Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

22471 reviews

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  A Tale of Two Hard Rocks - Mixed Experience

  Our recent stay at Hard Rock Resort Riviera Maya left us with mixed feelings. While there are definitely positive aspects to the resort, several maintenance and service issues detracted from what could have been an excellent experience. The Good: The resort offers solid amenities including a nice pool area, beautiful beaches, and comfortable cabanas (which are worth the extra cost). The water park adds a fun element for families, and the Market restaurant provides convenient dining options for breakfast and lunch with decent food quality. The resort maintains a family-friendly atmosphere with ample bar access throughout the property. Many staff members are genuinely friendly and helpful. Maintenance & Service Issues: Unfortunately, maintenance problems were evident throughout our stay. Our building's elevator remained out of service for the entire week. More disappointingly, only one out of four water park slides suitable for older children was operational - an issue that apparently has persisted for over a month according to other reviews. Throughout the property it was evident there were preventive maintenance items that have been significantly deferred. The Sales Pressure: There's an overwhelming focus on upselling throughout the resort. For example, despite being an all-inclusive property, there's constant pressure to purchase premium wine bottles in restaurants (the complimentary wine selection is extremely limited). The assigned concierge, while friendly, primarily focuses on selling the resort's vacation club (essentially a timeshare program). The resort repeatedly attempts to promote this program through various means, including "courtesy calls." The credits you may receive as a promo for reserving carry with them a 35% charge so basically this means whatever service you want to use is cheaper but it’s off their high list prices so you may end up paying the same or higher amount as other places even with “credits”. Dining Experience: Restaurant quality varies significantly. While the Market and Mexican restaurant serve acceptable to good food, the Italian restaurant was particularly disappointing despite being highly promoted. Important to note: restaurants operate on a first-come, first-served basis with no reservation system. This can lead to significant wait times. Practical Considerations: - During good weather, securing pool or beach chairs can be challenging - The resort atmosphere resembles a cruise ship experience - There's a notable party/drinking scene that may not suit all travelers - The all-inclusive format attracts a specific crowd, something to consider when booking Bottom Line: While the Hard Rock Resort Riviera Maya offers some attractive features for families and those seeking an all-inclusive experience, the maintenance issues, aggressive sales tactics, and inconsistent food quality suggest the resort isn't operating at its full potential. Consider your vacation priorities carefully when deciding if this is the right choice for your stay. We would not recommend and do not plan to return.

  Feb 21, 2025
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  A great week - food, staff and overall experience

  Food quality, staff and service is amazing. Just show up where you want to eat. No apps to book dinner (a huge plus). We had a fantastic week with parents who celebrated their 60th anniversary. Comfy pool chairs and especially love the sand areas where you have access to the ocean but don’t have to contend with seaweed, jellyfish and big waves. Rooms are a bit dated but the hotel more than made up for it. We will definitely be back. Pool area gets busy quickly so we prefer the beach. No towel cards (awesome), bottled water available and room snacks. Top shelf liquor and walk to other resort areas and restaurants was nice along the walkways hugging the beach.

  Feb 21, 2025
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  Generally a Good Resort Experience

  Spent 10 days at the Hard Rock Riviera Maya. We have been to 15+ all inclusive resorts and found this HR to have the nicest grounds/beaches we have experienced. We would walk the entire grounds daily and enjoyed the pristine landscaping and lagoons areas that served as the beach. Drink & food are readily available throughout the resort. The restaurants were good.....we had some excellent meals and a few misses. No real issue getting into the restaurants unless you come at 7PM....which is peak time and usually will have a decent wait time. The rooms are tighter than we are use to. We had more luggage due to our longer stay and the 3 drawers/5 hangers did not meet our needs. The house keeping was not consistent as we had to call for service multiple times. There were no hand towels or face clothes on multiple days. The last 2 days, our room experienced a sewer odor coming from the shower drain. Maintenance came but spraying a deodorizer did not solve the issue! The service at the restaurants were good. We enjoyed Faro daily for either breakfast or lunch or both some days. The Manager Maria and her team treated us very well and we appreciated the great service and food. Zen was also very good on all levels. We enjoyed our vacation at the Hard Rock, but feel Management could make efforts to make the customer experience even better. Inconsistent quality at the Al-a-Carte Restaurants. The consistency of the housekeeping. General maintenance of the rooms/buildings needs attention. From a health perspective, placing used drink glasses into a tub of water for a quick rinse does not provide the level of sanitation that is reasonable. I returned home to a bad cold/flu that likely came from using these unclean drink glasses at the beach/pool areas. Bring a GO CUP for your drinks!!

  Feb 20, 2025
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  Hacienda - great for families

  UK Family of 4 (2 adults/1 teen/1 child) Hacienda Rojo review. Overall exceeded our expectations. Lovely pools, fantastic ocean lagoons with enough beach for most and free snorkel and mask use for 45 mins at a time. We loved the family foam party too Nighttime entertainment was mixed but fun...reviews as follows...Michael Jackson experience 2/5 - mime act and only so many times you can enjoy an adult moonwalking. Neon people / Circus night both 4/5. Beatles cover band 5/5. Rock show 4/5 - should lose the dancers. Singers and the band were excellent but you'll see less butt shaking at a strip club so not appropriate for a 730pm show full of kids. Minus the distracting, exotic dancers, this show would get 5/5...Queen tribute act AMAZING - 5/5 BEST SHOW OF THE WEEK!! Other nights, take note! I'd pay to watch this night! Incredible. Restaurants - caffetto for coffee snacks, ice cream- wonderful staff. market buffet for breakfast good. Isla for lunch - good. Pizza place and food truck by rojo pool excellent for lunch. Al a carte Restaurants as follows - tappanyaki place excellent food/staff. Italian ciao- excellent food/staff. Taco place in azul, nice staff / ok food. Toro - only poor experience. Female front of staff member (Tues 18th Feb approx 9pm) RUDE, tutted at me twice and I had to ask her to not raise her voice at me. Asked to speak to her manager who didn't appear but thankfully she had a miraculous attitude change after this. Serving staff were kind but we waited 45 minutes for food and then wrong order made - vegan caesar salad with chicken arrived. Apologetic and kind waiting staff sorted it out promptly though. 99.99% of all the staff we had the pleasure to speak to throughout the hotel were amazing with the one bad apple aforementioned in Toro. We liked the buzzer system for your tables too. We feared queuing up all night but it worked so well!! Rooms were nice, housekeeping did a lovely job everyday. Mini bar and snacks daily. We attempted to use the inroom jacuzzi bath but despite following instructions the bubbles didn't come on. Wasn't a big deal. We just showered instead. Balcony hammock cute idea. Saw lots of wildlife. Great place. Would recommend. happy to receive any questions!

  Feb 20, 2025
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  Amazing stay at Hard Rock Riviera Maya

  We just got back from an incredible week at Hard Rock Hotel Riviera Maya, and we’re already missing it! As Hall of Fame Legendary members, we get to enjoy some amazing perks, and having an assigned butler is definitely one of the best. Irmin, our butler, was absolutely fantastic! He took care of everything, making sure our stay was smooth and stress-free. From handling reservations to little thoughtful touches, he made our trip special. The food was delicious, and even though the restaurants were always packed, having reservations meant we never had to wait—which made a huge difference! The staff everywhere from the spa to the entertainment team was friendly and welcoming, always going the extra mile to make sure we had a great experience. I also want to give a big shoutout to Iris from the Rock Spa team—she was the best! So attentive and went out of her way to make our hydrotherapies incredibly relaxing and beautiful. Her kindness and professionalism made the experience even more special. Our kid had the time of his life! The pools, activities, and all the fun things to do, he was always entertained and didn’t want to leave. Seeing him so happy made our trip even better. We had such a great time and can’t wait to come back for another unforgettable stay.

  Feb 19, 2025