This hotel is variously described as a three to five star category. Three and a half is most accurate. The room was clean and comfortable, but our Queen Suite had only a rather small bedroom with separate bathroom. It was only marginally larger than the Junior Suite. In most of the ordinary hotels with which I am familiar (Day's Inn, Ramada, Howard Johnson, Holiday Inn) the regular rooms have queen beds, easy chairs, sofas, writing desks and writing materials. Our room had one uncomfortable rattan-style chair and nothing else. The bed was very comfortable. The supply of bathroom linen was the best I've seen anywhere. The service was really very good, and the place was immaculate. Full marks for cleanliness! The pool was excellent and so was the beach, but the sea was not nice for swimming as it was full of sea-grass. Business service was very good and the staff were wonderful - they deserve better back-up from management.
There were a number of problems with food and drink. The food was at best mediocre, at worst simply awful, indifferently prepared and the menu is very, very limited. One pasta dish ($80.00 U.S. for two without dessert) was so awful we sent it back and were not charged for it. In general, all food was grossly overpriced.
The wine is of poor quality, although there are some modestly decent ones available. That said, they are all disgustingly marked up. Our waiter mistakenly brought the wrong bottle to our table on one occasion and when we refused it said that it was crap anyway and the chef wouldn't even cook with it! The local beer was quite good, but cost more than double that served in the village.
As far as drinks are concerned - buyer beware! For Scotch or Bourbon on the rocks the staff have a habit of first scooping up a glass of watery ice and then free-pouring the drinks so you have no idea of the measure you are receiving. I thought this might be just the way they did things (in the States it's not an uncommon practice to free-pour), but on my last day one of the staff actually used the legal measure and i was amazed at the amount and quality of the drink as compared to the others. My guess is that I received less than half what I was paying for each time I bought a drink at the bar. This appears to be system-wide issue and not confined to individual bar staff, so my guess is they were acting under instructions. They offer a range of mixed drinks which are, of course, easy to disguise or hide in the mix.
The shuttle bus into Placencia Village seemed to be operated at the personal needs of the driver. It was never available before 11.00 a.m. and despite the last shuttle being scheduled for 7.00 p.m., we were told by the driver it was 5.30 p.m. which meant that dinner always had to be eaten at the hotel. The food and drinks in the village were substantially cheaper than at the hotel and of superior quality by comparison.
The brochure photographs suppled by the travel company were so out of date that trees which were mere saplings when the pictures were taken now obscure the building, but that's not the hotel's fault although it may be the hotel's problem as things are not as they appear.
Would we visit the place again? You must be joking.
We think that any children or adolescents would be bored out of their skulls after one day there. I have attended funerals where there was more excitement.
One last thing - the hotel passes the credit card charge of 3.5% on to the customer, which is illegal.

My husband and I stayed here with our 18 month old. The pool is fabulous for families with young children as there is a huge shallow end where one half is about 6 inches deep and the other half is about a foot deep. The facilities are beautiful, new and very clean. The beach was clean and manicured daily, so very safe for bare feet. The room we stayed in was a junior suite (the most economical, I believe). It is a room with a bed, shower and small fridge. Nice room, but pretty small. The shower left a little to be desired as there was no way to turn the tap on without getting into the shower yourself, as a result you got wet trying to turn the shower on and adjust the temperature. As well, no shelves in the shower, so your soap and shampoo went on the floor. The menu in the restaurant needed some variety. Food was overpriced for the quantity and quality. For example, one night we ordered lasagna. We received a small piece of lasagna with a decorative piece of lettuce. In hindsight, we should have been more assertive and sent it back to the kitchen. Twice we arrived for supper and there wasn't a supper menu available. Service was sketchy. Sometimes we has top notch service, other times it was very poor. Staff was always friendly and treated us with respect though.

When we go to Belize we will not stay anywhere else but the Placencia!
If you are looking for a 4-5 star hotel in Belize, this is it.
The staff is extremely helpful and professional, the food excellent
and hotel is well maintained.

Beautiful resort on a white sandy beach, but feels like any american resort. Good food, great pier to eat on the sea though. Quite far from the village of Placencia (about 30min shuttle), and the activities proposed by the hotel are twice as expensive as if you book them locally in Placencia (snorkeling, monkey river trip, etc.)