2.5 stars rounded down. The good: the exteriors and grounds of the hotel are BEAUTIFUL. Animals running around everywhere, super cute coatis trying to steal your food. The pool was very large and nice with the swim up bars, waterfall feature, etc. Rooms were very nice and spacious. Food was decent at the buffets and great at the sit-down restaurants. Beautiful beach (lots of seaweed but that's not really the hotel's fault, just a fact of life during certain times of year.) The people who work here are super super nice. They don't have bottled water but they have filtered water stations and that worked well.

The bad: all dining areas except for the sit-down restaurants (which were difficult to get into unless you showed up right when they opened for the night) were open-air and not air conditioned at all. Sometimes the fans weren't even on. I guess somebody must like this but it was mid-July and we(and pretty much everyone else) were miserable during all of our meals. All of the activities/shows were open air. The lobby is open air. The air conditioning in the rooms was pretty weak as well--I don't think it got below 80F in our room the whole time we were there. Whenever you were outside of your room, the mosquitos were rampant. They weren't too bad during the day but in mornings and evenings(and in particular areas, all the time) they were the worst I've seen and I used to live in a literal swamp in the southeast US. This is understandable given where we are but the fact that everything was open air made it a lot worse since you're eating all your meals where the mosquitos can get you. Also it was so hot that the pool was really really hot and I couldn't stay in it for very long without needing to take a break back in the room.

The ugly: the hotel concierge scammed us when we asked them for help finding a tour to Tulum. We were sent to Matises & Co where they try to sell you veryyyy overpriced jewelry and tequila and essentially trap you there for 3 hrs before they finally drive you to Tulum. We were not told about that and had I not haggled with the concierge they would have charged 75 usd per person. We paid 35 usd and it was not worth it. Despite this being an all-inclusive, there are extra charges hiding everywhere you look and you have to be very careful to avoid them. Several of the things that are said online to be included with Iberostar Paraiso Beach were not included. It was impossible to leave the hotel without being scammed/price gouged--they will call you a taxi but the rates they have posted are extremely inflated. It's also very isolated so you can't really get around this. The hotel touts being "eco-friendly" but it reallyyy feels like they are using that as an excuse to cut corners. like with the whole AC thing. I bet that saves them a lot of money.

Tldr; it was okay but I wouldn't stay here again and I would warn people against it.

This is a beautiful and clean Resort. The reason for the 1 star is the customer service. We have travelled to this part Mexico more than 10 time. This is our first time at this resort. We booked the Iberostar as we stayed at the Iberostar Selection in Veradero Cuba and we liked it. We found out that this Iberostar is not affiliated with the Iberostar there.
We booked the beach front room in the Paraiso wave section and they tried to put us in the Del Mar section with 1 king bed. We booked the room with 2 double bed! My daughter was with us and we were there for 11 days. They said they will give us a cot and it's a better view. We told them there is no way our daughter is sleeping on a cot and we did not book on the Del Mar side due to the beach. Too much rocks on that side of the resort. Anyways after 1 hour, they said we can have a room on the Wave side but it will not be ready until 5 Pm. We were tired and said that's fine as we arrived there at 9:30 am. They give us a temporary room until 5 pm.
Also we didn't have our room yet and they were trying to get us to go to Time share at the Maya buffet. They kept saying you will get a free massage. We said several time we are here on vacation and don't want to waste our time on going to time share. For that reason they would not activate our $500.00 room credit. Eventually on our 7th day one of the Concierge said he will activate it we don't need to go to the time share meeting. I wish I got his name.

Two times in the main buffet for Continental breakfast we were treated badly! We had an early morning excursion scheduled so we went to have breakfast at 6:15 am. They only have Continental breakfast available, which is only carbs (muffin, white bread, cereal, cheese and some fruits). My husband is diabetic and cannot have any of that to eat. He needs protein. We just wanted some eggs.
The buffet was scheduled to open at 7 am. At 6:45 I asked for some eggs and they rudely said we need to wait until 7 am. At 6:58 am my husband went and 4 employees swarmed and grabbed him and said he cannot go in the buffet. He explained the situation but no sympathy. Unbelievable that they do not cater to people with health issue. In our case they didn't. Our excursion transportation was picking us at 7:15 so we just left. My husband only had coffee and cheese!
On Aug 26 our transportation was picking us to go to the airport at 7 am. We just went to get coffee. The seating area was filled and only had tables available for 2. We are 3 people so we just sat pass the area they block off at a table for 4. The waitress said we can't sit there. We explained there is 3 of us. She kept say sit there, sit there and we kept on telling her there is no seat for 3 people. She rudely stomp over to a table for 2 people and dragged a chair and said here.
We did not make a fuss so we just sat there. Even before we sat down there were other people sitting on the same table where we were originally sitting at and she never said anything to them. We felt we were treated that way due to our color.
We have been travelling over 35 years and never have been treated like this before. We will never come back to this resort due to bad customer service as most of the staff don't care. Due to such a big resort they are not able to focus on C/S. Even though we tip they don't care. No smiles from most of the staff. Most of the time you have to go get your own drink and they don't have time to serve you your drinks.

Our last night we decided to eat at the Mediterranean restaurant. It's supposed to be first come first serve. We got there after 7 pm. They closed at 9 pm. They said the wait time is 45 min but no guarantee we will get in as there is 6 other group waiting to get in. They said for us to go the Italian restaurant. We said no we will wait. What they actually did was put the 6 other group name down on a piece of paper. We did not see anyone waiting except for 1 other group of 3. We asked, so you are taking reservation. They said no and was just dodging our question. When we looked in the restaurant there was a lot of empty tables. I believe they were giving priority to the members only.
After less than 20 min they finally seated us. We were glad we waited as we enjoyed the food and service.
We tried to make the best of our Vacation as the Beach is beautiful, drinks and food was good. I have never given such a low review before but due to the way we were treated we will definitely not be coming to this resort again!

I wouldn’t rate this resort 5 star as stated , I visited with my family August 2024.
We arrived to this resort after a very long flight and a short ride in a taxi. On arrival we were checked in and allocated our rooms. I just wanted to shower and sleep. The shower was not clean with long hairs and I had to call reception and ask them to clean the shower. This was dealt with promptly and staff apologised. Rooms are spacious but very dated and noisy which I will say does calm after midnight.
The grounds are beautiful and well maintained and picturesque. I loved the wild life.
The only place with A/C was our rooms . No A/C in the restaurants as they are open plan with ceiling fans so it was uncomfortable to eat with very hot tempratures . Food was okay but much of the same daily however I did manage to find something to eat.

We were bitten by lots of mosquitos , apparently there was a hurricane before we arrived and told that this created more mosquitos.This made our stay very uncomfortable and we had to purchase high strength mosquito repellent.

I loved the water features on each floor and we had access to clean water on tap.

I would not return to this resort.