They have marketed this as a step above other Secrets. It is NOT. Impression may be more intimate or have smaller resorts. But, do not expect a jump up in luxury. It’s all about expectations and pricing. If our expectations were that Impression was just another Secrets (and at the same price as Secrets), then we would have been happier with our stay.
I have seen many reviews of people going here on their honeymoons. DO NOT! Your expectations will be high for your honeymoon, and this will not meet them. I advise trying it for a 3 day weekend first to see if it’s your vibe.
NEGATIVES:
- We booked 4 nights over Christmas for $8,200. After the 30 day cancellation period, we saw the hotel dropped the price down to $7,200. I know pricing varies, and I wouldn’t have cared about $200-$300…but a drop of $1,000 only 6 weeks after we booked is a big difference. That was my first red flag.
- I contacted the concierge over WhatsApp to get the contact info for someone in reservations to discuss the $1,000. It took them 5 days to text me back on WhatsApp, and by then we were almost ready to leave for the trip. So, I made the mistake of waiting until we got there and
mentioned the $1,000 to the gentleman at check in at the marina and asked for a manager to come talk to me about it. No one came to talk to me.
- The next day, I mentioned it to the VIP services guy (Carlos). He seemed very interested in trying to help us but once we said we did not want to attend the breakfast discussion about becoming members of the club, he no longer seemed like he wanted to help. And, not surprisingly, he never sent someone to come talk to us. The way he gets you to meet with him is he tells you that you are VIP guests. It’s Hyatt’s fault for allowing them to continue this unethical business practices with the VIP Services/Unlimited Vacation Club.
- On our third day, I asked David our butler to have the manager talk to us and he sent him right away. Ritik was very nice and wanted to hear all of our concerns, but it was clear that they don’t like to adjust the price. This is an upper management/corporate issue. Not an issue with the on site staff. But, Ritik did say he would discuss this with the manager (who I never saw once at the resort).
- The couple sitting next to us said they upgraded their room because another couple left the resort early after being unhappy. Two other couples couldn’t wait to go home. One was on their honeymoon.
So…
1. We overpaid by $1,000.
2. It was marketed as higher end than Secrets…
3. My expectations were high for over $2,000 per night…
But, the little things started to add up…none of these things are a big deal if not for the price…
— hair on the floor in our room. Lots of it. Once I told Ritik about it, they cleaned everything up really well.
— I expected the room to be super high end…it was not. Black paint sprayed on the glass on the balcony. Cheap construction. More like rooms at a nice 4 star. But not 5 star level. The pictures make the balcony look so much better than it is. Note that we did NOT have the lowest level room. We had the Signature Junior Suite King Ocean Front with Mayan tub and hammock.
— Our black out shades broke.
— Come to find out…this is not a brand new hotel…Hyatt bought an existing hotel two years ago and just added a common area building called the temple. They are building a new guest room tower.
— We arrived on 12/23 and were given the itinerary and it showed a Christmas Eve dinner with live music. We tried to reserve it and they said it was all booked up. Even though I had emailed them prior to our arrival to find out about the Christmas events so we could reserve. The concierge said all reservations will be made when we arrive. So, I complained and they got us two seats at the dinner. Thank you, David! But, I felt bad for the other guests who could not go. The honeymooners were not given a spot at the dinner.
— the yoga teacher was really good but the place they have set up for yoga shows the managements lack of attention to detail. They have very few spaces for shade. And there is a super loud refrigerator so you can’t hear anything else. Imagine doing yoga next to a running car. And the seagulls poop all of area the yoga area, which they can’t control, but if they had attention to detail, then they would make sure someone cleaned it up every morning before yoga. They cleaned it up eventually. But not before yoga.
— The front desk staff are nice but non-existent. Sometimes there is no one there and at the most there is one person. There is no one at the concierge desk and when the front desk tries to help you, they aren’t very knowledgeable. I think this was due to the Christmas holiday, but why charge more for a lower level of service? But, the restaurants and beaches and pools are very well staffed.
— Even in the areas that are well staffed, everything seems rushed. It’s not a well oiled machine. And that is not for the staff’s lack of trying. It must be a management thing. Frantically trying to make the welcome drinks as guests arrived for the Christmas Eve dinner. I felt so bad for them. It was so rushed and they were working hard. Definitely did not seem luxurious.
— Also rushed at check in at the marina. It just doesn’t seem like they have worked out the kinks.
— There seems to be only one person working at the spa (other than the ones doing the services). So, it was a lot for the poor guy to do all by himself. The steam room had shut down on its own and he had to get it back up and running. Super nice guy, though.
— The water sports were cancelled every single day we were there. The first two days were windy. Today, 9:30 am snorkeling was cancelled and there is currently no breeze. I attached a screenshot of the weather showing 1 mph winds. I’m starting to wonder how often these water sports are even offered. The free snorkeling and kayaking is one of the reasons we chose the hotel. It is out of their hands bc it is the weather, but I listed it as a negative because it is advertised as a draw to the resort.
— I understand some of this is out of their control but no one seems to know if the water sports are going to be cancelled or not in the mornings. So, even though we would inquire at 8 am, we would never know until 9 am. By the time we found out that our 9:30 am snorkeling was cancelled, it was too late to make the 9 am yoga class. So, we were left with nothing to do. They should modify the times of the activities slightly to accommodate for the delay in notifying us of cancellations.
— They rarely have umbrellas up due to the wind. But it seems to be random…yesterday was windier than today and the umbrellas were opened. But, today they are not.
— I expected the food to be more elevated than Secrets. The breakfasts and lunches were worse than Secrets. On vacation, the one thing we can usually bet on is breakfast being good. It was just okay. Secrets Akumal has better breakfast. Lunch at the beach was terrible. The only thing that was good was guacamole (and even that was his okay). We are going to try the Mediterranean restaurant for lunch today. I heard it’s better than Mercado.
— The Italian restaurant was okay. Not more elevated than Secrets. The Christmas dinner was just okay. But, I did find Wildfire (steakhouse) to be slightly more elevated than Secrets.
— Overall, the food is good for an all-inclusive. Just not more elevated than Secrets. I mean, if you are going to say you are more elevated…at least have fruits other than melon, kiwi and pineapple at breakfast or juices other than just orange juice and grapefruit juice. Not a big deal, but I just wish we weren’t given the impression that this was such an elevated experience.
— Many times that we order something here, it never has the ingredients it says it will. Hearts of palm salad came with no hearts of palm. Shrimp tacos came without the peppers and red onion listed on the menu.
— NOT the most instagrammable hotel in the world. Definitely some good views but they should just remove that from their marketing. It is more like a 4 star resort with some nice views.
— Eye sore water slide that is never turned on because it’s very shallow water. We wished we could have tried it.
— The catamaran ride is fun, but if that is the only reason you book a hotel, then skip this review bc we aren’t looking for the same thing. I’m glad we only had to wait 15 minutes or else we would have been stuck in a tent at a marina waiting for two hours for the catamaran.
— Lastly, I am so sick of the Secrets “unlimited luxury” hoax. More like…spend your vacation making reservations, trying to read the fine print about what coupons can be applied to what, only to realize that you can’t apply your coupon because they gave you 15% off of the overpriced service already. It’s just a joke. Just do what other high end resorts do (Auberge, Mayakoba, etc) … just make it easy to plan ahead instead of on your vacation and just take off the $200 resort credit at the end of the stay. Am I at the grocery store trying to apply coupons to my groceries or am I at a five star resort?
One or two of these things happening is not a big deal. And if I was paying $5,000 for 4 nights, they would also not be a big deal. But, when you add them up AND consider that you are paying $8,200 for 4 nights (but someone who booked the day before could get it for $7,200) AND they are marketing it as more luxurious than your basic Secrets…then these small things end up putting a damper on your vacation.
POSITIVES:
- The staff is hard working and very nice. We have found this to be the case wherever we go in Mexico. They are the most hospitable and hard working people. The negatives in this review are more reflective of management and the Impression/Secrets/Hyatt model they have going on here. NOT about the staff on an individual basis.
- Memo at the Unik breakfast was wonderful! He went out of his way to get me a few things I asked for.
- Carlos, our waiter at Wildfire, was amazing!
- Alexander at Unik for breakfast had the best personality!
- Hermes at the beach was awesome and so hard working!
- Cristy and Alicia gave us the best massages we have had at a resort! They need a raise! Haha
- Angel and David, our butlers, seemed genuinely concerned about the issues we had.
- The wait staff at the beach and the bartenders at the bars were working hard!
- The water color is beautiful here.
- The view from the rooftop is beautiful.
- Ribeye was good at Wildfire. That was the best dinner we had and did feel slightly elevated.
- There is no doubt that the view from the rooftop pool is beautiful. The problem is that they have cheap umbrellas that cannot withstand the wind so they are often not up. The other problem is the design. There are only about 4 options to be in the front row to have the view.
- Unik had a much better lunch than at the beach.
OTHER:
- small, boutique hotel (which we usually like) but there are a lot of steps and it is built up, instead of wide. Just an FYI.
- NOT a new hotel. They purchased the hotel and building and then added a new common area building. I do hear they are building a new tower.
- small beach, but we knew that coming in. You sort of get sick at looking out at a wooden dock but it is beautiful turquoise water.
- You have to make reservations for dinner. It’s not a big deal but some people don’t like having to be so scheduled. It seemed like we had to ask our butlers for everything…my husband joked and asked if we had to ask them to use the bathroom too. ;-) This isn’t a negative. Just a heads up that it’s that type of resort.
Let me summarize what I think is going on…Hyatt bought Secrets a few years ago. Decided that they needed to find a new way to make money, so they bought another hotel, marketed it as if it was newly built two years ago, decided to name it Impression by Secrets instead of just Secrets and marketed it as a step above so they could charge more. If you like Secrets resorts and don’t mind waiting until they drop the prices one week before, then you may like it here. We are used to visiting some all-inclusive resorts and some not…resorts like Secrets, Mayakoba, Auberge, Banyan Tree, Four Seasons, Relais and Chateau resorts, Virtuoso resorts…and when someone tells us we are going to get a step above Secrets, we expect they are telling the truth.
If you love Secrets and those are the highest end hotels that you travel to, then you may like this resort. But, if you are used to traveling to high end hotels and were hoping this would be an even higher level for an all-inclusive, then you’ll be disappointed.
Whatever inevitable comment the manager leaves below, feel free to take it with a grain of salt. They would not give us the $1,000 back even though the people who booked a week before got the lower rate. I would have even accepted $1,000 credit to use at Secrets Akumal (only because we like the snorkeling). I have little hope they will give us the $1,000 back but we will see. The staff told us the CEO of Hyatt was here a few weeks ago…so, he clearly is okay with the brand they are offering here. Don’t be the fool who pays $8,200 for 4 days. You’re just making the CEO richer.
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