GGuest UserOverall, the hotel itself was decent. The room, food, and general service were acceptable, and most of the staff were friendly. However, I had a very disappointing experience with the tour desk inside the hotel, especially when it came to payment.
On my first day, the tour representative was very friendly, so I decided to book a tour through them. When I paid, the staff member spent quite a while setting up the card terminal and deliberately kept the part showing the exchange rate out of my view. I was never shown the exchange rate clearly, and I was never asked whether I agreed to have the transaction converted into Canadian dollars.
I only found out afterward, when I received the transaction notification from my credit card company. The exchange rate they used was extremely poor, and I ended up paying about CAD $30 more than I should have.
What bothered me most was that I had no idea this currency conversion was being applied at the time of payment. My understanding is that with Dynamic Currency Conversion, the customer should be clearly shown the exchange rate and final amount and should be given the choice to accept or decline it. That did not happen in my case.
I did not go back to argue with them after I discovered it because I did not want this issue to ruin the rest of my vacation. However, after checking online reviews, I also found comments from other guests mentioning similar issues involving exchange rates and deposits. Because of that, I do not believe my experience was simply an innocent misunderstanding. The whole situation felt very misleading.
In fact, I had already read some reviews about questionable exchange rates before the trip, so I specifically brought cash to pay the deposit in order to avoid this problem. Unfortunately, I still ended up being charged this way when making the final payment.
The tour itself was also not a good fit for us. Almost everyone in the group was local, and the guide mainly spoke Spanish, so if you do not understand Spanish, you may miss a lot of the experience and there were some safety issues too. I also felt the tour was poor value and that several parts of the day seemed focused on encouraging additional spending. The tour was also highly overpriced.
To be fair, I would not say the hotel itself is bad. I would still consider staying here again. However, I would strongly recommend being very careful with the tour desk and with any credit card payment. Make sure you can clearly see the currency, exchange rate, and final amount before tapping or inserting your card, and insist on being charged in MXN unless you personally choose otherwise.
Show more