hotel screwed up my airport transportation and in confusion my backpack was stolen with ipod, cell phone and contacts. hotel was smoky from cigar filled lobby to "nonmoking " floor. they even had ashcans out by elevator ! plumbing leaked in room and safe was broken. food was slow in service and exorbitant in price, eg. $12 for small fruit plate. pool too cold to swim. staff friendly but never seemed to know answer. exerise room like sauna and no staff understood equipment. transportation expensive except buses. cancun i liked but this i would skip.

After reading the many good reviews for this hotel, we booked a regular room for 4 people for 6 nights for just $184 a night (not bad for a "deluxe ocean view" room). Upon arrival, we were greeted nicely and check-in was a breeze. Our assigned room was average in size, with two double beds, but no balcony. (In the main hotel, very few room have balconies and they are all smoking rooms.) I asked to purchase an upgrade and the hotel was very accomodating. For just $40 a night extra, we were moved to the "tower" to a larger room with a king bed and 2 twin beds and a great balcony facing the ocean. The rooms in general are basic and we had a few items in disrepair (hole in the closet wall; entry door that would not lock; and a shower that flooded the bathroom no matter what we did ). However, for $224 a night, the room was a good deal. The tower rooms include a small buffet breakfast. Once we accepted that this is Mexico and that bar-flies come with the territory, we found the breakfast adequate (especially given that the main restaurant breakfast buffet added only an omelet/waffle station for $25 a person). Clearly, based on our experiences with breakfast, room service, and lunch, food is not this hotel's strength. If you stay here, plan on eating out . However, what is the strength of this hotel is the pool and beach area, which is wonderful. And given its location at the far low end of the Cancun hotel zone, you are away from the chaos, if that is what you want. Sidebar on the chaos though: The hotel faces the Cancun Club Med which tends to have extremely loud outdoor dances that last until 2:00 a.m. If you like to go to sleep with your windows open prior to this time, this may not be the hotel for you. A few more notes: Maid service was OK, but even after leaving $10 tips daily for the maid, we could not get her to consistently leave extra towels or sweep our balcony floor for us. The hotel's ATM was down all week -- no excuse in a name brand place this size. The valet lost our rental car for hours, but the hotel did nothing to accomodate us for the inconvenience. And one last odd thing -- we asked for a late check out since the hotel was half empty. The desk clerk authorized it, but at $10 per hour for 2.5 hours ($25 total) even though I am a frequent traveler to this hotel brand. Kind of stupid on their part -- most hotels in this class offer late check out at no charge. And lastly, on vacation, we expect to be overcharged for cocktails and food by the pool. However, $3 plus tip for an 10 ounce bottle of Mexican spring water is a bit silly, even by Westin standards.

This hotel is the perfect example of what I consider to be a 3 star hotel hiding behind a 4 star name, not good, not bad, just ok.

I’d originally inquired to see if they had transportation from the airport and was informed that they didn’t, thus the concierge quoted me $40 US for a cab, so why not set up a private car for $50. I came to learn after this that the cab was more around the $25-$30 range considering how close the Westin is to the hotel.

The concierge did their job setting up the driver as they were ready to roll as soon as we arrived. The driver and van were nice, and made the whole arrival process very easy. We checked in and were then put into a minivan to be driven from the main lobby to the Royal Beach Club. The Royal Beach Club (RBC) is where they place the SPG Gold and Platinum members and those that “upgraded” to the better rooms. It’s a five-seven minute walk from the main lobby to the RBC, so it’s nice to be driven.

Our room was disappointing as it was a Lagoon view and had two double beds. I’d ordered a King room, and frankly, being Platinum with SPG I guess I expected an ocean view. I went down to the RBC specific concierge (nice feature so you don’t have to go back to the main lobby for most of your needs). I explained that I’d like a king bed and an ocean view, the concierge made a phone call to someone, spoke something in Spanish, and the end result was that I was moved to a King bed room with an ocean view, huge difference.

We took a quick tour of the property and realized the first of a few differences between the RBC and the standard hotel rooms. All the RBC rooms have a very large private porch area with two chairs and a small table. The main hotel rooms do not have porches. The RBC rooms all had plasma tv’s, not sure about the main hotel as we never went in to anyone’s room.

The next difference we noted was that the RBC had a private pool, decent size (4’5” deep), in an L shape and a small tub. I’d like to say hot tub, but it resembles a hot tub in shape only as it’s the same temperature as the pool. Due to the temperature of the tub this is a very, very popular place for little kids (especially those that can’t swim). So use caution when picking the lounges you want for the day. The main hotel had one large square pool with a small swim up bar. There are also three small triangle pools that look nice, but seemed to be populated entirely by kids due to their shallow depth. On the other side of the main hotel pool area were two more pools. These are much deeper than the rest at 4’11” and are great for additional sun (after 2-3 pm) and are very sparsely populated, especially by kids since they are significantly deeper. Finally, there is a lagoon beach that was never populated. If you’re looking to be away from everyone and enjoy some peace and quiet, this is your place. In seven days I don’t think we saw one person sitting in the over 20 lounge chairs. There isn’t one hot tub on the property and I think this is a huge mistake. The nights in Cancun aren’t cold, but there are few things nicer than sitting in a hot tub at night with the air temp around 70-75 looking out over the beach listening to the ocean. I spoke with probably ten other couples and we all agreed that at least one large hot tub would have made a huge difference in the overall satisfaction of our stays.

The biggest difference b/w the RBC and the main hotel is the free daily breakfast and happy hour. The room is nice, 42 inch plasma tv and six large lounge chairs, two sofas, couple of smaller chairs and probably twenty or so dinner tables. The breakfast was large, the quality of the food was ok, and the hours were excellent 6:30 -11:30 AM. They had four juices (apple, pineapple, orange, and grapefruit), milk and cereal, yogurt, fresh fruit (usually watermelon, pineapple, and a few other melons) scrambled eggs (they could never get the consistency right, either runny or overcooked every day), sausage links, bacon, and hash browns (the frozen triangle kind), bagels, toast, cheeses, and cold cuts. They’ll ask for your room number, but that’s mostly so you don’t forget to tip them, there is not cost. This place does get busy and the servers are always overwhelmed, if you need a fill up on coffee, just make sure to get their attention. If you sit quiet, don’t expect to get more than the first cup. The evening happy hour is ok, mostly composed of well quality liquors and weak pours on the mixed & frozen drinks (what do you expect for free). They do serve a few beers which I drank with glee, and the appetizers were usually jalapeno poppers, quesadilla’s, chips with salsa and guacamole, maybe one or two other things. Pretty standard fare, but not really high or even medium quality and we didn’t eat anything after the first night. We did however enjoy at least two or three beers and a frozen drink or two between the hours of 5:30 and 7:30.

As far as the hotel in general, well, when they say it’s at the end of the hotel zone, they really mean it’s at the end of the hotel zone. If you’re looking for a quiet beach with very few “vendors”, little traffic, and plenty of space for sun and swimming, this is the place. If you have a family with younger kids, this is also a great place for you. If you want to be in the middle of everything, meet men or women, party with a younger crowd, and avoid families, this is absolutely not the place for you.

Although it’s at the end of the hotel zone, getting anywhere in Cancun is fairly easy as the buses are the best way to get around. The buses don’t actually come all the way down past the Westin, but they get close. When you walk out to the entrance of the property and look to the right you’ll see a large u-turn area. This is where all the buses (at least the ones you’ll need) turn around. You can simply wait there until the one you want passes by and hop on. This seems to be a popular stop for the locals/constructions crews so if you’re not comfortable in that crowd, just start walking down the street past the u-turn. When you see the bus you want, stick out your hand like you’re hailing a cab and they’ll stop, no need to go all the way to a bus stop.

The food at the hotel was ok to bad, even by hotel standards. We ate the room service once and off the pool menu twice, each time was b/c we were tipsy and/or in bed didn’t feel like taking the bus or a cab for food. This is a drawback to being no where near any kind of alternative for a quick bite. Personally, the hotel could do a much better job providing better quality food, we were pretty disappointed overall.

The service was also ok, nothing bad, but nothing that said you’re special to us and we appreciate you spending your hard earned money with our hotel. Mostly, it was, this is my job and I’ll do it, occasionally with a smile, but I’m really not going to go above and beyond or make you feel especially warm. To me, this is a huge problem in an environment that exists entirely because of tourism. Also, I guess I expect better from a Westin property. The one exception was the RBC concierge(s) who were always willing to help, pretty efficient, and proved to be willing to bend over backwards to make sure you were happy. The rest of the staff, not so much.

There is a wave runner, snorkel, parasailing rental place on the beach to the right of the hotel, and if you walk over to the club med, past the rocks, there is a public reef which is pretty good for snorkeling and all you have to pay for is the four to six bucks for two hours of snorkel gear, highly recommend. Also, the beaches can be pretty rough, so if you have a day where it’s red or orange, just walk down the beach towards the club med (to the right when facing the ocean) and the water is always very calm, never got above yellow the whole week. Great area for little kids to enjoy the ocean as well.

There is one ATM on the entire property, next to the main lobby, and again, this is a problem. If it breaks down, the next ATM is about thirty minute walk or so from the RBC lobby. As it would happen, we were packed and ready to check out, and bang, no ATM and a thirty minute walk to the next one. I was less than happy and I explained all this to the RBC concierge. I also asked that they make arrangements for me to be taken to the airport since I didn’t feel it was appropriate for me to be punished for them not having a functioning ATM. To my surprise they provided the Westin van at no charge to take me to the airport. This was the van they used to cart us from the main lobby to the RBC lobby so I think they did this out of sheer courtesy and I wouldn’t rely on this as the main mode of getting to the airport.

As you can see, there were pro’s and con’s, and overall it was simply ok. If you get a good rate and want a relaxing, more private vacation, this place is perfect. If you can find a better rate for a four star hotel, jump on it, and if you’re staying with SPG points, take the 3,000 – 5,000 point a night hit and go stay at Le Meridan, huge, huge, huge difference in quality.

Hope this helps.

While my wife and I have great experiences staying at the Westin family of hotels, the Westin Cancun is surprisingly off. The decor can best be described as "concrete block chic". That is not a compliment. I won't say that the place was awful but when I stay at a Westin, I expect at least some style and contemporary furnishings. This hotel lacks both.

We stayed in both the standard rooms and the "new tower" rooms. The standard rooms have painted concrete walls and tired ceramic tile flooring. The windows do not open, giving a claustraphobic feeling. The "new tower" room that we stayed in had a balcony, which was nice but the decor wasn't much better. The bed was circa-1980's oak wood styling and the white walls again felt prison-like.

The staff was very attentive and seemed hard at work keeping the hotel clean. Unfortunately, the hotel was pretty dumpy and did not look like the pictures on the website. The room service was pretty bad too.

The best thing about this hotel is that it is close to the only snorkeling in Cancun, in front of the next-door Club Med. Not Cozumel, but fun nonetheless.