We came to Solaz during spring break to celebrate a milestone: my daughter’s acceptance to a school she had worked hard to attend. This was meant to be a rare and special vacation. We chose Solaz based on our positive past experiences with 5-star Marriott properties, and specifically on a prior stay at Solaz itself — in the exact same category of room, booked through the Fine Hotels & Resorts program via Amex — which at that time was operated by a different management company. At nearly $2,000 per night, our expectations were reasonable: attentive service, follow-through, and accountability. What we encountered instead was a culture of indifference that I feel compelled to document — both to warn future guests and to surface what I believe is a serious breach of brand standards.
Before I go further, a critical piece of context that every prospective guest should understand: Solaz is NOT directly owned or managed by Marriott. It is owned and operated by Quinta del Golfo de Cortez (QGC), a Mexican company, under a franchise/brand license agreement with Marriott International’s Luxury Collection. Marriott grants that license with the explicit requirement that the franchisee operate to Luxury Collection standards. In my experience and observation, QGC is not meeting those standards — and I believe they are in material breach of what that franchise agreement is supposed to represent to guests.
The property itself is stunning, and many of the staff are genuinely friendly. That is not in dispute. The problem is systemic, and it starts and ends with execution.
Over the course of our stay, we were told on at least six separate occasions — two of them in person — that the Food & Beverage Manager would personally follow up with us regarding our requests, including reservations for Easter brunch and related activities. He never called. Not once. At check-in on Sunday, a front desk agent assured us the reservations would be handled. Later that evening, the highest-ranking employee on duty at the front desk again assured us things were taken care of. We were told notes had been entered into their system on multiple occasions, yet subsequent staff could not locate those notes — suggesting a breakdown at the operational or IT level that no one seems accountable for.
The staff, while pleasant, would not take ownership of problems. On several occasions, calls ended abruptly — hung up before the conversation was actually concluded. No callbacks. No resolution. Just a quiet hope, it seemed, that the problem would go away on its own.
This is not a 5-star experience. It is not consistent with the Marriott Luxury Collection standard, and it is a significant departure from the Solaz experience we had previously, in the same room category and through the same Fine Hotels & Resorts program, under a different management company. The people working here now appear to be either not empowered, not motivated, or not properly trained to set expectations and deliver on promises. That is a leadership failure, not an employee failure.
I do not believe the General Manager, Giuliana Torres Schernthaner, is operating this property at a 5-star level. The culture at a hotel reflects its leadership — the hiring, the training, the degree of agency given to staff, the expectations set and enforced. The weaknesses we experienced are not isolated; they reflect the team she has built, and that team in turn shapes the experience every individual staff member delivers. What I observed is a culture of avoidance: avoiding problems, avoiding follow-through, avoiding difficult conversations with guests, and hoping issues resolve themselves. That culture does not build itself. It is permitted, and modeled, from the top.
And the accountability does not stop at the GM. The full Marriott leadership chain responsible for enforcing Luxury Collection brand standards on this franchise is, from lowest to highest:
• Giuliana Torres Schernthaner — General Manager, Solaz
• Marcela Rodriguez Asfura — Area Director of Operations, Mexico and Caribbean
• Gamal El Fakih Rodriguez — Vice President of Operations, Luxury, Premium and Residences, Caribbean and Latin America
• Hugo Desenzani — Managing Director, Luxury Group, Caribbean and Latin America
Each person in this chain bears responsibility for the standards, training, and culture at the properties under their oversight.
Ultimately, Hugo Desenzani, as Managing Director of the Luxury Group for the Caribbean and Latin America, is the decision maker who authorizes this franchise to continue operating under the Luxury Collection name and who is responsible for holding the franchisee,QGC, accountable to the criteria of that agreement. That is why I am naming him specifically.
Accountability at a 5-star level means accountability by name, not by anonymous corporate structure.
I will be contacting Mr. Desenzani and the regional franchise oversight team directly, because I believe QGC is in breach of the spirit, if not the letter, of its franchise agreement with Marriott.
The service failures described here have substantially diminished the Luxury Collection brand at this location.
The franchisee should be held to a formal corrective plan with clear benchmarks, or the franchise should be reconsidered entirely.
At minimum, there should be a rigorous review of whether appropriate training, behavior, and expectations were ever made clear to the operator, because it does not appear that QGC has the operational capability to execute a Luxury Collection franchise to the standard that other Marriott franchises deliver.
When you are paying close to $2,000 a night, you expect service, accountability, ownership, and results. Most importantly, you expect the basic human courtesy of people honoring their agreements. We did not receive that here. Instead, we had to self-advocate at every turn: far more than we have ever had to at a hotel of this caliber.
My advice to prospective guests, and the honest theme of this review: I just want you to know what you are actually walking into.
The property is beautiful. The brochures are beautiful. The brand name on the door is one of the most respected in luxury hospitality that includes the Ritz Carlton.
The operating reality on the ground is not a Luxury Collection experience. Do not expect strong service. Do not expect follow-up. Do not expect the level of care that the price tag and the brand promise. Be prepared to chase down every detail yourself.
My hope in writing this is:
First, to help fellow travelers make informed decisions, especially those planning once-in-a-lifetime trips where service failures carry real emotional weight.
Second, to respectfully but clearly signal to Marriott’s Luxury Group leadership and specifically to Hugo Desenzani as the decision maker for this franchise and many others —that the oversight being applied here is insufficient, and that QGC’s operation of Solaz is actively eroding the brand equity of the Luxury Collection. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link, and there are too many weak links here for it to be coincidence.
Solaz can be the resort its marketing promises. Under its current franchisee and current leadership, it isn’t.
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