Update: After posting this review, I was contacted by the Assistant Director and met with Javier at…read morecheckout. He was professional, genuinely apologetic, and handled the conversation the way a hospitality manager should. He listened, acknowledged the issues, and de-escalated appropriately. It's clear he's been trained well. I want to give credit where it's due. My complaints about Andres stand, but Javier restored some of my faith that the hotel's leadership understands how guests should be treated.
I really wanted to like Privilege Aluxes. Isla Mujeres is beautiful and we were looking forward to a relaxing few days. Unfortunately, this hotel made that difficult at nearly every turn.
We booked a four-night stay and were placed in a suite that shared a wall with what I can only assume was a nightclub. The music was deafening, going until 4am one night and around midnight on others. Not exactly the peaceful beach vacation we had in mind. We were also told a complimentary bottle of liquor would be delivered to our room. It never came, and we never bothered following up because by that point we had bigger concerns.
At check-in, we let the front desk know my wife has a gluten intolerance. They wrote it down. That was the last time anyone seemed to remember. Every restaurant on the property tried to serve her items with gluten. Staff could not tell us what was safe to eat and confidently told her certain dishes were fine when they absolutely were not. She spent most of the trip eating chips and guacamole because she was genuinely afraid of getting sick. For a resort that specifically asks about allergies, the lack of communication between the front desk and the kitchen was honestly dangerous.
The most frustrating part came when we tried to extend our stay by one night. The acting manager, Andres, quoted us $800. I showed him the hotel's own website listing the same suite at $662 and a standard room at $451. He shrugged and told us we should book online if it was cheaper because he could not help us. So we booked through Expedia.
The next morning we were told we had to leave the property for three hours between checkout and check-in, despite this being a continuous reservation at the same hotel. We could see rooms listed as available online. When we brought this up, he claimed nothing was open. It felt like retaliation for not paying his inflated rate. No offer of late checkout. No early check-in. Not even a suggestion to use the pool or beach while we waited. Just be out by noon.
I calmly explained that our experience had not been great and that this could be a chance to turn things around. He was completely uninterested.
On top of all this, the bartender at the Playa Norte beach club was rude every time we interacted with him. The service overall felt undertrained and indifferent.
I do not write reviews like this often, but I would hate for someone else to spend this kind of money and walk away feeling the way we did. There are other hotels on Isla Mujeres that will treat you better.