Iberostar Selection Paraiso Maya Suites - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

8626 reviews

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  Do Not Even Consider

  I would like to start off with the only positive, which is the lobby, the resort, the pools, the rooms are beautiful and clean. #1, We arrived and when we checked in we were informed that they have 2 rooms but only king beds. I booked a king room and a room with 2 double beds on the same floor due to children and a medical condition. (Medical note presented as well). This vacation was booked months in advance so there is absolutely no excuse. This is not acceptable, Marco informed us that they do not guarantee anything at anytime. I immediately asked for a manager who was just as rude. She informed me that if she can accommodate us it would be on different floors or different buildings. My answer was NO. We felt as if she was paying for our vacation as Marco just stood there smirking. After an hour of this and becoming aggravated we were told to come back in an hour or so and she will she if anything becomes available. When I came back after an hour they were still being difficult so I immediately called IHG and corporate, a miracle occurred and they found 2 rooms 10 rooms apart. We arrived at 11:00am and instead of enjoying the resort, the vacation I had to deal with this UNNECESSARY aggravation until 4pm. Absolutely disgraceful way to start a vacation. #2, Next course of aggravation: My daughter in law went to make reservations for the steakhouse and the Japanese restaurants, she was informed that without a room number she cannot make a reservation. Ok, so we had a room number at 4:00pm and went back to make the reservations only to be told both restaurants are booked throughout our stay. Now I am fuming from all these lies. Again, not acceptable. The next morning I began to address this matter instead of having breakfast or enjoying the pools. Met Tony at the concierge who stated he will take care of it all for me. (tipped him generously and he disappeared). I kept going back and forth and met David who said it will be done (tipped him) he disappeared as well. Spoke to Mariana who stated it was out of her control. Finally I called corporate again and met Raul who got us into the steak house but not the Japanese. Called corporate again and was told to go to the concierge of the building we are staying at. I did and met Alexis who already knew everything that was going on. By some miracle he was able to immediately get us in for 6pm the next evening. Another unenjoyable morning with aggravation until late afternoon. FYI: Neither restaurants were at full capacity at all. Steakhouse was empty for the 2 hours we were there. (VIDEO TO PROVE). Food was just ok at best all over. Resort is way way to massive, shows not good at all, drinks horrible (watered down). The talk of the pool among all the guests was rooms not being accommodated and reservations at the restaurants. I will never recommend this place. Actually, I will let people know not to consider this resort. My apologies for the long review but everyone needs to know.

  Apr 24, 2025
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  Bad Customer Service

  We had an awful paint smell in one of our rooms. They didnt do anything to correct the situation. We had small children that all had to pile into one room. When we brought it up as we were leaving, they basically said oh well. How this whole situation was handled was completely unprofessional

  Apr 23, 2025
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  Beware before booking

  I rarely leave negative reviews, but my experience at this hotel was truly disappointing. The cleanliness was far below acceptable standards — the room smelled musty and there was a roach outside of bedroom. Buffets were meh. Couldn’t get reservations at restaurants. Beware of the $300 charge for bracelets for children under 18. If the bracket is altered in anyway or lost you will be charged and not able to leave the resort until it is fully settled.

  Apr 18, 2025
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  Iberostar Maya, don’t believe the hype

  We went with four families total of 15 ppl. It was spring break so we knew it would be busy. My issues are with the food and beverages. I was under the impression This was a high level resort. When we arrived we were greeted by a very friendly gentleman who showed us around and we ate a lovely lunch at one of the buffets. Sorry I can not remember which one. We stayed at Maya and the room was clean, people were friendly and we loved the wild life. We went to snake bar several times and it was not all that impressive. My daughter played trivia and enjoyed that. My family played Pictionary and we all had fun. We went to karaoke and my daughter sang which was fun to watch. The teen boys got a bit out of control by dropping a friends on stage and they wrapped up early which irritated my daughter but that is life. I remember being young and dumb also. The resort is gigantic and I feel like I missed out on a ton! Which is my fault alone. We rented cabanas for two days and each day we were told the wrong number so ppl were getting agitated by that. A man and his son came up and weee highly irritated that we had our our stiff on their cabana and we had to call staff over to straighten it all out and it got a little frustrating. I would still rent again. As for the food it was average. We had dinner at the steak house and the hibachi which were good, hibachi was entertaining and enjoyed by everyone in our group. We had a sit down Mexican meal one night and it was average. The next night we did Italian and it was awful. Smash burgers were good, I would get a double as they are on the smaller side but they tasted great. Friends had the tacos from the taco stand near to the burger joint and enjoyed them. The buffets were nothing special. I don’t know what I expected but I just wanted better. As for the alcoholic beverages, they were AWFUL! Nearly everywhere I went they were awful. The only place I had a good consistent drink was the bar at delmar. We stumbled across it when our children were playing tennis! I would have went there nightly had a found it before. Atmosphere was fun, bartenders knew what they were doing. Just a good vibe! The whole week prior I would ask for a drink and often it was not as described and when I did find one I liked the next one they brought would look and taste different. It was just really frustrating! I watched them poor scotch into a drink that should be made with whiskey….. I just expected more. It was rated well and I just thought it would be better. It was our first AI and I love the concept but doubt we would turn to iberostar.

  Apr 16, 2025
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  Second trip and will return (2025 updates)

  This was my second trip and second review for Paraiso Maya Suites. First a few general comments then some updates for 2025. The Iberostar Selection Paraiso complex includes 5 long complexes arranged in this order physically and usually in price: Joia (adults only), Maya Suites, Lindo, Beach and Del Mar. Suites/Lindo share a set of pools as do Beach/Del Mar. At each hotel you are entitled to enjoy the restaurants and amenities at all lower levels. All are listed on the website as "five star" which as far as I can tell is a made-up, meaningless term. I wrote to Iberostar to ask for a description of the star system, is that an internal or external rating and are there any Iberostar properties which have fewer stars but I did not receive a reply. We stayed at Maya Suites both times and will return. Now for tips and updates: Pools: excellent and all worth checking out including Beach/Del Mar. I continue to wish for one more towel station in the Suites/Lindo pool area. Next to the water slides for example. There is a sign at the towel station, please return towels before 7 p.m. Clearly, almost nobody does this because in the morning people are using these same towels to claim chairs. I pointed out this discrepancy to the towel attendant and he said basically just ignore the sign. In the morning, most of the chairs get claimed between the hours of 6:30 and 7:30. At 7:00 there are generally plenty of chairs left. The pool hours are 8 to 7. As I wrote last time, I wish the pool would stay open one more hour as it would be so nice to have dinner and then take a late dip in the cool of the evening. Kid's club (Star Camp): great news, Iberostar has listened and now they offer an indoor option! Kids can either do water activities in the Monkeys or Dolphins age groups, or there is a choice combined indoor Monkeys/Dolphins - it looked like the 3 groups were comparable sizes. Our kids did crafts and games, and did not have screen time during their day though we were told occasionally video games may be offered. Very happy with the Star Camp. Our kids also got up on stage twice during the week for the evening show (Mexican show and Grease musical) - very cute. Restaurants - pleased overall, though confusion reigns. Between the app, the website and phone call during the week before our trip we were told either (1) the Japanese restaurant is the only one that needs dinner reservations anymore, (2) reservations needed only for Japanese + steakhouse, or (3) Japanese + French. Also, given the impression that they were moving away from a reservations system. None of those answers were correct. In actuality, most of the dinner restaurants across the properties still require reservations. While we were there, La Marina actually switched back from open seating to reservations-only. L'Etoile (French), Under the Sea, Tapatio and the buffets are first-come (no reservation), but virtually all the others do in fact require reservations. And those are very hard to come by! What the concierge said was, the reservations for the following week open every Saturday not at any set time but unpredictable. Those reservation slots get snatched up very quickly. Also, you cannot reserve until you are checked in, so I guess if you check in on a Monday you may be out of luck. We did try the following to which I will indicate my letter grades: El Museo (A), L'Etoile (B), La Marina (B-), Under the Sea (C), El Puerto smokehouse (C-), Olivietti (D, burnt pizza). Actually, you could do very well just not sweating the reservations, skipping the waiter-service restaurants which can be slow, and instead just go to the buffets. And where they really shine, far and away is the La Marina breakfast buffet. A+ all the way. Housecleaning - still very good, but we only got the towel animals on the first two days. I left what I thought was a pretty good tip each day, but maybe they wanted more because we stopped getting the towel animals. Concierge - available most of the day to answer your questions. Mild solicitation at times for their Prestige Club membership, was easily deflected and not particularly bothersome. I would like to single out Marlene as outstanding. Iberostar app - glitchy, needs improvement. Several times it froze up and I had to restart my phone.

  Apr 10, 2025