Iberostar Resorts

Just returned from the Maya, Dec 21-30. It definitely is not a five star resort in our opinion, although overall we had a good time. We were in building 60, right next to the beach which was a great location. We also had a private pool right outside our door. Service was very spotty, and I'm being generous with that assessment. Although everyone was friendly, most of the staff were pretty clueless (I know they were only open a couple of weeks, but still, we were paying big bucks). For example, they have not yet printed a hotel brochure, and this place is big, we needed a map and info on what was where, activities available etc. Not available yet. The conceirge in each building is pretty much a joke. We had a new one each day, their english was minimal, and all they could do was book restaurant reservations. The food throughout the resort was mediocre at best. We ate at most of the speciality restaurants, and joked that whether we ate at the mexican, italian, chinese or steakhouse, the food was all the same with different names. No chance of any special ordering, they had standard entrees at each restaurant that came exactly the way they came. (I'm not talking about complicated changes, but ordering a certain doneness on meat, or asking to have sauce left off should have been easy.) Major lack of green vegetables and fresh fruit. Sliced melon at breakfast buffet was about it. Mexican food was practically non-existant. Forget fresh fish, also not available anywhere. We did order it in the seafood reastaurant and couldnt' eat it it was so fishy smelling. Maid service was terrible. Yes, they made cute towel animals every day but we would have preferred turndown service at night. We had it the first two nights, but that was it. when I questioned our concierge about why it had stopped she said each room is only given two nights of turndown service. (Later found out from front desk that this was a lie, they were just too short handed to do turndown for everyone so it was luck of the draw). On the plus side, the rooms were beautifully appointed (although one of our rooms had an non-fuctioning jacuzzi and no batteries in the clock radio the entire stay although we complained about it daily.) The beach is beautiful and we enjoyed having a beach grill for lunch. The pools were also wonderful, although staff is needed at the lazy river to monitor it. In summary, although a beautiful resort, we felt we had overpaid for what we received. Hopefully, they will improve. Anyone with any specific questions can email me and I'll try and provide answers.