Hotel Xcaret Mexico: When the Backdrop Is Luxury but the Service Isn’t

Hotel Xcaret Mexico is marketed as an all-inclusive luxury resort.

On December 12th, my husband and I realized we needed to get out of dodge. Normally, winter break means Mammoth. But between the lack of snow, how unusually warm it’s been, and a three-day winter storm rolling in, Mammoth quickly became a no-go.

So we started brainstorming.

🚗 Carlsbad Tavern.

✈️ Japan.

🐨 Australia.

🛩️ Austin, TX.

All great ideas. All terrible ideas right now.

Every option required real planning, real energy, and real bandwidth — none of which we had between the clinic, work, and life. We needed a book-and-go trip. Flights. Hotel. Done.

Somehow, we landed on Hotel Xcaret Mexico — and honestly, it felt too good to be true.

Family-focused.

Marketed as the best experience in Mexico.

AND all these adventure parks included in one package?

It was a little cookie-cutter for us since it’s an all-inclusive, but this was about survival, not style. Book flight. Book hotel. That’s it. Between the resort and the parks, we’d have all the adventure we needed without planning every detail.

Hotel Xcaret is positioned as one of the most luxurious all-inclusive resorts in Mexico. Seamless. Elevated. All-Fun Inclusive. You’re supposed to show up, exhale, and let the system carry you.

And every single person we told reinforced that idea.

“Oh my god, that place is the best.”

“So luxe.”

Even our flight attendant told us it was his dream destination and the spot.

By the time we landed — after a 2.5-hour flight delay and not touching down in Cancun until 9:30 PM — I was exhausted, but excited. It was finally time for the resort to take the wheel.

Or so I thought.

Photo distributed by Hotel XCaret I Pool & slides right outside our room

Night One: Where Things Immediately Went Sideways

We arrived at the property around 10:30 PM.

No greeting.

No direction.

No welcome.

Okay. Fine. I can survive without a first-world greeting.

What I couldn’t overlook was this: when I booked the resort, I made two very clear requests.

1. We needed a microwave so I could heat up my son’s food.

2. I needed check-in to be smooth. So smooth that I specifically asked if someone could essentially be waiting for us.

I knew exactly what 40 people unloading from a bus at 10:30 PM would look like. I also knew my son was holding it together after a full travel day — and once that regulation is gone, it’s gone.

So imagine my surprise when I got to the front desk and learned our kids were listed as ages 1 and 2.

Which meant our room had one king bed.

That’s it!

I’m still genuinely confused how that made sense. If the kids were supposedly 1 and 2, where exactly did they think they’d be sleeping?

The front desk attendant told me there were no other rooms available — just a pull-out couch. I’d need to come back in the morning to switch rooms. No apology. No acknowledgment. Just… that’s it.

Cool. Cool.

I asked if housekeeping could at least make up the pull-out because it was now 11 PM and I still had to find food and get my kids to bed. He told me I could call housekeeping myself from the room. Same with the microwave.

That alone was wild to me. I worked at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel years ago — and if a guest came to the desk with a request, we handled it. We didn’t tell them to make the calls themselves. And that hotel is good — but it doesn’t claim to be the #1 luxury resort in an entire country.

Anyway.

I asked about food. He told me room service was the only option. Everything else was closed.

Hungry Kids, No Beds, No Answers

We got to the room and called room service.

Two-hour wait.

I tried calling housekeeping. No answer.

So now I’m standing in a room with no beds for my kids, no food, no microwave, and no one picking up the phone. I ran back down to the front desk, where they finally told me about one place on the property that might be open 24 hours.

Why this wasn’t mentioned earlier? No idea.

The directions were terrible. We wandered from one closed restaurant to another until a random guest took pity on us and guided us there.

We finally got pizza for the kids — thank Gd it was acceptable to them. This isn’t pickiness. My son has ARFID.

While we waited for food, my husband found a manager at the restaurant, Angelina. She spent 20 minutes personally trying to track down housekeeping so we could get sheets and put our very tired 7- and 8-year-olds to bed. She was the first person all night who acted like this situation mattered.

While the kids ate, I went back to the front desk to ask — again — about housekeeping and the microwave. New staff member. Same energy. No urgency. No ownership.

She radioed housekeeping (why this hadn’t happened earlier is beyond me) and told us we were “the next room.” I asked for seven pillows and two extra blankets. She said everything would come together.

The microwave? Unknown. That was a problem for tomorrow Stephanie. It was now 12:30 AM.

We went back to the room. Housekeeping was finally there — making the bed for one person. They used the extra pillow from the closet. No additional pillows. No blankets. And our luggage still hadn’t arrived.

We gave the kids all the pillows and blankets from the king bed just so they could sleep. My husband and I went to bed with nothing.

Later, housekeeping dropped off three pillows and one blanket. After my husband and I had already gone to sleep.

First Night Summary

This was our entire travel day and first experience at this “luxury” resort.

I was clear about our needs. I asked for a smooth check-in. I communicated ahead of time. And while I understand not every issue is in one person’s control — this level of dysfunction was completely unacceptable.

My family is still sleeping as I write this because yesterday was so chaotic.

And I’m sitting here trying to wrap my head around how a resort this beautiful can get the basics so wrong.

This is just the beginning.