The Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort Villas & Spa — Hotel in Cancún

Quick note: This is our fourth trip to this resort but the first TripAdvisor review of this property. ||Our stay started on April 17, 2024, at the Westin Lagunamar Ocean Resort. We were feeling very good about the trip as our flight from DFW had arrived about 20 minutes early. We were picked up (pre-arranged) by the company recommended by the Westin concierge called “The One”. The One people were great, and the ride was nice and cool. Driver also was fantastic. ||We arrived at the Resort and proceeded to the check-in desk where we met Gustavo. Immediately he welcomed us and proceeded to check us in. We had arrived early on the flight; therefore, we were 2 hours early in the check-in process (normally 4pm). I explained we understood we were early and would be happy to wait if needed. He called the housekeeping team and tried to find us a good fit for what we were wanting. After a few minutes of discussion, he was able to find us a beautiful ocean view in building one. The suitcases were taken at our arrival by the bellboys and held until our room was assigned. They followed us up to the room after Gustavo checked us in. ||The room was magnificent and very clean. All the amenities were available in the one bedroom we booked and a spectacular ocean view as well as a view of the ancient Myan ruins that is on the hotel property. Full size refrigerator (w/icemaker), stove, dishes, silverware, cookware, washer/dryer combo. The unit also had a dining set for six people and a comfortable sleeper sofa and lounge chair in the living area. TV’s in the bedroom and living areas. The Westin Heavenly Bed with the most comfortable sheets imaginable. Large bathroom and separate walk-in shower, large jacuzzi tub and toilet areas. Amble closet space, drawers and shelves in the bedroom and bathroom areas. ||We immediately went to the Viento Bar and Grill for a quick bite. The snacks we received were just OK. The service was also just ok when we went down there. We’ve been to this restaurant before and usually had better service and food in the past. ||The best of the best at Westin Lagunamar is the pool staff. We always receive the best service at the poolside with the waiters (sometime waitresses) that take your order and bring you virtually any drink imaginable and food from the Duna Sports Bar. We’ve had multiple experiences with many of the normal staff but on this trip (and a trip we had about 4 years ago) the gentleman named Williams was there once again with his usual enthusiastic manner. Issac was also helpful during our stay at the poolside. We visited the pool many times and spent many hours at/in the pool and every time Willaims was there to help, no matter if we were in his area or not. The service, the dedication and the duration of Williams’ service is unmatched in our experiences. Most of employees of the Westin have been there many years and are familiar faces. ||Upon unpacking our bags, my wife realized that her curling iron handle had broken. I went down to see Gustavo at the check in desk and he called someone from maintenance to help. Irving from the maintenance team brought up some super glue and tried to get it to hold while I was standing there. It didn’t appear to be working so he offered to take it to his shop area and use better glue. In about 15 minutes he brought it back to our room and it was glued better and holding for her to use it during the remainder of our stay. Amazing customer service from Irving as well. Thank you to Gustavo and Irving. ||We had a spa day scheduled with Manuel and Yolanda for an early evening couples massage on the beach. They both provided fabulous massages and were very professional. The spa personnel was wonderful and the spa itself had a whirlpool (hot tub), dry sauna and steam sauna. Everything was very clean and well maintained.||We enjoyed the special event that on Thursday nights in the Oceano Restaurant they call Steak Night. The meal was steak and a buffet of sides allowing us to enjoy as much of whatever was on the buffet, but the steak was prepared by a chef (one-time steak, not buffet). You also had a choice of chicken or fish, but the steak was the best offering in my opinion. The waiter was very attentive and friendly. He recommended a cabernet sauvignon from Chihuahua, Mexico and it was fabulous. The charge for it was more than I expected but we were happy to be in Mexico and relaxing, so we just went ahead with it. ||The Westin Lagunamar is a wonderful resort, and we will return. The amenities are fantastic, and well suited for a relaxing vacation. If you need something they don’t offer, there is ample shopping at the mall across the street or the grocery store just a short 1 mile walk up the street. There are lots of excursions available form The concierge at their desks in the front lobby and they do well to accommodate all requests. Local restaurants of all types are very close and available to walk to or a short taxi ride. ||My only concerns were small but wanted to mention them here. They provided us with two free drink tickets to go down and see the concierge about anything we might need or want to do. Alfredo was great and answered all our questions. However, when we went to the Duna Sports Grill, we found that the drink tickets were only available for a select few drinks. It’s petty I know but they need to just suck it up and allow a free drink (within certain parameters of course). Creating a separate menu for the free drink tickets is what I call a “low rent” kind of move for such a...

Do Not Stay Here!!

The comforter and pillows had mold in them, and made us sick, we had to request synthetic. Rooms are dated and not clean. They don't even clean the rooms just make the bed

Tried to check in, gentleman at the front desk told us that there was a 400 dollar hold on our card to enter, took it down to 298.12, said that we needed it for resort credits , and that if we came close to exceeding the amount , we would be contacted, and asked how much we wanted to put on it, and how much we wanted to use. Also , said that we could use any card to pay for expenses, and that we would not be charged without authorization. On the 28th we awoke to find that there were three separate transactions equalling almost 1000 dollars, without any authorization or communication from the hotel. The charges were automatically declined because the bank thought it was fraudulent. We went to the front desk. And the staff member told us that they had tried to charge my wife's card . No explanation, Didn't act as if anything was wrong. Didnt apologize or have any empathy, just stayed silent until we walked away.

We received calls every day at 7:00am waking us up , saying that we needed to come to the concierge desk to receive our coffee and spa vouchers. We said we would be down to get them when we were ready, but they kept calling all throughout the day. Leaving messages saying the same thing. Finally I went to the desk to receive the vouchers, and was given a voucher for 2 coffees. The Lady at the front informed me that we would not receive a spa voucher unless we went through the timeshare presentation, wich I found to be very deceiving and misleading. I declined the timeshare presentation, and she basically said ok we are done here. And I left. Today we recied another call, asking us if we were going to take advantage of the spa voucher again, and do the timeshare presentation, wich we decined again . Told her how unhappy we were for a multitude of reasons. She said she would " pass along the information" , and hung up. We never received a call.

There have been many issues with the service , professionalism, cleaning, and the staff all around. A few to note. We had called the sports bar, to ask them if we were allowed to bring our own alcohol to the bar, as they did not serve it there, so we could watch the NFL playoffs game. The gentleman on the phone said absolutely, no problem. When we arrived we were greeted by a extremely rude server, aggressively asking us to order something, so we did end up ordering food. After we ate, he continued to push us to order, after declining many times, and basically stomped off acting angrily twards us. He also did this to the people sitting next to us, who ordered a ton of food and drinks, and we were all waiting for the end of the football game, so we could leave. After that he took the remote and turned the volume down so low , noone could barley hear the game, and it was clear they were very bothered by all of the people in the bar . The next day, the same server ( I do not know his name at this time) , Nudged my wife while she was ordering from the poolside bar to get out of his way so he could grab some limes in front of her, and it was clear he remembered us and was acting rude or in retaliation.

We were down relaxing on the beach, and had a bucket of ice I had gotten from the poolside bar, when I was approached by another staff member, telling me that he needed the bucket, and was going to take it. He told me that he would bring me more ice, and never did. In general the staff seems very unhappy, and has a rude overtone as if they do not want to be here.

There was blood all over the floor in the lobby one of the days, and we had to alert staff to clean it up. You would think they would notice a giant trail of blood from the elevator going out the door.

These are just a few instances of how bad this place was. Do yourself a favor and spend your money elsewhere. They will not help you at all, and they will put all the blame on you for things out of...

STAY AWAY.

I was tempted to wait for the completion of my stay to post this review but it has been such an unmitigated disaster that I feel it necessary to do this now and warn fellow travelers about the crumbling mess that has become the Lagunamar.

Disclaimer: I am a Marriott regular and have stayed at this particular property before (4 years ago) so I believe I both the context and the necessary frame of reference to properly describe and rate this place.

Simply put, this place is falling apart at a vertiginous rate and the staff’s muted incompetence is both frightening and absolutely contributing to the demise of what was once a great property.

I arrived on a Wednesday and despite my planned transfer from the airport (all managed by the hotel, mind you), I was made to wait a couple of hours for the room to be ready. Not ideal, but somewhat understandable. Unfortunately, that ended up being the least unpleasant thing about my stay.

The room (that took two hours to be readied) was a flooding mess that looks haphazardly put together at the last minute. Upon contacting the concierge and then the reception, I was told a maintenance agent would come to “fix the issue”. Well, said maintenance agent looked about as knowledgeable and comfortable with the plumbing as I was (which is to say completely befuddled). His first diagnostic was the dishwasher leaking, which he allegedly shut off, and then departed. This (predictably) did not fix the issue, as more and more water seemed to appear right out of the floor. Two drenched towels and a couple of hours later, I was finally able to get back in touch with the front desk to inform them of my ongoing misfortunes and very politely asking them to relocate me to a room befitting of Westin standards. Needless to say, this did not happen. Instead, they insisted to send the maintenance agent another time.

The agent was just as confused and concluded that the leak was instead emanating from the refrigerator, but also claimed that it had been leaking for a while, and the water had accumulated in the wooden fourniture, and was thus released slowly, hence the slow drip of water. Improbable explanation but hey, I acquiesced and once again begged the front desk to relocate me, instead of spending the rest of my evening watching their agent completely change the fridge and re-clean my studio.

After several minutes of tractation and several claims of a lack of “inventory”, I was finally moved to another room, on the first floor of a different building. At 10pm. 10pm.

First and foremost, said room had a cockroach right outside of its door, which was the first sign that this would be another disaster in the making.

The room reeked. If my eyes were covered, I would have sworn I had been led to the gutters of the least sanitized city in the world. But no, it was a room at the Westin Lagunamar.

Once again (now at 1030pm), I begged the front desk to move me to an acceptable room and the manager (who had now been requisitioned by the front desk staff), after (once again) several claims that there were simply no rooms available, finally agreed to move to a “hospitality” room for the night (but only after implying several times that I simply had to choose between a flooding room or the smelliest room this side of the equator) while hoping for a switch to an adequate room the next day, which begged the question: why/how wasn’t this the first alternative proposed upon first being alerted of the issues I was encountering?

5 hours and a ruined evening later, I find myself in yet another room (my third of the night), without my luggage and with an uncertain plan for the remainder of my stay.

As an elite member, this experience has been so far below what I have become to expect of Marriott, Westin and specifically the Lagunamar standards to such a dizzying degree that I firmly believe that this place cannot be saved at this point without some drastic changes being made.

The rest of the property looks run down and tired. This is no longer a 4 star hotel,...