Iberostar Selection Coral Cancun — Hotel in Cancún

As a person that travels to Cancun multiple times per year, this has been by far my WORST EXPERIENCE at a resort ever! This is also my first negative review as a frequent traveler as I always try to attend good quality resorts and expect great service. This trip was a celebration for my promotion and ended in a nightmare. I chose this hotel because I’ve heard of the name Iberostar before and wanted to see what Cancun had to offer. I purchased one of the most expensive rooftop suites that comes with a “personal assistant.” I arrived 8/1 early evening and after settling in I noticed the rooftop furniture were all dirty with obvious makeup stains and requested them to be wiped down. I then went to the main buffet where I was seated by the waiter. While in the buffet getting food, the waiter came up to me and told me that he moved my seat because a couple arrived and he needed my table. He moved me to sit in the last table at the back of the restaurant near the cleaning supplies even though there were several empty tables & it was first come first serve. I asked the waiter if he was insinuating that I am less than because I was traveling alone & he stated it was his fault he forgot to seat the couple. I saw another table that was closer to my initial table and again was denied seating because another “couple” had the table. I asked the waiter where was the couple and he stated they were probably in the buffet which wasn’t true as I just left the buffet with no one in there. The “couple” never came and I asked if this was how the roof top guests were treated there and then immediately I was sat in the table requested. With this being the first day, despite my disappointment I tried to remain optimistic. The following day I had breakfast and went to the pool for a couple hrs. After leaving the pool an incident occurred with my belongings going missing. It wasn’t until I requested for the personal assistant to arrive that things were taken seriously, which seemed like a pattern there. The personal assistant Naomi told me that I would have to contact the police to see what took place. As a solo traveler, this became a traumatic experience and the entire rest of the day was revolved around this incident and the authorities. I wasn’t able to have lunch or dinner because of it which made over 15hrs with no meal. Room service overnight only had 2 options both items that I didn’t eat so I had to wait for breakfast. I was promised a video of what took place the following day and was urged to listen out to the phone. At this point I didn’t feel safe but due to the time of night, I was urged by my travel agent to just stay the night while they tried to get in contact with the hotel. ||||The following day my travel agent notified me that the hotel customer care was rude with them and denied compensation. The day was spent in my room waiting on an update from management. After not hearing from anyone, at around 5pm, I reached out to the staff for an update. I was met by Mario and Yazmin the managers who were apologetic and I discussed what took place. They encouraged that I would get answers and video on what transpired within the hour. This was the first time I felt like the situation was finally being looked into.|||| I want to highlight the lack of professionalism from the “personal assistant” Naomi. She is very unprofessional as a personal assistant/butler & I’m very disappointed in her service. Not once did I get an apology after the incident. The following 2days of my trip, not once did she check in on me say hello anything. She literally did not speak to me or assist with anything the entire last 2days. She would see me on the resort and ignore that I was there. Even at check out I had to carry my suitcase with me to breakfast while she stood there and watched. (See photo) I felt so alone. She did not offer to have my bags picked up from the room at checkout neither at breakfast while I waited for my ride. I get butler service whenever available when I travel and this by far was the worst with Naomi. I’d like to thank Yazmin, the manager who stepped in to keep me updated on what was going on. The highlight of my trip was Glendy the maid. She truly made me smile with how she cleaned the room and left me sweet notes and cute towel arrangements. She is clearly a person that loves her job. ||||Unfortunately, on my last night Yazmin informed me that I will not be able to see the video revolving the incident without the authorities involvement again. So the last 2days of my trip completely revolved around this incident and was a complete total waste of money. At this time I’m currently waiting on compensation as this case is still ongoing and will update this review when there’s a resolution.||||I highly do not recommend Iberostar Coral Cancun for solo travelers. The rooftop experience is not worth it and outdated for the price. This resort is not solo travel friendly at all. For quality 5 star experience and great service try TRS hotel swim-up in Cancun for better price, amazing treatment,...

The Good|You have access to the main hotel with lots of restaurants. We found the main hotel to have excellent service. Great food. Good wine selections. People at the main hotel. We’re having a good time and had really good behavior. Staff was friendly and helpful. Resort was clean and well-maintained. The steakhouse, the hibachi restaurant were highlights. The Italian restaurant was also good and the buffet was excellent. ||Housekeeping service was exceptional. Friendly and attentive and clean the room several times during the day even without a request. Bartenders at most of the bar were very good. Drink selections were good. Selections of snacks in the mini bar are a nice touch. Also having some juice available in the mini bar in addition to Coke and beer is a nice touch. Also like the interim coffee machine, even though the first one had to be replaced. Common areas of the hotel were immaculate throughout the entire stay.||Food selection at the buffets were great. Especially at the main buffet. Lots of great Mexican food selections. Love that they had the Mexican coffee and the Mexican hot chocolate. Love that they had tortillas and Chilaquiles. Lots of nice charcuterie, including smoked salmon, that was very fresh. Bakery selections in the morning are incredible. Lots of different kinds of bread. Several types of salads. Fruit selection was generous. Big pieces of fresh fruit, including cantaloupe, watermelon, apples, pineapple, papaya, and even rambutan and star fruit.||The bad.|The Coral is basically adults only and unfortunately, it’s the carnival cruise line of all inclusive hotels.IYKYK. |Not a quiet or tranquil location. They have people on the public address system at the pool pretty much nonstop. It’s never quiet. Even at the ocean, you can’t hear the waves. It’s just constantly loud. People bring their own radio to the pool and compete with the DJ so you’ve got multiple sources of music. Heard a lot of hip-hop with lots of profanities and lots of the N-word. If you want a pool chair, you’re going to need to arrive at the pool before 7 AM or they will all be taken. Staff never picks up a towel so all the chairs seem to be occupied. ||People are not just having a good time. They are completely drunk. At 8 AM you’re finding people that are fall down drunk. Saw a guy at 8:30 request four shots of tequila in one glass. Another guy was walking around with a bottle of patron tequila at 9 AM and stumbling. Was shocked at how loud and obnoxious people were. ||Buffet at the Coral side was terrible. Service was dreadful. At least three times I went to the egg station or the grill station and have them give my food away to another customer while I went to go get a few side dishes. Was told I had to go up to the coffee bar one floor up in order to get a coffee in the morning. Turned out that wasn’t true but that’s what I was told and I did what they said.||Waffles and pancakes seem to have been made a day before. You could crack them in half if you Folded them. They were crispy not soft and cold.||While English seems to be spoken at the selection side of the resort, almost no one spoke anything other than Spanish at the Coral side. We basically gave up eating at this buffet and just went over to the larger one at the main hotel, which had fresher, food, better service, and a friendly atmosphere.||The ugly.|The hotel rooms are beautiful, but the maintenance is a problem. Heard people constantly talking to the front desk and the concierge about maintenance issues. Safe battery went out on us two times. Fixtures in the shower and the bathtub were broken. Shampoo and soap bottles must be the original because the pumps don’t really work And need to be replaced. Had trouble with the phone in the main room by the bed. TV controls are not obvious so it appears there’s only two channels available on the TV and you have to press other buttons just to get to a television set up. They have some nice advanced lighting Features in the room, but they do not explain these to you when you check in and there’s nothing in the room that explains what they are and...

In short: We had a great experience. But this fell short of five stars. It was at least a four star experience, but in some areas, quality was lacking.

Pros: -Extremely friendly staff -Very helpful front desk and concierge -Smooth excursion process and great agent -Above average quality food -Beautiful rooms at the coral level, Jacuzzi was amazing -Beach is large and has plenty of space/seating -Plenty of pool space and gorgeous pools -Great housekeeping, very thoughtful and even left flowers and petals for us for our honeymoon which was a beautiful touch -Entertainment staff was excellent and made a great environment to have fun -Convenient app with information and ability to request things/chat directly with staff

Cons: Restaurants: Iberostar falsely advertises their restaurant options. You likely will not be able to get a seat at any of the popular restaurants - such as the Italian restaurant and the Steakhouse. Twice we arrived over 2hrs before close and were turned away from both. They also do not allow reservations. This does not make sense from an operational standpoint, if you're going to turn people away after, say 6pm, it should explicitly say "last call for waitlist at 6pm". We watched multiple people have the same experience as us, leaving frustrated and disappointed. Iberostar is building bad will with paying customers. I get it, Iberostar saves money by pushing people to the self serve buffet options. But I honestly felt lied to when I was told about the restaurant experience and options here. It's clear that saving money matters more than experience to this company.

Like I said, this would not be a problem if they were up front about it. Such as a 'last call for seating' time. But instead they let you waste your time and only give hopes of a good culinary experience.

Room service times: There were multiple days where we were told there was only one runner for room service. One runner for hundreds of rooms leads to two hour waits and thus keeps you trapped in your hotel room waiting, not being able to enjoy or move on with your day. It's not the runners fault, again this is a management problem. Hire more than one runner!

Room functionality: There were multiple issues with our rooms and we had to let the front desk know multiple times to get anything fixed. They always were kind and smiling, but at the end of the day our problems were not resolved in a timely manner. This is a management/system issue. -the safe did not work when we arrived and maintenance had to fix it -the right faucet was broken when we arrived and for multiple days we had to use only the left faucet which was an inconvenience -they did not refill the body wash or shampoo in between guests, so after our second day we had to go ask for more. Again this is when they have only one runner, so you never know when you're going to get it -telephone in suite did not work (only the bathroom one did) -ac never got colder than 23c (73f) no matter how low it was set -tv casting worked well the first night and then never again, likely due to their Wi-Fi issues -major issues with Wi-Fi that their staff knew was going on and apologized for (again their staff is amazing, but just so many issues!)

All in all it was a beautiful location with some amazing staff. But there are clear management, system and logistics issues preventing this from feeling like a five star resort. The crazy part is, these issues could all be fixed with just a couple changes:

1. more transparency/communication about restaurant seating times (such as a last call for seating at X pm)
2. room quality checks in between guests. There is no reason that we should have to deal with broken appliances upon arriving to our room
3. hire more than one runner to serve your hundreds of rooms!

I was very nearly going to join the Iberostar club. The program makes a lot of sense if you are going to vacation annually. I was going to sign up if my stay was truly a 5 star experience. While it was still a wonderful time, it did not meet 5 star...