Perla Maya Hotel — Hotel in Panajachel

I originally reserved this hotel through Expedia and waited to pay until I arrived. I had no idea that the hotel did not accept American Express, and apparently neither did they! They ran my card until I received a notification that my card was locked. I unlocked my card and they continued trying until I was sent to my room. I was escorted to the room I wanted and had a great view with a private balcony, which was nice. The door was only a sliding glass door which came away from the wall when opened. I went in and found that there was no air conditioning as advertised and looked around. The man who sent me there disappeared. He returned and handed me towels and walked away. I was told at the front desk that they would expect payment the next day but never explained why my card wasn't accepted. I became very uncomfortable as I sat there and thought about how I was coldly treated. I decided to leave and find a place closer to the city center where a warmer staff greeted me at the Hotel Kaqchiquel. I tried to cancel my stay there at the Perla Maya, but the Wifi went in and out in my room. I planned on canceling at the next hotel. I dropped my key off at the front desk and explained to the woman that I was uncomfortable there and how I thought the staff was rude and never explained why I couldn't pay with my Amex. She refused to let me leave. She had to call her boss. I stood there and heard her call me a "Stupido Gringo" to the person at the other end of the phone. I tried to leave and she chased me saying I had to pay. I told her I would cancel when I had wifi and she would get the cancellation fee then. She continued to yell in the phone and then said, "get out stupid gringo!" I ran out. I have never felt so terrible in a hotel or anywhere for that matter as I did there. Beware the staff and the rudeness! This location is not close to the city center, the staff are all rude and the amenities are not what...

I went through a horrible experience while I'm staying here. I checked in on Saturday and I stayed for 2 nights which supposed to be deluxe double room. When I checked in, the manager said they don't have the room for the night, and gave me a weird storage like apartment. The room was not that clean enough and there were lots of stored items like indoor bike, clothes hanger, old sofa, etc. which are not proper in the hotel room. The worst part was, the manager kept saying that that room is better than the room I supposed to stay (I don't think so) and if I don't want to take the room, then they will just refund it on the day of check in. She even said that I'm a difficult customer and she cannot understand why I don't like that room. And they barely didn't say they are sorry. I couldn't find any other hotels in a reasonable price, so I had no choice but to stay in the hotel. I wasted lots of my time because of the issue, and I couldn't sleep well in the weird room. They changed my room to the originally booked on next day 10am in the morning. Additionally, maybe I'm too picky, but they didn't provide any shampoo and conditioner but few soaps and the wifi wasn't great. Location seems okay, but the way to get to the hotels entrance was unpaved and pretty dark, which seems a bit dangerous at night. The photos are the apartment room that I...

I booked a deluxe room before I arrived at this hotel. When I got there the clerk tried to dump me into a normal room, he said the deluxe room already has tenants!?!!?? Wait what? I held the booking from the booking site in my hands and showed him, unbelievable. It was confirmed by the booking site. Not only that the owner tried to charge me twice for paying by creditcard for the normal room. They said it was about their conversion rate and because I paid by creditcard. I said that was ridiculous, because I could see it was already included in the price from "their" conversion rate. I asked them again several times to explain themselves and the explanations got even worse. It made totally no sense at all, so I demanded the priper amount from the booking. Also I noticed the first night that the lady (owner) was outside and speaking very loudly to her personnel, and I could hear her from my room with the windows closed so getting a good night rest was unfortunately not included in this price. And lastly I am stuck now with food poisoning because they do lack the hygiene in their hotel. All in all personnel and mostly owner are very inhospitiable, oh and wifi signal is very poor. If I could I would give it 0 stars. Obviously this was the last time I booked a room there, very dissapointing. So be careful if you already booked...