Barcelo Tucancun Beach

We stayed here last May and still cannot shake off the horrible experience. I posted a pic around that time of our room number 4002 which didn’t have A/​C the whole time. The frozen drinks contain little to NO liquor at all. Beach is nice but no umbrellas and they do not rake the seaweed. The food pretty much sucked, although breakfast was good. The pools made up for the bad experience, even though im there for the beach. Only place Wi-​Fi worked was in the theatre and im not going to go into detail about how bad the nightly entertainment is. Do your loved ones a favor and spend $ 50-​$ 100 more per person on another hotel. Trust in these reviews or you too will be kicking yourself in Cancun.

Where to begin…
First of all, i gave an extra star solely on the wait staff, the bartenders, waiters and housekeeping people were the light in the darkness!
We arrived to our hotel to see the front walk way torn up jackhammers, compressors and construction workers galore. Strike one since we were not informed of any construction that would be going on. The rooms were decent no real complaints there. The resort had zero wheelchair access and when we asked the front desk they let us know that the wheelchair access would be included in the update they are working on now. Great but not helpful now since my grandma couldn’t walk the 27 (we counted) stairs up and down to get to the lower level pools, she was bound to only one level. The food was pretty good actually EXCEPT we ate the same menu almost every night. When we asked what would be on the dinner menu many times we were told «mexican food!» sweet because I could go for an enchilada right now only to find that we were having pot roast, some fish or chicken in a sauce. Icing on the cake was on our last night at 10:30pm we discovered that they had LOCKED US OUT OF OUR ROOMS when inquiring with the front desk they informed us that to their records they hadn’t gotten payment for our stay. We ended up having to pay for the entire trip stay in order to get into our rooms. It was the booking agencies fault that they hadn’t gotten the payment which if someone would have told us earlier in the day we could have called and handled rather than them locking us out and having to repay then wait for a refund. They could have handled this better for sure they had my contact information and could have called during the day or left a note at my room anything other than just locking us out. oh and there is definitely not a gym, you have to pay for room service and wifi is not free.

Booked this hotel through
for our anniversary celebration trip. Supposedly this was a four star hotel and I would rate them a 1 :-(
I requested a single room with 1 bed (king, queen), oceanview. When we arrived they had a double bed room, I told them it was just my husband and I and we requested one king/​queen size bed. They said they didn’t have any available, but when we told them if they can’t give us what we asked for 2 – 3 months in advance — that we would go and look for something else. Suddenly when the manager came — she had 2 rooms available. Why lie and not give us what we asked for from the beginning?
We only stayed 1 of the 5 nights; there were ants in the room and on the bed, the staff at the front desk were not friendly. We booked another hotel and left and when we checked out early and told them that we were not happy the manager acted like she didn’t care and just had us fill out a form and told us to contact Expedia. We went all the way from California to relax and celebrate our anniversary and to be treated this way when you reserve two months in advance was not very nice. We told her we would be giving them a bad review and she just shrugged her shoulders.
Of course I called Expedia to file a complain and request a refund — but the hotel has not been cooperating. Expedia has called and emailed them, to no surprise; zero response. They just don’t care about their customers!

Kelly O is dead on with her review. I left a 3 star review on Trip Advisor in an attempt to counter balance the 5 star reviews without looking completely disgruntled. It’s true this is a budget hotel. The food is cafeteria level and I ate because I had to… not because I liked the food. We did not pay for Wi-​Fi but our friends did and it sucked. We did pay $ 3 a day for a safe lock so there’s that fun bonus expense. There are barely any air conditioned spots in the hotel (like the Lobby bar) and the alcohol is clearly watered down. Rooms are average and the beds are somewhat comfortable. Windows are paper thin so you hear everything happening at the pool below.
Overall never staying here again.

I was blown away by how disappointing this place was. The Tripadvisor reviews are so good… I don’t understand it. Everyone in my group commented on what a run-​down, budget resort this was. I would not recommend staying here unless you really don’t care about eating good food at all.
I was there for a family vacation for two days. Four adults stayed in one room with two beds. The room was supposed to accommodate 4 people but I would not recommend having 4 adults sleep there. The beds are tiny – smaller than queen sized.
The bad things:
–The food from the buffets was barely edible. It was like elementary school cafeteria food. Or like food from the Ikea restaurant. I was amazed by how bad it some of it was. We repeatedly left almost-​full plates of food that we didn’t want to eat. For breakfast, stick with the stuff they make fresh, like omelets and pancakes.
–There are no umbrellas on the beach.
–You have to pay for wifi. I couldn’t pick up a signal in my room anyway. I went to the mall next door for free wifi.
–The second day, my partner and I were walking back to the hotel, talking about how shitty it was, and we laughed when we saw both elevators were not working. No surprise! There are only 2 individual elevators for the whole building (seriously?!) so we had to walk 5 flights of stairs. I needed the exercise anyway, I guess… at least by the end of the day one elevator was fixed. Additionally, the elevators were inexplicably TINY! They could fit maybe 6 people tightly. So weird…
–As I said, we had 4 adults in 1 room. They gave us one room key – those keys that look like credit cards. We asked for more keys. They gave us ONE more key, said they «didn’t have enough» and made us feel like we were lucky to get a second one. Are you kidding me?
–The last day, the hotel had someone walking around with a ring-​tail lemur, taking photos with guests. I’ve seen this all over the world, and I am not ok with wild animals being used in this way. Lemurs aren’t even endemic to Mexico! Apparently it is legal in Mexico to use wild animals as photo ops. Not cool.
–The drain to our shower in our room was completely clogged when we arrived. After one person showered, there was gross standing water. Fortunately, they came to fix it in not *too* long of a time period. The shower stall, separate from the sink area, was run down and small. No fan.
–Even though there were 4 people in the room, they gave us 3 towels. We called for more towels. An hour later, we called again. A half hour later, called a THIRD time to get another towel and finally they brought it. Ridiculous.
–If you want more drinking water than what is in the minibar (2 bottles for 4 people) you have to ask reception. Why don’t they just provide more water in the room?
–There are two dinner restaurants that you must make reservations for. We arrived on the first day at like noon and they told us it was already too late to make a reservation at either one. (Not sure I believe this – it may be a way to force people to eat at the terrible buffet.)
–Customer service wasn’t great. When we checked in, the lady who helped us wasn’t very friendly. Also, the lines at reception sometimes got really long and took forever.
The good things:
–The pools were good. We parked ourselves in the adult pool by the bar and the awesome bartender Felix made us drink after drink. That was great. The drinks aren’t strong, but it’s ok. An employee set up a little volleyball net in one of the pools and it was fun to watch a ton of drunk people trying to play! :)
–The beach and water at the hotel is lovely and so blue! I just wish there was umbrellas. :(
–When we finally did make reservations at the seafood restaurant, the food was quite good. I enjoyed my fish dish and their ceviche. Make sure you eat at the restaurants as much as possible! (You can only go there for dinners.)
My final recommendation would be not to stay here if you like decent food. The pools and beach are nice. The rooms are just so-​so. It is a budget resort.

This was my second time at Barcelo Tucancun Beach and this experience was just as pleasant as the first.
The Location
The location is fabulous. Only 20 min from the airport, it’s located right in the middle of the hotel zone. It’s right behind a lovely mall that has free wifi, an atm and a lot of stores to wander around in if you are on the hunt for souvenirs. The stretch of beach right is front is perfect with incredibly soft, white sand and a stunning turquoise that has been difficult to find elsewhere. In July, the water is cool and refreshing and you can easily spend all day in it. The waves can get a little rough, so I would not venture too far out without a lifeguard present. This part of the Cancun beach is my favorite because you can walk for long ways along both ends. As you get farther up the hotel zone, the beach gets rockier, narrower and the waves because almost nonexistent.
The Pools
There are three good sized pools around the grounds. The main party pool is generally pretty rowdy. The bilevel infinity pool was less crowded and a lot of fun. The «infinity» look is kind of ruined with the railings in the back ground but it’s still pretty. My favorite was the adult only pool with the swim up bar. There were thatched umbrellas all around and pretty decent bartender. All we needed for a fun afternoon. We met some lovely people who we ended up spending the rest of the evening with.
The Rooms
Last time I stayed in a standard room in the main building. This time, we stayed in a oceanfront room with a balcony. I must say that the room was lovely. The bathroom was spacious and clean with a nice assortment of toiletries in case you left yours at home. Seeing as I had forgotten my toothbrush, this was a welcome gift. The minibar was stocked with corona, soda, water, nuts and chocolate every day. The bed was very comfortable with a assortment of pillows of different firmness and sizes. My favorite feature was the little nook in the balcony. It was the perfect place to curl up with a good book, something I made sure to do everyday.
The Food
The food is perfectly adequate. There isn’t a huge variety each day, but I always managed to find something that I liked and made that the main part of my meal. Each day, there was a different theme to the main buffet that corresponded with the theme to the show. On Mexican night, they had tacos al pastor, which were heavenly. I had no idea that they made the meat, gyro style on a giant skewer and then grilled a little to order. It was fantastic.
The Entertainment
We didn’t really go to any of the shows and were too lazy to participate in pool side games, but those who did seemed to have a good time. The lobby bar is the only place to get drink after 7 and there’s always a collection of people there talking and playing pool. The only bad thing is that you need four 5 peso coins per game for the pool table, so save your change when you can.
Overall, I would recommended this hotel to families or even couples who are looking for an moderately priced option for their stay in Cancun. It has all the necessities for relaxing stay. I had a lovely time here both times.