Intercontinental Presidente Cancun Resort, An Ihg Hotel

As a long time IHG Platinum Elite member, our anniversary stay at Presidente InterContinental Cancun Resort fell far short of expectations. The property focuses on the illusion of luxury while failing on basic hospitality fundamentals. ​Major issues experienced during our stay: ​Deceptive Room Listing: We paid extra to select a room listed with a balcony on Hotelverse. Upon arrival, the room had no balcony. Staff admitted the listing was an error but forced us to pay an additional upgrade fee to get a room with a balcony. ​Water Outages: We experienced cold shower water early in the stay, culminating in a complete property wide hot water failure on our anniversary night that left my wife with shampoo in her hair. ​Unfulfilled Promises: Staff promised an anniversary amenity of sweets and strawberries on three separate occasions, but it was never delivered. ​Poor Dining Experience: Only outdoor restaurants were open, making it hard to escape the heat during meals. Food quality was a poor value, being mostly bland and over salted. ​Poor Room Layout: In room televisions are mounted perpendicular to the bed, making viewing angles very uncomfortable even with the swivel arm. ​A single day cabana pass does not compensate for misleading advertising, forced upgrade fees, infrastructure failures, and poor service. We expect much higher operational standards from a flagship InterContinental property.

Made this booking last minute using a points-and-cash offer on the last day of our trip. We chose this property as it seemed to be the only hotel we could find with a decent beach. We had visited Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum, and being the low season there was a lot of sargassum everywhere, so it was great to find a property with a clean beach and clear water. My partner enjoyed the morning on the beach as well as the buffet, which we had to pay extra for as it wasn't included in our booking. Unfortunately, we had to pay an extra resort or destination fee, and it didn't include much other than water bottles in the room. Keep in mind if you ask for a water bottle at the breakfast buffet, it's not included in breakfast or the destination fee, which made for a minor annoyance during our stay. However, they were able to correct the situation at checkout, which was appreciated. Overall I really dislike destination and resort fees and normally avoid properties that have them. The room itself was better than expected. We chose the Laguna view room and had a great view in the evening of the hotels across the lagoon. I wish they had some smart TVs to connect my phone but that seems to be a problem with most of the hotels we stayed at on the trip. The check-in process seemed a bit slow, but the bellboy service was great, helping us with our luggage at check-in and check-out helped speed things up so overall it was great experience. I generally like to park my own vehicle but I also appreciate the bellboy assistance with getting my vehicle on checkout, having that flexibility was great. In general the self-parking was very easy hassle free. Overall, I would recommend the hotel and stay again in the future.

The lobby was nice, but unfortunately the hotel itself was very disappointing. The rooms and facilities felt extremely dated , by U.S. standards, it honestly reminded me of a budget hotel from the early 2000s rather than a five-star resort. I was genuinely surprised that this property is marketed as a five-star hotel. The welcome amenity was also quite underwhelming. The hotel was crowded almost everywhere, and it was difficult to find any quiet or relaxing space. We booked an ocean-view room, but the experience was especially disappointing. The windows were foggy, and our room was located near the middle section of the building, so a large portion of the supposed ocean view was blocked by the structure itself. The beach was another disappointment. There was a lot of seaweed along the shore. It was clear that staff had made an effort to clean it up, but the water still looked very murky and unappealing during our stay, and I personally had no desire to swim in it. Another inconvenience was the hotel’s policy regarding food delivery. Delivery drivers are not allowed to bring orders inside, and the front desk would not accept the order for us either. We had to walk all the way outside the property to pick it up ourselves. We have stayed at much nicer hotels where deliveries were either brought in or at least accepted by the front desk.

Beautiful hotel. Very clean and spacious with excellent, helpful and friendly staff. Had a wonderful massage from Maricela and Kristel. They even let me use the spa showers / changing rooms on the day we left, due to having checked out of our hotel room (which was already kindly extended by the reception staff) and having a late flight, effectively meaning we got to spend one day extra at the picturesque private hotel beach. My only negative comment would be the birds flying around the breakfast restaurant, although they can't be causing any cleanliness issues as people would get sick and the hotel has an advanced hygiene certificate. We hope to return one day.