Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos All Inclusive Golf & Spa. — Hotel in Baja California Sur

My stay at Grand Fiesta Americana was, without a doubt, the worst hotel experience I've ever had.

Pros: The rooms were adequate, and the food service staff were genuinely hospitable.

Cons:

Abysmal Room Service: Every time we ordered room service, it took over 2.5 hours to arrive. Getting our minibar restocked was equally frustrating, requiring four phone calls and two trips to the front desk, and it wasn’t resolved until our third day. We also found a cockroach in our room on the last day.

Insufficient Pool Amenities: The hotel doesn’t have nearly enough lounge chairs around the pool. If you’re lucky enough to find a spot, you’ll likely be sharing an umbrella with multiple other guests. The hotel allows people to “reserve” chairs by leaving a single item on them, and many don’t show up until late afternoon, leaving the few available spots occupied all day.

Unclean Pools: The pools were not well-maintained, leaving us hesitant to use them due to the visible dirt and debris.

Delayed and Pressured Check-In: Our check-in was delayed by 30 minutes, and instead of being allowed to relax after our long journey, we were subjected to a 30 minute pitch from a front desk employee trying to pressure us into attending a timeshare presentation.

Upselling at an All-Inclusive: Although the hotel is advertised as all-inclusive, there are premium menu options that require an additional charge. This meant that every dinner was interrupted by servers pushing these upsell items, making the dining experience feel more like a sales pitch than a relaxing meal.

Now, onto the most frustrating and frankly, outrageous part of our stay—the so-called “Uber Ban.”

Throughout our week at the hotel, we frequently used Uber for transportation. Each time, we passed through a security checkpoint where our driver provided both our names and room number. The bellboys had no issue assisting us to and from the front gate to meet our Uber. However, on our last day, when I scheduled an Uber for our departure, the bellboy suddenly claimed that Uber was banned from entering the hotel premises. This was baffling since we had used Uber all week without issue.

After speaking with a manager, we were informed that since we had just checked out, we were no longer considered guests and were therefore not permitted to have any "visitors" on the property. The manager’s response was dismissive and unhelpful. Eventually, they reluctantly agreed to have a bellboy escort us to the gate. However, instead of taking us to the gate, the bellboy dropped us off at a roundabout in the middle of the road, far from the gate, and left us to walk the rest of the way—uphill, in 90-degree heat, with our luggage.

When we asked to speak to a manager again, they arrived and aggressively confronted us, offering us two “choices”: walk the rest of the way to the gate or take their overpriced taxi service. It quickly became clear that the taxi service is in cahoots with the hotel, overcharging guests—$80+ for a trip that should cost $25 by Uber. They only accept cash, don’t provide receipts, and it felt like a blatant attempt to extort one last bit of money from us before we left.

This entire experience left such a sour taste in our mouths that we would never consider returning to Cabo again. Our negative impression was only reinforced when we encountered a similar situation during a snorkeling excursion, where we were misled and felt unsafe. Cabo, unfortunately, came across as a place rife with scams and dishonesty, leaving us with no desire to visit again.

This was more than just a poor experience; it felt like a deliberate scam. I strongly advise against staying at Grand Fiesta Americana.

OH UPDATE: I have 3 charges for around $50 USD charged to my account the day that we checked out. We have a receipt which shows we paid what taxes and extras we owed. I called the hotel 3 times for receipts or explanations and they hung up on...

We recently stayed at the Grand Fiesta Americana Los Cabos with family (three adults, a three-year-old, and a six-month-old) for a five-day, four-night All-Inclusive vacation. This was our first time experiencing an All-Inclusive resort. The trip was meant to celebrate my daughter’s third birthday and to take our six-month-old on her first family vacation. We were excited about this special experience, but unfortunately, it turned into a deeply disappointing and stressful ordeal:

Accessibility Issues and Elevator Malfunctions Our family suite was at the far end of the hotel, which means everywhere we go we need to either call a golf car or use our two strollers. The room was on Level 7, and both elevators in that section of the resort were out of service throughout most of our stay. This posed a severe inconvenience, especially as we relied on strollers for our young children and I was wearing a foot brace due to foot injury two weeks back. Upon arrival at 5 PM, exhausted from our flight, we struggled to carry luggage, strollers, and a baby upstairs, as no assistance was provided, and the golf car has left so we were not able to go back to lobby to change rooms. The elevator was repeatedly "fixed" but stopped working again shortly after each attempt. This led to countless delays, missed transportation (such as golf cars left before we could go down 7 floors), and physical strain. We eventually changed rooms after numerous complaints, but the new room was still not stroller-accessible due to steep stairs leading to the elevator. This severely restricted our mobility and activity plans, as my 62-year-old mother is the main caregiver my 6mo is currently attaching to, so my husband or I always had to stay back to assist with strollers, while the other took my 3yr out for activities. Furthermore, the resort’s overall design, with many stairs and limited ramps, made navigation extremely challenging for families with young children.

Slow and Inconsistent Service Service at the resort was disappointingly slow and, at times, discriminatory: • Check in: Front desk let people who speaks Spanish cut the line and we in total spent nearly an hour to check in. • Dining: Even during non-peak hours, it took over an hour before start serving a meal due to slow seating, ordering, and food delivery times. On one occasion, white guests who arrived after us were seated and served faster. This happened repeatedly, despite there being empty tables around us. • Golf Carts: Golf cart service often took 10 minutes or more to arrive, with drivers appearing indifferent. On several occasions, carts left without us while we waited with crying children. • Staff Responsiveness: A request for a specific drink at the breakfast buffet was ignored after the staff member said he would check with the kitchen but never followed through. This lack of attentiveness caused unnecessary stress and frustration, particularly with young children involved.

Misleading Information on the Website • Restaurant Hours: The website listed incorrect operating hours for restaurants (e.g., opening at 11 AM and 5 PM, but actually 12 PM and 6 PM). This led to disruptions in our plans, as we frequently had to wait with hungry children, resulting in meltdowns. An All-Inclusive resort should either offer accurate information or provide all-day buffet access to accommodate families. Some restaurants required all guests to be present before seating us, making it impossible to accommodate our 6mo baby’s nap schedule. The policy also prohibited us from taking food back to the room for the adult on childcare duty, forcing us to rely on limited room service options.

Lack of Empathy and Customer Care • Delayed Medical Response: My daughter fell and injured her knee at the pool area. Despite her crying and bleeding, it took 15 minutes for first aid to arrive, while nearby staff avoided assisting us, citing...

My husband and I booked this resort for two weeks over Christmas and the week following New Years Day. One of the main reasons was because it advertised itself as a five-star resort with a swimmable beach. The first is because they do NOT have a swimmable beach. This claim is very misleading. Yes, they have a private section of beach for their guests, but there is only a very narrow area of water to swim in and it is still rocky with most of the beach consisting of large rocks. After trying to swim at the beach one day, my husband got out of the water and both of his legs were bleeding from several scrapes incurred by the rocks in the water. The driver of our shuttle later told us on the way back to the airport that this resort’s beach is not swimmable. He showed us a few of Cabo’s beaches that were swimmable on our way back through town to the airport and there is a big difference in the shoreline. Don’t be fooled.

Also, this is supposed to be an all-inclusive, yet there were two restaurants on the property that were not inclusive and cost $30 per person to eat at them. Most of the remaining restaurants had certain dishes (on the back pages of their menus) that were also not included in the price; so if you wanted those items you had to pay extra.

The hotel and its rooms appear to be quite outdated and old. And whenever we tried to call someone at the desk about a problem—it just rang and rang. So I kept dialing the operator who was very impolite I had to keep trying at least three times (as there were several problems we experienced in our room). Further, the hot water doesn’t work at times if you wish to take a shower later in the evening and the room has terrible lighting with no outlet plugs near the desk—only by the bed. It gets quite windy at night and the window next to the sliding glass door to our patio rattled terribly by the wind all night and kept waking me up.

Also, this resort does not exchange larger bills for ones so it is very difficult to tip the hotel staff when they perform a service. The front desk suggested we try to get ones from one of the bellhops which is ridiculous as they were never able to give us any dollars. Does the resort not care that their staff receive tips? The only way we got ones was to order a drink at the bar in the lobby and they could then sometimes give us ones for a twenty. (During one such request, we even saw one of the bartenders look into his own wallet to accommodate us with ones.)

Another problem is that only two restaurants take reservations (one is the restaurant you have to pay for out of pocket). The sushi place near the lobby (with an outside entrance) was packed every night. We were only able to eat at this restaurant once during our entire two-week stay. They would not take reservations and the wait time each night was almost an hour. The hostess at this restaurant (who was there almost every night) was extremely rude and unpleasant. She got defensive and abrupt if you even asked her a question about their process and/or wait times.

Overall, there were several issues at this resort and I would rate it as a three star resort. The last straw was on our final day there. We had just received word that our flight was cancelled and we wouldn’t be able to leave Cabo until late afternoon for our rescheduled flight. So my husband asked the front desk if we could have a late checkout (of just two hours) to accommodate our rescheduled flight. They refused and said they would only give us the additional two hours if we paid them an extra $150! Absolutely outrageous for two hours when we had just spent two weeks at their resort.

Therefore, I would NOT recommend this resort to anyone. It is hard to understand how this resort received so many positive reviews. That was not our...