My issue with this resort was they encouraged you to purchase the travel insurance. Then, ince you cancelled all they would issue is a credit. We booked this trip for a destination wedding. The only reason we were going was to help babysit my son's children. We cancelled because my daughter in laws mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 cancer, so my son & his wife cancelled. We are now STUCK with a credit to this place. We do not want to ever go to an all inclusive again. They served a purpose when our boys were young but no longer for us. Our reservations are nontransferable to one of our sons, but the reason for the review is just to say that their staff was absolutely no help at all with this issue. I do not feel bad complaining because other attending this destination wedding had issues as well. My only advice is the insurance is a rip off. It is not necessary at all for this resort. read more

This is not one of my favorite resorts here in the riviera maya but it is very nice and centrally located in Playacar which gives you easy access to everything. The staff is very friendly. However they do not wait on you like other resorts. You have to get up and go to the bar but that's not too bad. The entertainment is amazing! Would definitely recommend going to the evening shows! The food is good for the price, it is all inclusive and not too pricy per person. The desert is better than the food!(: I definitely recommend upgrading to the adult only premium if you aren't traveling with children. If you are, they have a nice kid pool. The beach there is amazing !!!!! So that itself is worth the stay (: read more

Sandos Playacar - Beach Front (: - Hotels Near Me - Playacar, ROO

I would not recommend Sandos Playacar. You are not allowed to eat at restaurants unless you have reservations. You cannot book reservations until you check-in. As soon as we arrived, we went online to make reservations and all of the reservations were booked for the duration of our stay. We had to slip $20's to employees to get us on the books. Then, we quickly learned the food/drinks were awful - almost not edible. We spent a few hundred dollars in taxis alone to eat off the resort. The staff was not very friendly, the rooms were outdated and small, and the beds were very uncomfortable. I could go on... I really can't think of one good thing to say about the resort:( read more

Sandos Spa . We have made it a tradition every year to get the Sandos special. It is the perfect combination of therapy to get those knots out and relaxation for pure enjoyment. Today after recommended to us from Zayas (by the way, he's awesome. Only book your massage is through him) We had the most mind blowing intense wonderful 80 minute Sandos specials we have ever had! My husband (who is 6'2 and 200 pounds) wanted someone extremely tough. He had Teresa. Said she got out knots from his back he didn't even know he had! My girl ( Aracely) had absolutely magical hands! Also digging out knots in my shoulder blade that were hiding behind other knots. The 80 minute allowed her to pay extra attention to detail to every inch of my body that needed it. When she worked on my big toe I could feel it in my shoulders and when she rubbed my arms I had radiating comfort and pleasure going down to my feet. I kept groaning it felt so good. The massages are worth every penny and even that a lot less expensive the massages in the states. Do whatever you have to do to save the small amount of money for these massages and please tip decently. We usually do a minimum of US$20. Once you experience this Sandos special with either one of these girls, you will get one EVERY visit ! read more

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This place has gone downhill in the last three years. Don't waste your time or money at this resort and do not get suckered into joining their vacation club membership (Royal Elite). Here are a few things that have changed since the last time we came. 1. We entered a very hot lobby in which it took at least 45 minutes to check in. After checking in, the receptionist suggested we take our own luggage to the rooms because they were understaffed and would take at least an hour for us to get our luggage sent to our rooms. Seriously? It would have been at least a half mile walk at 11:00 pm after a long day of traveling because the adults only section is on the other side of the resort. -- Last time we visited, the lobby was air conditioned, it took 10 minutes to check in and all our luggage was sent to our room with no issues. 2. I called MULTIPLE TIMES to make dinner reservations and we only managed to book one dinner reservation for our entire 1 week stay. They said the restaurants were at maximum capacity yet when we passed by the restaurants, there were only a couple of families inside. When we arrived to our dinner reservation, we were the ONLY family in the whole damn restaurant for the first half of our meal. -- Last time we visited, we were able to make a dinner reservation every night with no issues. 3. Nobody answers the phone: room service, housekeeping, royal elite. When I went to the Royal Elite customer service office, they had the audacity to say that we should have called their office if we were not satisfied with our stay and I told them I called MULTIPLE times and absolutely nobody answered. 4. Since we couldn't get reservations at any of the restaurants (except one night), we had to eat at the buffets for every meal. By the end of the week, we got so sick of eating the same food that we started taking taxis to eat outside of the resort. The food quality is equivalent to that of HomeTown Buffet. If you enjoy eating crappy buffet food for breakfast, lunch and dinner then this is the place for you. 5. They put a lot of effort into making you get a membership with them. On our first visit, the resort was in much better condition and we actually enjoyed our stay there so we became members. Little did we know that "Royal Elite Members Only" sections are not actually for all Royal Elite Members (does that make sense? no it doesn't). You have to be a specific level of membership to gain access to those areas. When we signed up for our membership, I specifically recall our salesperson telling us that we would have access to all those exclusive sections in the resort but we did not. Overall, this place has gone to shit. There are other all-inclusive resorts that are much better quality. read more

Booked this trip for 5 days I definitely regret it there's only 1 buffet food sucks transportation sucks my daughter hurt her self and couldn't walk they tried to make us rent a wheelchair. on the all inclusive website they have a 4.9 stars I wish I would i Of checked yelp I will never go to this dump ever again read more

This spot is absolutely beautiful. I had an amazing stay of 7 days with my partner & friends. The food was alright. What we liked the best was the Mexican restaurant, the Steakhouse, and the Asian spot, as well as the Ocean Front View Breakfast. Although because of COVID a few other restaurants were closed sadly & they had no night life activities only the shows in the theater. The Adults Only Section is absolutely beautiful all the pools and the drinks. The beach is gorgeous. Very clean & literally empty, the water sports activities we did was so much fun. The hotel workers were very nice, as well as the maids who cleaned our rooms. Everyone's really nice in Mexico! We loved it. read more

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My husband and I have enjoyed coming for a months stay every November since the Resort was refurbished about 15 years ago. We find the grounds and beach breath taking with the Resort touting the most beautiful beach in Playa del Carmen which it is! We find the food in the Buffet our favorite restaurant out of 6 or 7. We enjoy the flexibility of the Buffet where we can be spontaneous without the need for dinner reservations. The chefs at the Buffet offer a variety of foods and take great care to switch up each of the meals. A+ for the staff of the Buffet. As far as the Resort staff there are three who stand out for us: Maria, Outside Guest Service Representative, Zayas, Spa Representative, and lastly Lucila Escobedo, Housekeeping. All three of these individuals made this years trip extra special. They are friendly, helpful, thoughtful and true gems for the Resort! I do have a negative comment for the Royal Elite Membership Club. While we enjoy all the amenities Membership gives us in the Resort we are VERY DISSATISFIED with their reception and obtaining the room/s we request every year in advance. We are initially given a HORRIBLE room which we have to fight to change the following day. This happens almost every visit. When potential buyers are courted for purchase of Royal Elite Membership they are told they will receive upgraded rooms. Not our experience over the past 15 years. It is ALWAYS such a fight to get a room in the bank of rooms of your choice. Buyers be ware!! read more

My wife and I came to Sandos Playacar on our Honeymoon. We had high expectations (obviously) and we're lucky enough to have family that recommended Sandos and allowed us to take advantage of their Royal Elite Status. I'll keep this narrative brief and instead provide an in-depth pro/con list, but in short I'll say it's a pretty mixed bag here (thus the 3-star review): Pros to start: -------------- *The location is perfect. Off the main roads, in a "gated" community with beautiful paseos lined with other beautiful resorts and condos. *The grounds are immaculately maintained, planned and planted (I'm a Landscape Architect, so this is big for me) *The beach and Caribbean views (with Cozumel visible in the distance) are beautiful. White sand beaches with plentiful shade from gorgeous palm trees and plenty of seating. *Close proximity to El Centro de Playacar. 7 minute taxi ride which is $10 USD (or less). Taxis line up at the main entry and are super easy to use. *Pool areas (we only used the Adults only Royal Elite pool) are nice with plenty of seating and palapas for shade. *Staff are overall super friendly (more on staff/services below). My wife is fluent in Spanish which definitely helps. I'd recommend brushing up on basic Spanish to help you get by, but most folks speak enough English if you don't know any Spanish. *The Spa (extra $$$) was quite nice, we did a couples massage that was really relaxing and checked all the boxes. *The rooms are comfortable. We spent more time than expected in ours (because things shut down pretty early, and a mild Hurricane rolled thru on our last couple days) and it was fine. *The Avenue Bar (Royal Elite only) served decent drinks and was a fine place to enjoy a nightcap. *Seek and Go was good enough for excursions. We had a great time on ours (a short morning trip to Tulum). Cons (unfortunately): --------------------- *Food really is not good. You will find enough food to get you by, but mostly it is bland and uninspired. If you're looking for anything authentic or good during your stay here, go into town (which sucks since food and drinks are All-Inclusive). *The buffet is large, and there are plenty of options for Breakfast, lunch, and dinner but the food itself is as described above. I also got pretty bad food poisoning on our 6th day here that pushed me away from any and all of the meat options for the rest of the trip. *Lots of restaurant options, but you have to book your reservations at each for the duration of your trip AS SOON AS YOU ARRIVE or else you will be stuck at the buffet or the burrito bar (long lines, small portions, mediocre as well) for your dinners. *AVOID ASIANA. Only food I would say is terrible. They should close it, move the steakhouse (which shares space with the Brazilian style Fogo) into this space and invest the money they'd otherwise spend on Asiana for better food/quality. *Drinks are also mediocre. You really have to push (like any All-Inclusive resort) or order a lot to get anything strong enough to feel even just a buzz. *There is basically zero pool side service. We had brought a good amount of cash for tipping servers poolside to keep food and drinks coming, but unfortunately the only pool side service we got was a bucket of Coronas (twice during an 11 day stay that we paid separately each time for). Do not expect to be served at the pool, except at the bar counter (expect lines). There is also no food service to speak of at all at the pools. *The only food near enough to the pool that we experienced was a dreadful buffet style bar that had rotating options at the Blue Moon bar. 4 options (usually a sad assortment of chicken, scary fish cooked with bones and eyes and fins and all, and a salad bar) were all that are available there. Best to skip it and buy chips and snacks from the commissary near the center of the resort. *Staff, while nice enough, seem to be content in their set positions and as mentioned above, will not be bringing you anything from the grill or bar. *The wifi is god awful, especially in the rooms somehow. Better service is found near the pools, but if you're planning to work in your room or around campus anywhere, definitely look elsewhere. *This isn't terribly important, but if you like to wind down by watching some TV in your room at the end of the night, you'll be super disappointed. You're stuck watching the nightly news and only the nightly news on these stations, so if you're from elsewhere (we're from Oregon) you're stuck learning an awful lot about the local goings-on in NYC and Miami. No streaming options are available and the wifi is so bad you won't be able to utilize Netflix or anything on your phone or tablet. While it seems like there are a lot of Cons, there are enough quality amenities here to make our stay worth it. With that said, I can't say we'll return, since the food situation alone had us wishing our trip was a few days shorter. read more

I want to first preface that the only reason this resort is receiving 2 stars instead of 1 is because the service staff was mostly very cordial and helpful and the resort grounds are nice. On the second night of our trip we discovered a leak in our bathroom ceiling, and after quite a bit of time and multiple efforts to contact someone over the phone late at night, we were finally moved to a different room, with most of the information being communicated to us via a Spanish-speaking maintenance working typing into a translation app on my phone. While we understand that things can go wrong in rooms, the process was very frustrating, especially since there was no follow up from anyone at the resort to either apologize for the inconvenience (having to hastily pack up our things late at night) or check in and see how we were doing in the new room (which was not move in ready, and we received no response when we attempted to call reception regarding this). We expressed our concerns with guest services the next morning who said that we would be receiving a bottle of wine in our room and that a romantic dinner would be arranged at one of the restaurants. While we didn't think that this was adequate compensation for our trouble, we didn't want to waste any more of our vacation on the matter. However, no bottle of wine was delivered and when we arrived at the restaurant, we were told that there was no record of a romantic dinner. We tried speaking with guest services (once again, using more of our vacation time on the matter) to ask to speak to a manager on duty and the staff member we spoke with was very courteous and arranged for a bottle of wine to be delivered to our room right away. We left a message for management to contact us as soon as possible. When we returned home, we sent an additional email expressing our dissatisfaction. We have not heard from anyone thus far. Ultimately, the message we received from the resort is that the quality of our care did not matter. Additionally, the rooms are not nice and the resort seems to focus more on upselling its guests for other services, rather than adequately providing them with already paid for services. The beach towel distribution system was asinine and arbitrary. Beach vendors will also approach you every few minutes. It is also frustrating to have to do everything either in person or over the phone (such as making dinner reservations), especially since it's so difficult to get ahold of anyone on the phone. This was not our first Mexican resort, but it was our first planned vacation since the beginning of the pandemic, and unfortunately, it was marred by a lack of care, an inability to contact hotel staff, and a very mediocre room that fell below our expectations. This was far from the relaxing vacation we had hoped for. We will not be returning to any of the Sandos resorts. I do not recommend staying here. read more

STAY AWAY!!! The service in this place is awful unless you are a member and have the black bracelets, and sometimes with black bracelets you still dont get good service. We went with a promotion, that made us go to a meeting. In that meeting the showed the resort and give you promotions to became a member. They tell you that they are offering nights in the resort for some price and youst need to for the food, THIS PART IS A TOTAL LIE. You are not paying for the rooms you are paying extra for the benefit to be a member inside the resort and the benefit to stay in las haciendas if you book on time. Otherwise I didn't see any other benefits. You still need to pay for the room in the price of the food. They tell you that you can use the resort for less money if you don't have a room. That means that you didn't pay for the rooms, you pay for the extra service and the bracelets. If you want to cancel you are going to loose all the money and they still everything with contracts that is all in their benefit. My recommendation is not to believe in them. Service is not good and membership is a still. read more

This was our first trip to Playa del Carmen. Overall we enjoyed our stay at Sandos Playacar, but it was located about 45 minutes from the airport, and we wondered whether staying in Cancun would have been just as nice. We were with another couple who had their baby with them, so we stayed in the family section (blue wristbands). They told us it would be a half mile walk to the beach area, but the ten minutes it took to get there allowed us to see the beautiful grounds of the resort and some of the other things the resort has to offer, such as free bike "rentals", the spa, etc. We thought the food was acceptable; some sit-down restaurants are definitely better than others, but it's always enjoyable to have wine poured at the table and to be able to order as many different dishes as you'd like. The breakfast buffet is extensive and includes an omelet station as well as make-your-own mimosas and Bloody Marys, so you can start drinking as early as you'd like. We actually liked the atmosphere of the family pool more than the adult pool. The family pool has a swim up bar and the option to sit outside the pool but on sand. It also had more upbeat music and more people. When we visited we were told that it was only at 60% capacity, so we did not feel like we had to fight for pool or beach chairs, and we never waited more than 10 minutes at any restaurant. We went to the Michael Jackson and Lady Gaga shows; you do not want to miss Lady Gaga! We enjoyed the margarita "van" that was open several of the nights we were there that is located near the adult pool. Definitely try the spicy margarita! Some negatives include the strawberry daiquiri. It tasted too artificial. I would also highly recommend that you bring your own Yeti, or similar type cup. The resort reuses their plastic drink cups. Although they wash them with a cleaning solution at the bar, they just seemed to dip them quickly; I was leery about using them but did not have another option. Our biggest complaint was that one day after being out for most of it, we came back to our room to find a sign hung on our door that said we needed to call security immediately. When they arrived we were told that housekeeping had found our safe open. We were very doubtful of this, as the safe requires you to hold it shut, enter your passcode, and press the "lock" button. There was just no way that we would have not noticed it open. We weren't sure of the exact amount of money we had on us at that time, but it looked close enough to what we thought we had left and our passports were still there. It just left us feeling like the safe wasn't really that "safe" and we questioned whether people were in and out of our room while we were gone. I'm not one to revisit places once I've visited them, so I can't say I'd come back to Sandos Playacar. With that being said, we felt comfortable with the price point and felt like we got our money worth. read more

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We haven't yet completed our week here but I would like to give a big 5 stars to Sandos for being so welcoming, accommodating and family friendly. We came to Playa Del Carmen as a family to celebrate some really big life achievements as well as my husband's birthday ( always a big deal) and this all inclusive thus far, has exceeded our expectations! We came in four families deep! 20 people total and there was something for everyone. An adults only section, activities throughout the day and night for the kids, a teen Club, multiple bars, a spa, 24/7 room service, multiple restaurants and super huge buffet and private beach access. The French restaurant has been our favorite by far, the kids love the buffet and fresh juices in the morning. Everything is spotless and the staff is always helpful and friendly. Being able to sneak away and then party with everyone all in the same day makes for some great memories! I highly recommend Sandos Playacar All Inclusive for a family vaycay! A 5 star "All food, all Alcohol, all fun!" Review read more

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We bought into the Royal Elite time share program a number of years ago, and this is one of the places we could go to. This was our second time to this specific resort. The first time was really nice, this time, it fell far short of expectations. It took us nearly 2 hours to check in. They had a line a mile long and 3 clerks working. There were a ton of other employees standing around texting on their phones, not trying to make eye contact. They couldn't have cared less about making their guests happy. In the week we were there, we never once had hot water in our hotel room. We weren't alone. A ton of other people had the same experience. The service staff was not very friendly. To top it off, one of the employees said they were all upset because people weren't tipping. Really? With that kind of service? Give me a break. To be fair, I know they are just recovering from COVID, but I know they can do better. We vacation a lot at their Finisterra property in Cabo, and that place gets 5 stars in my opinion. Come on Sandos, you're better than this!!! read more

Literally stay anywhere else. *RESORT OFFERS DISCOUNTS TO GUESTS WHO SIGN A WAIVER PROMISING NOT TO LEAVE A BAD REVIEW* Rooms: outdated and dirty. The fridge leaked multiple times and was moldy inside. The TV rarely worked. The vents were filthy and the smoke detectors in multiple rooms were either dead, hanging off, or taped up. Water dispenser is sketchy at best. Food and drinks: drinks to be expected but food is horrifying - especially the buffet. The resort is huge and the trolley is unreliable + doesn't run late at night so don't go here alone or plan to wander in the dark AT ALL. We attended a wedding and at least 20 of us have some mystery illness now (not covid but some sort of bacteria) read more

Run away! We are taking pool water up to our room in a trash can so we can flush our toilet. This place is done. Update: this morning they are running a jack hammer at 9 am. read more

Let me start by stating I was very weary about coming due to the amount of bad reviews but there were some good things I observed that are worth noting. As a preface, I would like to state I would definitely not come back to this resort but it wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. Pros: - Buffet was good enough for a resort, I personally enjoyed the food as well as the wait staff. - The burrito bowl place was absolutely fantastic but only about 1 or 2 workers but they did a great job. - The workers did great job clearing the seaweed from the beach in the morning. - Pool was great place to either relax or do some fun activities--there were many places to sit and place your stuff. - I had read bad things about the shuttles but surprisingly they worked well and on time for us. The only downside was that we didn't know was that the shuttles stopped running after 11 pm. So after dinner one night at 11:06 pm a shuttle wouldn't take us back to our room and we had to walk in the dark. - The room we stayed in was very air conditioned as well as the lounges and the burrito bowl place. - I heard negative things about the customer service when checking in but we had absolutely no problem and the staff was very kind with us while we were checking in. - Our room was cleaned, bed made, towels stocked every day which was very much appreciated. - Fortunately we had a room very close to the beach and the view was beautiful. - Workers were all wearing masks & socially distancing. - The empanadas from the Argentinian restaurant are to die for, they're so good! I also recommend the roasted duck from the Asian restaurant. - The shows they put on at night were so entertaining, my favorite was the Michael Jackson tribute. - the seek and go taxi was on time and very kind. Cons: - Beware of critters--If you don't like roaches, worms, moths, agouti's, etc. you may want to choose a different resort. I understand bugs outside but when we first arrived we found a worm in our room by the bed. We then proceeded to find roaches in corners of the room as well as in one of our suitcases. There are some huge moths that are beautiful to look at but don't want to see while eating dinner. - The lobby, buffet, and some restaurants such as the Argentinian restaurant aren't air conditioned so it will be a little hot when eating. - The pool is clean usually in the morning but gets a little dirty thorough out the day which is understandable but there are no "pool cleaners" and or waiters. - The room and shower are overall outdated. The shower in our room was very dirty like it hasn't been cleaned in a while but it was okay to deal with, the water pressure was also very low. - Personally, the wifi worked well for me but for my family it wasn't really working anywhere except for maybe the premium lounge. - The resort is very spaced out so we did lots of walking. - Room service takes 30 min to an hour, the food was very basic and looked kind of old. - The small animal enclosure/ "petting zoo" was just sad, those animals looked abused. - Hour wait for the food at the Italian restaurant. -Lines at the reception usually take about 30 min- an hour to get through Essentially, I had a good time but I wouldn't come back. I would recommend this resort to people who don't care about bugs or heat. I do also think we were treated well over others because we are Mexican and speak fluent Spanish, there is some clear discrimination towards other races. I read more

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We came to Sandos for a wedding and found the resort quite nice! Since there is so much here, I will break it down by different areas. The room we had, one of the haciendas, was beautiful! It consisted of a sitting room, bedroom with a sitting area and 2 bathrooms, one of which had a tub. There were also 2 balconies overlooking the private pool area. Everything was very comfortable and there was a lot of room! The bed was nice and firm and the air conditioner pointed directly at it (I needed the cold air to sleep so that was a plus for me). The air was controlled by a remote so it was easy to turn it off and on. There was also a 5 gallon water cooler in the room. It was difficult to fit a large water bottle underneath but we made it work. All in all, we really enjoyed the room. Very clean and comfortable. The pools and beach were great! We mostly spent time in the adults only pool and the only downside was the very loud music and games they played. I felt like I was always shouting when talking to me friends. The beach was amazing. Great chairs with plenty of shade! There was record amounts of seaweed when we were there but it was easy to walk over to get to the water. There are a lot of food options and since we were Royal Elite, we could access them all. My favorite by FAR was Gourmex. It. Was. Amazing! The food was fantastic and our server, Luciano, made our dinner perfect! I had the corn appetizer, lime soup and shrimp fajitas with chocolate cake for dessert. Pro tip, ask for an extra tortilla with the fajitas. They also make guacamole right at the table and it was the best guacamole I have ever had. The food at Fiesta, the buffet, was also really good with a large variety. We did not care for El Goucho, it was not really bad just not special in any way. All of our servers were very attentive; however, and took great care of us. All of the staff we encountered were very friendly and helpful. And the resort was very clean. One thing I was impressed by was the obvious dedication the resort has to lessening their impact on the environment. There were no straws allowed, unless reusable, and all the cups were cleaned and reused. Our group had small water bottles and it was no problem to have drinks poured into the instead of cups at the bars. There were many reminders to turn off the lights and bins for recyclables and food waste as well as trash. My husband's favorite part were the cats roaming around. They were super friendly and obviously well cared for. I am assuming they take care of pests but they are also fed cat food and have little houses so they can get out of the sun. read more

By far, the worst resort that I have ever stayed at in Cancun and the surrounding area. There is absolutely no reception when you arrive. You have to almost beg for a glass of water. The rooms are outdated and don't even ask about the bathrooms. There are no ( nothing zilch) amenities. So good luck if you didn't bring your own. There is a refillable container of shampoo and lotion that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Currently, there are two bugs hanging from the curtain. I called housekeeping to come and take them away about 45 minutes ago and still waiting for someone to show up. The ceiling fan is making a knocking noise because it's not balanced. The food is disgusting at both the breakfast buffet and the lunch buffet. The beach is about half a mile away from the building and you have to take a shuttle to get there in about 10-15 minutes. And, this was just our first day. God, help me! I have to stay another four days in this hell hole of a "resort". At the price they charge you have so many better options. We only stayed here because a friend recommended it to my cousin who will be arriving with her family tonight. What kind of a friend would do this???? I will not be able to sleep a wink because I know there are bugs in this room. read more

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Visited Sandos in May. Didn't expect too much based on the low price we paid. We were pleasantly surprised upon arrival. The grounds are kept extremely clean, the hotel itself is like a paradise and great for families. Our room was clean, fully stocked refrigerator, and the housekeeping staff was very accommodating when asked for additional towels, beer and soda. The pools and water parks for kids were also very clean and beautiful. As far as the food, they have about 7 restaurants which we went to 5. In my opinion the Italian Restaurant was the best, although the food was good at the others including the buffet. It is a large property and they have tram cars running every 15 minutes to take you to the pools, beach or restaurants if you preferred not to walk. Overall it was an enjoyable vacation and would recommend highly, especially for families. read more

The hotel is very pretty but the customer service is appalling. I booked through Expedia, and the person checking me in gave me a death stare while explaining that i actually needed to pay an extra 1200 dollars for my kids, that i had booked in my reservation. I am ok with paying more if need be, but i don't really need to be talked to like a criminal while paying the additional money. There was no one there to explain how their all inclusive resort worked, and we went to dinner, but were told we needed to go to guest services to get a voucher to eat. No one was there. No one answered the phone. They really need to be more organized, in my humble opinion read more

Good place to go on a diet! Food is tasteless. Drinks are watered down. Beautiful beach. Staff is very polite. Didn't want anyone in my room during covid and put the sign up to indicate I didn't want room service and after a day of fun, returned to find all my belongings were messed with. Not happy. Wasn't going to leave a review until strangers touched my stuff. I did so good avoiding people and they came in my room. I'm no longer relaxed. Very stressed to have people in my room when I was gone and left all my stuff out. read more

Sandos is a beautiful property with nice pools and a friendly staff. Rooms are comfortable and clean. A small sanfu occurred at check in. The resort rectified it by refunding part of the difference and then upgrading us to a hacienda. Drinks here are excellent! We went to another resort for a day and this was far superior. Breakfast buffet was solid. Lunch buffet was ok. Restaurants were not good. Service was slow and the entrees were not good, with the exception of the Mexican restaurant. The spa was nice and massages were good. We had photos done that came out nice and had a good price. Check out...things to know. Have your bracelet and towel card available to turn in. No bracelet, $100 per. No towel card, $50 per. Time share/vacation club presentation wasn't overly pushy. Not very aggressive which was nice. No follow up or staking after the presentation. So once it's over, it's over. Sandos is nice, I'll assume better resorts are out there. read more

Excellent Resort! Food was great, Room was very clean and comfortable. We can as family of 4, 2 kids (2 year old and baby 7 months) and they gave us a crib with no problems. You can join any restaurant for dinner (make sure you put your name, cause there is a 30 minute wait usually). Food is very good. I reccommend Mexican restaurant. Beach and pools are amazing! There is a shuttle bus that takes people from rooms to any placa at the resort every 5 minutes, but we had two kids with stroller and didn't need it, as walk is only 10 minutes from the furthest room in the resort to the beach. Events were very good (7 days a week). We loved coctails and variety of drinks offered. I would recommend Julio Mac at the Wet Bar 1, he makes the best Mojitos and is probably the best bartender in entire Playa Del Carmen. Very nice guy! Staff was beyond nice and helpfull. I would recommend it to any family with kids that want to relax and have fun. read more

I would like give a special shout out to Carlos Acevedo from Royal Elite's Sandos Playacar's Vacation Club for the excellent assistance, service and amazing experience. He was truly amazing and always so helpful by giving us some great recommendations! Friendly, cheerful and always wearing an absolutely intoxicating smile. My husband and myself had a great time and Carlos was such a big part of it, making absolutely sure we enjoyed our stay. He was so attentive to us and made every effort to please. We all just had the most amazing time together as by the end of it all Carlos felt like one of the family! Looking forward to our next vacation all together! read more

OK, If you want a REAL review i will give my families experience and of Sandos Playacar. 10 of us just spent 7 days there and it was arguably the worst resort we have stayed at. I am NOT some bitter guest just looking to bash a hotel, i am giving our experience staying here for 7 days and spending over $5000 for my family and disliked almost everything about it. I will list out some pros and cons, with the majority of them cons. PROS: 1. The resort is very pretty. Lots of nature, trees, and animals. 2. The resort has a large beach area with plenty of sand (nothing like cancun with their tiny beaches) 3. The nightly shows were fun, but short at only 30 mins. CONS: 1. While the resort was pretty with nature around, there are mosquitoes, TONS of mosquitoes. We had to use bug spray every single day and even then we got bit up all over the place pretty bad. 2. Even though the actual beach area is pretty and large, it is only shallow for maybe 5ft into the water then it drops down pretty quickly to 5ft or so. Our kids could barely be in the ocean as it got deep so quickly. We walked down the beach quite a bit to another area and it was more shallow for a longer distance. 3. The resort is large and LONG. The family hotel area is in back of the resort, farthest away from the ocean. The adults ONLY section of the resort has all rooms by the ocean, not ideal at all for families. They have a golf cart shuttle that takes you around the resort. We were told golf shuttles run every 10 minutes. NO WAY. There was 1 shuttle running. Just 1, and we had to walk from our rooms to the center (stores and food) and the ocean and pools (furthest away) every single day back and forth. Its a good 15 min walk to the ocean from your room. We did get the shuttle sometimes when it was was around, a few times we waited, and nothing for 30 minutes then we left to start walking, then the mosquitoes get you even worse. The shuttle is a joke. 4. OMG the food, the biggest of ALL disappointments. This hotel is all inclusive and the food was the worst ive ever had at a resort in my life, the quality was horrible. You have to make reservations to eat everything, breakfast, lunch and dinner. You cannot go eat when you want. Because of Covid, there is no buffet. They make the food at the buffets and put it out on plates for you to take. You will be carrying 5-8 plates of tiny portions back to your table. A. There is only 1 place to eat for breakfast. JUST ONE! Every single day the food was exactly the same, nothing different. After a few days we didnt even want to eat breakfast anymore as it was the same food. The breakfast was ok food, but not one thing great. B. Biggest joke was room service. Almost no options and all horrible ones at best. We ordered room service on 4 different occasions and each time, it took 1 1/2 -2 hrs to get our food. I called and called, they said they were backed up, even though the resort was only 30% capacity. This happened every time so it wasnt a fluke. No hot meals available for breakfast, dinner had maybe 5 options to chose from, all were HORRIBLE tasting. C. Only some of the 5 dinner restaurants were open daily, NOT ALL. Everyday we had to chose between 2 or 3 options. The FOGO place where they serve you all the different cuts of meat was bad. The quality of the meat was horrible, beef (steak) was dry, tough, and could barely chew it. This was on 2 different days we ate there. there was no flavor in the meat, was just such cheap quality cuts of meat. The Argentine Restaurant again the cuts of meat were so bad, almost inedible. Steak was maybe 1/8" thick and rubber. Italian place, HORRIBLE, whole family left plates of food. Mexican place was VERY unauthentic. Americanized Mexican. 5. The rooms are DATED and old. 3 nights in, the bathroom ceiling started leaking toilet water in our room, they had to move us. smelled horrible. Will never stay here again! read more

I am not a fan of all-inclusive resorts, but my stay at Sandos Playacar teeters on the more than a-ok side! Pros: + Prime beach front real estate: Crystal clear turquoise waters where you can watch schools of fish swim by your feet. The white sand beaches are very clean and hardly have any shells. + Food: This was by no means five star dining but even my snobby Elite palette could find something to salivate too. While most all-inclusives tend to cater to American tastes with hot dogs and hamburgers this place went a little bit extra. It was easy to find traditional Mexican food on the menu and they weren't even afraid to fry up whole fish and serve it on the buffet. We sadly were unable to make it to the a la carte restaurants but the buffet wasn't so terrible. + Over the top friendly servers, bartenders, and concierge workers all around. + Animals everywhere! Monkeys, lizards, cats, birds, and other animals roam around freely at this eco-friendly resort. + The resort is rather large and there is something for everyone here. Cons: + As a former sororstitute, I have drank more than my fair share of cheap, terrible alcohol: could not stomach the sugary sweet, watered down drinks at this resort. Even a sip of a simple vodka tonic had my stomach reeling. Can a canned beer be watered down? I have no idea but even the beer tasted stank. + The bed is hard and the sheets are scratchy. The room smells slightly mildew-y, most likely because of the extreme humidity in the area. Things to note: + If you stay in the adults area only portion of the resort, be prepared to walk about 10 minutes to get to the beach or the main portions of the resort. However, you do get access to private bars/lounges, restaurants and a secluded pool (that closes at 8...lame!). + We were here for a wedding and it was absolutely beautiful! + WiFi here is VERY, VERY spotty. + You will only get bottled water if you are a Premium Club member which I was but they only had two bars at the area. So most of the time you will be served tap water...which means...Montezuma's revenge...which I can tell you right now. IS NOT GOOD! read more

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All inclusive resort with 8 restaurants, adult section, family section, swim up bars, disco, spa facility, beach, live music, nightly shows, Zumba, yoga on the beach and more! We stayed in a junior suite in the adult section, which gives you access to the premium bars which are open from 7am-10 pm. Stay away from the sweet drinks and ask for extra liquor. They are happy to accommodate requests. Lattes and espresso drinks as well as snacks are served daily. Our room was spacious and had a large jacuzzi which was a great feature. Bed was comfy. Balcony with table and chairs too. The resort is huge and great variety of restaurants. The buffets were not my fav but always good for salad fixings. The Mexican grill was worth noting for fast but freshly made tacos, burritos etc. The French restaurant is also very good and I believe you can make reservations. We had about a 40 min wait, no worries as we had time for a few adult beverages to make the wait painless. Only disappointment was they ran out of the baked Alaska. I saw them bring it to the table next to us as we were seated and it looked amazing and presented flambé The Asian restaurant was so so. Miso soup over salty. The Brazilian restaurant had nice salad bar and as I don't eat meat, the make up a veggie skewer for me. The beach area is a 10-15 min walk from adult section. They have shuttles but I preferred the walk as you pass by the beautiful grounds with a cat cafe, Burros, and these rather large rodent looking things that I believe are called agouti that run wild. The donkeys are rescues. They have an eco area that also has monkeys. Negatives are the open air show gets canceled in the rain. Never fun when it rains on a beach vacation but with all the massive space they have, would make sense to cover or build a new indoor area. While show times and activities are listed in various places, it would be just as easy to print out and have in room. Also found out on last day that we could have visited sandos Caracol which I only found out by asking guest services. They should have given this info at check in but it also may be due to language barrier. Took Spanish in high school but that was many moons ago. A few key phrases will get you by. Donde esta el bano, mucho cerveses por favor. I would stay here again, but next time would spend a few days at non inclusive to explore more of the local finds. read more

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This is our first time at this resort. It's a solid four out of five, but five out of five for value. Service is as you would expect from any decent resort in this area. The food is good to great. The layout is very nice. The villa ( one room) has a private pool and hot tub for our villa ( 10 rooms per villa). This is new to us. They also have 24 hour room service. NICE! The beach here is spectacular! One of the best beaches on the Mayan Riviera. They have lots of choices for restaurants. Looking forward to watching the shows and trying each resto. Double thumbs up! One word of advice, like all resorts, get up early to grab your spot at the beach or pool. Et Bon Voyage tout l'monde. read more

Sandos Playacar - View of the pool in the morning looking north. Beautiful! - Hotels Near Me - Playacar, ROO

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This message is in regards to the TERRIBLE customer service my family and I had at your "Resort". We checked in on 4/26/18 at approximately 1700 hours after a long 5 hour plane ride to Sandos PlayaCar on a heavy rainy day. We checked in and given our room number which was located on the opposite side of the lobby, closer to the beach side(not my complaint). I asked for a map and umbrella as we were told it was a 7min walk. We were told no umbrellas were available and that they did not offer maps. I some what understood the umbrella situation as it was a rainy day but what I could not believe was the map situation. We arrived to the room and found that the toilet was clogged! That got fixed quick and soon after decided to shower and rest. The shower door was misaligned and nearly shattered as it closed. This was livable and ok so we decided to ignore this. It would soon get worst. On 4/27/18 at approximately 1600 hours we lost power and water services. No notice or updates were given to the Hotel clients. My wife and I were traveling with an infant. My wife was unable to use her medical brest pump as we had depended on basic services being available throughout the day. After waiting for multiple hours without basic services we directed ourselves to the guest services where it was a disaster, which was expected. We asked if the resort would be offering complimentary shuttle rides to a nearby area for basic services. The attendant asked her supervisor and we were denied. We asked to speak with the director of the resort but were told he was unavailable. An elderly couple next to us also in need of help with transportation for services and they were also denied and told to pay for a taxi if they were in desperate need. My wife, infant and I paid for a taxi ride out of the hotel which was extremely inconvenient. As we travels out we observed that all the other hotels had electricity showing that it was a problem at Sando's. I could not believe that such a large resort did not have back up generators. This resort was charging us nearly $400 dollars a night (7 night stay) and was clearly not prepared for emergency's. After a long, wet, uncomfortable ride while trying to find a private location to where my wife could pump we located a Starbucks. We returned to Sandos approximately an hour later we returned to electricity and water services. Now approximately 2030 hours, tired, we were having dinner at the buffet restaurant when once again the electricity failed. I could not believe it, this was only the second night. The beach was beautiful and restaurant services good. The Mexican restaurant was our favorite, Luciano and Bernardo were great. We opted to use the laundry service on our last night. We called the night before figures out how to fill out the sheet and scheduled for pick up next day before nine. We followed the instructions left out bag and sheet filled out on our bed the next morning and left to the pool. At around 1330 we returned to the room and found our bag still there. We immediately called to guest service and was put in hold for 15 minutes after explaining the situation. I hung up and called again we were told they would come to pick up the bag but that never happened. After calling a third time and getting put on hold we gave up. I do not usually leave bad reviews or consider myself a picky person but this was a bad experience and DO NOT recommend this Hotel. read more

Jesus freaking christ. Let me tell you this first: 1. I Love the sandos brand. 2. Been to sandos eco caracol twice now. 3. Been to multiple all inclusive all over Mexico Now.... this place has great beach, good food and Spacious rooms. However, the people that works here cant be more rude to the customers. From the reception desk to the people who work in the buffet, no one was friendly. Here's what I observed: 1. Not a single person goes around to ask for customer if they need drink or anything . None in the pool, none near the beach. 2. No one smiles. No joke, this workers are too stress to crack a smile. 3. The attitude feels like being rushed. When they wanted us out of the eating area- we felt it. If you like being treated like lower version of the VIPs then come here. Mind you we were adult only club and paid higher than normal and still got treated this way. What a shame- we were boasting this hotel to our family members who wanted to come back next year. When we facetime the place they were excited how big the area. They'll probably pick another place after they hear the horrible experience we had. Hope this helps anyone whose thinking between this or xcaret or sandos caracol. If you like the sandos brand, this is their black sheep. Try to avoid it with all cost. read more

We stayed here last November and had the best experience. November in Cancun is perfect Incase someone is skeptical about going in November. We had a room with a pool view that we loved . It was clean and spacious. The food at every restaurant was delicious no complaints except for the French restaurant considering it was always busy we didn't get why lol. Pools beach and activities are wonderful. Going to Cancun in November again really wanted to stay at Sandos again but decided to try a different resort hopefully we don't regret it. read more

This is a communication I sent to the hotel (although not holding my breath to get a response): I want to express my extreme disappointment with the deceiving and poor customer service of Sandos Playacar. Based off of the website and discussions with the reservation agent, our family of seven was extremely excited that we were headed into a wonderful resort for the New Years. We were completely wrong. It all started with a two-and-a-half hour check in on December 28. We have travelled extensively around the world and never experienced anything like it. One hour waiting in line and one-and-a-half hours for Pepe at the front desk to painstakingly check our family in. After a long day of travel our kids were starving, we asked him to please process faster. Our request prompted no urgency on his behalf, by the time he was done it was 11 PM. All the hotel restaurants were closed. Pepe offered no apology, no explanation, or any resolution on how to feed our kids. We got to the room to find the sofa bed mattress with multiple mold stains and a terrible smell. I've attached two pictures. In addition, the sheets of our son's bunk bed were stained with red spots. We called three times to the front desk to get the mattress changed to no avail. We were finally able to get the sheets changed by housekeeping. This was done at 1:00 AM. This was just the start of a truly disappointing stay. The following is a summary: · The mattress remained unchanged after two days. We expressed our frustration with your guest services agent regarding the mattress remaining unchanged and the excruciating check-in process. In response your guest services agent offered to show us your membership plan. This was shockingly the only resolution he offered. · We scheduled two excursions with Seek & Go. One was a private transport to Tulum, the second was an activity package also to Tulum. Upon return from the private transport, we decided we preferred the flexibility of the private transport to Tulum and decided to cancel the planned excursion, yet reschedule another private transport to Tulum. Adrian, who set it up for us, told us that as long as we cancelled one day prior we would be fine. However when speaking with Rubi, she made it extremely difficult. Especially when we asked for the same driver (who provided excellent service). Her frustration with us was very evident (understandably she was looking at the lost commission) and frustratingly told us she could not guarantee the same driver. I told her I understood, but simply asked her to put in the request, she said she would. However both my wife and I clearly knew she would not and she proved us right. On the day of our transport we ended up with a different driver. I asked him to connect me with his assignment supervisor, who informed me Rubi never requested the driver we asked for. · The hot water to the shower did not work for two days. · I was treated very rudely by the towel attendant at the pool of the family section. When I asked her to exchange some towels, but provide cards for the others, she rudely told ME to put the towels into the basket, then literally slapped the remaining towel cards on the counter and "Ahi esta!" and walked away. I have no idea why she behaved in such manner. · The door to our second room would not lock on New Year's Eve. · When we sought a taxi, we went to the front. The bellman was on his cell phone. We asked if he could help us get a taxi. He looked up, walked in our direction, looked down the driveway and said "Ahi hay uno." Then he just stood there. So I said, "Do I need to walk down there or can you call him up here to pick us up?" I could not believe his lack of customer service. · The safe in our room stopped working suddenly, the safe in the second room did not work at all. · We had to contact housekeeping three times to address the ants in our room. · Prior to our trip we did extensive research and saw very good reviews, which after our experience was quite surprising. It became evident how this was achieved when an employee approached my two oldest daughters during an evening show, asking them to put in a great review on TripAdvisor to be entered into a raffle for a prize. They said they had to see the review first to get them into the raffle. These employees were going through the crowd asking others to do the same. That's very deceiving and dishonest. Ultimately, when we brought our concerns forward, it was met with indifference or as I mentioned earlier, an attempt to sell us membership for an upgrade. When I shared our disappointment with the front desk agent upon check-out, she was courteous in listening, but again offered the same resolution as the rest: nothing. She simply said "Les aseguro que todo lo que me han dicho lo voy a comunicar para que podamos mejorar nuestro servicio en el futuro." Wonderful, but how does that help us with the experience we had? read more

Sandos Playacar - Sofa Mattress Stains - Hotels Near Me - Playacar, ROO

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We stayed here for our vacation this year as Royal Elite members, when we arrived to the hotel lobby it was beautiful at first sight. We were quickly approached by a gentleman by the name of Carlos trying to sell us a membership. He offered us free gifts in exchange for a tour with the hopes of us falling in love with the resort with a $20 deposit. Which we were more than glad to attend until we reached our room. So apparently being a Royal Elite Member doesn't give you much of anything to begin with. Avoid those guys in the lobby trying to waste your time selling you a membership you will just end up wasting a day of your vacation. We were told that we would have a driver waiting for us to take us to the hotel. We landed and had to search everywhere for a representative for Seek and Go. We were just about to give up and start heading back and look for another transportation company to take us to our hotel. Then one of the people who worked there renting out luggage carts stopped us on our way back to the airport and said to us that they had just spotted the representative. So we turned around and went looking for her again, we approached her and asked her if she was part of the Seek and Go company. She seemed startled when we approached her almost as if she had no knowledge that we were to arrive at the airport as we had instructed. So we talked to her she looked us up and found out name and told us that unfortunately the driver had just left and that we needed to wait for the next one. So overall we ended up waiting in the heat for a whole hour (which by that point I was already suffering from dehydration after waiting for so long. Thank god I have so many nurse friends who recognized my symptoms and gave me to tips to prevent it from getting worse). So then after having a lengthy check in process within the Royal Elite VIP lounge we were finally taken to wait for the golf carts within the resort. And had to ask other employees where our room was at once we arrived to the proper building. We entered our room and were immediately smacked in the face by the smell of mildew in the room. The curtains and bedspreads were outdated. The room was an immediate disappointment. We called and spoke to Ivan who is head of guest services at the meeting point, about the mildew smell immediately which they mentioned they would send someone to dehumidify our room. Then I decided to check out or view from the balcony as we waited for that dehumidifier, and that's when I found out the handle to lock our balcony door up was broken as it fell into my hand. So again we called back and mentioned the door handle and were told they were going to call security to fix the door (we had many visits from security there after and each time were told that they don't handle that.) So we stayed in our room the rest of the night and no one ever came. Our shower was rusty which I didn't really give it as much concern as the mildew smell and broken door. We showered called room service which by the way the food was awful. And came to the conclusion that this place does not offer coke products. We ended up having to pay $180 pesos to be taken to a convenient store within the resort so we could buy apple juice for our son and Coca Cola brand drinks. The next day Alfredo who we were supposed to meet with about the tour and possibly buying a membership gave us a call early in the morning and asked us how we were enjoying our stay to which my husband mentioned all of our concerns. He also told us he would have security and housekeeping sent right away to take care of the door handle and mildew smell. (Guess what they never came on our second day. ) So my husband starts mentioning that we were looking for Coca Cola products and where we could get some to which Alfredo answered that they had discontinued carrying Coca Cola products and then went on to mention how we didn't need any Coca Cola products. Which was the icing on the cake. So we finally got out to enjoy the pool located next to our room on the third day of our stay. I get down there and basically all the chairs are taken and have towels draped across them horizontally taking up 2-3 chairs a piece. I finally find a chair that didn't have anything on it so I decide to put my son's and my items on. And then I was immediately approached by a heavyset girl who began to try and fight me over a chair because she said her dad's pink sunglasses were laying next to the chair and they had claimed it by laying his pink glasses next to it. Then her dad comes out of the pool and approaches me as well and trying to fight me as well. Which then lead to 5 more people approaching me trying to fight me while I had my 4 year old. No employees or security ever arrived during this 15 minute fight. These are just a few of the several issues that I can't post because Yelp says my review is too lengthy already. read more

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Terrible experience! Booked a Junior suit through booking.com. Got a dirty and outdated room with a mildew smell (see pictures). Totally unacceptable! read more

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The food is absolutely horrendous. Ive had more fruit over my 5 day stay than i should ever have to eat. I eat better food in california than what any of the restaurants or buffet has to offer. read more

We have stayed at Sandos Playacar in the past. It's almost like a different resort altogether now. We liked it so much the last time that we brought 2 additional families with us this time hoping to show them the great resort that we had experienced. We ended up being embarrassed by the place and regretful for having caused them to waste their hard earned money there. The customer service is non-existent by anyone other than the hard working cleaning, serving and bartending staff. You let them know about a problem and they promise it will be taken care of "within the day," and you never hear from them again. I am going to be completely fair in my evaluation of our stay there, because that is what I appreciate when reading guest reviews. We checked in during the early morning with Royal Elite and we were the only guests in the office. There were 13 of us staying in 5 rooms. It took over 1 1/2 hours to finally get all of our bracelets despite having filled out the forms that were available online ahead of time and having all of our other paperwork, passports, etc ready to go. That's just ridiculous. During check-in, I informed the agent that our Sandos4U coins had suddenly disappeared that were available just 5 days prior in the accounts of 7 of the guests. He said he had nothing to do with that and couldn't help me. He referred me to customer service. Each day, I met with a different member of Sandos customer service, Royal Elite customer service, sent an email to Sandos4U, called them, etc., but during our 9 day stay, the issue was never resolved. Every different customer service agent said that each other group on the resort was separate and distinct and they could not help us. In regards to Sandos4U, no one would/could help us and they did not bother to respond to us at all. In the end, we got absolutely no benefit from the 500 points per person that we had earned during previous stays. During 3 stays, 2 of which we already had coins that could supposedly have been used, we were unable to redeem our coins for ANYTHING!! The Sandos4U program has no intention of actually giving out any gifts or rewards. They will manipulate the points, say things aren't available, say massages can't be bought with points, they can only extend the massage by 15 minutes, say the points were expired even when the time since they were earned shows by the dates that they WERE NOT EXPIRED, or they will simply delete the points altogether when you try to use them. By whatever method, you will not receive benefit from them. The rooms were much worse than last time. They were never fancy, but they were clean and in relatively good shape during our last stay. Nothing has been done to maintain them during that time. The TVs are very small. They are old and in all 5 rooms, the picture was terribly pixelated and barely able to make out what was happening. They do not have HDMI ports. The remotes are usually not responsive which is weird since each remote was different for each room. It wasn't the batteries because even after they were replaced, the problems continued with the remotes. We contacted them in 3 of the 5 rooms about the problems and they came and looked at the TVs and turned it to one channel that had a good picture and said the TV was fine. One channel with an adequate picture does not make an acceptable TV. The room AC remote is a joke. It does nothing. You can try to lower the temperature, but it never gets any cooler. You can try to turn down the blower because the noise is so loud you can't hear yourself think, but nothing happens even though the remote indicates it is being turned down. 3 of the 5 rooms had dehumidifiers that did nothing to improve the air quality either. Every single room reeked from a terrible smell that was a mixture of wet dog, sewage and staleness. We asked for Lysol or Febreeze or anything to improve the smell, but nothing was ever made available. The sheets were always damp and the pillows smelled so badly that some of us chose to sleep without rather than to put our heads next to that odor. Pillows in humid climates must actually be laundered, just changing the pillow cases IS NOT ENOUGH. The cleaning staff did a good job in the bathrooms, but they cannot get rid of a stench when they are not given adequate tools. The smell was so bad that even clothes that weren't worn, had to be washed after returning home. We stayed as Royal Elite, but none of us had bathrobes, slippers or extra beach towels in our rooms, and we did request them. The outlets have no power. There are very few available outlets. The ones there had so little power that after plugging in an iphone at night, it was only charged to 92% by the next morning. There was not enough power to charge the laptop. The plugs would slip out of the outlet and you never knew if something was still charging or had stopped. The lights in the bathroom were so dull that you could not see to put on make-up or much of anything else. The tub read more

We've been to this resort the last few years as Royal Elite members. A few of the amenities have declined over the years, but the resort remains a good value for your money and provides great entertainment. The location is amazing and the beach is clean. We enjoyed the variation of food options and recommend the French Restaurant, the Mexican Restaurant and the Italian Restaurant. I would avoid the Steakhouse and the Brazilian restaurant, as they were extremely hot inside the restaurant, the meat was over cooked, or dry and the service was mediocre. A highlight at the resort is the excellent service provided by a few of the bartenders and waiters. A huge shout out to Vicente at the buffet restaurant. He provided five star service, was very attentive to our needs and was very personable! Vicente provided the best service we had at any restaurant at the resort. When eating breakfast or lunch at the buffet, ask for Vicente's section, you won't be disappointed. Rodrigo at the Meeting Point bar, Jose at the Avenue Bar and Fabian at the beach side bar all provided excellent service and deserve recognition. A word of advice, the Spa is nice and clean, but high priced. If you're looking for a massage, do yourself a favor and hit 5th Avenue and get a two-hour massage for $55. Don't pay for the high priced Spa massage at the resort. In all, we love Sandos Playacar and will continue to return annually. No read more

Sandos Playacar - Beautiful water - Hotels Near Me - Playacar, ROO

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A lovely experience for my first time at an all inclusive...the resort is located in a gated area south of playa del Carmen in a area called playacar where there r quite a few resorts and modern homes, very very safe area and even biking to playa del Carmen which was 15mins is very a safe town as well, tons of tourist Very beautiful and well maintained resort with lots of restaurants to try out, beautiful scenery like u r walking into a rain forest, they have a cat cafe where they house cats in open area, donkeys and iguanas...the thing that bugs me about this place is the service in the restaurants, they make you wait forever where clearly you see seats available inside and I wish they had more entertainment at night because after 10pm, there is pretty much nothing to do except drink till midnight or go to the disco which kind of sucks...food was mediocre, I can honestly say cruise food is much better but they got excellent tacos Rooms are big and clean with comfy beds and a fridge stocked with soft drinks and beer...they have some free water sports activity like kayaking, snorkel gear for an hour, paddle board is $10 for the duration of your stay, they also have skidoo, parasail and stuff at a fee I suggest renting a bike because it's free and bike to the town to try some local food All in all this resort is a great place for honeymooners and family, if your looking to party and stuff I say go to Cancun resorts read more

I usually don't write reviews but I'm hoping to other potential guests the hassle of investing a lot of money for a sub par resort. I recently came for a week long trip and wedding at the resort. For the amount of money that was spent by the couple and the party of 80 people no one was satisfied with the experience. If you are traveling with kids this place will be a nightmare for you, the families that came to the wedding were placed at the front of the facility making it a pain to meet the rest of the party, since all events and main pools are located near the beach. Secondly for having such a large results and only 2 teams that run every 30 minutes is insane. We witnessed so many families walking with little ones since the tram was just too slow. I will list pros and cons of the resort to make things easy Pros - great landscaping - some nice housekeepers and bartenders - lots of wildlife - beach very clean - hot water in the shower - ac in room - coffee at cupcake bar - massage at spa was great, but many in the party of 80 and other guests I talked to said they therapists just sort of rubbed their backs with no real pressure during sessions Cons - front lobby speed is very very very slow. After a day of traveling you will wait another 1-2 hours. Be prepared to argue false charges at check out - stains on sheets, covers look dirty - no bottled water in the rooms, just a five gallon water dispenser which is fine but it is not cooled and super hard to fill a large water bottle up - need to be a body builder to open sliding doors - many guests dealt with safes that didn't work and leaking fridges - rooms are in serious need of an upgrade all amenities are very old - no variety at the buffets - all good was bland or cold - the chuyita snack bar was never open! Hours for food were terrible it was always a struggle to get food when you wanted - called for room service twice and it never came and for some it came 2 hours later - staff can be very rude and show discriminative practices towards groups of people. We had 80 people in our party and not a single person did not have a negative experience at one point or another - all restaurants never have openings and when you walk by them they are nearly empty. When you ask why that is they hostess gets combative and walks away - drinks at bars are watered down - bars close at 11 and the only place to get a drink is sports bar - sports bar music is on repeat. We could repeat the music by day 3 of what would be played - potential predators were stalking the females in our party and security was slow to act and aggressive when we were trying to get help - false charges on check out bill or additional charges added when packages came included with certain services - lack of overall organization at the hotel, no one on the staff can give you a straight answer and turn hostile very quickly - family set up is horrible. - internet and cell reception is terrible. If you have work to using internet, the speed will frustrate you. This might be a pro for some Again I don't mean to paint this place in such a bad light and I usually don't write reviews but I don't think people should be charged so much for sub par service all the way around. read more