Park Royal Beach Huatulco — Hotel in Oaxaca

Booked a 10 day vacation with my family. Decided the Park Royal would be a good option based on other reviews. This experience for us after years of not travelling was very disappointing. After a day of travelling check in was frustrating. We arrived hungry and eating options were extremely limited. The snack bar was only open and only for another 60 min before it closed. Then there would be no other eating options for another hour. There are no food options between 6-7 pm. What kind of all inclusive closes all of their restaurants? Arriving at the resort we had to carry our bags up a flight of stairs to check-in only to have to carry the bags back down while you wait for the shuttle. The shuttle very slow and we waited 15 min to be picked up. When we arrived at our room the door keys didn’t work. The staff never returned with new keys so my spouse had to run back down to get the keys reprogrammed. To get to our room from first contact at front desk to physically getting in the room was 45 min even without having to wait in line to check in. Now we had 15 min to get to the snack bar. The food was garbage. ||As for other eating options, there are basically two. The snack bars are what I would classify as food you’d get after a night of drinking on the town, burgers and nachos. For the restaurants, if you don’t reserve the late day meal at the one restaurant by lining up before 9:30 am, you don’t get in. Why are there no online booking option? The reservations alternate by night, Italian or Mexican. |What was frustrating about the reservation restaurant, some food choices were not available, even though they were on the menu. The other restaurant is a la carte and was a much better option, especially with kids. It actually had authentic Mexican food daily. At times though you would find empty pans that are not restocked in a reasonable amount of time.||As for the room, desk staff told us they allowed only 2 small bottles of water in the room per day. How does this make sense for a family? The shower only had warm water at best. We literally did not use the cold tap at all. We needed to let the water run before hand so it’s not ridiculously cold. The shower pan became a swimming pool during showers because it doesn’t drain properly. We would be standing in a pool of water while we showered. Oddly staff showed the next day asking if a funny smell was coming from the shower. They poured something down the drain but didn’t correct the issue. The shower curtain does not contain water within the shower so the entire shower/toilet area becomes wet. Very slippery on tile. And the bath mat is a waste because it would be soaked. ||In terms of the overall resort, we were told to use the app to learn about the resort; restaurants and map layout, etc. The app is a generic Park Royal app. It was absolutely useless in providing any meaningful info. The resort shows age and wear; paint flaking off the walls, paint drops on the tile, railings wobbly, etc. What shocked me most was the gym. It was right out of the 1980s. I’m a fitness professional and I would not recommend anyone use this unmaintained equipment. It’s a liability waiting to happen. The vacation was booked through WestJet Vacations and I would not rate this resort as a 4 star. ||The main reason I would not recommend this resort is because of the desk staff and their bracelet system. The bracelet style used at this resort compared to others is questionable. They are basically a piece of fabric with a cinch. The ends bounce around and are annoying. Our experience with our child was infuriating. Upon arrival desk staff placed the bracelet on my kid’s arm. Within a couple of hours it tightened very uncomfortably. We reported it and they cut it off, no charge. They put the next one on more loosely. The next day at the beach and playing in the waves it fell off in the ocean. We reported it and the told us we need to pay 1750 pesos ($121 CDN). We refused and said we’d look for it. Each time we went by the desk they hounded us for payment. We basically avoided the desk for the next 8 days. At checkout they asked if we found it and told them no. The again told us we owe 1750 pesos. We refused, asked to speak to management. I had to write a letter noting why we are refusing to pay. Desk staff said if we didn’t they have to pay for it. I call BS. What is infuriating is they cut off the bracelet at check out and throw it out. Also, I saw numerous kids without bracelets so why were we singled out? For this reason alone, I cannot recommend...

I'm tempted to say this is a terrible place so that all the snobby gringo tourists stay away and don't ruin the genuine authenticity here but that wouldn't be fair to the wonderful staff who all put their heart and soul into making this place as good as it can be. |Some of the finer points could be better but i'm just mentioning some things to be constructive and wouldn't be a deal breaker if we had the chance to stay here again.|Caution to everyone who has limited mobility since the complex is built into the side of a small mountain so there are stairs and sloped walkways everywhere, while there are trams they are not always available so we did get our steps in which was not a bad thing!! Also our room had a step down to the bathroom & patio access which could be treacherous in the dark so be careful......|Food at the buffet was not always hot due to the design of the server pans/trays, it did not bother me but my wife likes her food extra hot so wished they had a microwave available to use in the buffet area. Food in general was good, a bit limited because this is a smaller resort, i'm not a picky eater so I definitely didn't go hungry...... shout out to Karen and all the hard working staff at the buffet, a big thank you to Hannia, Horginio and Juan at the formal restaurants for the attention!! |Our room was always a nice cool retreat from the heat and water was always as hot as i needed for showering. We did have an issue initially where we did not have a blackout curtain to block the lights on the patio which are all controlled for the entire building centrally..... we used the mattress from the hide-a-bed in the window which ironically fit almost perfectly....... When we told the front desk they did get maintenance to fix this issue with a new curtain in a couple days. Finer suggestions for the room we had would be adding some hooks by the door and on a few other walls since there was nowhere to hang anything other than the closet..... we had to use our TV as a clothes rack for things we didn't want to fold away in the drawers, stuff needing to dry and hats etc. Our patio was huge but only had a small table and chairs set, i did ask about getting a couple lounger chairs to sit and relax on our patio but was told it was not possible. Having lounge chairs on our deck would have encouraged us to leave the pool area during peak times. |The pool area on the 7th floor was very busy with kids especially at peak times from around noon until 5 pm while the kiddie pool area by the lobby was never used at all because there is nothing for them to do in there and no umbrellas for shade...... being very shallow it's suitable for babies and toddlers mostly..... I would suggest a nice water activities play structure be added in there to attract some of the activity from the 7th floor pool. Addition of a 1 - 1.5M deep pool beside the toddler pool would be a great place to attract some of the older kids for playing their ball and frisbee games. It would be great if 7th floor pool was for adults only. The beach area pool was a nice place to cool off when sitting on the beach chairs however the pool activities lady with the mic was often much too loud for my liking.... actually her voice is quite high so she does not need a microphone IMO. The beach access is a bit of a walk which we did enjoy since the tram is not always available. However the cobblestone road could use some maintenance in areas where the stones are uneven due to tree roots etc. also the walkway beside the parking lot across the street from the lobby building is missing quite a few trees so there are large holes currently where trees/bushes should be replaced, perhaps this is not responsibility of the hotel however because many people from the hotel walk here to access the beach club it would be nice if the hotel took care of that parking lot and walkway since it is becoming treacherous and the empty lot is collecting garbage. |I feel like if some of these finer points were addressed this place would be 5/5 for us because the staff is amazing and they put their heart into making the place as...

We visited this hotel in October 2022 to make use of a timeshare my parents are unfortunately locked in (one that has definitely decayed in quality terribly over the years since they first acquired it). In general its a nice 3 star hotel with a beach club off property and "all-inclusive" offer, however the relationship price/quality is terrible. For the price paid for the hotel (no matter if you book online or use the timeshare option) is way to high for the type of hotel. For that price there are much better alternatives either in Huatulco if you are looking to visit this beach or in other destinations from the same timeshare if you are also trapped. Aside of the price. There are other reasons for giving the hotel 3 stars, I'll try to summarize the pros and cons.

Pros: *The rooms (master suites) are nice, spacious and have very beautiful views of the bay. *Servers in both restaurants are very friendly and go above and beyond to make your stay a pleasant one. *Housekeeping staff is also friendly and efficient. *Food in the Andiamo restaurant, although lacking variety, is very good both for breakfast and dinner. *The pool area in the 7th level is quiet, relaxing, the bar staff is very friendly , and the lounge area above the Andiamo restaurant is cozy and has an amazing view, I would only suggest adding a sunroof to the space to improve it.

Cons: *Reception personnel is very rude and really don't care in helping guests to solve any issue whatsoever. *Common areas are very badly ventilated, the heat and humidity are a real nuisance if you have to stay in this areas for more than 15 minutes. The Veranda restaurant shares the same problem, mostly if you choose a table near the pool area. *The "all-inclusive" offer is very poor. The buffets in the Veranda restaurant lack variety, have a couple of decent dishes but for the most part are lacking in flavor. The snacks in the pool areas are also very limited and the ones offered in the beach club are barely passable. Also there are gaps of time throughout the day where there's no food offering available anywhere in the property. *The beach club space is very small for the number of guests so it easily feels overcrowded. *The hotel's unusual distribution would be quaint if it wasn't so inefficient. You have to either walk very long distances uphill or downhill to move between areas or rely on the transport carts which make their best effort to transport people but are clearly not enough for moving around all the guests, mainly those staying in the lower levels. The day of our checkout only one of three carts was on duty and they arrived an hour later to pick up our luggage causing us to miss breakfast and depart late to get our flight. Unfortunately walking down with the luggage wasn't an option as we were traveling with a stroller and an older guest who struggles walking long distances. *Probably because they are overworked the cart drivers go way to fast up and down the hotel so guests have to really hold to their seats to avoid falling from the vehicle which has no safety measures whatsoever. If you are traveling with young children or an older person you should probably look for a different hotel. We raised the concern several times during our stay. *The TV in the room has an extremely limited number of channels and no kids channels at all. Considering it's supposedly a family friendly hotel there should be an option for them if you want to shield them from the sun a couple of hours. *Probably because of the complexity of transportation around the property there's no room service available and if you want to stock the room's minibar to have some snacks you have to pay an extra fee for that.

Overall despite the nice views, rooms and friendly waiting staff the hotel experience is not worth it. We will probably avoid this hotel for any future visit...