Grand Sirenis Matlali Hills Resort & Spa

The weight staff was excellent, especially Lane. They were very accommodating to all of our special dietary restrictions and even made special dishes to ensure we were safe. They eagerness to help and give you the best experience they can.

My husband and I chose this resort because we wanted peace and quiet in a nature setting with excellent food to celebrate our anniversary. This was a lot of money for us to pay but we splurged for our special celebration. Instead we got a SUPER NOISY resort, less than average food, and barely could enjoy the private pool we paid lots for because of the noise and mediocre customer service from management. I don't know where this resort got their 4 diamonds rating but they must have paid for it on the black market or something. And I don't know where they get all those positive reviews (probably all accounts or AI that belong to the resort). This place is a 3-star at best. They don't do proper maintenance of their rooms. The first room they gave us had no handle on the bedroom door and the ACs were not working at all. Took 2 hours for them to give us another room. The 2nd room, the AC in the bedroom barely worked but we had no choice as apparently there were no other rooms available. While we waited and were obviously upset, nobody offered to give us a drink or anything. They have ZERO knowledge of customer service and how to take care of clients. The AC remote didn't work so we were not able to turn off the display light so we had to sleep with this bright light over the room. Next day maintenance came and couldn't figure it out so they put black duck tape on top of the display light. We had a beautiful balcony overlooking the ocean and the forest with a private pool and where we could see the sunrise but we didn't enjoy it because EVERY morning the gardener was out there at 7am with a super loud leaves blower. One day it went on for 4 HOURS!!!! It was so loud that we had to stay inside. That was absolutely devastating to us. We complained and asked for it to stop but nothing happened. And at night, they have a bar outside with super boom boom loud music until 1am. So we didn't get the rest and relaxation we were looking for at all. The food was the food of a 3 star resort at best. There was absolutely nothing special. The nachos came with that orange liquid disgusting unhealthy cheese. The hamburgers were made with frozen patties like the ones from Costco. The chicken was super dry and recycled in different sauces. The scallop potatoes were not cooked. The fish they offered was Tilapia which is the worst fish ever. And one night they even had the audacity to put on the sign that it was salmon. Do they think people are stupid? The only meal that was decent was breakfast because we could get our own omelette but the rest of the choices were ordinary. There wasn't even a station to make toasts or bagels. They didn't even know how to make French toast properly. One night it was a la carte Oriental. What a joke. First it was a tiny little salad with cold green beans and 1 piece of broccoli. Then what was supposed to be a Miso soup with spaghetti noodles all stuck together in a broth that had no taste with pieces of the disgusting dry chicken. Then there were 2 choices of meal (chicken Teriyaki - 2 pieces of dry chicken with a coleslaw salad with greasy uncooked pieces of bacon OR tuna with rice) the tuna was okay but the pieces were super tiny. There was only 1 kind of desert and it was gelatine. Mexican night had the same recycled chicken and fish in different sauces with the same vegetables, same potatoes and fried plantain. It's a good thing there was birria left over from the breakfast that morning otherwise I would not have been able to eat. The buns were always hard and not fresh. Etc..... I think you get the gist that this was not gourmet food expected in a 4 diamonds resort. So that was a huge disappointment. The 2nd day, my husband goes to the bar to get a gin/tonic and a bloody ceasar to bring back to the room and was told there was no tonic and no vodka. That's it. Goodbye. The bartender didn't offer for him to wait while he goes to replenish his supplies or call someone to bring him tonic and Vodka. He just said we're out. We complained and complained. We wanted to leave the first morning and go somewhere else but they said they couldn't do a credit on the card right away and couldn't give us cash so it would take 5-10 days. Obviously we didn't trust them to ever refund us so we felt trapped and had to stay. One time the manager Carlos I think called and we asked again to leave and get a refund and he refused. After that we never heard from him or seen him. NOBODY cared about us as customers having the worse experience on our anniversary. They have done NOTHING to help us to make things better. We are angry and sad that we spent all this money for nothing. We could have stayed home and gone out to eat delicious food every night in restaurants and it would have cost a third of what we spent on that ridiculous resort. And if this resort was even a tiny bit decent, they would offer a partial refund for all the inconvenience. They absolutely don't deserve to have 4 diamonds. STAY AWAY!

Our trip was amazing and the experience was great. The resort was above and beyond our expectations and our week stay was perfect! The staff went above and beyond to make us feel welcomed and like friends. Lane was a great host and bartender. The food was great, the beach experience was amazing also! Thanks to all that made this experience possible!

Our room was beautiful and offered scenic views of the bay as well as the mountains in the distance. We opted for the master suite with the pool on the balcony, which was very clean and nice. The room itself was well maintained aside from the balcony door not closing all the way which led to pests and critters being able to get inside. There was a small scorpion that got into our room, and it turns out it was a poisonous one (they were all very alarmed when I showed them a picture of what kind it was). The staff was very helpful and fumigated the room for us when we told them about it. The staff was the highlight of our trip! We appreciated the kindness they showed us- especially Lane, Alejandro, Javier and Victor. The grounds themselves could use some work. The pools that were advertised online/instagram were completely closed and we were told they were being remodeled. However, these are newer pools (we were there in 2019 and the triangular pools were not installed at that time, so they were added after that) so I don't understand why they were being remodeled so soon. Another guest mentioned that they heard that tower with the new pools had actually been sold, so not sure what's going on, but they were not available. There were only two regular pools and one natural pool available during our stay. The last two days one of the regular pools was also made unavailable and closed down. The natural pool was very serene and beautiful despite construction being done all around us- the noise made it a bit more difficult to enjoy. Our favorite part was the beach club as they had decent food and fans to cool off under. Half of the resort was sold to Marriott since we last came so there were already less ground and pools than in 2019. There is also no entertainment at this resort and it felt like a ghost town aside from the two to three other parties we ran into during our stay. I know it's the down season but we visited the Delta by Marriott next door during one of our days there and they had hundreds of people there with plenty of entertainment. The food could use some work for vegetarians, but they did the best they could to accommodate us. I think the food has improved since our last trip! However, there are a lot of repeating options and not much variety throughout the week. I would also recommend LGBTQIA+ training for staff as my new wife was referred to as my friend several times throughout our stay despite having told them in advance more than once that it was our honeymoon. I don't think we would stay again due to the lack of amenities and lack of communication about what is/isn't available as far as pools. However, it was nice to spend our honeymoon in a place that we went once before for memory's sake.

Nestór and Joel are very attentive waiters. They kept our table nice and clean. Ferdinando is an entertaining waiter. I enjoyed our conversation with him and he taught us some Spanish to help us while we were in Mexico. Alejandro is the driver who was very helpful and gave us great information about the city and how to get around. Margarito at the beach was very nice and help us translate with vendors. Sarahi and Janet were always smiling and nice to us when we came to the restaurant.