while your argument may be perfectly fine in a lot of scenarios, i think many (if not most) US hotels has pools closed at around 9-10PM. Mexican may be different, but i do not remember other hotels i have stayed at doing this. Again, i may be wrong.

Yet, particularly for this Conrad, they tried a lot basically just to separate guests from pools by design. Likely to provide the tranquility needed for an upscale hotel. It is made in such a way that not a lot of rooms can see the pool in the first place, and by doing this sacrificing the already limited views of the room and to cover them up with tall tropical trees. Such design also added a lot of inconveniences just for accessing the pool. My current room is literally “pool side”, but i cannot even see it in bright daylight nor at nights, and i have to walk through a forest to access it. So, let’s say the decision to make only 1 pool heated (out of 5 pools) and shuts off all pools by 8PM does sound a cost cutting measurement, particularly in the scenario for this hotel, as even the first floor rooms facing directly to the pools are quite blocked from it.

On day 2 of the stay, my many feelings of this hotel only got stronger. I think i need to emphasize that the hotel has put in a lot of efforts to make it upscale or luxury, but there are a lot of bad intentions here. There’s an excessive use of plant landscape — the way it works, it is heavily labor intensive but unlikely materially expensive, and works in favor in Mexican markets. It hires a lot of seasonal staff yet cut house keeping costs. All dinner restaurant by design are fine-dining yet staffing was either underpaid or undertrained that, well, let’s say in a way the cuisine itself is totally “westernized” or “europeanized” that has no trace of local food traditions, yet the waiter can barely understand any english. Most staff i encountered try very hard to keep their professional smile during their hours but turns to a still face the minute they are off their job.

By personal observations, this hotel won’t have a great market share until the area is more developed. I believe the owners are in hopes of future business than now, waiting for more convenient public transportation to be open in a couple of years. They chose probably the best location possible, but the better/best locations are taken, and thus they were subject to a lot of compromises mostly because of the location, both by design of the hotel (the rooms either have no views or are 10 minutes walk from a pool or are near a construction site), and by the limited businesses they have right now which affects heavily on staffing and what front desk can provide.

talking about strong feelings, this hotel have this sharply contrasted feelings that you are in a remote, exotic place that is away from any kind of indecencies and human-world problems, for a moment, and the next moment you are dealing with miserably-paid landscaping staff, no views in an ocean front hotel, and you start thinking about delicious street food that’s available 10 minutes away for 1/10th the price. It gives some unrealistic feelings that this hotel has been inserted into a wrong place…..

word of mouth does not work in their favor at this point, to be honest, as reflected on their trip advisor ratings. I think it is only half their fault, and most issues would be because of all these compromises. I personally do not see that they can turn it around anytime soon. Again, with the Hyatts raising their prices all around the area, all 4 hiltons are lowering prices. There’s obviously issues here.