Oleo Cancun Playa All Inclusive Boutique Resort — Hotel in Cancún

The hotel was clean and spotless and the bar service very good especially Johnathan, he was fantastic at making all kinds of drinks. Our room was inspiria superior ocean view. It was spacious and comfortable and the beds were soft, pillows plush and comfy. The view was excellent of the ocean and hotel pool but we were on the side of tower 1. The mini bar was restocked and we used the water and pop every day, didn’t restock sparkling water as much though. There was a leak from the room above which meant the ceiling in the shower started crumbling, this was sorted immediately. There was plenty space to hang your clothes with iron and hair dryer to use. We couldn’t operate the TV as we had liked and the Chanel’s were all foreign.

The Mediterranean restaurant was good but slow service and we didn’t get all we had ordered. The Japanese restaurant was nice but I’ve never ate Japanese so nothing to compare it to however the service was good. There was always something to eat in the buffet restaurant but sometimes no waiters; we had finished our dinner before being served drinks on some occasions. Room service was convenient and American breakfast was tasty but reminded us more of an English breakfast which would have been delightful in its full content. The buffet had a good selection of soups, salads, and main courses with a different variation each evening; Italian, Asian, world, western etc. The poolside snacks were great to tide you over however there was no ice cream!

We did get poorly and had to take diacalm towards the back end of our ten night stay, we could not identify what upset our stomachs, maybe the ice? We used bottled water to brush teeth with. A few people were the same at the time with upset stomachs.

The service was great, always happy to listen but sometimes things weren’t done. We ordered lunch packs the day before we took days out and they weren’t ready, nobody had ordered them for us. The room was cleaned every day and the towels replaced although we had to ask for an extra set of towels as being females with long hair we needed more than just the one to get dry.

We did have small amounts of money go missing from our room, £5 note and a 100 peso note but we couldn’t put it down to one person as we had had cleaners, maintenance and someone else in our rooms on an evening leaving chocolate coins. We did leave the ‘no thanks’ sign on our door but someone had taken it off and ignored it. We needed more change since it had been stolen and had to get dollars out of the hotels cash machine which charged you, the reception was then unable to change a $20 note into smaller pesos for the bus, neither was the shop so stuck having to go out and find change elsewhere.

The lifts broke down a number of times and once we were stuck in them, we had to be pulled out half way between floor 2&3. The shop in the hotel sells convenience things and souvenirs, was nice but charges 2 or 3 times as much as the OXO shop across the road. We found that when there was a check out day, we had our towels stolen on two occasions, the hotel operates a swap your card for a towel and be charged $75 I think it was if you didn’t have your card therefore with people stealing towels this was quite a problem.

So, we have never seen people ‘saving’ sunbeds before like they do here, this is ridiculous. We went at the end of February and dread to think what this would be like in peak periods. We had to get up and out for 6/7am to get a sunbed! No chance after 8/9am. There is more than half sunbeds with towels on and nobody using them, some not even used all day. If the hotel is issuing cards for towels maybe they should issue one hour timers per person if your timers not set and nobody on the bed then towels should be removed and made available for others. It really is a BIG problem from what we saw.

Entertainment by the pool was great, bingo, lottery, aqua fit, games, really kept people amused and involved we thought it was great. Music was varied and good too.

We had a good time despite things...

We had a great one-week stay, amid a few issues which were resolved in a timely manner by management— specifically, Carlos and Julia. Bravo for their assistance and professionalism handling the minor issues! 👏🏼

🏩 The resort itself is very cute and very well laid out. It could use a few paint touch-ups on the exterior, but that’s to be expected with an oceanfront property. Salt water is no joke on these properties! Security is at the entrance and does check every vehicle that enters the premises. We never once felt scared, unsafe or threatened by any means as we utilized the resort at all hours. We felt safe the whole time we were at this resort which is huge! There is a gym, a tennis court, and a kids camp. We didn’t utilize any of these, but they are on-site. You can also pay for a romantic dinner on the beach, laundry service, high-end/top shelf liquors (if you don’t want house, which is included in the all-inclusive price), beach photography packages, etc.

🛏️ Rooms are cute, comfy and modern. Not every room with a balcony has chairs on the balcony. Housekeeping cleans your rooms everyday, makes your bed and provides fresh linens which was super nice! They also left us some chocolates everyday which was sweet! 🍫

🛍️ The store located on site has a good variety of items for sale and great hours, but the items inside are sold at a great expense. Which, in their defense, every resort we’ve ever stayed at in Cancun is the same way. It’s just the price of convenience!

🍴 The restaurants were very accommodating, and I believe there’s something to eat for everyone here! If you didn’t like something, they were happy to accommodate you in any way, such as removing/adding ingredients, etc. we didn’t find anything we didn’t like. Of course it may taste a little “different” than we were used to, but nothing was “nasty”! We loved the hours of the restaurants, for breakfast and dinner especially. Breakfast is served from 7AM-11AM which is nice if you want to sleep in. Dinner is served from 5:30PM-11PM which is super nice if you need a nap before heading down for dinner!

🏊🏼‍♀️ We loved the pool and the swim up bar was super convenient!

🏝️ LOVED the beach and convenient, quick access on both sides of the resort! The staff work very hard every morning cleaning up the beach. One issue on the beach was there is a section for Inspira guests only (red wristbands), but non-Inspira guests were utilizing the area and no one said anything to them. It didn’t bother us, just not sure what the point of it being marked “Inspira Guests Only” is if anyone is allowed to utilize the area.

🪑 Finding pool and beach chairs was surprisingly easy! Other resorts we’ve had issues finding chairs unless you got up at 6AM to reserve them, but never once did we not have a chair at the beach or the pool, which was super nice!

🍹 Bar service at both the pool bar and the lobby bar was great by Raul, Gael, Antonio and Gerry! They all had a great sense of humor, laughed and joked all day with us! 😊

🏖️ Pool side service was absolutely FANTASTIC by Sergio and Rodriguez! These two could run the whole place by themselves, I believe! So attentive! 👏🏼

🍚 AMAZING service by Luis in the Chinese restaurant, Hakka. He remembered our orders (custom), was very funny, outgoing and top notch in his customer service! 😊

🥘 Great service by Pedro in the buffet! We celebrated our 10-year anniversary and he went out of his way to reserve a table for us, serve us a “special meal” and was so personable, attentive and kind all night. Also has a great sense of humor! ❤️

🍕 Fantastic service from Daniel and Erendira at Almar, the Mediterranean Restaurant. Our glasses never went empty! 👏🏼

💆🏽‍♀️ Last but -certainly- not least, THE SPA! 🤩 Maricarmen and Josafina gave the BEST massages we’ve ever had! We also loved being able to use the spa amenities with purchasing a massage— it was perfect for our last day!

Thank you, Óleo, for one amazing, relaxing week at your resort! We will see you...

The good: This hotel and beach were BEAUTIFUL and the two rooms we stayed in were gorgeous and clean. The pool was also very clean. Iliana, a server in the buffet, had our drinks at the table before we even got our food. Most of the bartenders made good strong drinks. We ordered a Mai Tai and it was obvious that they had no idea how to make one. A drink menu would help. Everyone seemed to keep an eye out for what other people were ordering and then just point to order whatever looked good. Most of the staff were kind and eager to help if you needed anything.

The bad: Our booking was for an Inspira Junior Suite Ocean Front for 7 nights. We did receive our check-in champagne. No refreshing towel and nothing at check-out. And we got our "personalized welcome message" letting us know about our Inspira perks the day before we left. At check-in, we found out that the hotel didn't even have a junior suite available for us. We ended up in a room with two double beds instead of a king bed, with the promise that if we came back early in the morning and asked about king rooms, they should be able to find one for us. We had to request our "bottle of house wine and chocolate dipped fruits" which was actually a bottle of Brut and 3 incredibly stale pastries. I went down to the check-in at 7am, told the man at the desk about our issue, and asked if there would be any king rooms available. He assured me that there would be and that they could move us at 3pm. We came back at 3:30 and I could tell by everyone's faces we were in for bad news. They had 2 king rooms available: a standard king with a dual view or a lagoon view junior suite. We decided on the standard so that we could at least still see the ocean. We expected to be offered some kind of compensation for being significantly downgraded, but we realized that they were not interested in compensating us. Our refrigerator never worked and their solution was to send us a bucket of ice on the day we mentioned it. I tried to order another bucket of ice the next day but the man couldn't understand me and just sent two glasses of ice. The shower was mostly fine but I did end up taking one very cold shower during our week-long stay. As Inspira guests we were supposed to receive a 20% discount on ANY spa services, as it states on their website. However AFTER we had already received a couple's massage, we were told that the discount doesn't apply to couples services. So we expected to pay $175 for a couples massage and we were told we had to pay the full $219. After my husband argued with what seemed to be the manager, they allowed us to pay the price of two separate massages and get the discount. So we ended up still paying $200. They told us that we would be able to enjoy extra time at the spa pool and I'm the steam room, but after this exchange, the manager told us we could stay for 80 minutes and that we had already used 20 minutes relaxing after our massage. We decided not to go back because he was very rude and we never cashed in our complementary hand reflexology because we had such a stressful spa experience. Inspira guests are also supposed to have towel service at the cabanas but the server made eye contact with me and walked away. We saw him bring other people drinks but he quickly disappeared. There was much more personalized service at the pool. But they have very few chairs and people would wake up early to claim pool chairs, then be gone for hours. The food was reheated 3 and sometimes 4 times. The menus were inaccurate. The "Caesar salad" at Almar was a leaf of romaine lettuce and mayonnaise. The classic burger was a pork patty. You never really knew what you were going to get.

The verdict: We had a terrible experience. I guess under perfect circumstances it would be okay for the price. It was definitely a cheaper resort. None of the food ever made us sick, we just never really enjoyed our meals. We highly recommend AGAINST upgrading to Inspira. The perks just...