Villa del Palmar Beach Resort & Spa, Puerto Vallarta — Hotel in Jalisco

An update to my earlier post….

Isidro! This is an individual that may easily be considered as ‘a savior’. He is the pool concierge here at Villa del Palmar and he made a complete change for us.

I did not inform him about my reviews online. I did not make any threats. Nor did I present my argument in any aggressive or angry manner. However, I did relay my disappointment in regards to our experience this year. He went away and came back about an hour later.

We were moved almost immediately to a much better room. A room even much better than we would have expected. We really just wanted a view of the ocean. And because of this exceptional adjustment, we will surely come back next year. Same place, same time.

Isidro really made the difference to that.

I shall include, though, that the staff at the reception desk are still rather unpleasant. We were told to speak to someone named I*. He seemed like he was having a bad day. He didn’t really communicate with us the way he was feeling, but he sure didn’t hide it. I know that people have rough days but this is a service industry and maybe I’m a little old school, but I don’t want to see your unhappy feelings if your job is service to people who are paying for the service.

However, enough. We’re in a much better room and the general staff around VPM are truly nice and helpful.

Thank you very much, Isidro, Omar, Luis, and VPM for making this a better and happily memorable stay with you.

Well, it is our second day here at Villa Pal Mar in Puerto Vallarta and I must say, it is the worst time my wife and I have ever had at this resort, after coming here for the fourth time for her birthday every year.

The last few years, the staff would seemingly go out of their way to make sure things were satisfactory for us. Even last year, there was a lot of noise, we felt, that we could hear from our room. They IMMEDIATELY moved us to a nicer room and we were over the moon with their care for us.

They used to be so nice and helpful.

This year, however, it seems that things have really changed. They have staff that even seem to be snide with you. Honestly, if you’re making a number of complaints about a number of problems with your room and the person you’re speaking with says ‘I hope you have a nice evening’, what would you think? It really did feel like she was being condescending, but I will allow for the possibility that I was just so upset with the way things were going that I interpreted it that way. But I just don’t think so.

Last night, our first night here, I was trying to deal with our AC not really working and the fact that there seemed to be a leak in our bathroom that had covered the floor with water. But no one ever came. This was what was causing me to be rather upset. This, along with the fact that we were clearly in a downgraded room from what we had paid for and expected.

We have always had an ocean view. Even a partial view. This year, we’re looking over the carpark area from the second floor. The person at the desk that we spoke with yesterday afternoon says this is the room we asked for, however, we have shown clearly from our booking that it is not the room we booked. They said it’ll take two days till there is a room available for us. So, I have to stay in a room considerably lower than what I paid for. And then, I would have to check out at 11, leave our packed bags down at reception, and then check back in at 3pm for this. What do you think of that? I consider this to be madness for us to have to go through for a room change.

I really get the feeling they are trying to ‘put us in our place’ and trying to make us just shut the h* up and accept what we get.

We have stayed at Krystal a few times. It seems as though we shall go back to staying there. We liked the fact that there is a kitchen in the rooms here at VPM, which was the deciding factor for us coming here. Though, I should also include the wonderful service that used to exist here definitely kept us coming back. But what we are now experiencing has...

We stayed Feb 2025. We have mixed opinions of this resort. The GOOD: Resort location is excellent - right in the middle of the central zone. Service: consistently good! Our servers Rodrigo, Juan Carlos and Paty were outstanding, Liliana at the coffee and cones bar (yes, they have a coffee and cones spot!) was excellent, and Rubi and Sandra (Hostesses) went above the call of duty to assist us. Rooms: The rooms were well appointed with tables, chairs, small kitchenette, full bathroom and beds were comfortable. Real Mexican flare in decor in the rooms. The facility has a great central location to most immediate key attractions. There is a tour desk on site with great excursion options. Dario Gomez was incredibly helpful and booked us a great City Tour (Coffee, Chocolate and Tequila Tour) which we very much enjoyed. The resort location is convenient to a walkable grocery store, mall, pharmacy and off-site cheaper eateries (Handy if you are not doing an all inclusive package). The beach is nice, as are the grounds and hot tubs and pools. They have special event poolside buffets and live entertainment. The entertainers were really good! Ok... so... The BAD: the hotel is dated and is "10-foot pretty", particularly the guest rooms. They are doing renovations, though. A huge frustration: there were never available beach or pool loungers in the morning. Unless you grab one at 7am, forget about it until after 2pm. No Saving loungers policy is published, but is not enforced (highly frustrating). The food: mediocre. Also, there is only one restaurant on site (seafood and steak) which is indoors. All others (Mexican, Italian and Japanese plus international buffet) are outdoor only seating, so food gets cold super quick. Drinks are decent and there are pool-side snacks available. FYI: Both food and drinks are quite expensive if not on an all-inclusive plan. Buffet (example) was $500 pesos per adult (30 USD/$36 CAD). IMHO, NOT worth that much. WARNING: Food offerings/quality: both my husband and I got Montazuma's Revenge we (have deduced) from poorly managed temperatures of food (and constant black flies landing on food) at the outdoor buffet. We ate at the buffet the morning we left and started to have stomach issues on the plane a few hours later. 3 days after arrival home, we are still sick and symptomatic. Our friends also got sick from the same meal. In a separate instance, husband ate something on day 2 of our trip which caused him some nausea and vomiting. We assume undercooked seafood. Food is 100% an area this resort needs improvement. Food sanitation and quality is very poor at this location. I'm pretty sure they would not pass Food Inspection agency standards in Canada or the USA. Just be mindful if choosing this resort, and if you have a sensitive stomach. The whole food-induced illness really put a damper on our experience. Room selection/allocation: they don't guarantee room types - only room class. We booked a king room and got 2 doubles. We had to move rooms 2 days into our stay to get into a King when they had some openings. The front desk staff were not apologetic on this at all. "This is just how we do it here." Overall, despite the foods related issues and poor customer service regarding room reservations, I'd give the resort a 3/5. It's a decent inexpensive option in a good location for families. Just make sure you bring lots of patience and pepto bismol with you if...

Do not stay at this hotel!! Recently my family stayed here and I had planned on a week-long trip. When we arrived we were sat down and told that they wanted to have us go tour another hotel. They also were trying to sell us experiences with another organization. Which is fine however I told the lady up front that my family was very tired and my son was falling asleep. We had been up since 2:00 in the morning. This interaction turned incredibly rude and the lady was not listening to us at all in regards to whether or not we wanted to take their tour and on which day. We were approached multiple times after that trying to push us into their timeshare tour. After the third one I decided that we were going to find another hotel because I didn't appreciate having some employee come and harass us out front of the hotel trying to stop us from leaving in the morning when my son and I were off to an excursion.

After this I let the front desk know and the sales desk now that we were leaving the hotel due to their repeated harassment. When I filed with booking.com to get a refund with the hotel the hotel blatantly lied saying that we left because we had a friend or family member at another hotel. Which is not true. I let them know at the front desk why we were leaving. It was very inconvenient to have to change hotels a day after we had arrived. Fast forward to like 3 weeks later after being on the phone with booking.com and the hotel repeatedly about the refund that the hotel said that they would give us They have issued me less than a partial day's worth of credit. They should have issued me back the full amount at this point in time I had even offered to pay for the day that we stayed there and they agreed to that. At this point in time this matter has probably gone through at least 10 different employees and managers at the hotel. I find it to be a complete inappropriate mishandling of a situation. Not one manager has called me back to talk to me about the situation or has called to apologize to me. The only response that I have gotten is a written response saying that they took what happened to me very seriously posted underneath my review of booking.com. They also sent me a short email but I feel like the fact that the first management team that handled it blatantly lied then I was told I was going to get a refund and then they sent me $181 to cover an entire week's worth of credit is unacceptable. I have stayed at over 200 hotels and have always had great service. I stay in hotels about every other week and have never had any type of experience like this before. It would be appropriate for a manager to call me and apologize as well as to issue me credit for the entire week. It has cost me multiple hours on the phone as well as back and forth emails. After the first harassment for their timeshares I should have had an apology from the employee who did it. I even told her that it was inappropriate and should apologize which she really didn't see a problem with her behavior. I spoke with multiple people in the city of Puerto Vallarta about the situation and they all told me that that hotel is well known for being very pushy about their...