be executed without a cinch and be okay, and it definitely was way more than okay: it was excellent! Outside of the wedding, things could've definitely been better. To start with the good, our personal concierge, Maria, was fantastic. Always available and ready to answer any questions and make any requests on our behalf. Extremely kind to the tee too. Outside of Maria, we felt a lot of the hotel staff was regularly exasperated with our orders when sitting by the poolside or when requesting amenities in the hotel. The hotel frequently messed up our dinner reservations, even though we had confirmation copies and we, along with our families, were turned away on two separate occasions. Few members of our families staying expressed frustrations with the state of things in their suites. Ler (the Concierge Manager) did a great job at easing our frustrations with a couple of great compliments and upgrades. If not for Lety, Fernanda, Esmeralda, Maria, and Ler, I sincerely think this would've been a very disappointing trip and a resort we would not visit again.

The overall resort was fantastic. Food and service was excellent. We wanted to write about the kids club especially. It was a fantastic time for my daughter who was almost 3. The teachers were kind, patient, and fun. We were with our daughter the whole time bc she as under 4 but we felt the environment to be very safe. My daughter kept asking to go to the kids club and she had fun painting, making bracelets, decorating cupcakes, and making a piggy bank. We will be back and highly recommend the experience. The teachers were Carolina, Domenika, Fernanda, Isis.