Hard Rock Hotel Vallarta

I genuinely do not understand how this property maintains high reviews. Our experience at Hard Rock Hotel Puerto Vallarta was unacceptable from start to finish. To be clear, the individual staff members we interacted with were polite and well intentioned. The problem is not attitude. The problem is systemic incompetence. There appears to be a serious breakdown in operations, maintenance, and reservation management that no amount of friendliness can compensate for. Our room was in visibly poor condition. Fixtures were damaged, the bathroom was dirty, and there were sharp objects protruding in places that made it feel unsafe, especially with children. The toilet seat did not even fit the toilet properly. Basic maintenance appears to be completely neglected. They mishandled our reservation and downgraded our room. My mother in law’s reservation was completely lost due to a misspelled name. They charged her but failed to properly secure the booking. We watched another guest ahead of us get downgraded from an ocean view to an interior view facing a wedding. It took nearly two hours at check in to untangle the mistakes involving just our parties. That is not a minor inconvenience. That is systemic dysfunction. The room was missing basic supplies. For example, there was a box labeled shower caps that contained none. Details matter in hospitality, and this property consistently missed them. The food has been consistently substandard. We attempted to dine at what was described as the nicest restaurant on the property. After waiting over 90 minutes, only half of our party was served. Staggered service at that level is unacceptable. This was a trip we were genuinely looking forward to. Instead, it has been deeply disappointing. Between the room condition, reservation mismanagement, and poor dining experience, this property did not deliver even baseline expectations for the price point. We will not stay at a Hard Rock property again.

My son (20 y.o) and I recently returned from the Hard Rock Hotel Vallarta and had a great time there. Here is my personal experience with the resort. Check in - We arrived at the resort early as check in is at 3 pm and we arrived at around 1:45 pm. After about a 10 minute wait in line, we were promptly checked in and luckily our room was available to us. Within about 20 minutes of entering our room, the bellman brought our luggage up to us. Room - We paid for a 2 double bed, ocean view room. In my opinion, the view is worth it. There is something about opening those curtains in the morning and looking at the gorgeous pools and resort then the beautiful Pacific Ocean beyond that. Even though it was whale season, we did not see any on our stay, but we did see dolphins playing one morning. The beds are super comfy and the pillows are just fine (4 per bed). There is a jacuzzi in every room, but we did not try it. The shower pressure was adequate, but not the best I've encountered. There is a mini-fridge with a large bottle of water, and some sodas and beers that is restocked daily. They also restock some snacks for you (chips, oreos, nuts, etc.). Pools - There are several pools and a good sized hot tub located there. The towel game is in full effect and most chairs were spoken for by 8-9 am each day. They also reserve a ton of chairs for their premium members. We got in the habit of hanging on the beach and then migrating to the pools later in the afternoons when they cleared out a little bit. There is a nice swim up bar in the main pool. Pool drink service is excellent there. Food - Plenty of choices. There are 2 identical breakfast buffets which is nice to spread things out. There was never a wait and there were plenty of choices including a made to order egg station, a made to order crepe station, and all of the usual suspects like fresh fruit, breads, yogurts, cereals, and lots more. They also have a smoothie menu that was good and healthy. I believe that there is also a sit down, order style breakfast place, but we did not check that out. For lunch, there is a good sized buffet with a taco station, salad bar, fresh sushi and many other options like pizza, pastas, meats and cheeses, and much more. There is also a pizzeria with wood fired oven pizza made to order that I did not try but my son did twice and enjoyed it. And they also have a "snack area" that had made to order hotdogs and cheeseburgers with a small buffet featuring toppings like ketchup, mustard, mayo, onion, tomatoes, etc. and also fresh guacomole, pico, chips, and fajitas. We enjoyed this place as it was a nice quick spot to hit before getting back to the beach. Beach - The beach is great. There was never an issue getting chairs reserved and the drink service is top notch. They do have paddleboards and floaties that can be borrowed, we just played in the 5-10 foot waves without. Entertainment team - This is where the HRHV shined. The team worked tirelessly and was always so joyful to be around. They would ask you to join in their games (beach volleyball or soccer, pool games, Connect 4, among others), but they would not push if you did not want to participate. The concerts were so much fun, we really enjoyed the Beatles show and the Rock show. We heard that the Queen show along with the Bruno Mars show are also great, but we arrived the day after the Queen show, and they had their Super Bowl party on the usual Bruno Mars night. Speaking of the Super Bowl, we paid the VIP upgrade for the party and received a confirmed table by the big screen, lots of several drinks that were brought around quite often, dedicated servers for food and drinks, our own VIP buffet and a special menu to order off of. It was so much fun but we payed the price on Monday morning, lol. If I had one complaint about the HRHV, it would be the DJ at the activity pool, the music was very inconsistent there. When I think of Hard Rock, I think classic rock which was played sometimes, but there was one afternoon where they just put on a playlist for 90 minutes of just Imagine Dragons music. I feel that if they are not using a DJ, they should have much better Spotify/Sirius XM options to play at a resort. When they did use a DJ, there were a lot of problems with dead air. While this would not deter me from staying here again, I did want to mention it. We met a ton of great people, many from Canada, and Minnesota which was fun as we are from Iowa. We did hear that the resort is closing in July for several months for a major renovation and will be curious to see what the new place will look like and cost after completion.

Loved it at the ciao restaurant! Food and everyone was awesome.!! We especially loved Juan the manager. Loved making him smile!! 😃

Excellent exercise in the pool area. Super friendly instructor!!

Our first time here after many trips to other Hard Rock resorts. We had a great time. The pool and entertainment staff made the trip! Special shout out to Kevin and Georgia (entertainment) and Lu Lu and Obed (pool staff). They are above and beyond fabulous! We had so many laughs. Our butler team was also great. I know they are very busy but they were attentive and quickly attended to our needs. They also made time in their busy day to stop and say Hi! Alex was amazing at arranging an anniversary surprise as well! The food at the restaurants was very good. The overall best part of our stay was the Super Bowl party on the beach. AMAZING! We will be back HRPV!!!