I spent a lot of time reading reviews before our trip to Belize. You always wonder whether you are going to make the right decision. However, with Ranguana, we most certainly did. I have to add that we cycled from Placencia village all the way to Maya Beach (which is 7 miles from the village) and this is by far the best hotel within the village. Yes, there are other pricier hotels, but given their location you don't get to sample all the different restaurants/bars the village offers and taxi's are virtually non-existant. The cabanas itself were basic, but comfortable, clean and RIGHT ON the beach. The staff were friendly and helpful, free wifi, aircon, loungers outside your door (we stayed in Parrot Fish) and even fresh water outside the cabana to wash your feet before you go into the room. The ultimate relaxing atmosphere at sunset on your hammock people watching.

Just returned from a 6-night stay in the beachfront "Trigger Fish" cabin at Ranguana Lodge. Simple, but pleasant accommodations right on the beach. Nothing fancy about the rooms, but that's what we expected. The staff was friendly and helpful and the air conditioning in the room was great on those warm, humid evenings. The grounds are lovely, full of flowers, and well-manicured. Someone raked the beach sand fronting the property every morning and refreshed the water ih the plastic bucket that we used to wash the sand off our feet before entering the cabin. There are two cabins right on the beach (Trigger Fish and Parrot Fish). A third cabin (Angel Fish) is between Trigger and Parrot, set slightly back but still with a clear view of the beach. It was great swinging in the porch hammock with a cold Belikin beer as the sun went down. (There's a small refrigerator in the cabin.) Frankly, Placencia beach is not the best beach we've seen. A substantial amount of eel grass, seaweed and various and sundry pieces of plastic trash washed on shore every night when we were there. The water was a little murky and a bit too warm. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the swimming and and there was lots of sandy bottom offshore. We did encounter a bit of noise (drumming and loud music from nearby beach bars) until about 2 AM on the weekends, but we expected this, and the "white noise" from the air conditioner helped us get to sleep. If you want to get away from the late night noise, it might be better to look at hotels up in Maya Beach (e.g. Singing Sand Inn, Maya Beach Hotel). We drove up to the Maya Beach Hotel (8 miles up the peninsula) for breakfast since the Ranguana Lodge offers no food service. All in all, a great stay at the Ranguana Lodge.

I have lived and travelled around Belize for 6 years.My friends and I were going to Seine Bight for a weekend festival that featured various Belizean musical legends. Drove to Placencia because there were no suitable accomodations that we could find in SB. Looked at two places-one was full-the other smelled musty/moldy and the man that showed us the room smelled like liquor -also he was not very polite-tv and ac were not working properly and he acted as if he could care less.!! I walked into the office at Raguana Lodge-the lady receptionist was polite and pleasant.She showed me a cabin-lovely,clean one room self-contained cabana. We enjoyed our stay there and I would go back again when the opportunity presents itself. Hats off to Ranguana Lodge-it is right on the beach-cozy,comfortable,tranquil.

We had a very bad experience at Ranguana Lodge. This was extremely disappointing, because the reviews on here make this place sound wonderful—and it is not. We had booked a beachside Cabana for 10 nights. This turned out to be a big mistake. I wish I could go back in time and not reserve this room.

When we first arrived, the beach was disgusting. The sand was covered with 3 feet of dead sea grass and trash before you could get to the water and once you got to the water it was another three feet of dirty water until it was kind of clear. The trash was seriously disgusting. There was used deodorant, broken toys and cigarette butts. Now, I understand that it is seasonal, but the hotel next door (which was MUCH cheaper) cleaned their beach every morning (you can see the distinct line in the sand where Ranguana did not clean their beach, check out my picture). I think the beach was cleaned only once during the whole 10 days we stayed there. It is kind of ridiculous to pay top price to be beachfront when the beach is gross.

So, I approached the owner to ask if she would refund all or part of our money because we wanted to leave. She said she would not refund ANY of it. I asked her if she would keep the deposit and let us have the rest back, she said no. Her solution was we could leave and if people magically decided to come and rent the place then she would refund our money. She told us that she had held the room for us, which was true, however, there was vacancy the WHOLE time we were there, she was NOT sold out. Basically, we were trapped or going to be out of 900.00 USD. I have never felt so helpless.

Another thing is that we paid almost 100.00 USD a night to stay here, the people who just showed up without a reservation only had to pay 75.00 USD a night for their beach side cabana next to ours.

The beach in front was also littered with stray dogs eating the trash in the sea grass and pooping in the sand. Also, the chairs that are supposedly only for guests…were covered with people NOT staying at the hotel (again..look at the pictures). The owner would walk out to the beach…look at them, not say anything, and turn right back around and go to her office.

After we were forced to stay here for 10 days, we decided to try some day trips. We asked the owner to recommend someone, she called up and quoted us a price for a tour. I walked down the sidewalk and found a tour company doing the same trip for 25.00 USD less. I asked myself “Why is she trying to overcharge us all the time!?!?”

The room itself was fine and nice. The cleaning ladies start ridiculously early, so don’t try and sleep in. The maids would knock and wait on our porch for us to hurry up and get out. You can sit on the porch and look at the gross beach….but you will be constantly hassled by people trying to sell bracelets, bowls and other junk. Trust me, this gets old after the first day.

Do yourself a favor and stay somewhere else, somewhere cheaper, somewhere with customer service and somewhere that will clean their beach. And don't forget...don't make a reservation you might regret.