We stayed at the Iberostar for a week at Christmas time. The hotel has many nice features. The beach is gorgeous and the views from the southern wings of the are breathtaking. The food was decent. The rooms were clean and comfortable, with lovely balconies and views. The lobby needs updating as do the bathrooms in the rooms.

However, the hotel has a long way to go before it will be a five star hotel. Iberostar took over the property from Hilton and opened in early December. It did not change any of the rooms or the lobby.

There were lots of problems with our stay. First of all, when we arrived, it was after 3 pm, which is the stated check-in time. However our room was not ready until 4:30 and we were told to sit in the lobby until it was ready. We got our keys and went to our room, which had 2 double rooms instead of one king as we had reserved and subsequently confirmed. We went back to the lobby and were told that there were no other rooms available. Then, we went to make our dinner reservations and were told that there were no spots available at the restaurants until our 4th night! We were told our only option was to eat at the buffet 3 meals/day! We paid for a nice sit-down meal each night with table service--not the buffet!
I filed a formal, written complaint and then they somehow "found" dinner reservations for us for those nights.
Upon check-out, I could not get a final print-out of our hotel bill. They added the bill manually and could not give me a receipt. What was that about? After I got home, I got an email from the young lady who checked us out saying she had missed a store charge and could I pay it or she would have to pay it herself. I asked for an invoice of our charges because as I told her, I had no idea what I was charged since I could not get a final receipt or print-out from the hotel. She just emailed me copies of the original sales slips we signed at the store along with the one she forgot to charge me for, but not itemized. Don't they have computers there?
So, as I said the hotel has lots of problems with organization and guest services. And it needs a computer system!!!
The hotel has the bones to be a nice place if they get their act together.

Just got back from a long weekend (3 nights) at the Iberostar Cancun and loved it! This was a "mom's weekend away" with a friend and we both were impressed with the level of service and comfort that this resort provided.

We were greeted with fruity drinks at check-in. Check-in didn't take too long (although we were also traveling at an off-peak time). We were given a map of the resort and a schedule of events for the week at check-in.

I'd recommend going immediately from check-in to the concierge to make meal reservations. We weren't able to get reservations for our first night (the buffet was good though!), but easily made them for the next two nights.

We stayed in a normal room on the 8th floor. The balcony did not have much space, although you may have been able to fit a small chair on it. We loved the ocean view and kept the door open frequently, especially when it cooled down at night. There was a great breeze off the ocean! Our room was clean, had plenty of space for us (it had 2 double beds). The bathroom was fine - we appreciated the vanity being separate from the toilet/shower. The shower did have a half wall which tended to get the floor a little wet, but not too much (easily remedied if you threw an extra towel on there). Water pressure in the (rain style) shower was good.

Housekeeping did a great job keeping up our room and brought extra towels, drinks, etc... when asked.

The grounds were clean and well-maintained and we loved the several different pools. The beach was beautiful and we had no trouble finding chairs in any location (beach or pool), including under a canopy (again, this was an off-peak time though).

I have to comment on the amazing Star Friends staff at this point - they not only made announcements about different events going on throughout the day, they'd also walk around and encourage people to join in. They made a genuine effort to engage the guests without being intrusive, and always maintained a positive attitude.

We only caught two of the evening shows at the resort but were very impressed with the talent there. I am a (non-professional) singer/dancer/actor and did not expect to be as entertained as I was; my companion is married to a professional musician and she also was amazed at the talent here. I'd highly recommend catching at least one evening show!

Food - we enjoyed all the food we ate at the resort. We aren't "foodies", but were impressed at the wide variety of fresh fruits and vegetables at the buffet. The buffet had enough variety and switched up main courses enough that we were fine eating there for breakfast and lunch every day (the guacamole was delicious too!). I'd recommend having them make you fresh tacos for lunch :) The breakfast host (Javier) was fantastic and we ended up having the same waiter for a few meals; we loved that he remembered us. Service was prompt and friendly; we had no trouble getting coffee or tea quickly.

Restaurants - we only ate at two restaurants - the Japanese (hibachi) and the Gourmet. The hibachi was a great time and we had fun with the other diners at our table. The food was good, similar to other hibachi food we've eaten in the states. The gourmet restaurant was a great experience as well. Our waiter was attentive and we loved getting serenaded by the mariachi band. Again, the food was quite good - not exquisite, but not bad either. Great ambience.

Kids - we did not travel with our kids (this was a moms' weekend away), but we did notice that the kids' area looked like a lot of fun! There was a large pirate ship in very shallow water with a little slide, along with other fun scenes. I believe they had a kids' club for ages 4 and up. We agreed that this would be a great place to take our young children, although the waves at the beach were a little rough (so we'd keep them at the pool area).

I only have 2 minor "complaints" about this resort. The first is that there is no free wi-fi. I had thought (from reading other reviews) that we could get free wi-fi in the lobby, but they charged for any use of their services. It was about $3 for 15 minutes, so I went ahead and did it a few times (to check in with the family). The internet is a bit slow. I'd recommend bringing your own laptop/iPad/device to use the internet - the "business center" had working computers, but the keyboard symbols were not working properly, making it hard to log-in to some sites (when a password using symbols was needed). I never did figure out where the @ symbol was! Fortunately my friend brought a laptop so we used that.

The second issue was with check-out. As I mentioned earlier, we traveled at an off-peak time (late Jan 2012), and the hotel was nowhere near being full. We requested a late check-out, as the shuttle to the airport wasn't leaving until almost 4pm (check-out is normally noon). They said that would be fine if our room wasn't reassigned, but it would be an additional $10 charge for every hour after normal check-out time. I ended up asking if I could shower at the spa instead so I could check-out on time. They were very accomodating of that request and it all worked out, but it would have been much easier just to be able to use the room.

In all, however, this was a fantastic resort. I've stayed at several all-inclusive resorts over the years and this one is definitely one of the better ones I've visited.

I stayed at this hotel when it was the Hilton and had a great time. The staff was great and the rooms were nice and clean. My favorite part of the hotel was the hammocks and the pool. We stayed in the Villas so we had a beach front room just steps to the ocean with a huge balcony. We played beach sports right outside our hotel room every day except one da that it rained. We enjoyed the morning breakfast buffet and evening cocktails included in the rate for the villas. I liked this hotel was remote enough from downtown Cancun away from the hustle and bustle but not so far that we could not easily travel back in forth on a short bus or cab ride.

Iberostar has a LONG way to go in making this hotel a resort. The food was mediocre, the service the worst ever......could I get a cup of coffee please.....after sitting for over 30 minutes for breakfast! Beach was never raked completely and was strewn with garbage. Woefully understaffed, staff rude and rushed, bathrooms dirty. At least we had 8 days of sunshine and warm weather. And, oh ya, the MAINTENANCE PERSON went in to BOTH rooms and took the tips left for the cleaning staff. Never felt safe after that.