Estancia Tulbayab 36

I booked for a week and chose this place because the reviews looked good. As a solo traveler I usually go for the cheapest lodging, and even with a low bar, I found it awful. The room was tiny, which I expected for the price, but the Wi-Fi was painfully slow. I needed to work remotely, so I had to use data roaming every day and pay for it. Nearby buildings had stronger signals than the hotel Wi-Fi. The other major issue was the water. Every time I wanted a shower, I had to call the owner to turn it on. She said it was like that everywhere in Cancun. I asked to switch rooms, but nothing came of it. She only offered another room once I’d already booked another hotel and was leaving. I requested a refund for the final two nights I wouldn’t be staying. She said she didn’t have the money until the end of the month. Someone here claimed she speaks English, but that wasn’t our experience. We used Google Translate to communicate the whole time. She wasn’t rude and apologized often, but I want people to know what happened and think the rating should be lower.

We lost an hour of our holiday waiting for the host to arrive after we got there in the afternoon. Calls weren’t answered, and we kept trying because the booking had already been charged. We had a car, so we went to Zona Hotelera for dinner. Eventually we reached them and made sure someone would be there to check us in and give us somewhere to sleep. The room we got wasn’t the one we had booked. It was on the ground floor, with no ventilation except a window looking onto the house corridor. Guests and even the owner were talking and laughing near the kitchen well past midnight, so we couldn’t fall asleep until very late. The toilet and shower looked grim, the shower had no decent flow or hot water, and the aircon was too noisy to leave on overnight. We wish we could have cancelled right away and got our money back.

We got out of there as fast as we could. The linens were dirty, and the whole place smelled like cat piss. The woman running it was polite, but that didn’t make the disgusting condition any easier to accept. I can’t understand how the ratings are so high.

The host was really smiley and helpful, and the rooms were spacious. The kitchen was super clean, and the place was clean and very affordable for what it offers. If you’re going to Cancun, I think it’s the best place. There’s hot water too!