Casa Arkana Zicatela by Grupo Amber

The location

The staff were extremely rude, the electricity went out five times or more. The water was turned off multiple times, the guest hours are ridiculous, and the pool is way smaller than it looks online. Would never return.

The rooftop is just as pictured, featuring a small pool that’s refreshingly cold—perfect for hot days—and offering stunning views of the beach and sunsets. The hotel’s location is good, but a bit remote for the less adventurous. It's within easy walking distance to the beach and only about a 10-15 minute stroll to the central area, where you'll find plenty of restaurants and shops... it seemed safe but it is a dark walk. Aesthetically, the property matches its photos. Overall, the property is lovely and quite relaxing. We enjoyed meeting other guests as well.

I rarely leave negative reviews, but a few things stood out, and I haven’t heard back from Booking. The room we booked had one window with a translucent film, offering no view outside. After requesting an upgrade multiple times, a room with a balcony became available on the third try. Oddly, staff asked us to carry our old, wet towels to the new room ourselves, even though we just paid more for the room. The hotel had power outages on our 1st and 2nd nights, specific to the property, not region, meaning no water either. One outage lasted from 3 PM to midnight. Guests were going wild, yelling and demanding refunds. While inconvenient—we just made the best of it and went into town to charge phone. The word was that the hotel refused to compensate existing guests but provided accommodations for new arrivals. Some people left. I would have considered returning here, despite the power issue, but at checkout, while our taxi waited, staff asked us to wait and ran up to the room, returning to the lobby with our used towels in hand, inspecting them in a group in front of other guests! They were normal, used towels. Their behavior was embarrassing, especially since we’d only been given two towels for five days of beach and pool use. The roads are literally dirt, not paved, btw. They were pointing and trying to spot clean a makeup stain with pink window cleaner, saying we have to pay for the towels. Never in all my travels have I experienced this. While in the cab, the desk clerk texted my phone saying she forgot to ask us to pay for the drinks from the community fridge (which we logged) and asked me to give cash to the taxi driver. I thought this would be added to the room charge. Scrambling for change while leaving Mexico was a frustrating end.

The property is not how it’s advertised. They want you to believe it’s a peaceful place, but really it’s more of a hostal vibe. They send a list of rules prior to your stay about quiet hours, not disturbing the other guests, Pool hours etc but they don’t enforce this and you hear EVERYTHING, at all hours of the night. I stayed with my daughter (who got sick while in PE) and we weren’t able to relax at all, it was so loud at night with people and party, people on the roof right above our room, loud creaking doors. On top of this there was an entire day where there was no power or water (at all). The street and directly in front of the place is also full of construction so you will hear this during your stay the entire time… I told them they should they disclose this info prior so people know what they’re signing up for, and they told me “we offer you a sorry”. It’s obvious this was a very old building that they just recently tried to take over but there’s nothing luxury about it. It should be considered a hostal. The women working were also just rude. I was asking if they knew where a hospital or medical center was for my daughter and they couldn’t be bothered by the question. I’ve been in hospitality business for almost 20 years and I would be shocked to have employees act this way. All around horrible experience and zero sleep for 3 days. Would not recommend if you want to sleep at night — but if you wanna party it might be for you.

Amazing design of the hotel, rooms are very clean and have lots of amenities. Staff is super friendly and helpful. Very quiet location to relax. Very good rooftop.

Rooftop pool and sunbeds need some shade from the sun. Close to the beach and a bit far from the main street of punta zicatela.