Alaya Tulum — Hotel in Tulum

This was our first visit to Mexico and we started our stay at Alaya after booking through lastminute.com. It’s about a two hour drive from Cancun airport (we organised transfers with Ride Transport and they were fab). We really enjoyed our stay here, it’s an absolutely beautiful hotel and in a brilliant location, but I don’t necessarily think it’s worth the £284 per night we paid based on our experience. ||Pro’s:||- Breathtakingly beautiful hotel with really unique accommodation with balcony - a two second walk to the beach and only 20 rooms I believe they said, meaning you get a really boutique feel|- Private beach access with staff on hand to order food and drink with|- Delicious breakfast menu, although disappointed that it was not included in our room cost|- Friendly staff|- Felt completely safe at all times|- Filtered, drinkable water available at no extra cost in room|- Aircon and fan|- Daily housekeeping (towels changed daily) and room service available|- Large safe in rooms for valuables |- Free access to the Jungle Gym|- Brilliant, walkable location from so many bars and restaurants (we’d recommended Casa Banana!) |- Free Yoga every day||Cons:||- Low pressure, rainfall shower that was really high up with no additional shower head, meaning it took so long to wash shampoo and conditioner out of our hair. Personally, if I’m paying almost £300 for a room, I want a shower that’s atleast as good as ours at home, regardless of where in the world I might be. It also took about ten minutes to heat up and then took another five to change the temperature|- We were told we’d get a daily morning drink and didn’t receive a single one despite asking for it on two separate days. |- We almost missed our excursion after relying on reception to book us a taxi to the pick up spot - we booked it the evening before for 7am but they had not communicated between the staff meaning we didn’t get a taxi until 7:25. Thankfully our excursion was late as well. |- Breakfast not being included in the price|- The curtains in our room had random dirty stains on and had clearly not been washed in a while||Overall the pros definitely outweigh the cons, but I think with a few small tweaks it could be an incredible 5 star hotel. If the shower facilities were improved and the staff were a little more attentive, I think this could be one of the best...

This was our first visit to Mexico and we started our stay at Alaya after booking through lastminute.com. It’s about a two hour drive from Cancun airport (we organised transfers with Ride Transport and they were fab). We really enjoyed our stay here, it’s an absolutely beautiful hotel and in a brilliant location, but I don’t necessarily think it’s worth the £284 per night we paid based on our experience.

Pro’s:

Breathtakingly beautiful hotel with really unique accommodation with balcony - a two second walk to the beach and only 20 rooms I believe they said, meaning you get a really boutique feel Private beach access with staff on hand to order food and drink with Delicious breakfast menu, although disappointed that it was not included in our room cost Friendly staff Felt completely safe at all times Filtered, drinkable water available at no extra cost in room Aircon and fan Daily housekeeping (towels changed daily) and room service available Large safe in rooms for valuables Free access to the Jungle Gym Brilliant, walkable location from so many bars and restaurants (we’d recommended Casa Banana!) Free Yoga every day

Cons:

Low pressure, rainfall shower that was really high up with no additional shower head, meaning it took so long to wash shampoo and conditioner out of our hair. Personally, if I’m paying almost £300 for a room, I want a shower that’s atleast as good as ours at home, regardless of where in the world I might be. It also took about ten minutes to heat up and then took another five to change the temperature We were told we’d get a daily morning drink and didn’t receive a single one despite asking for it on two separate days. We almost missed our excursion after relying on reception to book us a taxi to the pick up spot - we booked it the evening before for 7am but they had not communicated between the staff meaning we didn’t get a taxi until 7:25. Thankfully our excursion was late as well. Breakfast not being included in the price The curtains in our room had random dirty stains on and had clearly not been washed in a while

Overall the pros definitely outweigh the cons, but I think with a few small tweaks it could be an incredible 5 star hotel. If the shower facilities were improved and the staff were a little more attentive, I think this could be one of the best...

We were very excited when we booked Alaya months in advance. We arrived at the hotel with a group of friends. First of all, in this hotel you have to negotiate about everything in order to get a service or amenities. You negotiate on a beach towel, you negotiate on a coffee which is given in the morning free of charge, you negotiate on AC during as it's limited while you pay almost a luxury hotel rate in Eu or US. If you do not insist on the thing you want, you do not get it. (for instance: when my friend asked to use the AC during the day, he somehow got it, however we were told that we were unable to use it between 10:00 - 18:00) The funny part of our stay was on our second day we woke up with a Scorpion (please see on the pics) right next to the bed. We called the House Keeping and they came to take that as it was a very normal animal. When I asked for a room change as I didn't feel fine if that was the only scorpion in the room, I was refused. I seriously couldn't sleep and did not feel fine in that room. There was definitely a hole somewhere as we never left the door open. The reaction of the reception as well as the other employees was weird. They were not even sorry, they did not offer us anything else nor extended apologies. At the beach one server came 5 times to me and asked if I was okay and told me that I look stressed. It was very uncomfortable. I thought he did not believe that I was a hotel guest but although I showed him my key, he was still behaving very weird. In this hotel the issue is there is nobody responsible or the responsible people are not introducing themselves to the guests and taking responsibility of the incidents.

If you really want to stay there, definitely do not take the top floor. There are numerous animals falling down on you while sleeping from their ceiling. Ask them to give you a proper info about the hotel and events (we were on our 3rd day told that they have daily free drinks, we were not informed that there were yoga sessions in the hotel we were told that there was a private fitness event on our last day)

It was such a bad experience we had in Alaya. I genuinely...