I and my fiancé stayed at Iberostar Paraíso Beach in May 2024. This is our fourth stay at an Iberostar property, and our third in Playa del Carmen. It’s also our last. I don’t consider myself a whiney person and I don’t like complaining (who does?), but they really treated us like s**t and I’m compelled to write this as a warning. I promise I’ve tried to honestly reflect on and question each interaction, everything we said and how we may have said it to staff and I might understand more if we’d been nasty or demanding, and I’m clearly biased but I can’t explain it.
Long story short (TL;DR):
A bunch of things went wrong for a resort that purports to be 4/5 stars, but the icing on the cake was the treatment we received from staff and management after I had a bag stolen from the pool area. While I don’t blame anyone for it—I’d left my bag sitting on a lounge chair with my towel—realistically, there isn’t really any other practical way to both bring things to the pool and go in it. Anyhow, okay I learned a lesson. But the hotel made the whole thing bizarre and fishy (e.g., denials from staff out of nowhere, giving us conflicting info, refusing to help us call police, refusing to pay for a taxi to go to a police station but then changing their mind when we called one ourselves, then asking us for a copy of the report I filed…). Ultimately, it felt like no one was in charge of anything and like the hotel was deaf to any of our concerns in favor of protecting itself—from what I don’t know because we never made any accusations and I only wanted to report a theft for insurance and cover my bases.
Longer story:
Since our last stay in September 2023, they made changes that restrict an area of the pool and one pool bar to members only—that’s fine, that’s their prerogative—but it’s not very clear what’s restricted, especially for guests who’ve stayed there before the changes. Staff was strange about explaining the rules (e.g., blank stares, no acknowledgement it’s a change that impacted our stay)
On the last day of our stay, at the hotel pool area near its ice cream bar and two pool bars, my fiancé and I placed our things, including a bag (with my wallet and iPhone), on chairs before entering the pool nearby and when we exited the pool, found my bag was stolen. Other things we’d left on the chairs were left alone.
We immediately alerted hotel staff, including security, concierge, and reception who repeatedly provided us contradicting information about the hotel’s protocol for theft (e.g., who to speak to, if there were security cameras in the area, if and when security footage might be reviewed, how to formally report and recover stolen items, how to file a police report for insurance purposes, etc.) and our best course of action. Staff offered no proactive assistance, instead repeatedly referring us back and forth between the area where the theft occurred and the hotel reception front desk (0.7 km each way). At the front desk, the concierge manager we requested to speak to said that the hotel couldn’t call the police or help us file a police report and that we’d need to leave hotel property to file a police report in Playa del Carmen. Staff consistently denied hotel liability and employee responsibility for the theft—we never made either assertion, so the repeated denials out of nowhere raised questions in our minds about the hotel we hadn’t really considered.
Shortly after the theft, I contacted my bank to cancel my debit and credit cards, two (2) of which were used fraudulently after the theft. Also shortly after the theft, we attempted using ‘Find My iPhone’ to locate the stolen iPhone, but the device had been turned off—presumably at the time of theft by the person(s) responsible—and the last location update provided by the phone was at the same pool area. I gave hotel staff these details, including the exact location of the theft. (Update as of June—the phone’s set up to be erased and it’s reported stolen but it’s also still connected with my iCloud account and it is somewhere in Playa del Carmen lol it’s more or less bricked to whoever has it.)
I mentioned staff would not assist us in calling the police or making a report. I was told “because it is private property” the police can’t come unless they are called… right, but it’s their private property… (whatever…) forcing us to leave and make a report with the local police in Playa del Carmen, which we did later that same afternoon. Hotel staff denied our request that the hotel pay for our taxi fare to the police station; only after we called for a taxi which we said we would pay for ourselves did concierge staff then, however, offer to pay for the taxi to the police station. When we returned to the hotel that evening, staff told us they’d found some items from the stolen bag in the trash near the beach—I found it odd staff would be able to tell from trash some of my things like a lighter and a keychain. Concierge at this time requested I provide the hotel with a copy of the police report I’d filed, a request which I denied. Only at check-out did staff tell me they’d found another item from the bag.
On our last night (same day as the theft) the power went out multiple times for hours (no backup, no lights, no AC, no internet)—not the hotel’s fault (I guess…), apparently there were widespread power outages due to a recent heatwave. What was strange was the hotel’s lack of communication (the buffet is even more interesting without light…) and again weird unwillingness to be helpful—at one point we just wanted to leave and find a hotel near the airport when the power had been out a few hours and reception/concierge was useless and could not give us any hotel names in Cancun.
We’d gone to the spa earlier in our stay and same as last time, most of the jets don’t work. Also, the baths were cool to the touch—cooler than the large spa pool. I was the first or only person at the spa pool and bath area, so I asked a staff member if someone might check the temperatures. I didn’t notice a change after an hour so I thought it was fair to ask again if someone had looked at it (maybe it was just taking time) but he told me it was just so hot outside I maybe couldn’t tell how warm they were… lol nonsense since the hotel itself labels the baths with temps and one labeled 38° was cooler than one labeled 35° but I digress… I said “oh okay, thanks” and just assumed they don’t actually listen.
Our room’s shower drain stank like sewage and the room was warm (you can only set the thermostat as low as 22°, unless you call to request lower which then stops you at 18°). I’m a nerd and bring thermometers everywhere out of curiosity and the actual temperature in the room never went below 26°C.
That’s it. We just had our fill of Iberostar and now that I’ve written this, I’m washing my hands of the whole thing. Hope others have much better luck and experiences—I know it’s possible, but I don’t trust them anymore.
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