Royal Hideaway Playacar

Beautiful resort! The seaweed problem seems to be gone and the beach is beautiful. We especially want to point out Oscar Escobar, the waiter at Azia… he was wonderful! Funny, attentive, made our last night perfect! He even had a special dessert made for us!

First let me start off by saying the Royal Hideaway Playacar has been on our "bucket list" for years since we started traveling to Riviera Maya in the early 2000's. We always saw and heard excellent reviews about the property over the years but initially it was priced far out of range for our budget. Imagine our delight when we booked this resort for an early Christmas getaway! I'll admit our expectations were high based on the still consistent high reviews this place gets even over 10-15 years. Sadly, it did not live up to the hype. Check in was fairly straight forward and efficient as we were the only ones arriving at that time - this is during COVID so that wasn't a surprise. We were greeted with a glass of champagne and whisked away to our room, which was the first disappointment. The rooms are well-appointed but small compared to other resorts of the same rating. As we began to unpack we noticed the room was rather warm so my husband went to adjust the thermostat. The fan came on but after a few minutes we noticed the temperature reading hadn't dropped AT ALL. We continued to lower the thermostat to the lowest level and still nothing. Called down to the front desk and asked maintenance to come check it out. Maintenance arrived fairly quickly and the poor guy opened up the ceiling tile in the hallway between the bedroom and bathroom but it soon became evident it wasn't something he could fix. My husband has HVAC training so he was able to communicate with the technician between our broken Spanish and his broken English that he was unable to get the room cooler. We called to the front desk to explain and asked to be moved, at first they told us there was nothing available and then finally after a personal visit to the front desk they "found" a room a couple buildings over. To be honest the AC in that room was only marginally better and if it wasn't for the ceiling fan over the bed we would have been miserable! Mind you we're not those people that want the room like a meat locker, just reasonably cool. I can't imagine if we were staying there during the hot and humid summer months! The other disappointing thing about this resort is the dinner reservations, the entire time we were there we never were able to eat before 9 or 9:30pm, even when we booked for the entire week upon arrival! I understand the social distancing aspect, however the restaurants would be almost completely empty when we would walk by earlier to try to see if we could snag an earlier seating but were always turned away. My husband has slight mobility issues and he would have liked to use the main buildings elevator to get from the lobby down to the main floor where the paths to the rooms, pools, beach are located, however we were told non-chalantly that the elevator has been broken for the past few days. The only way down was a steep stairway which was fine most times but after a long travel day my husbands leg was dragging badly (he is a stroke survivor). Our opinion overall is the management at this hotel needs work.

In general very happy to have you visiting. I would go back.All the employees are very friendly and do their efforts to provide you with the best they can offer you.

Loved my stay .. beach is beautiful.. very clean .. waiters were very good and friendly .. all in all very good

We just returned from our 9th visit. We celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with our dear friends. Even before we arrived all questions etc. were answered by Lorena, Sandra, Alexander and Karla. From the second we arrived to departure everything was perfect. The grounds were immaculate thanks to the hardworking gardeners. The cleaning staff that clean the grounds to a very high standard as due the pool crew. The food wow wow wow is all I have to say. Not one bad meal and anyone who complains must have been at the wrong resort. Shout out to the bell boys, check in staff, gardeners, housekeeping, wait staff, room service, entertainment staff and bartenders our vacation wouldn’t have been so great without all of you !! Special shout to Lorena always so helpful and kind. Karla wasn’t our concierge but always willing to help out with anything. Truly a lovely lady. Ricky always smiling, waving asking if he can help. Our concierge Fernanda was new but did a fantastic job. I am ashamed to say I don’t know the name of our maid in Villa 26 but she took very good care of us. What a lovely lady. Thank you to all bartenders you all make the best Vodka martinis . Carlo, Brenda and Fernando at the Grille thank you . Karina at Azia with her beautiful smile, willing to help as are all staff. Wilson is new but will go far what a sweetheart. Now to the highlight of our day lunch. Oscar what a wonderful person professional and kind at the same time. Jesus has come far since our last visit. ALL Staff at breakfast and lunch are fantastic. Now the star of the restaurant Samuel. What can we say Samuel is the ultimate gentleman. Always on top of things goes around checking on everyone and everything. Just perfection thanks to Samuel. Marta your staff is a credit to you. We miss everyone already and fingers crossed we will see you in February!! Thank you for making our 40th so special.