mikeyyz

I was reading enRoute today and the spread this month promoting the ROYAL Cancun hotel (6-8 pages I think) was pretty beautiful and convincing and I was considering switching a few nights in April from the Le Meridien.

Beware! I stumbled across tons of bad reviews on TripAdvisor:

http://cancun-hotels.tripadvisor.com...Peninsula.html

I think I'll stay away. Some poor person got 2 double beds on their honeymoon!

payam81

The TA rating is actually higher by half a point for Royal Cancun than Le Meridien if you wanna go based on that!

There is no "perfect" property, Specially in Cancun, until a Four Seasons opens up!

mikeyyz

Yeah I was just surprised at how bad all the reviews are... As a SPG Plat and booking through the AMEX FHR program I know I'll get above average treatment at the LM, but they made the Royal seem SO amazing and luxurious, it was just a bit of a splash of cold water to see so many blatant claims about how it wasn't delivered on (champ. and towel on arrival, choose your own housekeeping time, etc.)

tcook052

Yeah, and the reviewer mentioned that front desk did just like AC is fond of doing, blaming the travel agent for not getting a king bed on their honeymoon.

Somehow though this hotel managed to get to #11 on Trip Advisor's popularity ratings out of 162 hotels/resorts in Cancun so they must've done something right somewhere along the way.

Riccioli

Be careful with TripAdvisor reviews... they tend to be extremely cranky reviewers.

ckccan

..and none of us here are ever harsh when it comes to reviews.
If eveyone is cranky, number 1 is still number 1.

People typically write reviews, call, etc., to report an exceptional service - good or bad.

rodric

The thing I find about Tripadvisor is that the cheapest hotels tend to rise up into the top rated section due to peoples expectations and the expensive ones sink for the same reason.
If you pay $300/nt some expect personalized wipers to appear, the truth is its still a 3rd world country and 5 star in Carmel is not the same as 5 Star in Mexico (usually).

RCyyz

Tripadvisor is useful to add some colour to a decision on whether or not to stay some place, but you still ahve to decide if you believe the reviews or not. As pointed out, the Royal got semi-crappy reviews but it's still #11 on the list. Unsurprisingly the Ritz Carlton was #1. I stayed at the Riu Palace Mayan Riviera and it wasn't in the top few hotels even though I found it quite good. (I didn't look to see where exactly it is on the list though.)

As for the enRoute review, it's possible the reviewer was on a fam tour / comp'd. As such the review may be a little unfair in that the reviewer may have received preferential treatment. Obviously that shouldn't happen but you never know.

To be equally fair to the hotel, maybe they actually read all the crappy reviews and changed their ways. Perhaps the Tripadvisor reports are now out of date. One just never really knows.

canadaeastRM

In my experience a negative experience will generate 10x more comments than a positive one. For people to write about something positive it usually has to be WAY unexpected.

Of course there are always exceptions but this has been my general experience in my own business...

zorn

Tripadvisor is excellent for ratting out places that mess people over on bookings using bait and switch tactics.

Not so common with chain places, but there are some smaller places that are notorious for booking people and then saying "oh, we're full, but there's a place around the corner", that turns out to be a dump.

These places will get loads of negative reviews about the "nightmare booking problems" along with a few 5* glowing reviews that are obviously from the hotel owners.

I find there are many "you get what you paid for" reviews there and not only the very best and very worst experiences.

payam81

I think you're right on the money. Most people expect to be treated very well and thus when they actually do encounter above average service they probably won't even notice that.

Trip Advisor reviews and specially the popularity index are not an indication of how great the place is, rather it's a good supplemental info. So many high end hotels get hammered cause people come in with unusual expectations or they are pissed off that they spent so much $$$ and the places wasn't the castle they had somehow expected thus generating higher negative reviews actually.

tcook052

Of course the popularity rankings are somewhat of an indication of how good a place is; the more people give it high marks the further up it moves and as I noted this place somehow moved all the way up to #11 in Cancun. Now, you can attribute that to bogus reviews but I'm a firm believer that a review pool size of 460 as this resorts has on Trip Advisor will offset any suspect or planted reviews. It is interesting to note how fast the bad reviews roll in once service standards are allowed to slip even for a few weeks.

payam81

There is a major flaws with the Trip Advisor ratings, they are combined all together regardless of the actual star rating of the property. This makes it hard to distinguish the level of service from the actual level of property.

As I explained earlier some top hotels get hammered because most people expect super service when they spend an amount they think is expensive for a top hotel and when their expectations aren't met they rate the hotel unfairly lower than what it really is.

I've encountered this so many times staying at properties regularly where the service is superb compared to the competition but someone comes up once in a while with a review where they are "disappointed" because they had overly high expectations.

raziel

I agree with the comments posted.. Most of the time when people get good service they don't write about it, onyl about the bad reviews. I try to not go into those types of blogs since there will always be good times for some and there will always be the one who has a terrible tiem but it doesn't mean everyone else will or that the place they go to is horrible. I've had my share of good and bad experiences when I travel and sometimes its just bad luck. Can't win them all, right? I have a good review though about a resort I stayet at in Acapulco. It's a real nice place and I've had good overall service each time I go. So if anyone is interested in taking a look at this place here's a link. www.beachrelaxo.com They have a few others scattered around Mexico in case another destination jumps to mind.

RoyallyHip84

There are tons of places to stay in Cancun. Have you seen any of the other Royal Holiday resorts? They are also very accommodating.