My husband and I stayed at this hotel for 5 nights (from June 29 - July 4 2009). We had several problems with the hotel. When we arrived, the check-in process was very slow. They gave us room 2132, which was located on the 1st floor near the children's playground. We went to our room, and noticed a very strong mold smell right away. I also noticed that the sink was faulty (the water pressure was too high). After we ate dinner, we went to the front desk and asked a female staff member if we could change rooms because of the mold smell. She said that would be no problem. She explained she was leaving for the night, and that the night shift staff would be able to help us. After about 15 minutes of waiting, we got a hold of one of the night shift staff (Angel) and asked to switch rooms. He did not acknowledge us and walked away. When he returned, we explained that the woman had told us he would change our rooms. He said he couldn't do this and that no one had informed him to help us. He said there were no rooms available because the maids could not clean any rooms at that time. We explained that the smell in our room was very bad, and that we would not be able to sleep in such a room. He then agreed to switch our room to 2432. This whole process took 30 minutes.

We moved our luggage to room 2432, which was located on the 4th floor. The hallway and room had a smell of fresh paint. We debated which smell would be better - mold or paint. We decided just to stay in room 2432 because we didn't want to complain too much. We stayed in this room from Monday to Thursday night. The walls were very thin and we could barely sleep each night because we could hear people walking in the hallways in the middle of the night. The people were not making alot of noise, but it was just very easy to hear everything. We discovered that putting a towel under the door helped lower the noise. We could not sleep in because there was very loud construction in the morning.

On Thursday night/Friday morning at ~2am, we heard a loud noise in our room. I thought a painting had fell down. My husband thought it was an earthquake. When we turned on the light, we saw that a big chunk of ceiling had fallen down. Luckily the ceiling did not fall on our bed. I was very frightened and traumatized. Approximately 5 minutes later, another big chunk of the ceiling fell down. We called the front desk but nobody answered. I took pictures on my camera. We went downstairs to tell the front desk. There was a family with two small boys checking out of the hotel. They complained to us that the hotel was so bad that they were taking their small children and checking out at 2 in the morning. We told them our experience was bad too because our ceiling had just collapsed. After about 10 minutes of waiting for the family to check out, I showed the front desk staff (Angel) my pictures on my camera. He did not seem shocked and did not give us any apology. He asked if we wanted a new room. We told him that we needed a new room right away, and that they should give us an upgrade. He told us to sign a form to authorize the upgrade. However, the form was not for an upgrade. It was a disclaimer form saying that we agree not to make any claims against the hotel. We told him our luggage and clothes were damaged and that we would not sign the form. He said he gave us the wrong form, and showed us a new form that listed all the different room types. He explained he could only give us the next level upgrade, which was just an ocean view room. In small print, this form also had the same disclaimer wording, and again, we explained that we could not sign the disclaimer because our belongings were damaged. He said if we didn't want to sign it that was ok. He placed us in room 2318. We told him to send people to get our luggage, because our luggage was underneath the debris and we thought it would be dangerous to get our belongings on our own. He agreed to send 2 staff members to clean up the debris and 1 staff member to help us with our luggage.

On Friday morning, we went to the front desk and asked to speak with the manager. The manager told us he was aware of what happened. We asked if this was a problem seen before, and the manager said the ceiling collapsed because of the heavy rains. We thought this was odd because it did not rain all week during our stay. The room was also not on the top floor (it was on the 4th floor and the hotel had 6 floors). My husband told the manager that his clothes were damaged and that he had sent them for dry cleaning. I did not send my clothes for dry cleaning because I did not trust the hotel. We explained that we had bought $85 worth of souvenirs at Market 28 that were destroyed. The manager said that the hotel could not reimburse our souvenirs because we did not have receipts. We asked if we could have a refund but the manager said he could not refund us since we booked our travel through Expedia and we would need to get our refund through them. The manager told us that he could give us a free massage (good for one person only) and another room upgrade if we signed the disclaimer form. We explained that we did not feel comfortable signing the disclaimer form, and he said if we didn't sign the form then he could not give us the massage or upgrade.

We decided not to worry about these issues anymore and to enjoy our last day. We figured we would just complain through Expedia to get our refund. On Friday night, we received a phone call from a staff member named Lourdes. We believe the hotel made her talk to us because her English was good. She was the first person to apologize to us and show any concern about our safety. We met her in the lobby and she offered us the room upgrade again if we signed the disclaimer. We explained that we were leaving at 6am the next morning and did not want to move our belongings again. We asked if we could get a refund, and she said we could only get one night refund because the ceiling incident only happened on one night. We explained all the other problems we were having with the hotel that week, but she said the best they could do was one night's refund. My husband and I decided to talk about this over dinner. Lourdes explained that she would be leaving but if we wanted to take the room upgrade and one night refund, we could ask the manager. After dinner, we went to talk to the manager (this was the night shift manager who was different than the manager we talked to that morning). He kept showing us the disclaimer forms to sign. We asked him a few questions, but he did not understand English and kept pointing to the disclaimer forms. We decided not to sign the forms.

Some other things you should know about:
-The drinks are poorly made. They contain little alcohol and are watered down. The waitresses also take a very long time to deliver your drinks.
-The pool is not very clean. There was a thick layer of oil on the surface which the staff scooped out. I don't think the water in the pool is changed. There are plastic chairs in the pool that you can lie down on. The plastic part of the chairs that touches the water is yellow because of some residue build-up.
-There is a small foot bath to remove the sand off your feet. We saw staff members scooping out the sand but not changing the water.
-The quality of the food was poor. The sushi restaurant was very bad. They have smoked salmon, not fresh salmon. The last 3 days of our stay, I had a stomach ache.
-You will also get approached to go to a timeshare presentation. They will offer you 500 pesos, but not in cash. It will be as a gift certificate to use at the hotel gift shop or spa. We were harassed every day by people trying to get us to attend the timeshare presentation.

Some good points about the hotel:
-The only friendly or helpful staff were the concierge and bellboys.
-The hotel has a nice beach.

Overall, our experience was very bad at this hotel. If you are concerned about your safety, do not stay at this hotel!