Villa 2 Bedrooms 3 Bathrooms, Akumal

“Great Condo - Not So Great Management”

This is a review in three parts. The first bit deals with the Bahia Principe Management side and the second part is about the apartment. The final bit is about how renting a ‘condo’ fits in with the BP resort. ‘Resort Living’ is what the wristband says. We had originally booked Quetzal Apartments b… more

This is a review in three parts. The first bit deals with the Bahia Principe Management side and the second part is about the apartment. The final bit is about how renting a ‘condo’ fits in with the BP resort. ‘Resort Living’ is what the wristband says. We had originally booked Quetzal Apartments by the golf club. We booked via Booking.com and it all seemed to be straightforward. On arrival, we were told a number of conflicting reasons why we could not check in to Quetzal: that the room was still being cleaned after air conditioner unit repairs, that there was a leak in the hit water boiler, that the room would be available after an hour’s wait, that the room would only be available the next day. Finally, after challenging the BHP Residences Management employer, it was revealed that the apartment would not be available at all! It turns out that there was some conflict between the owner of the apartment and BP Residences Management. The owner had not enabled repairs on the property, therefore the Management were preventing its rental. We felt like a pawn in this interaction. We were forced to wait for around 2 – 3 hours to successfully get into an apartment. We were told we would get an upgrade to a different complex – the Anah Tulum apartments and then we were shown into the wrong room (a dirty bedroom and not an apartment). By this point, we were quite upset. We, and our luggage and our shopping were ferried around from one place to another, up to an apartment, down from the apartment and finally back up to the apartment. It was a uncomfortable and unacceptable waste of our afternoon and we were left distressed by the experience. However, the apartment itself was beautiful. Floor to ceiling windows (with blinds), shaded by the trees outside, making the apartment private. A great open plan kitchen and living area (dishwasher but no washing machine). Stylish, contemporary design and good equipment (the non-stick frying pans seemed scratched though). The apartment had 2 large TVs with some Sky channels. The bathroom had a wonderful walk-in shower and is well finished in marble. On the roof, there was a sun terrace, a mini pool and another bathroom. The stairs up to the roof terrace had health and safety issues: a gap between the floor to ceiling glass wall, which a child or a skinny person could slip through. In addition to this, the bannister was in 3 parts – so there were gaps in the railing. I did, in fact slip on the bottom of the stairs, at a place where there was an absence of handrails and a huge, swollen terrible bruise was the result. We did have an amazing time staying at the apartment, though. Having the little pool upstairs was a great place to cool off at the end of a day. What the apartment could have benefitted from was a set of instructions about how to turn the pool filter on, how the tv remote controls worked (there were 4 in total) and dishwasher instructions. Also, the place lacked attention to detail. Whilst sat in the mini pool, we could clearly see small chunks of plaster on the glass balcony, left over from hasty construction. Come on BP management – get it sorted. I could see the same mess on multiple windows in the Anah complex. It looks rubbish! Finally, we enjoyed being able to use some of the BP resort facilities but didn’t like the many rules – you can use this bit of the resort - but not this - kind of thing. I have stayed at all-inclusive BP twice before and these were the times before the new, extensive rules. It was much more relaxed. we didn’t like the feeling of not being sure if we were allowed in one place and if we were going to be asked to leave. It’s not good for holiday relaxation. I am glad to report that no one asked us to leave the Sian Khan Beach (which the train took us to). I would have been gutted as the Tulum beach was piled high with sargassum seaweed. As well as this, not having access to drinks, whilst on the beach, was difficult. We tried to buy some but were met with the worried faces of barmen. They were only allowed to give us ice, apparently. This meant that going to the beach for a day necessitated carrying very heavy bags with food and drink in them. My bag was almost too heavy to carry! I’m sure BP could create some sort of prepaid card scheme, whereby a condo dweller could access 3 drinks a day. It would make such a difference. This hitch made it far more comfortable to spend the day on another beach (Akumel) where we could buy food and drinks easily. To sum up, our holiday was mostly great – but the check in was terrible - because of communication issues that BP has with condo owners – and with customers. Because of this issue, I would seriously consider whether I would subject us to the experience again. From other reviews, it seems like a game of Russian Roulette. You may get an invalidating experience – or you may get lucky.

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