Occidental Costa Cancún — Hotel in Cancún

My family chose to swap out Christmas presents for a trip to Mexico this holiday season. We stayed at the Occidental Costa Cancún in hopes for a relaxing week away, instead we left feeling like we wasted a week of our time off from school & work.

Our vacation started on a poor note when we arrived to the hotel, and our family of 4 adults was given a room with one king sized bed. When we asked the front desk to fix this for us, they were extremely unhelpful and rude. It took nearly 4 tries of prying for a manager, when we finally received a room with two double beds. It seems as though there are very slim amount of staff who are truly trained in customer service.

Unfortunately, the first few days of our trip were rained out. While the weather is not the resort’s fault, it’s important for guests to note that the resort is not equipped for poor weather. There are few to none indoor activities, and the lobby & snack bar become very crowded. My family went to use the spa to get out of the rain, and the men’s spa had hazardous exposed wires in the steam room. The men’s spa was later closed. The resort also has poor drainage and was flooded after rainfall. Water was up to our ankles walking outside.

Once the rain cleared, our family was so excited to begin to use the pool, beach, and get some sun! While there are no complaints about these amenities, our enjoyment was soon cut short after experiencing severe food poisoning. When we realized how severe the sickness was, we called the front desk for help receiving medical attention, and were hung up on 4 times. Once we realized the front desk would be no help, we had to search for and find our own medical center, which was able to send a doctor out to our room. We went through the “Walk in Clinic Caribbean” which is about a 5 minute walk from the resort, and received great care.

While we were sick, the room phone was broken, making calling for extra water, towels, and plastic bags, extremely difficult.

Besides the food poisoning, other minor complaints we have about the resort are:

While the spa was nice for the most part, the hot tubs were not very hot, and the men’s room had exposed wires in the steam room. Besides these two things, the spa was one of my favorite parts, the women’s steam room and sauna were a great way to get out of the rain and were overall very relaxing.

The main elevator to our tower was shut down, and we had to take a detour to our room everyday. On the 3rd day, our detour elevator was down too.

Our experience with staff was half and half. Some were beyond friendly and just amazing! Others were unhelpful, rude, and didn’t show care to help! It really just depended who you were in contact with.

The television was hard to figure out.

Behind the bar, it seemed as though drink ware was being washed in just a tub of soapy water, and not thoroughly cleaned. Hard to say the cleanliness of dishes in the kitchen.

Beach and pool was extremely difficult to find chairs. At the towel desk, you were faced with sales people selling excursions. This led to guests not returning their towels and instead just leaving them on chairs. This also led to them running out of towels.

On Weekends, the nearby theater can get noisy deep into the night. This did not bother my family but might be nice to know for those with younger children.

I cannot say this vacation was only filled with negatives, there were positives that I would like to highlight:

While unfortunately our family did become ill from the buffet, overall the food was tasty and served all kinds of diets.

The gym was one of the best hotel gyms I’ve used! Lots of different machines and a good size. Also very clean. It’s important to note that only 18+ can use the spa and gym.

The bars served really good drinks, and had many non-alcoholic options.

The pool and beach amenities were beautiful and very fun to use!

Great live music every...

Sadly we had a very unpleasant stay. We stayed there for 2 weeks. The positive points is, we had amazing waiters from the claraboya and the Mexican restaurant ( the only places we were okay).They treat us with kindness, and also the manager of the restaurants, was super nice to us when he heard the stories we had. The location is a bit far from the nice beaches like playa delfines etc in zona hotelera. So count on taking transport like uber. Taxis are pricey. First day, we were welcomed by a guy called Ernesto, he is in charge for the concierge and explaining to you the hotel stuff, but that man tried to scam us. He told us that we can go to have breakfast In another hotel of Barcelo and they will organise it all, the day after, we do skip breakfast to check out the other hotel for the next time we are in Cancun, but it turned out to be a sales pitch, and that it is 3 hours sales pitch with breakfast where we are required to buy a subscription, but that with a baby of 1 year maybe it is not smart to go to it. This was known by another concierge who did inform us the day itself and said I am sorry he wouldn’t do this again, because he was asking us about our credit card ( so you make the payment for the subscription) and selling us the other hotel ( maybe he gets like commissions for it) but what a bitter start in The hotel. ( who wants a sales pitch during their holiday?) Also, We needed a water boiler ( there is no water boiler) for the baby bottles, but each time we had to ask for it, they made a problem out of it. If you don’t leave a tip, they get mad at you, and they look at you really badly. They don’t even say good morning. ( even though we did leave a tip, but maybe it wasn’t how much they wanted) also we couldn’t give a tip every day for 2 weeks in each restaurant that we go! We didn’t feel welcome, going to the restaurants felt like heavy. So we started eating outside the hotel! The staff in the concierge, the women are nice, but the Ernesto guy and the other manager, very bad, they don’t even look at you, and anything you ask them it feels like a heavy thing. Another thing is our rooms were so old, and falling apart. First room our phone didn’t work. The hot water didn’t work, the socket for electricity to charge our phones didn’t work. They finally changed us to another room, but even though I did ask them to please, put us in a quiet place where other families are, they put us right near the street, and all next door rooms where spring break teenagers, who party till 3 am, the worst is no one does anything about it! The second room, the glass was broken, we only noticed one day when there was a storm coming in the night, so suddenly we started hearing some weird noise at 3 am. I go to the reception to show them the video of the noise, they mock me saying maybe it’s a ghost! I felt so annoyed, and then the guy who came to fix it felt sorry and said I am sorry mam, the window is broken so he fixed it with Duct tape ! And that’s was the solution. Be careful, it is an all inclusive but, you still need to make reservations to the restaurants. Except for the buffet. Another thing is the toilets they get cluttered and everything comes up! And to finish my review, one positive thing, is they have the most amazing people at the children’s play ground. They have Frida, who does prepare a lot of activities with the children and she is so caring. Sadly this was the first time and the last time we will be in Occidental costa Cancun. Next time I will just go to the RIU! We were supposed to relax, but we had all the contrary, I felt so impotent. Specially with the staff that every time I asked for help, I almost felt like I want to cry, because I didn’t know how to solve my problems myself ! Really I left with such a bad feeling, I never want to have that again. This was for me a waste of my money and I honestly regret to have...

Amazing resort for families and people on a budget!

My family and I went to this resort in mid-June 2024, we booked 2 rooms for 6 Adults. This is the first all inclusive my family and I have gone to and we enjoyed ourselves so much!

Location and Property

This resort is cute, not too far from the airport in the hotel zone and is nicely maintained. The lobby is pretty, it has a Mediterranean vibe and is a great spot to sit. There is no AC in the lobby, but the open concept of the lobby area allows air to flow through, so even though it was 31+ degrees Celsius there was a nice breeze most of the time so it was not unbearably hot. There is wifi available on the whole property.

There is 1 pool, 2 bars, 1 gift shop, a small strip beach, and 4 restaurants. There is also a snack area which is great for grabbing a quick bite in between meals. The pool is very well kept and nice, with beach chairs, umbrellas, and palm trees all around the pool. I am 5”1 and the pool water came up to my shoulders, so it is probably 4.5ft deep. The entire pool is the same depth. This is great for people who want to swim because you still can at this depth, but also those who cannot swim can enjoy the water without worry. The beach is a white sand beach, but is quite small. This might be a turn off for some, but it did not take away from this resorts charm for me and my family. My parents really enjoyed sitting by the ocean in the beach chairs under big palm trees. We did not swim in the ocean because of the amount of Sargassum algae on the beach (which was a personal choice) but many people were still swimming in the beach.

The resort is also very close to ferries, bus stop, and other gift shops. It is right beside the Xcaret tower (I believe it’s called). My family and I were able to bus to a mall as well as a flea market on the hotel zone where we bought many souvenirs.

Rooms

The rooms are very clean. The only reason why I took off 1 star for the rooms is that there tended to be a collection of condensation water near the room door and the balcony door, but it was not too much and was not a big bother for us. There is a mini bar in the room which was stocked with sodas, alcohol, and snacks. The AC in the room also gets VERY cold, which is great for those who love cold rooms! My dad loves cold rooms, so our AC was on very often.

Food

The food was honestly good! I’ve never been to other resorts so I don’t have a point of reference, but during every meal my family and I were able to enjoy everything we took. My family preferred eating at the buffet (albatross) rather than the other restaurants because we found the buffet food was much better. The Italian restaurant is not bad, and we didn’t love the Mexican restaurant. Buffet is the way to go for meals. My family eats halal, and so there was always a fish option available at dinner and lunch, as well as vegetarian options during all meals. This is amazing as it caters to a wide range of people with dietary restrictions. At the bar, there is a section on the menu with non-alcoholic drinks which is so inclusive! They can also make most drinks with no alcohol.

Service

The service was amazing! Everyone made us feel so incredibly included and welcome, and the people working genuinely cared about your stay. They also went above and beyond for us! Sheyla was absolutely wonderful and helped us make this vacation perfect. She made sure our needs were met at all times. Two other people that made our stay so amazing is Maria and Conrado. Maria was always welcoming and so nice during every mealtime! She truly cares about the guests and genuinely made our trip so amazing. Conrado is the manager of this resort, and was again so nice and professional! He went above and beyond for my family during our stay....