I am writing from our beautiful room, tomorrow back to Miami. We loved the hotel, it is a medium size hotel perfectly located, not crowded with beautiful service. Special thanks to Elvira, Fabiola, Hector and the staff at the restaurants. We didn't have the all inclusive package but we ate at the hotel for breakfast and dinner and the food was good. The grounds are beautiful, I think when they complete the renovation the hotel could be almost perfect. Although we didn't care much to go to the beach they need to work on the one they have, sure people will appreciate it,
our room is super comfortable, and beautiful, nice balcony, very tropical and amazing Jacuzzi, they only need new TV's.
I don't want to leave tomorrow
February 4, 2012

We had a great stay here over 5 days. Good for families wanting a quieter resort which is good value for money. Grounds are wonderful: cenotes with turtles, and animals and birds crossing walkways. Rooms are organised into small groupings and oriented for privacy. Staff were so friendly! Kids pool and playground was good as was larger pool with swim up bar.
We loved the location as it was quiet and central to all we wanted to do - we had a rental car but most major attraction do pick ups from the hotel. Breakfast was great - selection and quality, dinner average. Resort doesn't have a swimming beach but you can access a small beach with rocks - my 9 year old liked it. Kids activites were well organized and the small group of local and international children there on one of the nights had a great time playing games and had a piñata one night. Would definitely stay again.

This is my 3rd visit to the Maya Riviera and my 3rd all inclusive property so I have a pretty good yard stick to measure by; and while the Bel Air Collection Xup ha gets an A for effort it fails to make the grade on many levels. This resurrection of the former Xup ha Palace property is clearly still struggling to establish its own identity and much of the branding from the former owners is still visible throughout the resort. Between the damaged section of the property next door from the 2005 hurricane and the remnants of the various animal habitats slowly being reclaimed by the jungle walking through the resort is somewhat sad.

We arrived on a Tue in late January and while the front desk staff was friendly and accommodating, our room was not yet ready at the scheduled check in time. When we got into our room there were obvious signs of a property in decline where maintenance has been more of the quick fix style and not actual repair/refurbishment. This became very apparent when water from unit above us begin to leak through the ceiling on the second day and the air conditioning unit froze up dripping water on many of our clothes in the closet.

We greatly enjoyed the large porches with a hammock that over looked the jungle, the in room Jacuzzi style tubs were great and there is no shortage of hot water. The beds and linens were very good and we slept well the whole time there. We did have a upper room with thatched palapas room, which seems neat until you realize that they shed fibers into the room when you turn on the fan..not a big deal for us but something to be aware of.

Amenities and activities are limited at best here but we got a truly outstanding couple massage, in fact it was about the best massage’s we’ve ever had. It was money well spent at $120 USD for both of us.

You will walk at this resort; most of the cabanas are a good distance away from the restaurant and pool area. There are bicycles that you can use located near the gym (watch for the pack of ring tail lemurs in this area in the morning) but they have all seen much use and could stand to be replaced. I will say they run the club cars frequently and will call them for you, so if you’re mobility challenged the distance won’t be a factor

On two occasions during our visit there were VIP’s on the property and the quality of service, food, and amenities radically improved with the senior staff and strongest English speaking wait staff fawning over the guests. The property put on its best face for a group of American travel agents at dinner one night, but even then there were issues with service. In fact while overall the staff was pleasant and accommodating they are hampered by the fact that the property is short staffed, they are operating on a skeleton crew, this is very apparent in the restaurant.


There is some talent in the kitchen but the quality of meals and service was completely inconsistent at best. Some menu items were amazingly well prepared, tasty, and presented beautifully; while others were tepid coming out of the kitchen and bland. Issues with translation led to some interesting dining experiences and service was consistently slow, at 2 meals we were “forgotten” had had to flag service down from the hostess. If you are pressed for time expect your meal times to average 1hr -1hr 30 min.

The menu is primarily Mexican/Italian ‘”fusion” and nearly all the seafood dishes were good, anything involving steak is a crap shoot, you see a lot of flank steak on the menu which when done right is good, but most of the time it won’t be. The Aztec cake on the dinner menu is basically a corn tortilla Mexican lasagna and it was very, very good and when the waiter brought a fresh habinero salsa to my wife(instead of the picante sauce she asked for) it made the dish even better I highly recommend you try it. And as others have noted, eating sushi at this resort is a waste of rice, frankly it was gross.

Other points to consider:
Much of the staff has quite limited English, brush up on your Spanish before you go.

Minimal staffing for housekeeping, do not expect your room to be serviced until late in the day
No real activities beyond snorkeling and kayaking in the cenote which is pretty amazing

Very limited gift shop, with just a few snacks and toiletry items.

Be aware that the beach is nonexistent (access the beach at the Barceló property N. of the Xup ha)

There is much wildlife on the property in addition to the ever present iguanas you can expect to see

Aggressive raccoons will approach you at dinner begging for food due to being hand fed by other guests, they are fearless and will literally come within a few inches of you.

Numerous songbirds, which will serenade you everywhere and beg for food poolside (common in Mexico)

Peccary

Look for the large pack of 30 or so ring tailed lemurs that wander the property.



All in all if you don’t care so much about the AI experience and are seeking a base to explore all the various eco parks and tours on the Maya Riviera then the Bel Air Xup ha is a good choice; but if you expect a typical AI then you will be disappointed with this property. Judging from what I can see I will be surprised if the resort manages to stay in business to this time next year.

My first impression was not great - we arrived after dark and we did not get the palapa (upper floor) suite that we had paid for. The front desk staff did not seem to care much about our desire to have the palapa. My husband actually hounded them until we got a call the same night stating that they would move us to the palapa suite the next morning. It is a sprawling resort and there were no maps given to us so we were walking around in the dark, looking for the restaurant. Once we got into our palapa room, we were very happy. The housekeeping was very good - although our room would not get cleaned until after 4:00 some days. There is only one restaurant (we are accustomed to hotels with buffets and 2 or 3 a la carte restaurants) and it is a good 10-15 minute walk from our room. Sometimes there would be a small buffet at dinner, but mostly you ordered off the menu. Although there wasn't great selection, I really did enjoy everything I ordered. I don't know how someone with a dietary restriction or a vegetarian would get through - they did not have much to choose from. Also, the beach right out front of the hotel can not be used - but it is a short jaunt down the beach to a nicer area. Usually hotels offer sort of entertainment in the lobby in the evenings and there was nothing. One night it was just me and my 7 year old son playing pool and the bartender - no one else!

There are some really compelling things about this place: 1) the palapa rooms are spacious, lovely, comfy beds and pillows and gorgeous balconies in the tree tops. No flat screen tvs, however. 2) there are hiking paths through the jungle that take you to cenotes (can't swim in them, just to look) 3) there is an estuary where you can snorkle and kayak. The 3 french guys/dive masters that work there are excellent. There is also a family of manatees living in the estuary, if you are lucky enough to see them! This is so beautiful - a real gem. 4) Wildlife abounds. Exotic birds, some monkey-type creatures, partially tamed racoons, gecos, iguanas...all a daily sight on your walk to the pool or the restaurant. 5) The location is close to cenotes, Xplore park, Akumel, Puerto Aventuras. You can take the collectivo to any of these places for only a couple of dollars. 6) Staff are hard-working and lovely, lovely people. Always cheerful and will do anything they can to help. 7) Good mix for drinks! I don't know if anyone else had this experience, but in Mexico pop (esp. Coke and Pepsi) tastes different out of the fountain drinks. It's like there is too much syrup or something. Anyways, at this hotel they don't give you mix from the fountain machine, they give it to you from the actual diet coke bottle, so it actually tastes like rum and diet coke! When you order a vodka and orange juice - the orange juice is fresh squeezed, not from a can. 8) Peace and quiet. The hotel is not a party place and there isn't anybody hounding you to play volleyball in the pool during the day and they aren't blaring music. Like I said before, maybe something in the lobby in the evening would have been nice, but it just isn't that kind of atmosphere. There are just small groups of people sharing a drink and talking in the evenings. 9) International guests. We met people from Ukraine, Russia, Sweden, Netherlands, many Spanish people - not just a collection of Canadians and Americans.

So it truly did become an acquired taste...our first impression was not great, and it is very different from some of the all-inclusives that we have done in the past. But there are things here that no one else has either! I would suggest that rather than market this hotel as a luxury all-inclusive, they would be far better to market it for eco-tourism. So in the end, we all enjoyed our stay very much - I would just hope that they get a more varied menu or a buffet going in the place.