At the beginning I was a little scared about this hotel because of some reviews but honestly if you travel to Cancun in a tight budget this hotel its great. The check in was extremely fast, the lobby and main entrance is very clean, the staff also is very polite and helpful. The room also was very clean, the AC, shower, TV, safe worked fine... the only thing not so fine is that the hall (from the elevator to the room) its similar to a maze/labyrinth. The pool its great but a little cold (not an issue), the bar its near the pool and also the staff there is very polite.

CONS: The beach its bad, its very dirty and there isnt a lot of space available. The price of the beverages its overpriced, I recommend ALL INCLUSIVE.

My stay at the holiday inn in cancun was a wonderful experience, it is located near to the downtown , you can take a bus right outside the hotel. the beach was wondeful and was right outside my door. The rooms are good, the food was more than I expected (all- inclusive) and the waiters were above and beyond great.. I would recommend this hotel for all single travelersand famillies. IMy experiences at this hotel was above and beyond what i expected so if you want a good hotel good food and a good beach I would say this is the hotel.Also the manager and the reservation person were the best i have ever had the pleasure to do business with.thank you for a wonderful vacation.

1. room - good size, nice view, easy to use free wireless and safe, but no closet doors and bottom rod of the sliding door needs to be fixed
2. food - we all like it so far
3. service - overall poor.
* has not delivered on promises to either fix the sliding and closet doors or change room.
* room cleaning done in the evening and did not replace removed towels
* front desk staff not very responsive (call instead of going down. More friendly over the phone (recorded?)
* bartending - not experienced yet but is small
4. location - not in the hotel zone. need to take cabs to the hotel zone and may be expensive to do so every day but hotel does offer free drop offs and pick ups to one night club at 10:30pm every night.
5. entertainments - no hot girl performance sbut good for family with little kids
6. Pool - good for family with little kids but may not be good if you are a big teenager (16-100 yr old)
7. Beach - not the nicest blue water but calm and shallow for kids to play in
8. Fellow guests - majority is mexicans and other latin americans. Nice people so far. Do not expect to meet lots of americans or canadians but not what we expect to do here.
9. Noise - loud. Rawdy and showy guests
* first night - two guys singing opera at 3 pm
* second night - a group of caucasian mexicans jumped and danced in pools until midnight after performed poorly at the karaoke night
10. tours - service desk available in the lobby but not used its services yet

Sounds like 10 top reasons not to come here? but overall, value for the money, safe surroundings for the kids, decent food, clean room (fixed the sliding door myself) makes up for the poor service.

CONS: SMALL ROOM, PARKING, SOME TOPLESS WOMEN ON BEACH, PELICANS
PROS: GREAT PRICE, GREAT STAFF, SOME TOPLESS WOMEN ON BEACH, PELICANS

The hotel and rooms were basic and very clean. The staff is very friendly. We have a timeshare in cancun that still costs us $350 a night for all inclusive food and beverages. We stayed here and saved $280 a night which we used much of for great meals in great restaurants and felt better about our savings when we left.

The room overlooked the ocean and the view was great. We could see Isla Mujeres lights at night.. The beach has no waves and that is great for families. If you prefer five star hotels at five star prices you may want to go elsewhere. If you want to have a great time on a budget you would be smart to stay here.

Most of the families were Spanish which we loved because of the international feel of the hotel, which is Mediterranean in style and feel.

Parking was a problem so we often walked outside to take a bus to the entertainment zone or the downtown restaurants, away from the hotel zone. We never waited more than two minutes for a bus which stops right at the hotel or across the street depending on where you are going.

We did not get all inclusive because we wanted to experience the local restaurants and we were delighted with that move. We actually stayed a few nights at one of those five star hotels in Playa and we preferred Holiday Inn Cancun Arenas.

So, don't be discouraged by all the negative opinions voiced here. Go with low expectations if you must and you will be more than happy with your decision to stay at the Holiday Inn Cancun Arenas.