Gran Sahara Hotel — Hotel in Playa del Carmen

We stayed at Hotel Sahara only 2 nights in december. We stayed in many different hotels in the area during the time and all were very nice. Sahara was even a bit more expensive than the others but not even half as nice as they were.||From the very beginning when we checked in they didn’t find our booking and they didn’t seem to expect us coming even though we had booked in advance. It went very slowly to do the check in but finally they told us there was a room for us and that we would get a brand new room, no one had slept there yet, so we thought it would be extra nice. ||We were very wrong. The room didn’t look ready for guests, it was an empty looking room with just two beds and a little table. Only a few lamps had the light bulb in it, no towel for hands or on the floor after shower, no safety box, no phone to contact reception, no nothing.||We wanted to take a quick shower and had to keep the water running for 30mins until the warm water came. When we went to tell about the problem to the reception they just told us to be patient. ||Also one of the criterias that we booked a room at this hotel was that there was supposed to be wifi in rooms but it didn’t reach our room so we didn’t have any. ||When we were checking out we were a bit in a hurry and the receptionist made us run back to the hotel room to bring all the remote controls to her. The service in general was very poor. ||We told about all these problems with the room and they admitted that the room wasn’t quite ready for guests and apologized saying that they rented the room for us in a cheaper price than normally (even though the price we paid was same as in all average hotels in the area, not any cheaper) no refund...

Disappointing Stay at Gran Sahara Hotel

Our stay at the Gran Sahara was not a good one. When we checked in, the host was nice and even spoke English. This was as nice as it got for us. The room did not look like any of the pictures, and worse yet was the one-room key policy. Right as you open the door to our room, there was a slot to drop in the door key. This allowed for electricity to be used in the room. No key, no A/C. Which meant that when you returned after a hot humid day of exploring the city, you had another 45 minutes to wait for the room to cool down.

When I asked for additional towels at the front desk, I was informed there was a one-towel-per-guest policy. So, I had to bribe the maid to get one extra towel. There was also an envelope in our room encouraging us to leave tips for the cleaning staff. If we left the envelope empty, our room somehow got skipped for that service. When we put a few pesos in the envelope, we magically got service. This means the maid walked into our room, checked the envelope, and only cleaned if there was money in it.

The beds were the worst in Mexico. They were literally painful to sleep on. We actually went to a local grocery store to buy foam covers for the beds in an attempt to get a good night's sleep.

The water pressure was terrible, and many of the fixtures were broken, leaving holes in the drywall exposed. There was no hot water, just warm water after letting the shower run for about 10 minutes. Also, the pool was dirty each time we visited. Not a very good experience in my opinion. Maybe find another...

We stayed at this hotel for two weeks in February. It is very well located as it is any easy walk to collectives, beach, Quinta ave and Walmart. The hotel was clean, recently redone room with rain shower head. We had lots of hot water and excellent wifi. Includes was a continental breakfast. This consisted of three slices of three different types of fruit with a yoghurt sauce and a sprinkle of granola, slice of toast with butter and jam, fresh orange juice and coffee or tea. For an extra few pesos you could get eggs sausage bacon or omelette. |The staff at the hotel were helpful and polite.|The room had two beds with clean white linen that was changed daily. It did have a desk and chair and well appointed closet with a security safe. There was a pool on the room with a few sun chairs but we did not use so can not comment. |We had a balcony which looked out to a courtyard area so it was quiet. |Drawback: for me the bed was way too hard did not bother my spouse but really I had difficulty sleeping on it. |No toiletries supplied other than soap at sink and shower which is fine with me as I bring my own. |Could use a place to put your suitcases as we had them on the floor.|Walls plain some art would be nice.|Some balconies had patio sets ours did not.|This hotel may be a work in progress |I would return but bring a blow up...