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Aqualuna Boutique Hotel by Xperience Hotels: Traveler Reviews

2.5 of 5
Av 10 Corn. calle 14 | col. centro, Playa del Carmen 77710, Mexico
Hotel amenities
Aqualuna Boutique Hotel by Xperience Hotels
Ranked #54 of 193 hotels in Playa del Carmen
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220 reviews from our community

Traveler rating
    133
    65
    16
    2
    4
See reviews for
Families
21
 
Couples
122
 
Solo
29
 
Business
7
 
Rating summary
  • Location
    4.5 of 5 stars
  • Sleep Quality
    4.5 of 5 stars
  • Rooms
    4.5 of 5 stars
  • Service
    4.5 of 5 stars
  • Value
    4.5 of 5 stars
  • Cleanliness
    5 of 5 stars
Date Rating
London
Reviewer
5 reviews 5 reviews
4 hotel reviews
Reviews in 3 cities Reviews in 3 cities
1 helpful vote 1 helpful vote
“Small, personal and cosy hotel”
5 of 5 stars Reviewed January 27, 2013

From the moment we arrived at Aqualuna, my girlfriend and I absolutely loved it. Being a hotel of just about 10 rooms, the service felt very personal and genuine. Jessica makes it even more personal when it comes to suggestions and very useful tips. We booked on line through their Xperience Hotels web site and got the lowest rate compared to all other sites. The process was easy, smooth and the excursion booked was also cheaper than the ones sold on the Quinta Avenida. Rooms are not very large but not small either. There is a very convenient area where you can have coffee and water all day long, that we found to be very useful. The restaurant is only 2 minutes walk away and the staff of the other hotel recognise you by your name as if they already know you! In fact it is the same staff rotating and working in both hotels. We truly felt like home away from home and we also liked the idea that the hotel was very close to Quinta Avenida and the beach was not far, so all in all, this hotel was a good choice. We hope to return here some time soon.

  • Stayed November 2012, traveled as a couple
    • 4 of 5 stars Value
    • 5 of 5 stars Location
    • 5 of 5 stars Sleep Quality
    • 4 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 5 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 5 of 5 stars Service
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
connecticut
Senior Contributor
29 reviews 29 reviews
5 hotel reviews
Reviews in 11 cities Reviews in 11 cities
16 helpful votes 16 helpful votes
“mixed feelings”
3 of 5 stars Reviewed January 23, 2013

To start off, the moment we got there right in front of the hotel a local cop tried taking off my rental car plates. Like the front desk clerk told the cop, not a nice way to receive tourists. It was the only place to load and unload. I was told on the phone that parking was 9 dollars a day, I was charged 16 dollars a day. The room was good, small but adequate, it had good air conditioning and the location was very nice. Its sort of BS that one has to walk 5 blocks to have breakfast at a sister hotel, also the pool gets no sun at the sister hotel that we were allowed to use. Luis the front desk clerk really tried his best, but his English was limited and his Spanish was extremely hard to understand. For 89 dollars a nite, it was ok. They are pet friendly, but word of caution, Playa de Carmen beaches no longer allow pets leashed or not. I must say that in the end while figuring out my bill, Giuseppe was extremely helpful, his English was better than mine. enough said,

  • Stayed January 2013, traveled as a couple
    • 3 of 5 stars Value
    • 4 of 5 stars Location
    • 3 of 5 stars Sleep Quality
    • 3 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 4 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 4 of 5 stars Service
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XperienceHotels, Guest Relations Manager at Aqualuna Boutique Hotel by Xperience Hotels, responded to this review
January 29, 2013
Dear Ambassador( as we kindly name our guests),

We would like to thank you for your recent visit at our Boutique Hotel Aqualuna. We are grateful to know through your kind comments that you enjoyed our facilities. On the contrary, we are sorry to know that you arrival at Playa del Carmen was not as positive as expected due to an incident with a cop. In despite of this, we sincerely hope that your overall Xperience at Riviera Maya was positive at the end of the day. Regarding the misunderstanding with the parking rate, allow me to inform you that was a very unusual situation since this very basic information is an standard of our Front Desk check in procedure and it remains valid. There must have been a misunderstanding related to the language barrier, however we will consider your feedback as an opportunity to reinforce the information we provide, thank you!. Finally, we are glad to know that the situation was sorted out in the end, you can always be sure that we will always be at your disposal for any clarification or assistance you may have.
Looking forward to hosting you in a near future.

Warm regards,

Carolina Baca
Guest Relations
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calgary
Senior Reviewer
6 reviews 6 reviews
4 hotel reviews
Reviews in 4 cities Reviews in 4 cities
5 helpful votes 5 helpful votes
“Terrific choice for small Playa del Carmen hotel”
5 of 5 stars Reviewed January 23, 2013

My wife and I stayed here for 3 nights in January 2013. The staff at the front desk were super friendly and very helpful. The location is perfect, except as others have noted, the noise from the street can be heard during the night occasionally. All in all, we were happy on our choice of this hotel. Thanks again to the front desk staff - they are terrific!

  • Stayed January 2013, traveled as a couple
    • 4 of 5 stars Value
    • 5 of 5 stars Location
    • 3 of 5 stars Sleep Quality
    • 5 of 5 stars Rooms
    • 5 of 5 stars Cleanliness
    • 5 of 5 stars Service
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC.
Taupo, New Zealand
Reviewer
3 reviews 3 reviews
Reviews in 2 cities Reviews in 2 cities
“Booked Aqualuna, got moved to Xtudio on 5th ave”
2 of 5 stars Reviewed January 21, 2013

Arrived 2nd Jan for a 5 night stay to be told that there was a plumbing leak in our room which needed the wall to be opened up for a repair to be made. I should have asked to see it I suppose.Like previous reviews I suspect overbooking.

We had booked Aqualuna due to good reviews (location, quiet, nice rooms) but were told that we had to go to another of their hotels, Xtudio on 5th ave. We were given a 2nd floor street front room which was nice enough but very noisy in the small hours.The blinds and single glazing did little to stop the morning sun or noise.

We complained in the morning and were shown a 3rd storey room (no lift and not much of a room) which we declined and requested a move back to Aqualuna or one of their other hotels. After having the ok included buffet breakfast which was cereal, fruit basket,coffee and croissant around the corner at Illusion Hotel we went back to be told there was nothing available at any other hotel. We were then shown a 1st storey street front room where the kitchen was street front and the bedrooms back in the set up.

We needed somewhere to stay so accepted this room which was a improvement on the 1st one. The room was quite a bit better however the hotel is on 5th ave, there is going to be some noise. No complaints about the staff, the room was kept clean and the Concierge's Luis especially were friendly and helpful. As first time visitors to Playa del Carmen we had done some research and as a older couple opted to be close to but not on 5th ave, unfortunately that did not happen.

Stayed January 2013, traveled as a couple
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Turin, Italy
Senior Contributor
24 reviews 24 reviews
15 hotel reviews
Reviews in 18 cities Reviews in 18 cities
8 helpful votes 8 helpful votes
“Overbooked, not recommended”
1 of 5 stars Reviewed January 11, 2013

This hotel did not honor our reservation, even though we had made it through Booking.com and we had paid the first night in advance.

When we arrived from Chichen Itza in the late afternoon, very tired because of the long trip, we were politely told that some American family was sick in what was supposed to be our room and that therefore they would send us to another hotel of the Xperience chain, the Xtudio Comfort Hotel. Such hotel is worse than the Aqualuna in many ways: it's in a worse and noisy location, it has no garden, no elevator, no concierge, and no mini bar in the rooms. Just by looking at it, we had the feeling that it was not in the same category. And checking room rates on the Internet later confirmed it.

We pointed out to the staff that we weren't happy, but we didn't feel like searching for another hotel and in the end we accepted the new accommodation, especially because we had paid one night in advance and we had already lost more than one hour trying to sort the situation. During our stay, we heard other guests with the same problem and confirmed that the hotel was indeed overbooked.

Based on this, I'd definitely not recommend any hotel in the Xperience chain.

  • Stayed January 2013, traveled as a couple
    • 1 of 5 stars Value
    • 1 of 5 stars Service
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XperienceHotels, General Manager at Aqualuna Boutique Hotel by Xperience Hotels, responded to this review
January 16, 2013
Dear Ambassador,

We are very aware of the situation you experienced with your reservation upon your arrival. We consider important to inform you that, what could be seen as an overbooking was indeed a situation that was originated unfortunately by a series of incidents related to the spread of a stomach virus in Riviera Maya ( supposedly coming from the UK). As you may be able to see, even on many reviews posted in restaurants and hotels of the area during the last Xmas season, there have been so many cases of people thinking that they were hit by food poisoning. Amongst them we directly witnessed the cases of several tourists that caught such virus until the point to get admitted to the local hospitals and required their treatment to be controlled accordingly in order to ensure a satisfactory recovery. As our responsibility and compromise is to bring support to our guests in an emergency like this, and, in order not to cause further inconvenience, we had to extend their reservations in the same room they were occupying ( they were due to depart), which actually was the room you were originally assigned. This has not been the only case unfortunately, since, when a situation like this is originated, we had some kind of chain reaction. Furthermore, occupancy was very high and we managed to redirect the booking within the same group of hotels. This situation was quite challenging to handle considering the fact that we are not used to apply a book out policy as many hotels or airlines do.
We are very sorry to know that you remained with bad feelings towards us. At the same time, we also felt we had to help our guests who were deeply in need of us at that time. We would truly appreciate your understanding on the matter and hope to have the opportunity to serve you again in the future. We are sure of what we can promise and maintain and we are ready to keep our hospitality commitment towards you.

Best regards,

Giuseppe Crapanzano
General Manager
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Additional Information about Aqualuna Boutique Hotel by Xperience Hotels

Also Known As:
Aqualuna Boutique Hotel By Xperience
Aqualuna Boutique Hotel By Xperience Playa Del Carmen
Aqualuna Hotel Playa Del Carmen
Aqualuna Boutique Hotel By Xperience Hotels Riviera Maya/Playa Del Carmen, Mexico
Address: Av 10 Corn. calle 14 | col. centro, Playa del Carmen 77710, Mexico
Region: Mexico > Yucatan Peninsula > Quintana Roo > Riviera Maya > Playa del Carmen
Amenities:
Business Center Free Breakfast Free High-Speed Internet Free Parking Pets Allowed Restaurant Room Service Suites
Hotel Style:
#39 Romantic Hotels in Playa del Carmen
#75 Family Hotels in Playa del Carmen
Price Range: $
Hotel Class:2.5 star (2.5*)
Official Description (provided by the hotel):
Aqualuna is a beautiful boutique hotel in the very centre of Playa del Carmen drawing its inspiration from the peculiarity of the architecture of the Greek islands, surrounded by a luxuriant tropical garden typical of the Caribbeans. Strategically located only steps away from the famous 5th avenue, the hotel offers to its guests an intimate yet refined ambiance ideal for relaxation. ... more   less 
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