The Westin Cozumel

We had a fantastic beach and could snorkel right at the hotel. The views from our room were the best on the island. Staff were so friendly and accommodating, and the bartenders at the sky lounge were especially kind. The only small snag was that all the snorkel gear was checked out at times, so having more available would help. Otherwise, our stay was flawless. Thanks to the great staff!

We had no hot water in our room for more than 48 hours because of a broken boiler during our January 23-26 stay. I expected basic comfort from a Marriott property, but despite maintenance confirming the problem, the hotel didn’t fix it. The hotel wasn’t busy, and other guests said they had hot water, so there surely must have been another room available. Management refused to move us. We were told it would be repaired Saturday, and offered other shower facilities Sunday morning. Neither happened, and my guest and I couldn’t shower for two days. I reported it several times in person and through Marriott Chat. I was told management would contact me, but they never did, and my requests for a resolution were ignored. After checkout I asked for a reasonable refund for the two nights without basic room service, and escalated to Marriott corporate when I didn’t get a timely response. The Westin offered 40,000 points, roughly the value of one night, which I found unacceptable. After I declined and kept escalating with Corporate Marriott, they offered $300 USD as a goodwill gesture, less than half of the two-night refund I’d requested. The email handling was sloppy too. In a reply, hotel management accidentally left an internal Spanish comment. It explicitly suggested they were trying to do the minimum to appease me, discussing how to write a firmer reply to close the case and avoid escalations instead of addressing the 48 hours without hot water. Because they refused to refund services they hadn’t provided, I opened a billing dispute through American Express. Since then, both the Westin Cozumel and Marriott have gone silent. A chain this large shouldn’t treat guests this way. Save your money and choose a place that maintains its facilities and values its customers.

I’ve stayed at Marriott hotels around the world, and this was a real disappointment. The room was fine, as you’d expect from a Westin, and housekeeping did a nice job, cleaning several times a day. But the food was inedible, hamburger included. Somehow they managed to mess up even that. We had to take a taxi into town for everything except breakfast. The front desk staff weren’t welcoming, and we saw the valet only once in our four days, so we had to hail our own rides. Restaurant service was slow and ineffective, and we usually had to go find someone to help us. We love scuba diving, but the dive shop had such bad reviews that we went with an outside company instead. We come to Cozumel every other month and spend freely, but we won’t stay here again. We usually choose El Presidente and gave this hotel a chance to win us over. It was an epic fail. Maybe this place works for people who don’t mind poor service and terrible food, but those things matter to us.

We found the hotel to be fine, and I’d stay again if the price stayed right, though nothing about it was especially memorable. The rooms were decent and had nice views. The pool was small, but the waterfront and snorkeling were good. The on-site restaurants were limited in both number and food quantity. Food quality was decent, just nothing special. We were there on a scuba trip with my son, and for the money it was good value. The on-site dive shop is reviewed separately.