TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

We had an epic time at The Fives Beach Hotel & Residences Playa del Carmen again this year!!! So many people contributed to such a great experience: Pedro at the 8 am Tennis Clinics: we have no idea how Pedro can multitask with so many people! Pedro feeds balls way faster than a ball machine! LOL ?? La Brasserie breakfast: Nataly makes the BEST omelettes every morning with a beautiful smile ?? and a great memory of our orders! ???? A special “Gracias” to Wendy and Paola who always helped us get a table outdoors as well making my Birthday breakfast so special! ?? Sea Olive & Romantic Dinner on the beach: Chef Alessandro Di Fiore: delivers consistent, hot & delicious high quality entrees and takes allergies seriously and will make an alternative dish to ensure a great dining experience! ??????? Mucho Gracias to the attentive staff for the romantic beach dinner! They work hard at making our romantic dinner extra special with top notch service! ?? New Seasons Restaurant: Mucho gracias Renault for introducing another great dining experience at The Fives! The service is outstanding and the food is so delicious!!! Gracias Gilberto who was so pleasant and provided amazing service! This year we frequented Donatella for ice cream ??. This was a bonus as soft serve ice cream was the only option last year. The ice cream was high quality and lots of great flavours like Lime Pie, Coconut, Irish Cream, Neapolitan etc. ??. A special “ Gracias” to David who always greeted us with a smile and muscled his way scooping ice cream for us! ???? Mucho gracias to Marisol & Tania Building 1 Cleaning Staff for their daily efforts in cleaning our rooms with minimal disruption to our schedules! ?????? There are so many more staff to thank. We leave The Fives pampered, relaxed, well fed, new memories & experiences!

We celebrated our 57th wedding anniversary in this wonderful resort. We were pampered from the time we checked in up to our last day. Aside from this stunning resort, the excellent gourmet foods to die for, I have to acknowledge the staff of The Fives. The professionalism, the attention to details, the hard works of each of everyone of them are par excellence. To mention a few: Thania & Rosy from the Prestige Epic front desk tried their best to accommodate our needs. Kristoff, our ambassador demonstrates what excellent service quality is all about. Bernabe & Tino, the beach staff are very attentive & always around to serve us. Not to forget Alejandro, the towel boy. Anayeli, the maitre de from La Brasserie & the servers Juan & Belisario always make the start of our day a delight. Dionisio & Damian from the plaza bar always ends our day with a big smile. Geremia from Natural makes the best healthy smoothies & shakes . These people are the assets of your organization. As always, we will be back to this resort for sure.

There are a lot of good features at The Fives Beach Hotel, but there are too many negatives for this to merit five stars. Hubby and I have stayed at more than 250 hotels worldwide, so we're aware of the differences. First, the positive aspects: We enjoyed the staff, who were all exceptionally welcoming and accommodating - with the exception of the porters/valets who deal with incoming and departing guests at curbside. More on that later. The food options here are excellent, including vegan options for non-carnivores. The breakfast bar at Brasserie must be 30 feet long, including five feet of ripe fresh fruit alone. Every imaginable breakfast food is represented here and, if you don't see anything you like, you can head to the custom omelet station. Food and beverages are available at various dining venues on the property all day and into the night. And everything is included in the room rate, with the exception of a coffee vendor in the shops adjacent to the resort entrance. Since Hubby was dealing with an ankle injury, we especially appreciated the free shuttle service which transports guests from one end of the resort to the other. A shuttle passes approximately every ten minutes, so walking was minimized. The grounds are beautiful and are impeccably maintained. And the property is exceptionally clean, inside and out. The resort boasts seven swimming pools, and the two beachside pools in the main common area are gorgeous. Lounge chairs, both poolside and beachfront, are in plentiful supply. We didn't find any faults or flaws in the common areas of the property. The individual rooms are another matter. The bed was very comfortable, and we enjoyed our private patio in the wooded setting outside our patio door. But the rooms fall far short of a 5-star rating. Here is a list of issues we encountered: 1) No hot water for showering. None. And this problem was not exclusive to our room. We were part of a group of a dozen guests who stayed at The Fives for a wedding weekend. And every one of the guests complained that there was no hot water for showering. After letting the water run for ten minutes, the shower warmed up from icy to barely lukewarm. So we all took cold showers for three days. 2) No shelves or dressers for our clothing. There was a small closet space with a few hangers which we utilized for our wedding attire, but everything else had to remain in our luggage. So we lived out of suitcases for three days. 3) We could never figure out the thermostat, which is ridiculously complicated. The room temperature never aligned with the indicated setting, and it was always muggy inside the room, even with the A/C running. 4) Lighting was a problem. There was no light at all in the shower, and the bathroom lighting was insufficient. There was a magnifying makeup mirror attached to the wall, again with inadequate lighting. There was no night light, and there was no door on the bathroom, so you can't leave a light on in the bathroom at night because it will inhibit sleeping in the adjacent room. 5) The toilet flushes with a roar, and the separate bathroom stall is not soundproof. We had to agree not to flush in the middle of the night because the noise startles your partner out of a sound sleep. 6) The room isn't sound-insulated, so you readily hear talking in the foyer area outside your door. If neighbors are partying late, you'll hear them arrive back at their rooms. 7) An iron is provided, but no ironing board. We ironed wedding attire on the bed. 8) There is no decaf coffee. Even the coffee shop had no decaf options. 9) The valet staff was totally apathetic when our prepaid shuttle service didn't show up to drive us back to Cancun airport at the end of our stay here. We made the staff aware of our situation, and the only advice they offered was call a taxi and pay $85 + dollars. They didn't even offer to call a taxi for us. Thus, we spent two hours trying to find alternate transportation while the staff ignored us. To further complicate an unfortunate situation, The Fives does not allow Uber drivers on the property, which would have been a very simple solution to our dilemma. We could have located a driver within minutes via the app on Hubby's phone. I would certainly think that a "5-star resort" would have a list of airport transport options available to guests, should this type of situation ever arise. And I should think that they would assist guests by making local phone calls themselves on behalf of those who are stranded. I'm very disappointed in this lack of service and disregard for customer well-being at The Fives.

My fiancé and I got married at The Fives, and we truly couldn’t say enough good things about the experience. Everything exceeded our expectations. Planning a destination wedding is a lengthy process, but once we arrived, all of our expectations were blown away. From the top-level hospitality and incredible food to the cleanliness, restaurants, and overall atmosphere, everything was exceptional. You can tell the team at this resort truly knows how to execute weddings. I would highly recommend The Fives to anyone considering getting married there.

Araceali and Rocio were incredible. The service they gave us at the pool bar was excellent. Amazing human beings. Thank you for making our week so great. Kelly and Shaun