4th stay at the Grand Residences. It remains to be our favorite place for rest & relaxation. Our (adults) children specifically requested our family holiday to be at the Grand Residences.
The resort is not crowded, property is always very clean. We are missing few members from the staff at the pool & restaurants but just the same, we are being treated as family.
The airport transportation is always comfortable and on the luxury side. And the conversation with Mr. Happy along the way is always a pleasure.

The welcome drinks, after a long trip, is always a very nice touch!

Eliseo, Emanuela, Abel and the rest (I should have written down their names!) always provide the best customer service. Eliseo & Emanuela knew I love yellow mangoes with my breakfast. I didn’t have to ask😍

Chez, Efraim & Jesus at the pool are definitely on top of things. Nothing can can beat having your pool lounges ready for you every morning with towels, tiny pillows, cold bottled water & water spray!
Blue Haven wait staff are always ready to serve our food & drinks.

The lobby bartenders, for me, always make the best drinks.

The room service, not just the food, but the service itself remains on point.
Refrigerator is always stocked up with beverages.

Monica & America gave my husband & I a super relaxing massage.

Jennifer, Gracia & Enrique, the Activity Team, truly entertained us! Each one of us, family of four, won a game!

The dance lessons are fun to do and a great way to start the day before the all day eating! Good instructor too! (forgot his name)

And of course shout our to our concierge Claudia, as always treats us like family and ensures we have everything we needed! Thankful also to Tristan who also helped with some of our arrangements.They made a special dinner arrangements for my husband’s birthday!

And members, I guess we have extra perks!

One of the biggest assets of Grand Residences is definitely the people!

Now, some changes we observed & experienced ( I might sound petty & knit-picking but there are certainly things that set Grand Residences from other properties.)
- Lobsters, duck & octopus are gone from the menu.
- The ceviche served at the pool is different, not as good as it was. The one at the restaurant is better. But both don’t have scallops & octopus anymore.
- The fresh flowers/orchids in the bathroom is gone.

We are actually a bit worried what Holiday Inn vacation will bring to Grand Residences. Hopefully they will value & keep all the good things that the resort are known for; the reasons why, like our family, keeps on going back!

Planning to go back in a year or two. Hope the changes are for the better!

We visited in September 2024. The property is in very good shape, and definitely luxurious. However, there are a few things that they can work on. Before anyone books this place, be mindful that this is a smaller resort as compared to many others, and as such have limited options available for food and entertainment. The location is fairly remote as well, which might work for folks seeking peace and quiet away from Cancun's crowded resorts.

Food was a major limiting factor for us, and hence the mediocre review. Even though they asked about our food preferences several times before even stepping foot on the property, and at the beginning of every visit to the restaurant, very little was done to accommodate gluten-free vegetarian food. Only on the last dinner did they provide extra options. We had to go outside for a few meals. The snacks in the room were disappointing as compared to other resorts. And they didn't replenish them even when we asked.

There is no entertainment to speak of. There are barely any activities as well, and the place is dead after 5 pm (with no pool side service either). The personal concierge was nice, but honestly didn't really help much beyond dinner reservations. The Kids club staff was amazing. Perhaps because of the off season, my kids were the only kids there (which worked for us). Overall a boring place for kids.

Room was good and clean, but our junior suite had no view.. it overlooked the corridor which essentially made the hot tub in the 'balcony' kinda useless.

On the plus side, excellent property, well maintained. Pool options, however limited, are very clean. Staff and service was good for the most part.

In summary, the property itself is great - clean and well managed, food is limiting, there is no entertainment, and the whole place definitely had a 'retiree' feel to it. It's perfect for relaxing in peace for a few days if all you want to do is sit by the poolside and have drinks.

So much to say, not sure where to start. We HAD been loyal customers to this beautiful resort, staying here our first time back in 2020 to Celebrate our Anniversary. At that point in time, we were speechless with the amazing customer service, attention to detail, staff going out of their way to make sure anything and everything was done to perfection. From the private airport transportation in the beautiful all black Suburban, the amazingly professional "butler" to the cleaning and resort staff that made sure everything was just right.

This level of service was what made us decide to return again the following year, but then to bring our whole family of 7 and rent the beachfront 3 bedroom villa on the ground floor in 2021. Again, a stay that was worth every penny of the almost $10,000 price tag.

Another trip with just my wife and I in 2022, and again were amazed so we once again booked a trip for January 2024, with our whole family in the 3 bedroom beachfront ground floor villa. However, prior to our trip, IHG purchased Royal Resorts, so we had our hopes that nothing would change, as it was well documented by IHG that they would "retain" the Royal Resorts pride and customer service as displayed by the Royal Resorts staff and team member.

Fast forward to late December/Early January 2023/2024 as we were within 30 days of our trip. We had to send several emails to both the reservations site, as well as the "concierge" that was assigned to us. The lack of responses to our emails should have been a red flag, but we just passed it off as possibly being a busy time of year for them. Eventually we received our confirmation of private transportation from the airport to Grand Residences, which is part of the price of the resort. In the past, it has always been a vehicle specifically for the Grand Residences, which are either Black Suburbans, or the larger MBZ vans that hold a larger group, which is what we needed. We arrived at Cancun Airport, and went outside to find our transportation. Once the Thomas Moore agent confirmed our information he took us to the pickup area, where a large white local taxi van was waiting for us. This taxi had been around the block many times, with collision damage, dirty seats, poor A/C, etc. not the same level of transportation we were expecting.

During the course of our stay (5 nights) we all noticed how little the employees went out of their way to say hello or greet you with a smile like in years past. Many employees didn't seem to care about their interactions or take pride in making sure everything was the utmost. From inaccurate orders at Heaven Beach Bar, to poor food quality and not having what was advertised on the menu for Taco Tuesday, to even being questioned on the phone by room service when calling in an order for our family, at the number of dinners we were ordering (there were 7 of us). Our overall impression of the resort was drastically reduced due to how much the service has slid since our stay one year previously. The few staff members that cared about their jobs and our comfort, etc. were great to see and we rewarded them well, however it seems that the newer people do not have that same commitment to customer service. Not once did we receive the "hand over heart" gesture when telling them Thank You, which was a tradition of Royal Resorts.

Once our stay concluded, we were waiting for transportation back to the airport. When our name was called, the seven of us went outside with our luggage, to find a single black Suburban waiting for us, with the poor driver looking at the luggage and number of people and realizing it wasn't going to work. I asked to speak to the transportation captain, and he tried to blame our concierge for not booking the correct sized vehicle to take us to the airport, even though the hotel booking info clearly stated 7 people. So they called a local taxi, which we split our party up and had them follow us to the airport. At no time did the Hotel Manager or Concierge or anyone apologize for their mistake, they just kind of said, "deal with it".

This truly was a trip that ended our desire to ever come back to the Grand Residences again, or any of the properties that IHG took over. They have done the impossible, and killed the Royal Hospitality that we all loved and kept us coming back.

it is so sad to see this happen, especially when it is 100% preventable, and for the price people pay to stay here, it's a no go from us.