My husband and I along with friends of ours stayed here New Years Eve. The location is perfect... close to the beach, just far enough off of 5th to be calm but a very short walk to all the action. The units are large with a great big kitchen and patio. Only a 2 min cab ride or 10- 15 walk to the mega for groceries. Each of the bedrooms were big... however when booking i must have missed that the second of the two bedrooms have twin beds rather than a double or queen. It would have been a bit annoying for a week but for one night sleeping apart was ok. Had I of paid better attention when I booked I would have just booked two one bed units. The staff was very friendly at check in and check out . The breakfast that was included with the stay was very nice.... eggs, beans, toast, fruit, steak and salsa, coffee and fresh squeezed juice. In fact breakfast was so ample that none of us were able to eat it all. We have stayed at many places in playa from very large all inclusive resorts (5 star), to small villas and this place really met everything that we look for while we are in playa. Some of my family is heading down there next year, so we recommended this place.

As previous reviews have indicated, there are pros/cons to this condo/hotel. The rooms are nice & spacious, close access to the beach, quiet area but yet short walk to restaurants/shopping on 5th Ave. Several of the staff are very friendly but not all - could be more customer service focused.

Make sure you make an inventory of all the items in the kitchen, as they are often missing on check-in, and attempts will be made to charge you for items on your check out- you'll need to stand your ground and refuse to pay. The restaurant next door has a great breakfast and the staff there is very nice. The first day we were there was no hot water which previous reviews have mentioned - after that no problems. One of the other guests while we were there was complaining about problems with their toilet and seemed upset.

I don't know if we would return as there are other hotels/condos in Playa that are more customer service friendly and not so apt to want to take advantage of their guests. It has the potential to be great due to its location & easy access to the beach.

If going to Playa del Carmen, I would stay here over any of the overly-expensive all-inclusive resorts. Get a great room right near the beach and you can then enjoy other parts of the town/area without feeling guilty b/c you think you should stay at your resort the whole trip.

I stayed at this hotel for 10 nights in December over Christmas. It was a similar experience to staying in a Villa with many positive and unfortunately negative aspects. I don't know that any of the negatives were really big enough to not come back (and it certainly didn't hamper our vacation) but they are worth noting. First the good:

Room: we were in PH 305, a 2 bdrm, 2 ba duplex with the private pool. This apt was spacious, clean and comfortable for an adult family of 5. The private pool we didn't use as the roof top infinity pool was so beautiful, we opted to use that. The kitchen was fully equipped except for a dishwasher. Free wireless in the room, huge plus. After a week I was stuck in Playa due to a blizzard in NYC so my family left and I stayed a few extra days and switched to room 107- ground floor 1 bdrm that was HUGE, actually bigger living area than the PH.

Food: Breakfast was included daily in the restaurant. Service was slow but this was because everything was made fresh to order. It was good food, lots of fresh juices.

Location: can't be beat. Steps to the beach and 5th Ave, everything we needed was walking distance.

Negatives: major hot water problem in the hotel. We complained the first day. By day 2 when I took a cold shower I was somewhat enraged. They apologized and said it was a boiler issue and they were working on it. By day 3 they shut off the water without warning and it wasn't on again until 6 pm (toilets were not working during this time). Zero water pressure throughout the stay. There were never enough towels in the room. When we asked for more they told us they had to charge us. Um, I don't think so. Some firm albeit polite words had numerous towels in our room 10 min later. Staff was friendly and accommodating so we couldn't fault them on anything, but management is definitely poor. There was no memo, nothing to let us know about the water situation. Once I switched to room 107, the phone was not working. They sent several people to look at it but could never fix it. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue but I had to contact the airline to book a new flight and had to keep going to a pay phone. Some people commented that the staff doesn’t speak English well- they don’t. But you know what? We are in THEIR country and they don't need to speak our language. Practice your Spanish.

Beach access: as mentioned, the beach was steps to the hotel. However, please note this hotel doesn't have an immediate area where one can sit with beach loungers/umbrellas. That being said, you have the option of a few beach bars. We had to take a stroll down the beach (turn left on beach and walk down about 5 min) to Canibal Royal- a restaurant/beach club where we could use the chairs etc without a cost. The place was amazing- good DJ and vibe, yummy food (best cerviche and fish tacos). Young/hip staff and everyone was so nice. On Sat it was similar to Nikki Beach- house DJ, def a vibe. Other days it was chill music or they played salsa/meringue, lots of locals. One day we ventured to Mamitas and wow, what a difference. The place was huge, crowded and lacking personal service. However if you sit near the area where they have the beds, it’s also a good crowd and the DJ was pretty great.

Overall, we had the feel of a villa with hotel amenities. Unlike staying in a villa where you are self sufficient, you had the room cleaned each day which was nice. On the flip side, there is nothing extra in the apt- cooler for beach, smaller beach chairs, umbrella etc. Also the kitchen didn't have anything if you plan to cook- no salt, pepper, napkins etc. You need to provide everything.

Tips: we used Balam Transportation for round trip airport transport and also when we did a day trip. After they picked us up at the airport, we asked to stop by a grocery store where we stocked up on food/water. We did Tulum and Akmal Beach which I would highly recommend. Our driver was professional, on time and wonderful to spend the day with.

Overall: this hotel is great if you don't encounter any problems during your trip and its well worth the value. I booked in August and got 30% off the rate so we had a deal. However, its not service oriented and while the staff is very friendly, they are somewhat clueless (we had to call 2x for them to bring a roll away bed and when they finally came, house keeping showed up with a pillow and a sheet, no bed.. Ha ha). The water issue was beyond annoying but what can you do? If I were to get another good rate, I would book again.