We stayed at the Aura at the end of January 2012. There are good sides and bad sides. As a point of reference, my wife and I have done a lot of traveling, including the Cozumel/Cancun area.
The good:
- It is quiet. Occupancy seemed to be quite low, so it was definitely a calm atmosphere.
- Staff: the staff (waiters/waitresses, etc) are on the whole, friendly and helpful
- Dive Playancar: Luis and the guys at Dive Playancar, the dive shop just outside the hotel on the beach, are friendly, helpful, etc. We did 10 dives over the course of the week, and they were great. Highly recommended, and what else is left to say about the epic diving in Cozumel?
- Workout Room: The workout room was nice, and was clean.
The So-So:
- Age: Time hasn't been kind to the Aura. You can see that it's an older hotel. Our "Solarium Suite" showed plenty of old patchwork, some rusty brackets and such. Not really the fault of the hotel, but it did seem a bit run down, especially compared with brand new hotels on the mainland like the Live Aqua.
- The Room: we had a "Solarium Suite" which was a bit hit-and-miss. Had the 'old' feel as above. Bed was comfortable, and the furniture all looked nice. Solarium pool was, unfortunately, quite cold, so we never used it, but it was nice to have our private balcony. We were also, unfortunately, in room 1230 right by the elevators, so we had plenty of noise outside our room in the mornings, most annoyingly being the staff chatting while cleaning rooms.
- Service: As mentioned elsewhere, service is a touch on the slow side, but not overly so. Room service does take ~40 mins. This didn't bother us too much - we were on vacation, after all.
The Bad:
- nickel-and-diming: Evident everywhere throughought is the evidence of money-saving policies which are slightly off-putting in what purports to be a 4-star facility. the $250 "lost bracelet" thing has been mentioned elsewhere (fortunately we did not run afoul of that one). , The $5 "lost-key" fee, the crummy fluorescent light-bulbs that take 10 minutes to get bright, hot-tubs that seem to be broken, things like that.
- The Food: Even by Mexican resort standards, the food was pretty bad. There were a few items here and there that were OK. The Asian restaurant for which you can make reservations was good - try the fried rice. The Italian place over at Sabor was awful.
- Sewage?: Perhaps a temporary issue, but for at least a few days while we were there, there was a pretty bad sewage smell over at Sabor, which we walked by whilst on our way to the restaurants.
The Worst:
What really cemented the bad taste we had for the Aura was their openly hostile attitude towards our daytime guest. My brother met with us for 3 of the days we were there to go diving with us via Dive Playancar. From the moment he arrived to the moment he left after our diving, they watched him like a hawk, even to the point of hassling him on the (empty!) beach while we waited for our dive appointment. Granted they have to watch for folks trying to sneak food at an all-inclusive resort, but the flagrant hostility displayed is something we never expected. Horrible customer experience, and the thin little hawk-nosed fascist that seemed to be the manager of the hotel should be fired for such horrible treatment of guests. Truly distasteful.
In summary, the Aura isn't all bad, but you can definitely do better, especially for the price.
- Wyndham Cozumel
- Cozumel Wyndham
