Sandos Cancun Luxury Resort

Freddy in the buffet was excellent and really hustled!! Thank you Freddy!! The beach is gorgeous and the rooms are top notch! There are many choices in the buffet and the restaurants have variety of foods to choose from. Wonderful vacation with family!

Our experience was fabulous!! We were celebrating a friend’s 60th and couldn’t have been more pleased. The food was fantastic, and the drinks on point. But what stood out more than anything was the staff! Everyone was so incredibly friendly and helpful. Carla and Itzel, who guided us through yoga and water aerobics everyday got our energy up and had us feeling fantastic. Bruno, Andrea and Lorenzo were just some of the amazing service staff who tended to our every culinary need. Ade and Isabel were some of the house keeping staff that were so friendly, kept our rooms clean and stocked and were always checking to see if we needed anything else. If you want a wonderful holiday, free from worry, and full of fun activities, tended to by some of the friendliest and most genuine people… look no further!

Sandos Cancun may not look as impressive when you first get here, but the customer service and good food more than make up for it. The rooms are decently sized, and the beachfront is well-maintained, with nice cabanas and plenty of lounge chairs. Mr Reyes at the front desk made our check-in flawless and arranged a room for us right away, even though we got here super early. The tennis and gym facilities are fantastic. We especially enjoyed the Halloween-themed dinner and the Day of the Dead celebrations. The bathrooms are not the best. Overall, it was a pretty good vacation for the price.

Let me start of by saying this is a small hotel compared to the megaplexes that loom over the beaches of Cancun. However, an overall nice hotel. It’s a little older and the building shows. It is a very clean hotel, lobby, bathrooms, rooms, restaurants.  The pool area has two levels, both pools are clean, and are kept clean. I mostly stayed on the upper deck pool, as it was mostly vacant, which was nice. However, that means that the bartenders walking around the pool, didn’t it make over there quite often. The drinks are good.  Check in was smooth, you have the opportunity to check in online before you arrive at the hotel. Reception was phenomenal, excellent service, always willing to assist. I had some issues with the safe and the hot water, and they were quick to get someone to assist me, and maintenance followed up right away. The hot water was mainly that I didn’t know how to work the lever.  I was not very happy that I was accosted by concierge right away, and this is were my overall experience was affected. The gentleman who assisted me made it known right away that I would not be made privy or acesss to some of the exclusive “members only privilege”. They asked who I booked with and I booked with Hotels.com. Guest are differentiated by red and blacks bands, the red ones being the lesser ones. The black bands have access to an exclusive bar by the pool lounge area. This small experience put somewhat of a damper because your left feeling like a second class citizen. I understand that its there job to try to get people to join their elusive members only, however, there are better ways to go about it, without leaving a guest feeling like less off.  The restaurants, there are four restaurants, and one of them is buffet style. The other 3 require that you RSVP online, however, I was not able to get a reservation because there was no slots. I asked concierge about reserving a spot, because they ask you to reach out to them if you need a reservation which I did, and I was mostly persuaded to go via the buffet route. They suggested I go to the restaurant and see if they might be able to squeeze me in. I wen’t by the restaurant (Frattinnis) and asked if they could fit me in. The manager I believe (blue shirt) seemed annoyed that I was asking, and asked that I try about 9:30 pm. However, I was hungry, I tried waiting but hunger got the best of me. I am a fast eater, and 1 person, I don’t think it would have been to hard to accommodate me. The buffet was good, not the best selection, but it did the job. The service at the buffet was a little slow for me, it seems that if you’re in a family setting, they are quick to attend to your needs, i.e remove plates bring by drinks.  The bar had some good drinks, but apparently a jack and coke was above my pay grade. I was told by the bartender that Jack was not in my plan (i.e red bracelet). You’re telling me that Jack is considered high end? What are you serving your high end guest? This was my first experience as a first time guest at Sandos and first time in Cancun. I don’t think it takes a lot from a hotel to make 1 guest happy, and all guest should be treated with equal respect. We are all paying guest. One more thing, please check your beds, there was a dip in my bed, it was an old mattress from the looks of it.

The good: 1. Lovely beach (although needs shade) 2. Lovely staff (Cesar, Manuel, and all pool/ beach staff stood out) 3. Brought us choc covered strawberries and bubbly (it was my partners 30th but it said happy anniversary & came on the wrong day but it’s the thought that counts!) 4. Nice beer The bad: 1. This is not a place for relaxing with a book and listening to the sea - loud, party vibe with loud thumping music all day and weddings outside our window every night. Some guests even brought their own big speakers to the beach/ pool and played clashing music. 2. The most frustrating thing - This hotel does not cater for dietary requirements at all, despite saying they will. We picked this hotel because it is advertised as vegan friendly. We checked with the hotel before booking, before arriving and on arrival, and each time we were reassured there would always be vegan options. It became clear very quickly this was a marketing move with no staff being trained about any dietary requirements. Every meal time they asked about dietary requirements, wrote them down, then did nothing with this information, so this was entirely performative. Poor labelling at the buffet & Everything was covered in cheese (also terrible for allergies). Even things on the a la carte menu that were marked vegan weren’t actually - One meal we said we were vegan when we booked the restaurant, told them when we arrived, told the waiter, ordered a vegan labelled dish and specified no cheese - and it still came with parmesan which isn’t even vegetarian! And even when some staff members did know what vegan means, the food was really poor - e.g just veg on a plate at Gaijin. Theres no way this is 5* standard. We wouldn’t have been as disappointed if the hotel hadn’t been specifically advertised as vegan friendly - I don’t get how that’s allowed when it’s blatantly not true. Mostly writing this review to make sure other vegans don’t make the same mistake.