Olas has been my favorite hotel in Tulum for over 10 years. I have stayed there over 5 times & sent countless friends. Like many have said in their reviews, it WAS a gem in an ever changing Tulum.
I brought 15 of my fiends to Olas, for a new mom retreat. All were either pregnant or new moms and we were seeking a restorative weekend.
Over a month after booking out the property, Abby informed me that there was a new venue next door that occasionally played music. The cadence of the music was not always know and "some guests had no complaints about it while others did"... she directed me to their website.
I asked the Abby what she wanted me to do with the information and she suggested maybe changing dates (not an option as all tickets bought) and generally just wanted me to be aware. I asked her to keep me posted on any developments with the venue prior to our weekend. (to which I got no updates until 1 day prior to arrival).
Based on the tone of the conversation, I was not alarmed and expected some music ...
Upon arriving, we were assaulted with techno house music blasting at 1pm.
The hotel was adjacent to a full fledged club that RAGED daily from 12pm to 2am with abrasive,
Deep house and electric metal like music.
To say the music was loud was the understatement of the century. The noise was soul penetrating. The vibrations made the pictures on the walls shake and earplugs along with noise cancelling headphones could not DIM the insane decibels. Our ears hurt and chests pulsated from the vibrations. The inside of the room felt like standing in front of a speaker.
In a million years, you would never imagine that a hotel could or would operate adjacent to such noise.
Friday night, we managed as we expected some music. However on Saturday, the the volume and bass was sooo much louder, that several of my travel companions had panic attacks.
Management was off property for the ENTIRE weekend, and after we alerted them - re the gravity of the gravity of the situation, ignored my call resorting to text messages and email.
Another woman who wasn't part of our group was also horrified and checked out early.
As we were 15 moms, there weren't enough rooms to relocate us anywhere else and we were stuck for this torture for another night.
While we really empathized with Olas as the music is not their fault, we felt that a refund for Saturday night was more that appropriate given the drastic situation.
The management became defensive & aggressive to this ask, noting that they had done their job to "manage our expectations".
Rather than offering compassion and acknowledging a horrible situation- all the owner kept harping about was that they had "managed our expectations"...and that this wasn't their fault.
clearly, our expectations were not managed accurately & we were deceived Re the volume of the music. The owners complete lack of care for the actual experience of his guests and sole focus on his doing a good job in managing expectations was such misplaced energy.
A few lowlights
*having the owner call me at 11:00pm and 5:33am to make sure I would pay the remainder of my bill. (They got worried we would skip out on paying the balance due to noise)
*In the AM, prior to our flights, the staff was instructed to lock the gate & not let my group out out so that we would not leave without paying the balance of the invoice!
*the owner personally threatened me if I didn't pay the balance on-site
As I mentioned I have know management for over 10 years, which made all this even more painful and shocking. It seems that they are aware of the dim future of their property and riding it to zero, without any care for their customers experience.
I am so sorry that this is happening to Olas however after how the owners treated my group, I can't help but think that this might be a bit of karma. read more