Royal Hideaway Playacar

My wife and I stayed at the Royal Hideaway from March 10-17, 2026. We were impressed with the rooms, cleanliness and the food in the restaurants... BUT, thats where the good stuff ends. The beach front restaurant and pool area management and services was a disaster. 2 specifics are: 1) table service at the Deck restaurant was spotty... often attendants didnt show up until a waving of arms got their attentiorn and food orders took a long time. On two occassions we ordered hamburgers and after 20 minutes or more the waiter said they ran out of hamburger and then left before we could order something else. Meanwhile I saw at least 3 orders of ythhamburgers being served at other tables. 2) Cabanas. Getting a spot is difficult as they go fast. On the final day of our stay I placed our bags and towels on a vacant one and then proceeded to breakfast. After breakfast we returned to our cabana to relax. Since it was the last day we had to leave for a bit to arrange our departure ... no more than a couple hours. Upon return we found the cabana occupied by others and our personal items gone... they had been moved to the towel desk... no explanation by the attendant! These and other things added up to a bad experience. Never again.

My husband and I found the Royal Hideaway 25 years ago on our honeymoon. We have been back every year since. This past week we went back to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and my husband's birthday. We could not think of a better place to celebrate than where it all began.We loved every second . Everyone went above and beyond to make our celebration and vacation special. We feel like we are going to see family everytime we return. We have traveled to many resorts but this is our favorite. Special shoutout to Ricky ,Javier, Eduardo, Luis, Genarro ,Jorge and Henry and Carlos. Yall take great pride in your jobs and we appreciate it very much. The staff and managers at all of the restaurants are exceptional. Their desire to make everyone feel special is noticed. The staff here work so hard and everything you ask for they accommodate and respond to a thank you with its a pleasure. Can't wait til our next visit in November.

Need more staff. I’ve experienced 3 other all inclusive resorts and the service at the beach, pool, and restaurants was far better at those resorts. We tipped generously and still felt that attentiveness was lacking. About 25% of the staff were very friendly which might be because they were so busy. The choice of restaurants was good but plan on two hours, minimum, for dinner. Make reservations a week ahead! There’s no way to get a poolside chair unless you're up at 6 am, they’re all reserved by name, ahead. No clues how to do that. Beach was lovely though, with plenty of shade or sun and good swimming in spite of sargassum. Issues with showers were never resolved, and the building concierge was never there. Entertainment was excellent. Getting a cab was easy with the valet. Felt very safe in a gated neighborhood.

This is a disappointing hotel. Many of the things that should be easy are made difficult by a lack of thought.  First some positive points. Our room was spacious and comfortable with a nice bed, pillow and both aircon and a ceiling fan. The grounds are well kept and pleasant and there were plenty of sunbeds available, although there is a big mosquito problem all day around some of the pools and on our balcony.  The rooms are advertised as having tea and coffee making facilities but there is no facility to boil water other than a coffee machine that turns out coffee flavoured water!  We requested a kettle which they were unable to provide. They suggested asking room service for hot water but that also appeared in a coffee flavoured jug. Eventually we took a taxi to a nearby store and bought a kettle ( something we have never had to do in 45 years of international travel)  The concierge of our block ( Cipriani ) was very rude to my wife. She has some dietary requirements and has to avoid spicy food, as well as being lactose intolerant. When she explained this to Cipriani he asked why she had come to Mexico if she couldn’t have spicy food, it was said with such an awful attitude that this really upset my wife as she would love to be able to eat what she likes and she could not carry on talking to him. For the rest of our time that we needed to use a concierge we used one from a different block called Sarah who was very helpful. We have never had that response from a hotel employee before and it was not a good start to the holiday. He should not be saying this to the customer who has paid a lot of money for their stay at the hotel. Generally the food was ok but the service at breakfast and lunch was poor. It seemed difficult to get cold milk and spoons for cereals. I got so fed up with waiting one day that I ate my cereal with a fork! We sat waiting for long periods of time for these items. Usually, in all other hotels that we have stayed in, there are milk dispensers by the cereals which make life easier. Other than some desserts, no ingredients were labelled on any dishes, just labelling gluten and dairy free would be a start. Each restaurant makes a show of noting dietary requirements but some don’t pay any attention to what they have written down. My wife had to mention every time, first to the lady checking you in for your meal and then again to the waiter, about her dietary requirements and even then was served on occasions with food that she could not eat. The worst was the lunch buffet who served a club sandwich containing cheese to someone with a lactose intolerance.  The evening restaurants were very varied. The best was The Grill where Carlos and Sabrina were incredibly helpful and pleasant.  We also found Christiana, Rudy and Carmen helpful.  The entertainment was very mixed. We enjoyed the karaoke nights with Mariana and Alejandro and the guitarist who played by the pool was excellent. The rest of the shows were not worth bothering with for us. Luckily there was a bar outside opposite the main entrance with some good music.  We had booked some trips before we arrived both of which were excellent. We did a custom snorkelling tour to see the turtles at Akumal and swim in a cenote. We also did a birdwatching trip with Birding by Steven which was amazing.  This hotel could be so much better if they just cared about their guests.

Great resort. Beach was amazing... Some Sargasm but can't help that. Food is amazing go upstairs to spices for breakfast and lunch. Rules about loungers is a problem for first timers - hard to get as they reserve them for Owners and those that have stayed over 15 times... but if you are lucky as we were our concierge got us a couple for our last two days. ASK right away about this. The beach is beautiful and always a bit breezy. Rooms were cleaned quickly with comfy beds. Room service was great as well. Yes - I would go back.