We stayed 7 nights in Bel Air in Feb 2012. The service at the reception is the worst I have seen in my life. They made us wait for two hours in the reception (we were wet and tired from traveling all day) while they sorted out problems with their stone age reservation system, which had lost our reservation and apparently the reservations of two other couples as well. It never occurred to them to give us our room and sort out their problems without us looking at the unmanaged process dumbfounded. After the first hour of hearing 5 more minutes sir, I stopped asking what is going on. At one point I was even ushered into the back room to fill out some web reservation forms and credit card details which at the end were not necessary. As a "we're sorry" we got a bottle of the cheapest sparkling wine - a nice gesture, but not enough to change the experience even close to neutral.

The lack of professionalism and ability to fulfil the simplest request continued throughout our stay. There is a huge language barrier and 90% of the staff doesn't speak sufficient english to be able to for example bring youghurt and fruit separetly in the breakfast table without the customer performing a mime act pointing at the two ingredients. They continuously forgot to bring stuff you ordered and were out of ingredients like cereal, chicken or beef on more than one occasion. When you ask a question the staff is very eager to check, but will NEVER come back and tell you what the result of their inquiry was.

However, the staff is friendly and they give it their best, but unfortunately after a while getting "pot of luck" with every order or question starts to be irritating. The facilities, pool area and rooms themselves are very nice. Also the food is good - if you get what you ordered. The surroundings are lush jungle with a lot of wildlife to see. On top of this there are clear freshwater lagoons to kayak and snorkel in.

As for the dive shop, the DM is cool, but the dive operatior in Playa that thay use is very much profit orientated and will fill up the boat to maximum and schedules are therefore extended. So be prepared for waiting first at the dive shop and then for the tiny boat that will take to your sites.

If you don't mind problemsolving and a bit of a hassle every day when ordering, I would recommend the hotel. Hopefully they will get their act together after a while.

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.