“Badly mismanaged property SANITARY CONDITIONS. We were put in a room that had an AC unit that was out of order, and mold EVERYWHERE. Literally everywhere: walls, curtains, closet, furniture, etc. The presence of such room on the property should have been a good reason for the local health department to shut the whole property down. But no – Karisma puts people in such filthy rooms. By the morning we developed serious allergic reactions and had to take pills. We were forced to spend 24 hours in the room and all our demands to move us to a more inhabitable place were ignored until we threatened to post pictures all over travel media. MANAGEMENT. The management generally doesn’t care much about the comfort of the guests or even delivering what the guests pay for. In our case, we had a “present” for our Anniversary: they gave away our casita, which we had paid for and even stayed at, to another family and kept us in an inferior hotel room. Sounds unbelievable, but that is what they did. Right on the day of our Anniversary. All staff and all management new it was the day of our Anniversary, and they still did it for “operational” reasons. FOOD. They proudly call themselves World-Class Gourmet Exclusive, don’t expect that much. The meals are OK, but no more than that. Certainly not something that can be called “gourmet”, not even close. They certainly don’t know about good food. If you want good food, explore fine restaurants in Cancun or Playa Del Carmen. Beers are good but don’t attempt drinking their house wines – they are not drinkable. They have a good wine list, but those wines are overpriced. BEACH. They proudly advertise the “artificial coral reef”. It is really ugly and it blocks your view of the beautiful ocean. These concrete structures look like an abandoned industrial site. What’s even worse they keep all the rocks within its borders and swimming in that areas and stepping on those rocks is very difficult and even painful. If you want a real Caribbean vacation and are not up for spending all your days at the pool bar, you’d better choose some other property. ACCOMMODATIONS. Because of the hurricane Zeta we have been moved between various rooms 4(!) times, which was a complete mismanagement by the property staff. Just imaging packing and unpacking all your stuff 3 times during a 5-day vacation. Not fun! However, it gave us a good look at various rooms. Casitas are OK, but don’t be fooled by the “4 diamond” rating. The rooms in Royale are closer to a typical 3-star American hotel. Furniture is old and outdated; the rooms are poorly configured. Even though the sq. footage is large, there is very little space. There is a corridor of light between the toilet window and the bedroom, which you cannot block in any way – all night the light from the outside will be interrupting your sleep. There is a coffee machine in the room but no coffee. The refrigerator is full of drinks, but it is mostly unhealthy sodas plus a few bears and water. RECEPTION. The reception staff never knows what is going on with the rooms/casitas; they have to wait for the stuff to first physically get to the rooms to give you an answer about your room readiness. Because of this it may take hours for you to get a simple answer. If you press hard with your questions, they will stop talking to you and just ignore you. Be prepared to have your calls into the reception not answered, and your emails to the management stay without response. SPA. Spa operates more like a massage parlor – they advertise steam room and sauna, but they never work. For some weird reason they do not give you a towel when you get in – you have to go and get it.”

“For some reason my full review wouldn’t post the first time …….Stay away from this resort at all costs!!! Phil Woodward, James Adkins, Myra Castro amd Dulce Lopez are unprofessional, liars and thieves.All of them work in the membership office at the resort.They promised us a resort in Baja CA if we bought a membership with for $8k, which we did.Less than a week later we found out a month prior to buying our membership El Cielo was no longer part of the membership. They knew this and lied to us anyway. But then promised us they would refund us our money in full.Fast forward two months later. This is still unresolved and now they want us to pay a $1200 cancellation fee.I send multiple emails with no response.The check in process was also a nightmare once we got to the resort in July.They put us in the wrong room.We paid for a swim up suite which was they overbooked by mistake and we hadto spent the first night of our vacation in another room which was less money and not what we booked. .We were informed we could move the next day at checkout time - 2pm to our originally booked room, which meant our first day of our vacation we had to wait around for the bellhop to move us.Mexico was also having a terrible problem with seaweed on the shore. The resort smelled disgusting anytime you walked past the beach not to mention that thebeach was unusable.The resort also provides a free covid test 2 days prior to returning to the states.Well, this process was unorganized and a compete mess.The staff in charge were messing up everyone’s passportsand getting confused what covid paperwork went with who’s passport. I don’t believe the results were accurately assigned to correct ppl since nothing was in order.Plus they were rude and yelling at us.The drinks are free however VERY watered down.The food was just ok.Nothing outstanding.Forget trying to go on any excursions from the resort.The roads are under construction and to go less than a mile will take over 4 hours in the car.That means you will have to leave super early to make the time for your excursion and spend 1/2 the day in the car going to and from and get back to the resort super late.I don’t not recommend this hotel by any means. Mexico is our yearly vacation resort and this will be a definite pass for us in the future. I recommend Secrets Playa Mujeres.They have swim up suites as well.”