Playacar Palace - All Inclusive

Staff was great very pleasant and welcoming. Rooms were very clean

More accessible lounge chairs.

Le service L’aimabilité Propreté

The Gym was excellent.Modern,lots of equipment.Staff are exceptional, friendly, hard working and attentive.They are the highlight.The buffet food was quite good.The location is great.Asian restaurant was good.Spent the last day visiting their property near the airport and playacar definitely prepared & delivered the same food offerings much better.

The property is very dated.The beds are very uncomfortable.They had plastic backed undersheets which we had to repeatedly take off the bed so we could try to sleep.Toilets and rooms and common spaces in much need of renovation.Nowhere to enjoy a nice drink in the evenings.Just tiled,open,dated space,no ambience.Italian restaurant very poor.

We didn't really enjoy our trip to the Playacar. The hotel was advertised as beachfront, with a beautiful beach and watersports. There is no beach at the hotel and no watersports. All that remains is a hip deep pool, filled with Americans who don't get out to use the bathroom. When flying 10 hours to relax on a Caribbean beach, to find only a single small shallow pool was very very disappointing. If the beach is eroded for multiple months of the year, guests should be informed. Service was mixed. Sylvia, for example, was amazing. You could tell she had been doing the job for a long time. The younger members of staff were just plain rude at times, laughing and talking amongst themselves whilst we were waiting for service. We also had a rude waiter in Madre Mia, and one morning we had no server during breakfast and weren't offered any drinks. Also, there was a wedding during our stay and the buffet was closed without notice. We had planned to eat there that evening, so had no dining reservations. The only place available to eat at such short notice was the Asian, and it was understaffed due the wedding and the service was very poor. We tipped well throughout our stay, but it didn't really make a difference to the service received, which felt openly hostile at times. We were tricked into a room upgrade on arrival, as we were given a musty dark room with no balcony, so we paid $59 per night to 'upgrade'. Once we realised the room we had been initially given was not what we had booked and we'd been 'upgraded' to our originally booked room, we asked for a refund, it was refused. Strangely enough though, we were told the day after arrival that if we attended a timeshare presentation the money would be refunded. The room type they claimed we had been upgraded to didn't exist on their website. Such a con. I have never attended a resort before where guests are approached so regularly regarding timeshare/membership. It made things very awkward to be honest and is not what we look for when travelling. I would avoid the Palace brand in future because of this. To be honest it's a basic hotel, with no beach, small pool, nothing to do and fairly rude service. It provided no reason for us to return or recommend. Scored 3 as it was very clean.

Very disappointing experience. The staff were rude and unhelpful, especially at the pool. One of the pool staff told me to get my own beds and made an inappropriate comment along the lines of “this is for your wife, no?” The entire pool area was reserved with no separate space for non-reserved guests, leaving zero available seating. I had to walk far away to bring beds back just so my family could sit near the pool. Considering how much I paid, this was unacceptable. The experience was so bad that I left the hotel 4 days earlier than planned. I would not recommend this hotel.

Of note, I do not own a membership to this chain of resorts. Spend 7 days at Playacar Palace in Playa Del Carmen. Awesome hospitality, buffet food is really good and so are the activities in the pool. The music is not overbearing and is a good mix of ‘good oldies’ vs Latino music. This is a very basic resort, with no grand entrance or miles of ‘nature walks on its site. It is literally a 5 minutes walk from 5th avenue. The pool is quite small which was fine for us. The room was well stocked everyday. Cons: 1. the pictures on the websites need to be updated as there is literally no beach at this location. I knew before I left so this was not an issue. 2. I would say that while I was there, 90% of the guests have memberships, and one of their many perks is that their beach chairs are ‘reserved by the pool. I absolutely get this: if I was to pay between $50,000 and $1.5 millions to be a member of this chain, I would surely expect that! All that to say that the chairs left for non-members are in limited supply and not always in the best location. 3. The room credit that will be given to you is for specific activities only - you will also be told that you can use that credit in their on-site store. Be aware as there is only a specific section in that store where you can use the credit… You will also be asked if you would like to attend a 2-hour presentation’ on the perks of their memberships. We did, as we would get a $400 US credit at the end of the presentation. We did not elect to buy their membership (so we got the cold shoulder pretty quick) but expect ‘numbers’, pressure and a long list of perks to be thrown at you with zero time to think about it since their ‘once in a life time offer’ will not be valid after you leave the presentation. They even make you sign a waiver. Do your homework first and decide for yourself if this is something you would like to be part of. Overall, I would recommend this resort to ‘non-member’ as long as you keep the points above in mind.

Perla is incredible! Friendly and kind to our family for our entire stay! She greeted us each morning with a happy smile and fist bumps! She never stops and provides 100% of excellent service the entire week!

Our vacation experience did not disappoint. The hotel was well-maintained, and the service was beyond excellent. The room was updated and clean every time. The food and dinner experiences were 5 stars, from traditional regional cuisine to international dishes, the resort offered a great variety of food options. Finally, the Spa service and amenities were exceptional. Key people to thank for making our vacation more memorable: Manuela (restaurant), Maribel (Spa), Chef Aldo (Restaurant), and Angelica (Maid).