My wife and I, along with another couple, booked a vacation in Akumal, Mexico, for five nights. We booked a sixth night in Cancun to be close to the airport the next day. We came off of one of the most enjoyable experiences of our lives straight into this place. Our experience was not pleasant. We dropped off the rental car and then had our agent drop us off at the Holiday Inn Express. He visibly cringed when we told him where we were staying. We went in the door and were told at the front desk that our rooms weren't ready, and then we were herded towards the lying time share shark's table. According to the bell boy, she was a concierge who would "help us get settled." Her lies began immediately. If we would do the time share, anything we wanted to do would be free. Although we told her that we had been in Mexico for five days, and she could see that I spoke Spanish, she consistently lied to us about the prices of excursions in Cancun. She became rude and arrogant when we explained that we weren't interested. She claimed that it would require two cabs to carry us to the airport the next day (for four people). Again a lie. Finally, we walked away from her after having been insulted repeatedly. Then, I asked the guy at the front desk to hold our bags while we went to the beach. Then he admitted that our rooms were actually ready. He, along with the "concierge," had been lying all along. This behavior continued for the duration of our stay.
The pool closes at 10 p.m. at which point the hotel sends a slew of guards out to ensure that no one enters it, despite the fact that the hotel rooms open directly into the pool area. We got back from dinner at 10:03 and were forbidden to enter.
We got up early the next morning and left immediately for the airport. Even the taxi drivers out front are in on their scams. They began lying to us about the price of a taxi. We walked about 200 yards down the road with our luggage, hailed a taxi, not associated with this hotel, and he carried us to the airport. We spent five hours there waiting on the flight, and we were much happier holed up in the Cancun airport that we would have been hanging out at this ripoff of a resort.
Incidentally, my friend travels on business and is a Holiday Inn World Points member. He is treated like gold at every Holiday Inn in America. This resort knew of his status, yet still lied to him during the checkin process and immediately funneled him directly into a timeshare scam. We've notified corporate about their actions. I can only hope that this hotel in closed as soon as possible so that others are not subjected to the treatment that we were.
