The Fives Beach Hotel & Residences - All Senses Inclusive

“Fantastic Stay”

Stayed at the end of November/beginning of December for 10 nights on our first trip to Mexico and having read the reviews on here were a bit concerned about the food options but we needn't have worried, I think we spent most of our time eating our way around! Yes there can be a long wait for the a … more

Stayed at the end of November/beginning of December for 10 nights on our first trip to Mexico and having read the reviews on here were a bit concerned about the food options but we needn't have worried, I think we spent most of our time eating our way around! Yes there can be a long wait for the a la carte restaurants in the evening - we never managed to eat in the Italian as the couple of times we tried either the wait list was full or it was a 2 hour wait so we just went elsewhere, but there are so many options and we discovered that we prefered the many lunch options to dinner options so made the most of the tacos and amazing beach bbqs and the excellent Natura grill by the adults pool to have a larger lunch and if we didn't fancy the wait for any of the a la cartes (although if we chose to wait we never had to wait very long) then the delicious pizzas in the plaza or the buffet restaurant weren't a bad second choice. The resort itself is lovely, it feels green and lush and we loved the cenote and wildlife as well as having access to the beach (and seeing so many fish under the pier!), after 10days we definitely didn't feel like we'd exhausted the pool or bar or food options. The staff deserve praise for everything they do, we were up at 5.30am one morning for an excursion and even at that time there were a lot more staff than you'd think about, when we went for a walk up and down the beach it became apparent that the beach outside the hotel (despite being public) was well looked after by the staff. We had a niggle one evening when we got back from a trip with our room door not opening and the maintenance staff were there to fix it before I'd got back from reporting it to reception, that along with all the friendly bar and waiting staff, I can't fault the staff at all. We had a really lovely time here and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. Missing the early morning gym session followed by a taco from the stand in the plaza then a swim in the pool to cool off before going for a late breakfast in the buffet restaurant!

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“Best resort in Mexico”

Absolutely brilliant. Best of the three hotels we have been to in Mexico. Has everything you need and want. Food was amazing with the added bonus of a la carte with no limit during the stay Pools were great for all, although cold it helped cool us in the heat and the beach was perfect. Sea was w… more

Absolutely brilliant. Best of the three hotels we have been to in Mexico. Has everything you need and want. Food was amazing with the added bonus of a la carte with no limit during the stay Pools were great for all, although cold it helped cool us in the heat and the beach was perfect. Sea was warmer! Hospitality was brilliant Rooms were great and spacious and did serve purpose. No need for elegant rooms as we hardly spent any time in there Resort was clean and at high standard. Shows were great; Entertainment staff were the best. They really bonded with our family and made the kids feel super special. Loved it all. Xmas was made special with Santa and Grinch for the kids; Would give it 10/10.

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“Beware of The Fives Beach Hotel - you may not get the room or services that the hotel promises”

My family of 11 traveled to Playa del Carmen and stayed at The Fives Beach Hotel and Residencies for 4 nights in December 2024. The facility and location are beautiful, but the services promised on the website are very misleading. I have a couple reasons why you may not want to choose this resort. … more

My family of 11 traveled to Playa del Carmen and stayed at The Fives Beach Hotel and Residencies for 4 nights in December 2024. The facility and location are beautiful, but the services promised on the website are very misleading. I have a couple reasons why you may not want to choose this resort. 1) Room assignments - The room provided for us did not accommodate the number of occupants on our reservation (7 of us in this suite). We reserved the 2 bedroom Epic Penthouse Suite, which is advertised to sleep 8 (a king bed, two double beds, and 2 sleeping on a couch), but we were assigned a 2 bedroom suite that could only accommodate 6 (2 king beds and 2 sleeping on a very uncomfortable couch - not even a pull out couch). Check-in time is listed as 3 pm, but we didn't even see the room until after 4 pm. When I returned to request a move to the room that we had reserved, I was rudely told that they were fully booked and that they would bring us a cot - which turned out to be not only an uncomfortable bed, but one that took up much of the floor space in our "suite". I continued to protest long and loud and ultimately they found a room the size of the one we had reserved, and agreed to move us there for the last two nights of our stay (which of course required repacking all our stuff and moving). Throughout this process, the assistant manager, Bethany, who was "helping" us offered no apology and took no responsibility for their mistake. This was not the way I expected our vacation to begin. We returned to our room and waited for at least a couple hours before the cot was delivered and then realized that we had to request bedding for the couch beecause there was none in the room, even though their room assignment required that we use that couch for sleeping. No attention to detail, and a blatant disregard for our convenience. During my protestations at the front desk, Bethany revealed that many of the units at The Fives have outside owners and those owners have priority over everyone else who stays there, regardless of reservations taken from the rest of us. While waiting in line at restaurants, we talked with at least two other people who were given rooms that did not meet their reservations, either. One man told us that the he was offered the room he reserved if he would join a "Premium" club. 2) Food and restaurants - The Fives offers a very large buffet eating option for all meals (with excellent food and service), in addition to the restaurants that they list on their site. When you arrive, you are told that restaurants don't take reservations, that it is first come, first served, and that you can usually get in easily if you go before 6 pm. In reality, there are really only two premium restaurants and they aren't open every night. Members of our party were in line at one of those restaurants at 5pm one night (half an hour before they opened) and were told that we could get in after a two hour wait - we later learned that they don't take reservations from regular hotel patrons, but they do take reservations from people who own a unit at The Fives, or those who join some sort of premium club. We wanted to eat at one special restaurant during our stay, so we decided to wait it out. We finally got in at 9:30 that night - a four hour wait. The hotel did make an effort to offer gluten free foods (two members of our party have celiac disease and are allergic to gluten), but the variety of foods was limited, especially baked good that could have been made gluten free. Overall, my family and I are glad to have visited this beautiful part of the world and we found all of the staff at the hotel (except front desk staff) to be very friendly and attentive. Unfortunately, my memories of this trip will always be colored by the dishonest treatment from the hotel I had the definite feeling that the hotel knew they had the upper hand, that we had no options and had to accept inadequate room assignments and unavailable restaurants. Obviously, we would never choose to stay at The Fives again.

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