SLS PLAYA MUJERES 5 stars

My family stayed their from 6/28-7/2 and was booked through AMEX travel. Upon arrival I was told I would be charged for my 6 year old daughter. Your website says kids stay free and when you click on the "see more details" it takes you to an error page. Kids in the USA are designated are individuals less than 18 years of age. Your front desk person was extremely rude about it and refused any conversation surrounding the topic. Not the best way to start off the trip.

Family of 5 traveling during the fourth of July holiday. The hotel was at capacity all week and there were multiple inconveniences related to the hotel room, dining and queues. This was somewhat expected during our stay, but I didn't not think it would be as difficult to secure pool beds, dining reservations, etc. as it was in a boutique luxury hotel. They first assigned us two rooms on the furthest end of the hotel. I was traveling with my in-laws who are both elderly and can't walk very far. We asked to change rooms to be closer to the lobby. They were able to accommodate one room change. The two rooms ended up to be very far from each other. Dining reservations need to be booked immediately upon arrival as many of the options get filled up. Lunch options are scarce (think poolside sliders, fried, nachos, etc.). The service staff however, was attentive and did a great job. The property itself has lots of activities and there were always things to do.

It's possible that we aren't their target guest as much of the resort were families and the couples were largely younger while we're closer to middle aged. We booked an Elite room primarily so we wouldn't have to be fighting for a prime seat. However, elite cabanas still needed to be claimed early morning (getting there around 8:30 after a run and breakfast meant us claiming the last available one--some people claim them but don't show up until the afternoon). Although location of elite cabanas is less than ideal (next to the family pool means noise and more inland so a small walk to the ocean vs other resorts that have VIP spaces with a slice of beach). Also on one day the staff led a group of non-elites into the space reserved for the elites and took a second umbrella from some chairs (but capacity seemed low so probably not a problem). Both of the exclusive elite spaces were closed (slow season?) so we didn't get to experience Brasserie Maxine or Privilege (would have liked the breakfast since made to order vs a buffet is always a preference but we're not room service people... Also the buffet breakfast space was a bit of a mess). Adults only pool was a loud EDM music space and not relaxing but we wanted primarily beach, not pool, so we were fine with that. Not all bars seemed to have the elite only liquor selection although we didn't discover they had ojo de tigre until much later in the trip (not a very expensive mezcal, only $35/bottle, but we really like it and can be hard to find in the States). Two of the days I worked a full day and getting to the beach at 5 PM they already cleared out the towels despite hours of sunlight left and dinner reservations not until 8 PM. For a resort that doesn't have a great place to just relax, there was very little entertainment and it wasn't until our last 2 days of a 6 day trip that our butler started letting us know the schedule (and the online schedule had stuff that then disappeared, like a casino night). Some activities are poorly advertised (cigar tasting) and difficult to understand how to book it. Lots of things have upcharges and the costs when converted to USD are higher than I'd pay for most of the things in Chicago (my wife was incredulous about a $400 price tag on a facial, for example, and $16 for a coconut). We did pay for some services primarily because we got credits from the credit card booking benefits. We felt like every place had something they were trying to sell.or upgrade, which is not our experience at other all-inclusives or cruises (for reference, our favorite all inclusive [so far] is just up the road a bit, Atelier, and we have different opinions on if their Inspira class is worth it [to me it is]). Even with it being slow season, it seemed like they didn't have enough staff although my wife noted several staff that didn't seem like they had much to do. She may have the right of it since in general the staff seemed undertrained (not at all incompetent and all are very interested in trying to be helpful, no tip required for that, but very rarely had answers and the logistics in a lot of restaurants led to inefficiencies and slow services---so it's a management/owner problem, not the staff). There were some issues we had to go back to them several times to fix despite being told it was taken care of. Food was smaller than American portions, but I was good with that, although some items (like the philly cheese steak quesadilla ended up being a chicken taco with cheese). Most food was bland and lacked spice. The grilled foods were the highlight though and the habernero and Mexican chili oil salsas did help bring some flavor to things. We found Caracol to be our favorite of the dinner restaurants although we also like all of them with the exception of Lotus (in general fish wasn't consistently fresh) despite Asian food being a staple for us (my wife is vietnamese). Overall, it's fine, but just fine. We are unlikely to return, but can see this being good for others.