Location
Playa del Carmen - BeachProperty Information
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Resort Details
Hotel Advisories
General Policies & Fine Print
Check-in Policy:
Hotel requires a debit card authorization upon check-in for incidentals; this will place a hold on your funds.
Convention Policy - Individuals attending a convention cannot book this property for their stay. If found attending a convention, guests may be subject to higher room rates upon arrival.
Hotel Spring Break Policy -This hotel does not allow groups of students or spring breakers.
Transfer Policy - A price may display when children stay free, if your vacation includes transfer to your hotel.
General Information - Room taxes and service fees are included in vacation price.
Minimum night stay restrictions may apply.
Reservation changes may not be permitted unless authorized by the hotel.
Customer Ratings & Reviews
TripAdvisor Traveler Rating
23467 reviews
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Jan 31, 2023Relaxing stay at this beautiful resort
We traveled as a couple for a week in late January and had an incredible and relaxing time. I simply cannot understand the recent poor reviews as we felt that everything about the resort was very good. Sure, there were plenty of kids running around but if you have a problem with that then book an Adults Only resort! Clearly this is a family resort with 2 water parks. There is a separate Adults Only pool section which was usually quiet and kid-free if you wanted that. We tended to mix our stay with trips to each pool area for variety. Check in and out was quick and painless, and we loved the restaurants and left stuffed each time. We did feel that the resort seemed to be a bit short-staffed and service may not have been up to pre-COVID standards, but where can you go nowadays that isn't? Maria, Veronica and Rox from Guest Services were very helpful and attentive to our needs, and when we asked for a room change from ground level to an upper level unit due to an issue we were quickly accommodated within a day. Elisa from Royal Elite was incredible and we remain in contact even after our trip! Overall, we were very satisfied with our stay and I feel that the negative reviews were either isolated incidents or very picky people that would complain if the grass was too green.
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Jan 30, 2023Horrible customer service, bad food and filthy pool water.
The check in and check out experience is terrible. The staff are rude and the guest services sit there and do nothing. They tell you to go wait in line for an hour at the front desk so they can sit around on their computers looking busy while the lineup gets longer and longer. I called them to try to claim a forgotten item and waited on hold 3 times for almost 3 hours total and never so much as had anyone answer the last time I actually drove from Cancun to playa on hold the whole time only to walk in at 9am to the entire bony empty and no one doing anything. I asked them why I’ve been on hold for over an hour when there is no one at guest services or the front desk and they couldn’t answer me. I had to return (from Cancun to Playa) a second time that day because they had no one in the hotel at 9am to tell me if they found my item. On the bright side the resort is beautiful but the food sucks and the pools are dirty. By the end of the day there are bandaids floating I. The pool, the floor on the patio areas are gross and sticky and the pool near the kids area is cloudy and disgusting. Overall I don’t recommend Sandos due to the horrible customer service and filthy pool water.
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Jan 30, 2023Screaming Kids Resort, Do NOT Risk your vacation.
I would NOT recommend it for adults under any circumstances. Even if you are adults who have kids, this resort caters to those terrible parents who let their kids run wild, even in the "adults only" area. Sandos does not try to guide experiences, like Adults Only or member-only areas. There is ZERO customer service outside of the resort stay. In fact, if Sandos responds to this review, you will have experienced a higher level of contact than we had with them before the visit. We attempted to communicate these concerns during the stay, with almost zero results. This reviews a Royal Elite membership V.I.P. (Top Tier) experience of staying with laid-back adult friends in multiple rooms. Please take that to mean it should reflect the resort's top level of experience offering and not a snobby perception. My friends and I have stayed at plenty of resorts that host children and had an enjoyable experience. Check-in and Reservation: The time it took to make reservations for Royal Elite members was measured in weeks, not hours or days, for various reasons. They do a hard sell on membership. It's not worth it, almost to the point of false advertising. Definitely, buyer beware! Arrived via Sandos provided transportation to almost no greeting. 15+ parties in the Lobby to check in, 2 desk people. One more joined after about 15 mins. Not the worst experience, but a foreshadowing of the service level. Remember that membership guests are supposed to have a separate check-in that was absent at this location. Rooms- Hacienda for Royal Elite. Do not, under any circumstances, allow yourself to be placed on the second floor of the Haciendas. Dangerous multi-level layout, see picture, could easily step off the bed to a severe drop-off and fall onto the stone floor. Bathrooms are small even by hotel standards, and so are the second-floor balconies, maybe 3 feet wide with no privacy divider. Be prepared to meet your neighbors. Also, the room sometimes has 2 adjoining doors, so there you go for noise levels. The shower was small, with weak pressure, and the hot water was spotty. The Haciendas are billed as having a private pool, and technically they do. If you're on the first floor, you can walk out your patio door and into the pool. If you are on the second floor, you must walk out the front door, downstairs, down the main resort sidewalk, and around the building. It's a silly design. Hacienda quirky stuff: My room has a large picture of a woman staring down onto the bed. It's creepy (see pic.) There is a bullpen near some of the Haciendas. A literal bull cow pen that smells of cow manure. What the literal hell! Don't worry; even if you don't stay near it, it's on one of the main paths, and you'll get to smell it. Speaking of paths, the beautiful overgrown trails in the day are dimly lit danger zones at night. The resort does post staff at entrances, but Lodging in general: The resort is broken down into three main sections. The section farthest from the beach is designed for non-member families. It has a nice pool. The middle section is the V.I.P. Royal Elite Haciendas, previously described. The buildings closest to the beach are Adults Only resort hotel-style rooms. Poolside conversations with other guests described the rooms as small and outdated but friendly. Some rooms have an ocean view, and others have a pool view. Restaurants- First, no dining experience did not include an uncontrolled screaming child. Sandos doesn't care, and people are rude. If you want a quiet adult dining experience, you have to go outside the resort. Second, the buffets are a germ-infested nightmare. There are no sneeze guards, and food is left in the open. Parents let their kids run amuck, which is beyond annoying. Still, it should be a health code violation shutdown offense in this post-Covid world for a restaurant. Upon arrival, we downloaded the app to see about the restaurants, only to find that no restaurant had an open reservation for 6 days. This is bait and switch tactics by any reasonable standards. . It was good that we had the top-tier access level; otherwise, I doubt the staff would have found our spot at all the places. Italian place: The food was good for an Olive Garden-level quality. The staff was friendly as the rest of the resort but did nothing to address the screaming kids in the place. There's no kid's menu, and it's not set up for children. If your child can't handle it, you don't get to the nicer restaurant, be considerate of others. Steakhouse and Brazilan Steakhouse: The resort advertises that it has 2 different restaurants, a steakhouse and a traditional Brazilian. This is a complete fabrication, A.K.A., a lie! It is the same restaurant; you enter through separate doors. The staff, room, salad bar, grill, and everything are the same. The only difference is on one half of the room, they bring and slice the meat at your table, and on the other, they cut it and bring it out on a plate. Also, with no exaggeration, there was no grill ventilation, and the room was so smokey it diminished the view of those on the other side of the table. After these mediocre experiences, we opted for dinners in town, so there is no information on the other resort places. Still, no hope they would be any better. Room service, Coffee/Cupcake bar, etc., was lackluster at best. Breakfasts were also mediocre, with screaming kids, even in the Adults Only dining. Staff: There needs to be more staff, but the ones they do have are very friendly. The level of English speaking skills varies widely from person to person, but I can't speak Spanish, so what can I say about it. The Beach: The resort beach is nice, with sections divided off for different member levels, with a nice array of chairs and lounge options. Like the pools, I wouldn't count on drink service, but there is a bar pretty close. The open beach is nice, with small crashing waves, about 3-5 feet deep, until you get a decent distance out. This region talks about beach seaweed a lot, but there was a non-impactful amount at this time. Conclusion: There are so many other resort options in Playa Del Carmen there's no reason to risk your vacation in this mediocre location.
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Jan 29, 2023Overall good but nothing is perfect
To be honest wasn’t The best experience Wath I was expecting, hotel is huge many people many restaurants and you have to make reservations on a page if you want to have dinner in each restaurants .. page never give availability since we check in we try to book and reserve dinner in any of the places with no look, asked for help and nobody can give any answer, After I try with different people seem like a common problem. Drinks are served in recycled plastic cups not really well cleaned I suggest to take your own cup, and like they said !adults only ! On the reservations means just certain areas. Shows were good and the property was well maintained. Check distances between your room and the beach. Before you book .
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Jan 28, 2023Overall despite some minor issues, Sandos Playacar is a great location for a relaxing beach based resort vacation
The first night was a trial. Due to a computer glitch we were placed in a room with two double beds NOT the King we booked. However, this was quickly resolved the next day and we were placed in a wonderfully quiet room in the adults-only section with a great balcony and a partial ocean view. The resort is in a fantastic location. The beaches are gorgeous and the water is mesmerizing The staff are very friendly. Of particular note: Maria our concierge at the Adults Only Pool was fantastic! She helped us with all our restaurant requests even those that were last minute. At the adults-only restaurant, Roberto was wonderfully attentive and remembered our complicated breakfast coffee order. Nancy at Guest Services is a gem. Cordial, calm and a great conversationalist who helped us greatly to accommodate to the resort. Domenico, the host/concierge who greets you as you arrive is an amazingly warm-hearted and friendly man - PERFECT for his job. The food and drinks are not this resort's greatest strengths. The drinks are NOT premium. And there is no Dos Equis Cerveza Amber ( my favourite Mexican Beer) - even though there are taps for this at the bars, and no named brand Gins - I missed my Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire. The food is hit-and-miss. The barbeque chef at the international cafe obviously does not enjoy his job. He burns everything ( one lunchtime it looked and smelled like a forest fire! with smoke EVERYWHERE) and stacks the food too high and it dries out. This is a problem that can be simply fixed by only cooking small amounts as they are needed thus avoiding guest frustrations and food wastage The breakfast offerings reminded me rather of Cuba as they were rather here today and gone tomorrow - Smoked salmon one day but not the next. Bacon was all gone by 8:30am. Someone needs to be a better quartermaster - purchase and provide more realistically for your guests. The speciality restaurants were hard to get into ( NB this is a problem generally at Resorts and on cruises) but thanx to Nancy and especially Maria we managed to get into the ones we wanted at the times that we liked. The best of the bunch was Gourmex which provided excellent authentic Mexican food and service. At the other end of the spectrum was Le Gourmet. The food was OK but the service was laughable. At one point I felt I was in a Feydeau farce or at Fawlty Towers trying to convey ( Via English, Spanish and Mime) to the wait staff that I wanted my Ice Cream on the side -- without success I might add! The family pool on the beach by the adults-only breakfast restaurant was excellent. Large enough to allow my wife and I to swim lengths in the early morning, even while we were experiencing a torrential downpour. The adults-only pool was OK until around 11:30 when it gets very full and crowded. Overall the location and the staff outway the minor (first-world) issues discussed above. Great location for a relaxing beach-based resort vacation in playacar