While the W Hotel Punta de Mita has some kinks to work out, service is not one of them. During our two-night stay in October 2017 over my fiancees 40th birthday, we experienced impeccable service. From the moment we arrived until the end, each W employee we spoke to, from the bellmen to the breakfast waiters (love!), were warm and more than accommodated for the issues we had with our room (see below). The property is impeccable- it feels like a industrial/modern housing set in the lush jungle. The hotel was slow when we were there during the middle of the week, and the hotel seemed to be incredibly overstaffed.
Upon check in we were told there would be live music throughout the week. I clarified, and the woman confirmed that there was live music everyday. To our disappointment, there was no live music during our entire stay. The property seemed slow, which is not the vibe we associate with the W.
Room
The property is still under construction, and I believe we were the first to stay in our room. The bathroom was incredibly poorly lit (a large issue for ladies preparing for a night out), the lock to the patio didn't work, we had an issue with a bees nest on our porch and bees entering the room, and our air conditioning tapered to a standstill by the end of our stay. When we called to mention the lock (unaware of the bees at this point), the woman at the front desk said we didn't need a lock as we were on the top floor. We understood the logic and spent the first night without a locked patio, and I had a very difficult night sleeping- a locking patio door is a huge deal for someone with anxiety and is a basic that should not need to be addressed.
The next morning we realized we had bees on our patio and they were entering through the opened sliding glass door, so when we asked them to remove the bees we asked them to repair the lock. After we left for dinner we were informed they were unable to get the bees off the patio, and they were happy to give us a different room. We declined because it was our final night's stay and it seemed more effort than it was worth.
We should have taken them up on the offer, because that night (our last) the air conditioning totally quit working and we had another night of poor sleep! When we returned from dinner we also noticed a faint-but-noticeable-upon-entering smell of sewage.
Earlier that day we spent the afternoon in our room (due to mild food poisoning, see below) and we had an non-english speaking young man come to our door and we were unclear to why he was there. He entered, to what we eventually realized was to come refresh the mini bar. The room had already been cleaned- which made me feel alarmed. Why couldn't the maids re-stocked it? Everything was fine, but the excess staff (just one person to restock the mini bars?) seemed superfluous.
Spa
The spa grounds were the highlight of our stay. It has a sun lounging area with beautiful baths with various jets and oversized faucets pouring into the water to stand under. After our couples massage we had the whole pool area to ourselves, and they let us use the facilities usually separate by gender (steam, sauna) together since the spa was so slow due to it being the middle of the week.
We discovered several wasp nests on palm trees all around the chaise lounges. When we mentioned this to the spa, the spa attendant did not seem surprised and pointed out additional wasp nests to the maintenance man. Clearly not a new issue- more like one that hadn't been attended to until a guest complained.
While we were lounging on the only benches that didn't have wasps nests near it, a man popped up from the 'river' they are building to run along side the spa. He was not wearing W hotel clothing, which made me uncomfortable for a moment.
Poolside Dining
I got mild food poisoning from the scallop ceviche our first day on property. No food poisoning from street food in Sayulita- but I got some when I arrived to the W! I also ordered guacamole, and no cheese was indicated on the menu, and it arrived with cheese and diced fruit crumbled on top. We picked around it to not be a hassle.
In room dining
I have a wheat allergy but ordered shrimp tacos, and the menu didn't indicate they were wheat. After I had eaten one bite I realized they were flour tortillas (they were small, in the size of corn tortillas). I called and they replaced the item with corn tacos immediately and were thorough about making sure I was okay.
Spice Market
We had heard prior to arriving to the property that the food at Spice Market wasn't great- after eating there we would agree. The meal was our most expensive and most underwhelming on the property.
The only additional feed back would that be that it would be LOVELY to have had our room cleaned with non-toxic/all-nautral products and the lotion used in massages be free of chemicals. I'm sensitive to chemicals (as we all are) and our room was seething in chemicals that made me feel ill- no escape. read more