Guest Reviews: 3 comments found for this hotel :: 1 :: 2

We stayed at the Fiesta Americana Cozumel in early Feb 2007. We had the same problem that the previous posting did. We had sewage back up into our rooms every time it rained. It rained 3 times so do the math. After the 3rd time we asked for a room in the main building. That was better. The huts out back are very big and nice. There isn't any privacy on the small desk with hammocks on them. The beach was right out front and had some excellent snorkeling. I must have swum 10 miles there. Ran into some jellyfish a couple of times and got stung. Did the all-inclusive thing, which was OK. The food was about a 7.5 out of 10. Pools were nice and a taxi ride into town was $6 US.
Norm Smith, e-mail withheld, 2007-02-23

We stayed at the Fiesta Americana Cozumel for a week in March 2005 on a pre-paid package reservation through Hotels.com. We do not recommend the hotel, and we certainly do not recommend Hotels.com, which sold us a package represented as inclusive of ocean-view room and meals. The hotel claims they actually made the reservation for a cheaper room and no meals. To date Hotels.com has done nothing to correct their agent's scam. ----- FA's Good Features: Excellent location, out of town but close enough to be convenient, right on the water, nice beach with access for swimming, snorkeling right off the beach, a good dock for boat trip pickups. Higher floor rooms in the main building are spacious, well designed and furnished, have nice balconies and good views. Everything is clean. Restaurants all offer good food and service. Beach restaurant for breakfast and lunch has a nice view, offers menu as well as buffet. Buffet restaurant by the pool and lobby serves all meals. While evening dance shows are appropriate for all ages, audience participation games to warm up the crowd before the dance shows are not appropriate for children. The sound system is abominable and detracts from enjoyment of the shows. A More formal restaurant upstairs is not too pricey, room is elegant but noisy. A good mariachi band performs at the tables. Pool is very nice, along with tennis and volleyball courts, although the games make a lot of noise for those occupying lower floor rooms nearby. Children’s' programs are offered. ----- Three Big Problems: 1) Front Desk: Assistant manager, Rene, obstinately refused to do anything to mitigate the reservation problem, blaming Hotels.com and leaving us in the middle. He then switched us to a casita room still worse than what had been substituted for what we reserved. The next day he deliberately obstructed the execution of a room change to an ocean view room, as arranged by his manager, Julio. Rene lied repeatedly to us as he conducted our business. We observed him handling another couple in the same way regarding a room switch that he was trying to put over on them, and observed him lying to another customer regarding a key problem. While the manager, Julio, did make a room change for us and conducted himself appropriately, there seemed to be no accountability concerning the assistant manager's lies and room switches, which leads us to wonder how much cheating in room pricing and switching is actually traceable to and condoned by company management. And, just try to find the parent company on the Web or in any directory. ----- 2) Sewage Smell: Except for the beach area across the road, the whole place sometimes smells of sewage. We identified two sources. First, the on-site sewerage treatment plant located behind the main building is apparently overtaxed in periods of high occupancy such as spring break. Its odors were noticed over the whole property, except the beach, depending on wind conditions. Second, in rooms on the top or seventh floor, the vent stacks for the toilets are close enough to the roof line that smells from them blow down into the rooms and access corridors. ----- 3) The rooms in the back buildings, sometimes called Casitas, Cottages, or Jungle Rooms should be avoided. These are numbered in the 800's for ground floors and 900's for second floors. They are cheaper than rooms in the main building and were used in the bait-and-switch scams. There is no such thing on Cozumel as a jungle. These rooms are in a sparsely wooded, poorly drained area adjacent to the sewerage treatment plant, with associated aromas. Located in small, two story buildings, apparently designed by total amateurs, the units are small, wasteful of what space there is, split level (watch your step!), and feature a tiny deck with a hammock. The decks are oriented so that each one looks out on its neighbor, and there is no privacy. In a touch of the absurd, the grounds under the little ficus trees have been scattered with old coconut husks, perhaps to suggest an exotic tropical setting. >:(
Joe, e-mail withheld, 2005-03-14

Fiesta Americana Cozumel has great location, excellent service, great water sports. Best bet, outside garden suites. Enjoy.
E. Evans, e-mail withheld, 2004-08-21

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