Iberostar Selection Cancún — Hotel in Cancún

SUMMARY:||Iberostar Cancun's best days have passed. The resort simply is not worth the prices we paid, especially because the beach is mostly unusable. ||Cancun is crowded, expensive and logistically cumbersome. However, the locals are delightful people and worth the trip if you can get to know them.||Other travelers we met have repeatedly returned to Cancun (though few returned to Iberostar), so many people enjoyed better experiences than mine.||SWIMMING:||We travel to beach hotels primarily to swim in the ocean. However Iberostar's waterfront is dangerously covered with underwater rock formations making it dangerous to swim even when the waves are mild. Red flags were up the entire time we were there. Moreover, Iberostar has cluttered the sand with palapas and chais lounges that block other guests' views of the ocean and pools. There is a maze of shallow pools breaking up the grounds, one large the rest small. My family's children like the shallow pools but shallow water makes me feel as though I am in someone else's used bathwater. The water in the pool with apparatus for children is cold so our children did not want to use it. ||Bottom line, Iberostar is unsatisfactory in respect to its most important feature - swimming.||BUILDINGS AND EQUIPMENT:||The main building is aesthetically beautiful and the guest rooms (especially the suites) are well laid out. However, the facility is not being properly maintained. The roofs have leaks. Doors squeak and do not close properly. Most or all the exterior doors leak at the bottom when it rains and the guest room balcony doors are extremely difficult to open and close. There are traces of mold in the showers and hot water pressure is mediocre to poor. The elevators are slow and unreliable, causing considerable acrimony between guests. The sensors on the filtered water dispensors are finicky and the ice dispensors do not work at all. The central front fountain is not working.||There are insufficient chais lounges for the guests so there are daily dog-eat-dog races to reserve lounges; the best situated are gone long before breakfast. We spent a lot of time and effort chasing shade. Furniture in shade is occupied during breakfast. Cabanas blocking other guests from poolside and beach views can be rented for $100 per day.||The accoustics are terrible and there is pervasive indoor and outdoor sound pollution. Sound from the atrium echoes throughout the building and into guest rooms well into the night. It often is difficult to converse in most of the restaurants. ||STAFFING and TIPPING:||Virtually all the employees were professional, diligent and pleasant. However, the entire facility is substantially under-staffed. Consequently, the staff is over-worked and the guests under-served. We found ourselves constantly feeling compelled to tip what we inferred were underpaid workers. Non-stop tipping added upwards of $25 per day per guest to the costs.||ACTIVITIES:||The Kids Club has a great staff, but again too few. The facility is small and activities are limited. Very young children too often are mixed with older children, perhaps because the are too few participants. The scheduling often gets confused, altered without notice, or simply disregarded. Baby sitters are available upon 24 hours prior notice for $30 per hour per child. ||There are water polo, water volleyball, bean bag toss, and dancing every day. There is little else for teens to do other than swim.||There usually is music or other entertainement in the evening. A few of the performers were quite good.||Third-party excursions of varying quality are available, typically costing between $100 and $200 per person. Cabs can be expensive. Cancun has a busy downtown night life. Visitors' areas are policed and appear safe but we were warned there are five districts around Cancun that are controlled by violent cartels and must be avoided.||FOOD and BEVERAGES:||The main dining room is buffet style. Some of the dishes are excellent, some rather poor, and most are good to mediocre. The pastry desserts look better than they taste. There is considerable redundancy from day to day but enough choices that we always found some things to eat. Probably due to staffing shortages, the buffet often was missing odds and ends such as butter, fruit, and spoons. Mostly, the buffet food is well-prepared but served tepid or cool. ||The alternative restaurants ranged from mostly good (the steak house) to mediocre (Mexican) to terrrible (the American Bistro). All were first come-first served starting at 5:30, forcing people to arrive about 5:00 or stand in lines. Many tables were left empty due to staff shortages, also causing long delays at the tables. Food often was served tepid or cool. Hamburgers, hot dogs, chicken nuggets, French fries and ice cream are available most of the day in outdoor shelters. ||Wine, beer and hard liquor are free and abundant. However, they are of mediocre quality and the hard liquor seemed watered down to me. Better beverages are available at...

We travel to Mexico 2-3 times a year. We have been to multiple Cancun and Riviera Maya Resorts. As far as this specific hotel location goes, overall not bad, however half of the beach (to the right if you are looking at the beach) has large rocks that are hard to navigate and bypass to get in, we tried several times, but eventually gave up. We did finally find a place we could swim that was mainly in front of Adults Only Building. We traveled from May 26-June 1st 2025. There was a lot of seaweed, and while it didn’t bother us too much it would certainly bother others. Additionally, we are season Ocean goers and as such we know how to enjoy the wave safely. However, for someone not as experienced as us the waves would be too strong and we would strongly advise against trying to get in with children, in fact we haven’t seen anyone try. Frankly it would be very dangerous to do so. The pools are good no complaints there. One thing that was infuriating as far as pools go was the control of lounge chairs etc. We get up early and usually are at the ocean by 8am. Every day that we passed the pool on the way to the ocean at least 2/3 of the pool area lounge chairs already had towels on them signifying someone was using them, however this could not be further from the truth. When we got to the pool about 11am daily 1/2 the supposedly reserved lounge chairs had no one using them and it took quiet a journey to find and empty lounge chair. The actual usually didn’t show up until 1-2hrs later (the chairs were occupied for 4-5 hours without anyone actually using them. There was no one from the hotel enforcing any restrictions as far as chairs went. Extreme inconvenience to guests who actually want to use the lounge chairs and would use them for most of the day. Liquor selection is great, we even spotted top shelf selections such as Patron Silver, Johnny Walker Red and Blue, etc etc. Do not waste your time on membership presentation as it’s 90 minutes that we will never get back. The rep was nice enough, but got very pushy in the end despite us stating several times that it wasn’t for us. The manager to sign off on 50 minute massages that we got for enduring the torture stated that he couldn’t understand why it wasn’t for us and his demeanor was a true turn off. The massage was ok, but nothing special and once again not worth the 90 minutes of torture it took to get it. Food was ok, but nothing that truly excited us and soup selection was almost nonexistent. Desert Selection was disappointing and lacking options and frankly sweetness. Serving Staff was mostly good. The tour we went on was promoted as the best offered. However, it was extremely overpriced and underwhelming. The tour was to Tulum, including Maya Ruins, swimming with turtles, cenote, and lunch. The guide was great, Ximena was knowledgeable and fun. However, we were not advised ahead of time that since cenote was in caverns below ground the water would be extremely cold, we only saw 4 turtles total during the turtle swim and lunch was limited to 1 item and either lemonade, corona or margarita. There was no salad or any real desert offered. The total bill was $209/person, $418 for the 2 of us. For comparison, we went to a tour in September 2024 that we bought from a guy on the beach at Pyramid that cost us $200 for 2 to Chichenitza that included tour of Chichenitza, cenote, and basic lunch with chicken and salad. The price must reflect the value. The value of this trip vs Chichenitza was slightly higher but cost more than double. At the end of the day what’s more important to you? The money spent or the value received? To me the price needs to adequately reflect the value. To me it didn’t. There are better places to go.

Additional: Just read a response from Iberostar about their supposed towel policy on the sunbeds. Complete BS!!! We watched the same thing every day that we were there. Not a single person walked around and collected towels that were keeping sunbeds warm for hours. No one is enforcing this policy so to even mention it is a joke. Led to...

Don't waste your money. A lot of money BTW. My family decided to skip Xmas at home and go to Cancun for the first time. We selected Iberostar because it was 4.7star rated and within our price range. To be fair the pool activities, beach and entertainment were great. All within acceptable error bars for a beach resort.

However, Iberostar was not cheap, and we expected good food options and a nice room. Since food in Mexico is usually awesome, we were really excited about this trip. So, we were shocked to see how bad the food was, how run down the room was and how limited the options were on site.

Room: Where do we start? The bathroom was tiny, and the shower had no door. Just half a glass wall, with the water spilling all over the floor. The shower had mold all over the caulking. The hooks on the wall were just nobs, so everything just fell when you tried to hang up towels or swimwear. Next the family next to us was smoking weed all week. I don’t want to break up anyone’s fun, but it leaked into our room so much. One night my kid told me that the smell was too much, and they couldn’t sleep. I had to call management. Not sure if they cared or did anything. So, the ventilation was terrible. Finally, for such an expensive stay I would expect the bad to be serviceable. It was not. You might as well have slept on the floor it was so hard. So, if you have a bad back, be warned. It kept us from sleeping well all week.

Food: There are so many stories but let’s narrow them down. At the American bistro I ordered jambalaya. I was served yellow rice with breakfast sausages, 5 cocktail shrimp and sliced hot dogs on top of the bowl. Since my kid was having a good time I didn’t lose my mind but I wanted too. They ordered Salamon at every meal and for some reason that was done well. At the Steak house we ordered steaks that were fatty, small and my wife’s fillet was nothing special at all. My creamed spinach was just melted butter with 2 strands of spinach in them. The hibachi place was a C minus at best. No Japanese chefs, no personalized ordering and none of the fun parts that make Hibachi worthwhile. Everyone got the same over cooked meat and bland rice. The Soup was oddly cold too and there was no waiter to get you drinks. I had to flag someone down all the time. Next their Mexican place had no menu. You all got the same family style thing. It was ok with lots of options but if you didn’t want them, well that’s too bad. Imagine being in a resort in Mexico and only getting passible Mexican food. The Mexican at Senior Frogs up the road was clearly better (seriously)… The buffet is ok and likely the best option there but its not much better than a low budget buffet in the US. Finally, the worse was the Italian restaurant at Iberostar. It’s the worst because it’s billed as the best restaurant on the property. Yuck… I ordered the Seabass over risotto. Typical Italian dish. The risotto was not fully cooked and drowned in cheese. The ‘seabass’ was not seabass, or it was cooked for so long that it mostly resembled shoe leather and was very fishy. It was terrible. My wife’s penne was likely out of a can. So no… not good. We may have a sensitive pallet, but I don’t think so. The food in the Forum or in La Izla was really good and at excursions throughout the Yucatan, we ate really well, but at the 5-star Iberostar hotel and resort the food was abysmal.

Drinks: Mostly ok. The pool and food truck people made the best drinks. The Waiters in the restaurants were like trained last week. We could barely get a refill or mixed drinks were watered down. Which made no sense to us because the pool folks didn’t skimp on the good stuff.

Conclusion: Stay somewhere on the strip that a friend recommends. We went in blind to Iberostar and were disappointed with the hotel, especially for the money we paid. Other folks I hear have stayed at other locations where the food...