Bahia Principe Explore Akumal

As a returning guest of luxury akumal bahia reading some negative reviews really worried me. But that all change as soon as we arrived the lovely Francesco upgrade our room free of charge to the new villas 2 rooms one big family room so it was already to a great start room clean towels change daily. The food at the buffe change daily was amazing fresh every day they had oyster for lunch come on hahahaha kids loved the selection we did go few time tipikado think how u say it snack bar was a hit with the kids we went to restaurant my favourite was mikado and katok,tequila least favourite the gourmet purely took 3 hours between courses slow service. The entertainment where truly something else here Milton,Alex,Karla, Maria thank you so much for making our trip the best ever truly amazing 👏. My best bar staff Wendy Always made sure I had my drink refreshed hahah as a family of 5 staying 14 nights we thought we would get bored the days went so fast we were sad to leave i would be returning back 100% even with the changes but that did not seem to bother me yes I could definitely see the change. If is your 1 time you would love it

Recently returned from a one-week trip to Grand Bahia Principe Explorer Akumal. Booked the adult section but was informed on arrival that construction is occurring nearby and it may be noisy, so we were upgraded to a refurbished room in Building 48 which is closer to the lobby area. We are frequent visitors to the resort so wanted to give a perspective of this first visit where the resort is under new Management by Hyatt. Room – Roomy and well-appointed the new designs gives more space and has an upgraded washroom, new furnishings and felt like new mattress and bedding so definite improvement here. Grounds- Still well maintained and clean. No issues with trolleys staff are helpful and friendly didn’t find delays as some reviewers were mentioning so were able to navigate around the other resorts with no issues. Beach – Clean, staff did a fantastic job in trying to keep it clear of the Sargassum, Akumal beach is sheltered to an extent, so we were still able to swim comfortably. There were lots of chairs so no issues with getting a spot even late morning. We did notice the resort was under capacity, so we figured this helped. One difference is that even though the Akumal section is separate occupants from the other resorts were occupying the area even with the security present. Bar service was great on the beach, but we did notice however that the quality of the drinks from the beach bar has dropped, they felt watered down or poorly mixed on multiple days. Buffet – Service was excellent at the buffet staff was attentive friendly and helpful. Breakfast and Lunch were great with many hot selections. Dinner dish choices, however, has been reduced, sometimes food quality fell below average. Coffee and juices at the buffet also felt watered down so quality has certainly dropped here. Our expectation is food and beverages reflect the luxury tag and price premiums vs the other resorts in the complex otherwise there is no incentive to return. A la carte - we were able to book 3 a la cartes, the Ku’uK, Katok and Mikado. Ku’uK and Kato were excellent great service and menu selections and quality. Mikado service was great, but we noticed the teppanyaki food quality was not great as before. Entertainment – this was one of the weaker parts of this visit. The only standout show was the paid option. The evenings poolside and lobby entertainment felt repetitive and lackluster. As a result, many guests appeared to lose interest and leave. Evening entertainment used to be one of the resort’s highlights, so this is an area where improvement is clearly needed. In summary we did have a good time and found the staff and service to be excellent as prior visits but certainly noticed some reductions in the quality which we were used to at the resort. We are hoping that once the renovations are complete that the level of quality we were used to will return otherwise, we will be looking for an alternate resort.

Rooms are nice. Large resort, did a lot of walking as it’s very hard to get a golf cart. It’s nearly impossible to get à-la-carte restaurant reservations, they’ll tell you the restaurant is full when there are nothing but empty tables. Rude staff, beach vendors selling fake Cuban cigars near the lobby. I’ll be looking elsewhere next time.

Isabelle had the best time at the Kids Club! A huge thank you to Eduardo, Val, and Maribel for taking such wonderful care of her. They were incredibly kind, patient, caring, and fun. They made Isabelle feel safe, happy, and excited to come back every day. It was clear how much they genuinely care about the children, and that gave us so much peace of mind. Thank you for making our family vacation so special and for creating such beautiful memories for Isabelle. We truly appreciate everything you did! ❤️

This will be our final trip staying at Bahia Akumal. This was our 6th time staying at the resort and the change in ownership is very noticeable. Our prior trips to this resort were amazing. This trip was full of disappointment. We arrived after check in time only to be told that one our rooms was not ready with an attitude from the front desk. We were given our wrist bands (key) and were told we could put all of our stuff in one room and come back in a few hours to get the ok to get in to our other room. We made our way over to the adult only pool only to find it completely empty which has never happened before in the past it was always full. Only one staff member at the bar, no music just boring atmosphere. We were there during the time when the hotel decided the restaurants would allow walk ups. We headed over to one and were told they were full, plenty of open tables and there was a long waitlist. We found out later that to get a table we needed to be at a restaurant by 6 pm to add our name to the list. We ended up at the buffet and were shocked to see most of the dishes empty and not all the food stations open and cooking. This was the same situation for breakfast and lunch. If you sat on the adult only side of the buffet good luck finding anyone to help get drinks or service. Most people we talked to there complained of the same service the staff was no where to be found. The food at the buffet was a huge disappointment. We noticed that the buffet normally open by the adult only pool was never open and the snack bar had limited hours. We noticed one employee working the swing bar by the large pool area definitely needed two or three. This hotel use to offer great options for food any time of the day. We opted to find food a few times off the resort. We heard from many of the staff that a lot of employees have quit and the ones still there see how bad the hotel is since Hyatt took over ownership. We were told the hotel was at only a 25% capacity very obvious. We have been there at different times of the year and never seen it so empty during a July trip. Hyatt needs to re-evaluate the changes made to the hotel before they run it into the ground. Tourism is down in the area and to see the number of stores/businesses that have closed in the Tulum area is disappointing. A frequent comment made by other guests is the hospitality has gone down especially when dealing with the front desk. We considered eating the cost and going to another resort by the end of our second day at the resort. We decided to stick it out and see if it got any better by the end of our trip. We were all looking forward to this trip and left feeling disappointed.