Ahava Hotel

It's a secure, affordable hotel, with super clean rooms and a comfortable bed. The staff were very friendly and helpful. You can walk to the beach and 5th Ave in about 10 minutes. I'd strongly recommend it to anyone visiting Playa Del Carmen.

The rooms are decent but nothing special, and the disco is so close it feels like it's playing inside your room until 4 a.m. Avoid this place if you need to sleep. Think twice before using their parking offer unless you're leaving early. Otherwise they'll ask you to hand back the card and get your car out before 12:00. Nobody tells you that until after you've overpaid for parking.

If you're hoping for a quick night's sleep, please don't book here. If you want loud people partying at a disco until around 3 a.m., then go ahead. The Wi-Fi in the rooms doesn't work. Want to get online? You'll have to go outside and become mosquito food. If I come back to Playa del Carmen, I swear I won't stay here again.

They cancelled our booking despite our confirming that we were coming. They said their system showed my card wasn't valid, which wasn't true: it worked perfectly and I'd used it to pay at all our other hotels. They didn't even make sure I received the cancellation notice. Arriving tired at 10 p.m. after a three-hour ride, we found out our reservation was gone. Thankfully, the receptionist found us another room for two days, but we had to urgently find a different hotel for the other three days of our original five-day booking. Be careful and double-check that they haven't cancelled your reservation. Contact them just before you arrive. Otherwise, the hotel actually delivers what it promises. The rooms were pretty clean, ours had a refrigerator, it was fairly quiet, and it was definitely okay for the price.