UNICO 20°87° Hotel Riviera Maya — Hotel in Quintana Roo

Just stayed and while I do think the property is beautiful, I have some constructive criticism that I think is important to consider for your stay and for the property itself.

Pros: Great mix of peacefulness and entertainment. They had several pools, some were more chill and others were catered to those who like a little bit of a “party” vibe The personalized hats are a very nice touch and definitely appreciated. The personal “butler” each guest has is nice. Axel would text us every morning with the resorts daily activities and helped us schedule dinner reservations.

The food at the Italian restaurant, asian restaurant, and steakhouse were really good. I like that they have curated drinks already on the menu, of course you can still order whatever you’d like but I think that’s a nice touch. The Mexican restaurant was surprisingly underwhelming to us but there’s still many options to choose from. I recommend eating the a la carte breakfast at Mi Cariso and going to restaurant 2087 for lunch.

Although the resort is far from the central Cancun area, its fairly close to Tulum and wasn’t far at all from excursions like snorkeling and the cenotes.

Cons: Cleanliness overall could definitely be better. I know the resort is in a more rural area so the wildlife is more prevalent, but I feel for the price you are paying, they could do a better job at ensuring the hallways are free of animal droppings. When you order room service you put your trays outside the door for collection and there were multiple times the next morning I saw trays from the night before still sitting by peoples doors, and trays that had been picked over by the animals and food in the hallways. I love the wildlife and the resort is technically built on their homes, but there should absolutely be better management.

The airport transportation should be more streamlined and accessible. We waited over an hour after getting our bags for the transportation people to even tell us we would be getting on a van. They were quiet rude and it was frustrating that they would just walk right past you. Airport transportation is nice to have, but it’s not worth the headache to be standing outside with your bags for an extended period of time, especially because the ride to the resort itself is already over an hour, not including the stops to drop off other guests at different resorts.

The check in process could also be smoother. Being that we got our bags around 2:30, waited and hour to get transported, and other hour or so of driving time, we arrived to the resort around 5/5:30ish, and we still waited nearly 45 minutes to get to our room because of check in. Compared to other comments here that doesn’t seem to be too bad, but thats saying something. Our check person Paschal was absolutely great and his customer service was amazing, but still.

The presentation they make you sit through is really annoying. We were told it would last maybe 60-90 minutes, and despite us expressing we were not interested in purchasing into their program several times, we were there for nearly 2.5 hours. I understand that these programs are a part of a lot resorts business models, but the sales pitch just made me feel like I was sitting through another timeshare presentation, and really took away from my time at the resort.

The resort credits they give you are also a complete scam. You can really only use them on the spa, because the only time you can use them for any meaningful excursions is on Sat and Wednesday ( which we were not told ever until we tried to book one) The credits arent worth it for the spa either because you still have to pay 35%, which can end up being $150 for a simple 50 minute massage. They make you feel like its a deal because the massage itself will be priced somewhere around $7-900, but that seems grossly inflated for what you are getting. I have been to higher priced resorts both in MX and the USA, and have never seen a 50 minute couples massage priced at $900 as a base price.

It was nice for the time being, but overall, I probably...

We got back from our second visit this last weekend. We went in 2018/2019.Check in was disappointing, passed from person to person, pushed the membership talk.All this done when you have been up since 330am and just want to get a beverage and relax by the pool. Over an hour waiting.Room was clean, had the most beautiful view of the ocean! Loved this! Beds so comfortable, aromatherapy is fabulous, love the tub on the balcony! Had a few repair issues that we reported right away. Maintenance did not contact us until the day before we left to fix them.We reserved our room for 3 people but everything was set for 2 people until about the 3rd day, mixology, house keeping, etc.Arrival package not provided until half way through the week.Food - Mura House - phenomenal - but we love sushi!Also, mixed plate fried rice, tuna tartare wonderful.Mexican was great - definitely end with the Mayan Coffee. 2087 great steaks for dinner and breakfast buffet is good but waiters need some smiles on their faces. Italian was a huge disappointment - terrible, steaks were tough and without flavor. Room service was awesome - Steak Chimichurri and burgers were great and the Creme Brule is the best dessert on the entire resort.Pool guacamole and ceviche is fabulous and so are the chorizo tacos!Drinks-sorely lacking this time. Didn't taste like they had any alcohol in them.Bar Balam bartender was not friendly at all. Our pool waiters often times told us they were out of sweet tea! What?? And service was hit and miss at the pools.We absolutely LOVED the floating poker, which is so funny because we are not poker players. However Sebastian and Alejandro were top notch dealers. They made it super fun! We were laughing our butts off both times we played. I am sure the entire resort was watching us and laughing because we were having so much fun. AAAANNNNNGGGGIIIIEEEEE was a great pool exercise instructor. Loved her energy and fun. The miniature golf at night was also fun, much harder holes than anticipated. Our son ended up winning the tournament which may have influenced this review LOL We also did the fingerpainting craft which surprised me...I am no artist but the instructor did a fabulous job making sure each person felt accomplished, highly recommend.We did the Xenote tour through the resort which was great except you feel a little like cattle, they need to space groups out more. You get to zipline, repel, kayak, snorkle and cliff jump into 5 different xenotes.Staff: The highlight of our entire trip was ISABEL who did our turndown every night. Not only was she top notch as she tidied up our room, she was a perfectionist with setting up everything for our evening. Her smile lit up the entire room and we loved conversing with her as she worked. By the end of the week, I wanted to bring her home as part of our family. We just loved her. BEST EMPLOYEE they have!Our host Laura tried, was friendly and enthusiastic but made several mistakes which caused issues with the spa and our check out.My spa treatments, 2087 mindfulness by Jackie and Deluxe hydrotherapy by Mira, amazing, felt like a queen, Agave - was great. My husband and son each got 2 - 80 min massages and deluxe hydrotherapy. Each had 1 massage that was awesome and 1 that was okay. Their hydrotherapy was terrible! This was supposed to be removed from our bill but was not. Also, one of the 80 min massages was not charged the right amount. Jackie from legendary lied to us to get us to do the presentation. Membership presentation: We did do it, however the salesman was super disrespectful to my husband and kept putting him down, which was so weird. We did not purchase. Check out was absolutely miserable! Took me over an hour of being sent from one area to the next trying to get items removed or corrected on our bill. Nobody took responsibility and Jackie and Laura of course were no where to be found. I finally gave up so my vacation wouldn't tank and so we didn't miss our transportation. I would say the 5 diamond resort is no longer...

The Hotel is located in a very relaxing and cute location, around an hour away from the airport of Cancun. The hotel itself is elegant with some Mexican rustic touches. This hotel is mostly for relaxation, but they do offer fun activities and a way to party at night if you’re into that.

We really enjoyed our stay, and would like to visit other Unico locations. And, even though there were some hiccups along the way, we loved our stay.

Main Hiccup: We used “Paradise Pass” for this hotel. Now, the “P.P” was purchased as a vacation package during our stay at the Hard Rock Punta Cana. It was initially advertised to us as a compensation package because they were renovating the hotel. NOTE: This was not as advertised. Upon arrival at the Unico hotel we were told that our “P.P” package included a breakfast to talk about the Legendary shared vacation membership. We were not interested in becoming members, and told them so, but were unable to get out of the breakfast (which ended up being a tour of the rooms for the membership, and a 90 min sales pitch) even though I was sick.

Check-in: We arrived early, and even though our rooms were not ready (which was expected), we were allowed to eat lunch, and use the amenities until check-in time.

Room: The room was incredible. The bed was super comfortable. The bathroom had the option to be closed off from the bedroom, which gives it an extra layer of privacy, I loved this! Hiccup: We selected several pillows, and the aromatherapy from the app before check in, but when we got there they were missing. We then contacted our butler and he resolved the issue with the aromatherapy, but we never got the pillows.

Food and drinks: Most of the F&D in the hotel was amazing! We particularly liked the Japanese restaurant, coffee shop and bar next to the reception. The room service was pretty good. The drinks were made with great quality alcohol, and were super tasty! They also have mixologists in case you want to order something unique, or have them help you find the right drink. NOTE: Something to keep in mind is that all restaurants are a la carte. The only buffet option is at breakfast, and we don't recommend it, as we did not like the way things were undercooked in the buffet.

Service: Loved it! It was probably the best service we’ve gotten at an all-inclusive hotel. Everyone was so nice (with the exception of the last person we spoke to during our Paradise Pass “breakfast”). There were servers everywhere, always willing to help you get what you needed, and with a great attitude. Hiccup: Out butler was not the best in our opinion, as we had to constantly ask for the activity list, and pillows.

SPA: It was very clean, and the massages were good.

Pools and beach: We really liked the pools, they were made to look like they had stones with unique colors, very cute! The servers around the pool were awesome, and always kept up with us. The chairs on the beach were super comfortable, and the servers there were great as well. The beach was AMAZING! The ocean has beautiful colors, and the sand is white. You might encounter rocks on the beach if you get to it from the bridge by the main pool, but if you walk to the left, closer to the second bridge, you will find a patch that is amazing for sea bathing. We were lucky that the waves were not strong when we were there, and that there was very little zargazo, making it a relaxing time at the beach.

Other comments: We were there during El Dia de los Muertos, and the activities, plus the information learned, were amazing. I really enjoyed learning about such important tradition and being able to experience part of it. They even had special drinks and face-painting and the artist we got was amazing! (In general, all of the activities we did were amazing). They gift you a hat, that you can then personalize by taking it to girls who'll paint something on them. Since I was there during El Dia de los Muertos, they had special designs for them. They have bubbles and salts for the...