Hilton Vallarta Riviera All-Inclusive Resort — Hotel in Jalisco

If Google offered half stars I would rate my experience as 3.5 Stars. That is weighted on the idea that this is a 4-Star destination hotel.

Short version: terrible check-in process and food that's simply 'okay' to 'good'.

Long Version: Our stay started with quite a bit of frustration. When we arrived at 3pm we got into one of four check in lines. There were four staff members assisting guests. The couple in front of us told us they'd been waiting for 30 minutes already. It took us 45 minutes from the time we got in line until we walked away from the front desk. We actually kept track and this is not an exaggeration. When staff completed a transaction they would talk amongst themselves and do other tasks before helping the next guest. When people did get their turn, the process itself was excruciatingly slow. I cannot fathom how this process is so difficult. Absolutely not a 4-star hotel check-in experience.

We did appreciate was that Hilton no longer uses key cards. Each guest is given an RFID wrist band to wear for the duration of their stay. This works for your room, elevators, and restaurant check ins. You'll never leave your room without your key! If you have food allergies you're given a red wrist band that alerts restaurant staff that you have allergies! My partner has a peanut allergy and staff promptly alerted her that a dish she ordered had peanuts in it so she could change her order.

Hilton uses an online platform to order things like room service or to schedule restaurant reservations. They limit how far in advance you can reserve a spot at the table. No more than 24 hours, and never after 4pm on the day you want to eat. This is very poorly described on the website you have to use. Day one of our stay the site didn't work at all. The front desk wasn't very helpful with this.

Our room (see photos) was beautiful. With a full ocean view, and a unique glass wall between the bathroom and the room, we constantly had sunlight and a relaxing view. The king size bed was very comfortable. It was firm as we both like it, and you could not feel your bed mate get up out of bed in the middle of the night. Sheets were clean and well fitted, pillows were soft yet thick enough for those who like them firm. The A/C in the rooms is flat out amazing. With each day about 85F plus humidity our room stayed chill. While there were certainly some signs of wear (cracked tile, grout missing, toilet seat with only 1 of 2 screws attached) the room overall was great. The fridge was stocked with water bottles and sodas (if you want these replaced you'll have to ask) and the television was a High Definition Smart TV from LG. My biggest gripe about the room was the fact that every button on the phone called 911. Room Service? Nope. 911. Concierge Desk? Nope. 911.

Restaurants are scattered all over the hotel on different floors and can be hard to find. Some can only reach by elevator. A restaurant on floor 3 can only be reached using the elevator in the Lobby on floor 4. Our room was on floor 3 but there was no way to access the center tower from floor 3 without going up to floor 4, going into the lobby, and taking the elevator down to floor 3 again.

There are restaurants with the same names as well. Sunan is an Asian restaurant. Sunan Sushi however, is in another location and specifically serves sushi. While the food was 'good', we found none of it exciting. I stayed at the 4-Star Hard Rock Hotel in Cabo and was blown away by the food. The sushi there was amazing and staff told you when the fish was caught and where. This was not the case at Hilton.

The property is beautiful. 95% of the staff were awesome, smiling, seemingly happy, courteous, and attentive. We spent most of our time at the beach, in the pool, or sunning on patio chairs. Wait staff are constantly checking in on you to replace drinks, take snack/food orders, etc. There's volley ball in the pool. A giant chess board, outdoor Jenga, a dedicated indoor kid zone for your littles, and staff dedicated to scheduling your off...

Overall it was a good experience but some things need improvement.

The Good: Great view Nice beach area High quality bath products Room remodeled within the past few years Dinner restaurants served great food The room and resort were kept very clean Beach doesn’t have many vendors

Acceptable but could be improved: Most of the staff was friendly and helpful. I’d like if to be all of them instead of 80%. Lunch options are mediocre. The lunch buffet is very disappointing. The fish at the buffet looked good but was very dry and same with the beef. The lunch seafood restaurant was disappointing. The only thing I enjoyed for lunch during our trip was the burger from the food truck.

The Bad: Almost no benefits for Hilton Diamond members. No real room upgrade, no diamond check-in line, no upgraded WiFi, no upgraded alcohol offerings, no upgraded food offerings, no access to the diamond lounge. They even have a lounge but because they call it the “enclave lounge” diamond members aren’t allowed in. They give you a one-level room upgrade but that’s just moving you to a higher floor which isn’t much of an upgrade since all of the rooms face the ocean. Compare that to the other Hilton resorts in Mexico that will upgrade Diamond members to a 1 bedroom suite if there’s availability. The only decent benefit for Diamond members at this hotel is that you can make restaurant reservations in advance to ensure a spot at your favorite restaurant. Compared to the benefits you’re supposed to get, this is a joke. The next failing is that their system isn’t set up well for those groups with more than 1 room under the same reservation. We had 6 people staying in 2 rooms but you can only make restaurant reservations for up to 4 people through their app and you can only have one active restaurant reservation per day. This meant that we couldn’t utilize their app for restaurant reservations and we had to go in person to make reservations. Also, since only 1 reservation is allowed per day, if one couple wants to have dinner together at one restaurant while the other 4 go to a different restaurant, that isn’t possible because you can only have one reservation per day even though we had 2 rooms. This is even true if you make reservations in person. Keep in mind that the dinner restaurants are by reservation only so you can’t just show up hoping to get a table. Unusable WiFi in parts of the resort. I’m writing this review out at the pool and the WiFi is failing and disconnecting repeatedly. And again, there’s no upgraded WiFi for Diamond members like there is at other Hiltons. I wish they’d offer healthier options. For example, if you order a smoothie or flavored margarita they’ll make it using flavored syrups instead of real fruit. We’re in the jungle here and tropical fruit is plentiful. There’s no excuse for them to not serve these things with real fruit. There were several weddings during our stay and at one of them they were playing really loud music until at least midnight. After struggling to sleep because of the noise, I finally fell asleep around midnight so I don’t know for sure how late the music went on. Another night, after I was sleeping at about 11pm, they started lighting off really loud fireworks for another one of the weddings. This woke me up. I understand that weddings are an important part of their business but they don’t have to also hurt the experience of other guests. They should limit the times at which loud noises are allowed. I’m sure they wouldn’t allow me to run up and down the halls screaming at midnight so why are they allowing extremely loud music from a wedding at midnight?

Ultimately, I probably wouldn’t return because of how they treat their diamond members. I don’t maintain top level Hilton status to get almost no benefits. Next time I’ll go back to Cancun where they give Diamond members all of the benefits that they’re supposed to get.

I consider this a 4 star experience for the average person but not for a Hilton...

I will start with the list of good things about this hotel, since it is pretty short. The staff (besides the front desk—see below) is very nice and helpful. Our room was very clean and had a beautiful ocean view. The room service food is pretty decent and we had some pretty good seafood at the Cocomar restaurant.

Now on to the bad:

1). Rude and not accommodating front desk. The front desk was fine when we checked in for us. However another group that came with us had to wait over an hour because they lost their reservation. They eventually found them a room, but this was definitely a concerning sign.

The big issue we had was when we checked out. This hotel uses a wrist band system that gives you access to the different amenities. Also depending on what room you booked, you get a different colored wrist band that allows you to access a few different locations at the resort that others cannot access. This wristbands were nice since you didn’t have to remember your keycard but the color system was frustrating and we didn’t know parts of the resort were gate locked behind booking more expensive rooms. They do not make this clear when you book.

So when we checked out at noon we weren’t planning on leaving till 5pm. Every other resort I have ever been to has been fine with me still enjoying the resort after my checkout time until I have to leave. However, at the Hilton Riviera they said we must have our wristband removed by 2pm with no exceptions. Then when I asked the front desk if we could still enjoy the pool or get some food, I was rudely told to wait in the lobby for hours instead. I told him I was a Hiltons Honors member but apparently this made no difference to him.

The other really annoying thing is I had breast milk I needed to store after we checked out (again because I wouldn’t be leaving for 5 hours). When I asked the front desk they said they had no refrigerator or freezer they could keep it in for me. But I found out after that my friend who was also staying at the hotel asked the front desk to put her breast milk in the freezer and they did that with no problem. I guess they chose not to give me the same service.

2). Difficulty making restaurant reservations.

Their system for making restaurant reservations is really bad and confusing. We arrived on a Friday and thought we were making a reservation for the Mexican restaurant that night, however, the app didn’t make it clear that the restaurant is closed on Fridays (for some reason) and the reservation we were making was actually for Saturday. So we waited for our reservation time and walked to the restaurant only to find out that it was closed so we had to eat the buffet for dinner. The buffet wasn’t horrible, but it definitely was good either.

Another person in our group was unable to make any reservations due to some glitch or issue with the app. The only way to make a reservation instead was to call the front desk. We tried calling the front desk to make a reservation when we were also having an issue with the app but no one answered. We called two more times until we finally got through (also frustrating).

Finally, almost all of the restaurants are closed for lunch. Your only food options are the buffet, food trucks, or the sea food restaurant (which was pretty good).

3). Worst shower head I’ve ever had in a hotel.

Literally the smallest shower head I have ever seen in a hotel with really low water pressure. This is a small issue, but with everything else, this was pretty annoying.

4). Construction sounds.

They were working on some construction right next to the pool Saturday morning for a few hours. It was incredibly loud and made it difficult to relax by the pool.

All in all we were definitely disappointed with our trip here. These resorts cost so much money and I have had nothing but good experiences at other resorts. This was the first time I felt like a resort front desk was rude and not accommodating. I do not think my friend group and I will plan to come back to...