Vista Caribe — Hotel in Playa del Carmen

I always make my reservatiins online,as that has always worked better for us. We were supposed to check-in at 2. We got to the hotel at 12:30 but The desk lady offered to get all the paperwork ready at this time, that way at 2, we could just go up to our room. To my surprise, while checking in, the girl at front desk read my name out loud and immediately looked concerned. There were 2 more people with her and she started whispering to them, and by whispering I mean talking into their ears, being secretive, all this as I stand just a few feet from her. All I could see/hear was them pointing at my reservation. They kept looking at me and my daughter as we patiently waited. The guy ran outside of the hotel to "check" for something, came back and said 'yes, it's ok'. This whole thing took about 10/15 mins. The girl dealing with me was a skinny, tall lady with very long black her. My reservation said to check-in at 2 but as I am waiting, I see a piece of paper stating check-in is at 3 pm. I ask the lady and she says that I can check-in at 2 PM. We leave our luggage and decide to come back at 2: Went to eat and came back to use their pool. My daughter found 2 dead roaches just floating in the water, which made her not want to get back in for the rest of the trip. When we finally got our room, at almost 3 o'clock, they walked us upstairs where we got room 1201: right above the restaurant, on the 2nd floor. Right above the taxi station and facing 5th ave. I've stayed at this hotel 3 other times and we were always accommodated on the 2nd floor facing the pool. This time we were put in a room that the windows did not lock: anyone could come in. The door to the balcony right by 5th av and the cabs had a lock but the window right next to it, was missing 2 pieces of glass which anyone could easily put their hand through there and unlock the glass door. All windows face busy streets: 5th av and the little street that goes down to the beach: There is a lot of traffic, and when I say a lot, I mean a lot of people walking right by there at all times. The curtains wouldn't close all the way. We had to use my hair clips to close them. The noise coming from the restaurant downstairs is horrible. All the clubs down the strip playing loud music till 3 in the morning, and trust me, you can hear EVERYTHING. It was like getting in your car and blasting the music or even worse. Once these clubs close, you hear all the drunk people screaming, yelling, laughing and partying as they are attempting to leave. We stayed 4 nights, we were not able to sleep at all. We would nap at the beach, as the noise there was not even close to what we were experiencing at the hotel. Their Internet doesn't work. Well, they told me it was only available by the pool and desk area. 3 nights later, I hear this other lady with short hair, tell new guests that the password to their Internet modem in their rooms was their room number and something else, all in capital letters. I don't know if they just didn't want us using their Internet in our room or if my room didn't have this 'amenity', which was offered to us when making our reservation. We had 2 beds, 2 beds that you can feel the springs and you can see how uneven and bumpy the mattresses are. This as air. We had a 4 night stay and they only came in one time for room service. They never change the bed sheets. You don't get toiletries or toilet paper. The 3rd night I went downstairs to ask for new towels and the lady had to text somebody else for approval. We were 3 ppl, and she only gave me 2 towels. The toilet wouldn't flush, at all: We literally had to fill up a trash can with water to be able to flush. We had to do this every single time we used the bathroom. The water/bathroom smells like sewer. The toilet or shower, one of the two, kept leaking water all over the floor. It was just a...

The hotel is in a great location, just right off the pedestrian only 5th Ave and close to the beach (though not really a great beach to be had in Playa Del Carmen) and just a few blocks from the Tourist ADO station. Just note though that 6st has some construction on and although taxis seem to access the hotel, mini vans won't and will usually wait for a pick up up the street at the OXXO on 10th Ave.|||| Hotel price was great, even for New Years and arriving very early in the morning, I was able to pay an extra 400 Pesos to get into my room before the standard 3pm check in.|||| My room upon entering looked great, it had a single small bed next to the door that I was unware I even had a 2nd bed. A wooden dining table with 4 chairs, a smallish balcony which wasn't as good as some of the other ones I saw due to being more of a corner unit, but still over looking the pool. A decent sized fridge and a microwave. Though there isn't any plates, utensils or the like so you'd need to get over to the Chedraui or other grocery stores to pick some kitchen supplies up that you might need.|||| The bedroom had a very large bed and the infamous swan towel which looked really nice. There were outlets beside each side of the bed, a very small TV up in the corner (which I never bothered with) and something I over looked as I had placed luggage on it the entire stay until the last night, was a remote for the AC unit which exists. I was using fans the entire time after hearing there was no AC in the hotel, but that either must have changed recently or maybe others, like myself, just missed the remote. And that made a whole lot of difference with the humidity. There's even options to turn off the blue display on the AC so you can sleep better and still have it running.|||| The walls are kind of barren and lack painting, but still it's a nice design. The safe is a little awkward. You actually have to request the key from the front desk which also includes the locking mechanism. You need to put that into the safe and then lock it that way, and to open the safe, you have to insert the key and physically remove the locking mechanism from the safe to open it. A little odd, but functional. On first impressions one might think the safe is actually broken as it just looks like a shell with no way to lock it. So make sure you request that at check in.|||| Bathroom was ok, the hairdryer had a lot of what looked like mold on top of it, and I never bothered to use it anyways. Shower water was never warm, always cool. A friend who stayed there as well said they had to wait a good 15 mins with the hot water running to get any, but I've been to other places up in Cancun that were similar, so just don't expect hot water often or as in my case at all. I was ok, because remember, I forgot the place had a AC unit in it and I was hot inside all the time.|||| The grounds are good, they have a game room with a ping pong table and couches and a TV and the pool has a nice bridge separating two different parts. A currently closed swim up pool bar and then a smaller shallow pool on the other side.|||| The only thing with the pool is that they do scuba training there for their tours which share the property. So often you will see groups of people with their gear in the pool learning the basics.|||| Overall a decent place and great for the price in this area if you like the tourist area. It is close to all the excursion booths and such as well and a close walk to the Cozumel Ferry too, not to mention walking to Chedraui, Walmart, Mega, etc. making it a...

So booking this hotel I had such low expectations based on all the reviews I'd read.||Got to the hotel at 10am. Early check-in was not a problem. There was no help to bring bags in or up the stairs... Again I was prepared to hate my room but was pleasantly surprised. The room was lovely and spacious, Nice big bed, lounge area with a fridge and microwave. The bathroom was clean and had 2 little bars of soap and shampoo. I even bought my own air freshener as some people had complained the rooms smelt. My room didn't. Our balcony looking to the left you could see 5th avenue and to the right you saw the sea. The location was perfect. At night yes you could hear all the noise from 5th avenue, but by then I was so shattered that it didn't bother me and I fell asleep anyway. It was also good for people watching in the evening. The room was cleaned every day by Amelia. Yes they do use the pool for diving lessons. I saw this over the 2 weeks I was there, maybe I was lucky, but they never used it whilst I was in the pool or wanted to go in. I saw the pool being clean often and didn't have any problems letting my 4 year old use them.||Yes the hotel does have its faults. If you're expecting a 5* hotel then this isn't the place for you. I enjoyed my stay here and would definitely use it again if I was to go back to this area. My room was clean, the hotel was central to everything. Taxi stand right outside, Walmart 5 minutes drive away. All the restaurants and shops you could want. The beach was less than a minute walk away. I won't say the hotel is perfect, yes it does have faults and some things need improvement. But I didn't go all that way on holiday to sit in a room and find all the faults. You're in Mexico if you want a big fancy hotel then be prepared to pay big money. There is a water cooler in the lobby, where you can fill your bottle. There is WiFi, spotty at times. I managed to get it in the living room and bedroom. Yes it was slow, but all I wanted was to check emails and WhatsApp messages. The staff were as helpful when they could. I requested a late check out which wasn't a problem. There is building work taking place on the same street. Wasn't impressed with the taxi drivers talking so loud early mornings. I expected the worse hoped for the best and was met half...