Hotels near Los Potrillos, Cozumel

I was spied on in the shower by a hotel employee, and management tried to cover it up. It wasn’t until we involved the police that they became cooperative. What happened? Look at the photos, and you’ll see a sliding window in the shower that opens to a hallway closet. While I was showering, I looked up and saw a man’s face in the window, watching me. I screamed, grabbed a towel, and ran out to the hallway. When I opened the closet next to my room, I found that same man wearing a hotel uniform, trying to climb down from the window that overlooks my shower. He tried to push past me, but I caught him by the sleeve and took his radio. I shouted for help, and he said over and over, “Please, don’t tell.” Other guests arrived to assist me, and started taking photos and video of the scene. The desk clerk named Angel came upstairs and initially claimed that he’d told the pervert peeping tom named Vicktor to get a broom from that closet. Observe from the photo that this is not a utility closet, and is empty except for pipes. We also found footholds carved into the cinderblock beneath the shower window. Once we pointed out the falsehood of his claim, Angel then said that Vicktor was never in the closet, that it’s his word against mine. Angel refused to call the hotel manager, and then refused to call the police. He took Victor to the office behind the hotel desk, and we saw him on his phone, smiling and laughing. Members of my group called the police and contacted the hotel owner Gilberto, who said he would come in 2 hours because he was not nearby. I give credit to the local police in Cozumel, who responded quickly, and also called their supervisor to the scene, who took our reports and investigated the closet. We discovered that many rooms, on all four floors of the hotel, have these fake utility closets with windows opening to the shower. None of the closets were locked, and only women had been assigned to these rooms by the front desk clerk. When the owner Gilberto arrived, he initially denied everything, then once the police sergeant supervised the interaction, the owner finally conceded that “because it’s bad for business,” he would repair the shower windows and lock the closets, and he also said Vicktor the peeping tom would be terminated. However Gilberto the owner denied that Angel the desk clerk had any part in covering up the incident or funneling female guests to those rooms. I was very concerned about what appeared to be a serious safety and privacy problem—who knows many staff are involved in their peeping tom operation and how long they’ve been doing it? How young are their victims? Are they taking photos and video too? I’ve never felt so violated and disgusted. There are plenty of nice places to stay in Cozumel, go someplace that takes the privacy and safety of their guests seriously.

I have been coming to this hotel for the last 12 plus years. When Wyndham took over I expected that the rooms and furnishings would be upgraded. The price has consistently gone up so i was hoping for upgrades to the property. This is a dive hotel not a luxury venue. This trip I found the Ultimate Luxury Hotel and decided to move on to the Occidental Royal level for when I come back in October. It is a few dollars more for the Royal but what a place. Here are the good facts on Hotel Cozumel: The employees are excellent Luisa, Kiera and Miguel stand out with the level of service that they provided. The food has been upgraded with some special night to order off of the menu and not always a buffet. It is clean and the air conditioners work well. The room cleaning people are honest and trustworthy. The bad news is: We used to have wash cloths no more I guess providing a .50 cent towel is too much. You can't drink the water at the hotel. At check in you are given two 16 oz bottles of water in your room. Want more? you have to walk down the hall and fill your bottles daily. Many times the hall water was completely empty. Hard to understand why they can't give .50 cents worth of water every day. When I went to look at the Hotel Occidental the in room mini bar is restocked every other day in the least expensive room and restocked daily in the Royal rooms. 4 waters ,8 beers and 8 soft drinks NOT BAD. The starting level at the Occidental is currently less that the Hotel Cozumel on Hotels .com The furniture is tired. The drawers will fall out of the dresser, the marble top has been cracked forever. One day we had no cold water the next day the hot was cold and the cold was hot. on the 3rd day it was back to normal. I complained about the sliding glass door in my room in October and I always stay in the same room. The door still wasn't fixed and required 41 lbs of pull to get it open. My wife could not open or close the door I complained about it this trip too. No luck.

My wife and I, and a close friend arrived at the hotel on April 18, 2023. The friend and I previously stayed at this El Cid in 2015, and found the place pleasant during that visit for a week of scuba diving. During both stays at El Cid we found the people there very cordial and anxious to please. However, we will likely never stay there again. The place was noisy day and evening. One of the two small elevators had recently been maintained, and the other, right outside our door, was under construction. Construction noise, smells, and debris from this elevator work were part of every day, often into the evenings until after 7 PM. Whether or not we had our front door open, to exit the room, or not, we were subject to noise and concrete debris from this source, as workers were cutting through rebar and concrete, just a few feet from our door. There was also major demolition underway on another part of the hotel, with workers utilizing jackhammers much of each day. This is what we also listened to on the other side of our rooms. We were in the middle of two MAJOR construction projects. If the above weren’t enough, we were almost directly above the restaurant, which until 10:30 most evenings was the source of a very loud band. One evening we went down to the restaurant to dine, not realizing that the band was about to start, and found that we could not hear each other talk, at all. While on the subject of the restaurant, upon checking in, we were presented with a coupon book of discounts. Three of these (photos attached) were confusing, as they did not seem to apply to any of the menu items, so we asked our waiter for elucidation. He had never seen the coupons, and went for help from the manager. The manager, Carlos, came over to our table to inform us that we could order virtually any three items from the menu for $5 US dollars off each item. I then repeated this back to him, in front of my wife and friend, twice for clarification and confirmation. He affirmed my reiteration of his statements. We enjoyed a beef meal, a chicken meal, and a seafood meal. At the conclusion of our meals, we presented the coupons for credit. Our waiter again sought the manager who came over to us again, to inform us that the coupons would not apply to any of our meals. We were incredulous. Wi-Fi: When my friend and I stayed at El Cid Cozumel in 2015, Wi-Fi (poor) was provided in the lobby area. This time we were informed that Wi-Fi was provided throughout the hotel, but for only two devices per room. There were three of us! So my wife had Wi-Fi on her phone (but not on her computer), my friend had Wi-Fi on his computer (but not his phone), and I had NO Wi-Fi for my iPad or phone. As such, I was unable to send photos, texts, or email messages to our friends back home, unless I wanted to borrow my wife’s phone. There were a couple times where I used my wife’s phone for necessary communications with the scuba diving organization we used while in Co

Really lovely stay with especially friendly staff in the restaurant. Gorgeous resort with two beaches and nice pools - the food at the hotel restaurant is excellent so we ate there happily every night.

PROS: This is the best beach and ocean location and the main reason we chose this resort. Employees work hard - some are very friendly and helpful, others keep more to themselves but are happy to help if asked. The ocean water is divine - crystal clear and abundant with life and an ecosystem that you can explore for hours! The hotel grounds are well kept, the pools are lovely, there is fresh cold drinking water available at many sites on the resort. The lobby is comfortable. CONS: Food - there is so much waste because of taste and quality especially in the only a la carte restaurant. They try too hard to impress with appearance, while the flavor and quality is awful. We tried so hard to like it. They Serve a spaghetti with a liquid tomato juice they call a sauce, and serve it to hotel guests! Stick to what you know - Mexican food made well, made with local ingredients using traditional recipes! Why try to serve a pasta carbonara when they clearly don't have a clue what that even is - and every dish that uses cream - and there are many, has this artificial sickening flavor about it, what a shame! If they could just tweak and understand that guests deserve to eat decent food, everything else would be great. ROOMS: dated but clean. They have many rooms with very old and dirty fold-up couches. Replace the couches that belong in the garbage, not in guest's rooms, it isn't a big deal, but will show respect to your guests. AIR CONDITIONING: very controlled and never gets cold. Hotel can lower the temperature by at least two degrees and provide much comfort. BUFFET: Repetitive and low-quality food. If you make it repetitive, at least stick with quality and local specialties so that the guests can enjoy some authentic Mexicans cuisine. BIRDS: This is a problem. Allowing vultures to enter your buffet restaurants to eat and defecate where they want is not acceptable! At night, so many mosquitos - we could not eat there. Find a way to enclose the buffet resto. add air conditioning, eliminate the BIRDS and MOSQUITOS and your guests will be in heaven. END note: this hotel capitalizes on their location which is ideal, but they could so easily tweak a few details and improve guest experience by 100%.