Hotel Utz-Jay — Hotel in Panajachel

Horrible service, the owner is rude and disrespectful!

The hotel itself looks nice, but the experience was horrible due to their bad service. When I first showed up, my reservation was not on record. I found this to be strange, as I had given all my information over the phone and had a confirmation email. Luckily, there was a room available, but it wasn't the one I requested. I have to check with the bank to ensure no double charges have been made now.

I purchased the sauna and jacuzzi services, which added to the nice feel of the hotel. However, I was sad and surprised to discover the hotel was aware of a power outage which they didn't not inform us of. The jacuzzi and sauna we originally book would have not be available had we not changed the time ourselves. Furthermore, paying with a card became impossible with the outage. This is something I would assume a hotel would inform its guests of.

When we tried to check out, they couldn't process credit cards due to the lack of power. I tried using a Guatemalan card and asked them to do a call-in authorization, which they refused and instead said it was our problem, sending us out looking for an ATM to get cash and pay (though they had my card on file now twice).

The cherry on the cake came when I complained about the bad service and instead of apologizing or even listening, they interrupted me and said that several other guests complained about us coming back late, drunk and being loud. Funny thing is we didn't even go out and instead went straight to bed after the jacuzzi at 8:00pm.

I rarely give bad reviews, but if I were you, I wouldn't stay in this hotel even if it was free. Sad to see a nice property so...

I had an excellent stay with my girlfriend for 2 nights at Hotel Utz Jay early this August 2019. The room was nice and spacious with pretty and picturesque deco, well aired and protected from insects (plus water gallons available for refill out in the corridors). Beautiful tropical-style garden and just a short (5-10-minute) walk from the lake. A couple of great, unexpected highlights from staying there were: 1) EXCELLENT breakfasts (very good young chefs/cooks) ; 2) they also have their own travel agency Utz Jay inside the hotel that can arrange different options of guided tours to villages on the lake and to San Pedro volcano, not to mention shuttles from the hotel to other destinations in Guatemala (Antigua, Chichicastenango, Semuc Champey, etc.) and even from other hotels to their hotel or to other destinations further afield (e.g. my girlfriend and I stayed at a different hotel in Semuc Champey days later and Utz Jay arranged our shuttle from there to Flores, near Tikal) - the agency is run by Eduardo, who also guided us around the villages on the lake and provided a very pleasant, carefree experience (very knowledgeable, kind and attentive) - we also really enjoyed the experience going up volcano San Pedro with another guide he recommended to us and would highly recommend the use of the agency for this sort of trip (we booked everything in advance and had absolutely no issues during the trips from the lake all the way to Semuc Champey and...

I had an excellent stay with my girlfriend for 2 nights at Hotel Utz Jay early this August 2019. The room was nice and spacious with pretty and picturesque deco, well aired and protected from insects (plus water gallons available for refill out in the corridors). Beautiful tropical-style garden and just a short (5-10-minute) walk from the lake. A couple of great, unexpected highlights from staying there were: 1) EXCELLENT breakfasts (very good young chefs/cooks) ; 2) they also have their own travel agency Utz Jay inside the hotel that can arrange different options of guided tours to villages on the lake and to San Pedro volcano, not to mention shuttles from the hotel to other destinations in Guatemala (Antigua, Chichicastenango, Semuc Champey, etc.) and even from other hotels to their hotel or to other destinations further afield (e.g. my girlfriend and I stayed at a different hotel in Semuc Champey days later and Utz Jay arranged our shuttle from there to Flores, near Tikal) - the agency is run by Eduardo, who also guided us around the villages on the lake and provided a very pleasant, carefree experience (very knowledgeable, kind and attentive) - we also really enjoyed the experience going up volcano San Pedro with another guide he recommended to us and would highly recommend the use of the agency for this sort of trip (we booked everything in advance and had absolutely no issues during the trips from the lake all the way to Semuc Champey and...