I was traveling
to Cancun to celebrate a friend’s birthday so we were looking for an
all-inclusive hotel that would have good service, good access to the beach and
the pool, and overall provide a nice time during our short stay.
We had originally wanted to stay at a
different hotel but that was sold out so decided to try the Paradisus Cancun by
Melia.
I have stayed at Melia properties
both in
New York as well as an all-inclusive in
Punta Cana
and both properties were decent – the all-inclusive was a large property with
average food, decent rooms and sub-par service.
This was the expectation I had going into Paradisus, and because of both
this expectation as well as we were going for a celebration, I decided to try
out the Reserve by Paradisus which is supposed to provide an upgraded service.
I booked the
room through the Melia app as through the app there was a discount in addition
to the discounted rates given to MeliaRewards members. Booking the hotel and selecting the room type
was very easy to do through the app so that was very convenient. Once I booked the room, I contacted the hotel
regarding accommodations for the celebrations as well as for transportation. In other all-inclusive which I have stayed
out, transportation has been included but in both Cancun and Punta Cana it was
not included. The hotel recommended a
service to use, and I generally go through those recommendations as if there is
a delay or something happens, I can contact the hotel with any issue. During the communication with the hotel, I
was also asked to fill out pre-arrival information including special
requests. I filled out the form,
connected to the transportation and booked that, and was all set to enjoy my
experience in Cancun.
The issue
started from when I landed as there was no transportation at the designated
spot. I called thetransportation
company and they said ‘oh they are on their way’ – it took another 10 minutes
for a guy to show-up, one who couldn’t have been least bothered about the lack
of service nor information, and then it took another 1 hour for the bus to
arrive; it was the worst arrival experience and when I later complained the
hotel – the same hotel that recommended the Otium Transport and the one that has
a desk in their hotel – they said it’s a separate organization so nothing they
can do. The service was so bad that I
had booked a roundtrip but I cancelled my return and just booked a taxi.
The lack of
service continued during the check-in process.
The Paradisus is a large property comprised of many pyramids across a
wide land size. You enter the property
through the main pyramid which has a small check-in and check-out section to
the left-hand side. We went in there to
check-in and were instructed that because we were reserve, we would check-in at
a different pyramid and thus were walked to the Reserve pyramid. The attendant who walked us through was nice
but could not answer any questions and kept repeating “your Reserve agent will
answer all the questions”. The pyramids
are designed in a similar fashion with an open layout in the middle, stores,
restaurants, or hotel facilities on the ground floor in the middle and guest
rooms on the top floors surrounding the open atrium. The Reserve pyramid is also designed this way
with the check-in desks as well as a lounge on the ground floor and guest rooms
on the top floor. The check-in attendant
was busy helping someone else when we arrived so they asked us to wait in
lounge. On the ground floor in the open
atrium, the Reserve has a lounge which serves complimentary drinks, coffee,
tea, as well as heavy snacks. The lounge
was open in morning until mid-evening so you could stop here for breakfast, a
late snack, a lite lunch, drinks and snacks or a lite dinner. There were many tables surrounding the lounge
and sitting in the open atrium was very nice and peaceful. After a little while, the hotel attendant
came in and said they were ready to check us in.
The check-in
attendant had zero customer service, was quite rude towards the end, and only
wanted to go through their speech and not answer any questions or provide any
additional information.
It was not a
welcoming nor pleasant process and at the end, we were told that in fact our
rooms were not ready and that we would have to wait in the lounge until our
concierge came to get us.
I was not
aware of this prior but booking with the Reserve comes with a Concierge who is
supposed to help and provide tailored assistance through your stay – to this
day I am still not sure what their purpose is besides making reservations as
many of the questions or requests we made were responded with “you need to
contact this person”.
The Concierge
led us to our room which was a standard room with 2 beds – we had originally
booked a ‘lagoon view’ but the definition of this was a room facing the busy
street with a lagoon way behind it – it was not calming nor soothing so we
requested to upgrade to an ocean view.
This upgrade came at a costs, even though the booking had included
discounted upgrades and spa credits. The
upgraded room had a large balcony facing the resort and ocean view and it was
much better in terms of noise and view.
Both rooms were laid out in the similar fashion and, ironically, both
had issues with the room. As you
entered the room, on the left were the closets which contained a safe, places
to hang your clothes, slippers, robe, as well as other items. On the right was the bathroom which contained
a sink in the middle and a separate toilet area to the right and a shower to
the left – there is supposed to be a sliding door on the bathroom to ensure
privacy.
In the first
room the bathroom door was off its hinges so wasn’t working properly and in the
secondroom there was no bathroom at all.
When we requested a door to be installed but were told that this room
did not come with a bathroom door (what??) and instead a mini-shower curtain
was resembled the mini-curtains seen in Japanese restaurants that only covered
half of the doorway.
The bathroom contained
refillable bottles with toiletries including hand wash and lotion near the sink
and shampoo, body wash, and conditioner in the shower – the shower contained
both a handheld and rain shower and while the water pressure was good, the
water went everywhere. The oddest thing
about the bathroom was that the shower faced the room and instead of a wall it
was a glass partition with a thin sheet covering it – this meant that the
person inside the room could see directly into the shower. I have seen this design in other properties
and I am not sure whether this was a design aspect to let light it, but it
provides no privacy and is very uncomfortable – we asked that the curtain be
doubled to ensure some privacy between the room and the bathroom. Despite this design flaw, the bathroom was a
decent size and had enough amenities and toiletries.
The room itself
was also a decent size and contained the following – along the left side was a
bench to either site or to store luggage and next to this was a long desk on
top and below were drawers as well as a cabinet which contained water, soft
drinks, water, and some food items.
Since this is an all-inclusive, most of the contents in the mini-bar
were complimentary and should be refilled each day and refilled based on the
preference of the client – ours were refilled only upon request and even though
it took a couple of calls. Above the
desk was a TV mounted on the wall and finally along the left side was a table
with two chairs. On the right side of
the room were the two double beds with a nightstand in the middle – the beds
were comfortable and provided a decent night sleep. There were outlets on the desk and on the
nightstand but not next to the beds. The
room size was comfortable for 2 people plus their stuff to comfortable walk
around and not be crowded. The best part
about the room was the balcony, which was very large in size, contained two
lounge chairs plus a table, and looked out onto both the resort as well as the
ocean. My friend who wanted to layout
and hear the ocean got up early and spent the rest of their mornings on the
balcony since it was large, peaceful and convenient.
The Paradisus
is an all-inclusive which means everything is included and no additional
payments or fees are needed – expect for add-ons. Add-ons included spa services, certain
restaurants had additional items which were not included in the all-inclusive,
as well as tours and activities needed to be paid for. There were plenty of restaurants that were
included in the all-inclusive including Italian, Latin, Mediterranean, buffets,
as well as fast food. In addition to
food, beverages including alcoholic beverages were included in the
all-inclusive. Both my friend and I have
dietary restrictions and neither of us had an issue finding something to eat –
in fact, this was something we were concerned about but in the end there was a
plethora of choices for us. Most of the
information for the restaurants and other activities are included in the app –
so you have to download the app to access most of the information; we were not
aware of this until the second day so it would’ve been helpful to know this
information when we arrived. Also
through the app you can request housekeeping, additional items for the
mini-bar, etc so it is extremely important to download the app since this is
mainly the way to communicate with staff.
The Paradisus
was also a large property so there were plenty of spaces, chairs, and beds
available next to the pool and beach.
The Reserve pool is a separate area where it is adults-only and it is
supposed to be more exclusive – it was quieter than the regular pool but
towards the end of our stay which coincided with the weekend, there were plenty
of kids who joined the pool as the staff did not regulate who would come
in. For the Reserve pool, there are beds
surrounding the pool which need to be reserved a day in advance and once
reserved it is yours for the entire day until you give it up – so you can
wander away but if you leave something of yours there or let the staff know
that you will be coming back, then they will not give it to anyone. While this is nice on one side, it does limit
the amount of guests who have access to the limited beds. Also, we were not informed upon arrival that
the beds needed to be reserved a day in advance, we only found this out on our
second day – again, information that would’ve been helpful in advance. The large property provided plenty of
opportunity and space to enjoy both the pool and beach, as well as walk along
the beach and stay within the property boundaries.
Other amenities
on the property include complimentary wi-fi, which was a decent speed and
allowed for email and Whatsapp but was slower for YouTube and streaming. There is also a gym on property but it is a
bit further away so we did not access it.
Overall, the Paradisus was a mixed bag.
The positives are the large resort space, the plethora of choices for
restaurants, the Reserve lounge, and since the resort was so large it provided
quiet areas so the noise wasn’t concentrated into one area. The negatives are the lack of customer
service, the somewhat outdated rooms, lack of a map or clear
instructions/details as to what is available and when, as well as communication
with the hotel regarding airport access.
Final note, I went for a couple of days and it was at the beginning of
the week and left right as the weekend was getting started – there was
definitely a different crowd, different vibe, and increase in noise level from
when we arrived to when we departed.
When traveling through Italy, we were stopping in Milan and there are many hotels to choose from but our criteria was the following: easy access to shops and restaurants, easy access to public transportation, and big rooms. In looking for these criteria, we found the Melia Milano which is on the outskirts of the city near the football stadium and near the Lotto metro stop. From this stop, it would take about 15 mins to get to the city center and about 20mins to get to the main train station. I also had points with Melia so utilized this during my stay. From the outside the hotel looks big, and I found out later that the hotel is in a converted bakery factory hence the large size. The hotel is oddly situated in that it is in the middle of the neighborhood and so you have to walk 2-3 blocks to the main road to access the metro stop and the shops and restaurants. As you enter the hotel, you enter into this massive lobby with high ceilings and a grand staircase in the middle. To the left is the check-in desk and a waiting area and to the right is the bar and restaurant. Up the stairs is the first floor which contains the meeting rooms, the Melia lounge, as well as guest rooms. Our train was late so we arrived almost at midnight at the hotel and check-in was curt, not very friendly, and barely provided any information on the hotel (more about this later on). I received my key and went to the room on the first floor.
The first thing I noticed when I entered the room is that despite the large size of the hotel and the massive lobby, the hotel rooms were somewhat smaller and more compact than I expected; the size would be fine if I was closer to the city but away from the city one expects a larger room size. As you entered the room, on the left was the entrance to the bathroom while on the right was a little wall that ended as you entered into the main part of the room. The bathroom was decent but also compact and contained a toilet, bidet, sink with minimal counter space, and a walk-in shower. The toiletries were refillable and had handwash and lotion next to the sink with body wash, shampoo and conditioner in the shower; the basic amenities were there but the space was more compact and restricted. 
As you entered into the room, on the right was a stand with shelves for storage and then continuing on the right was a nook with an open closet and open luggage rack. The luggage rack and open closet was a nice touch but there was minimal storage space as the open rack and the shelves were the only storage. In the main part of the room, the king-size bed was along with right side of the wall and on each side of the bed was a table with a lamp on it and plugs behind it along with USB ports. The bed was decent enough for the first night but was a bit uncomfortable towards the third night but overall provided a decent sleep. The tables next to the bed were somewhat small so again it did the job but space was limited. Across from the bed, along the left side of the wall, was the TV mounted on the wall and in the corner a table with chairs. The table and chairs was a nice touch to have but again it was a small table so could barely have two people eating or drinking at the same time. Overall it was a decent room with the necessary amenities but the space was more compact than I expected for a suburb hotel.
The hotel is a full-service hotel so has lots of amenities including a hotel bar, restaurant, meeting rooms, hotel lounge, a gym, and wifi. The wifi was decent and you could connect as many devices as you want but it did slow down sometimes and was not always the most reliable. I did not try the bar nor restaurant but did see lots of people going there so it seemed popular. I have tried the Melia lounge during my first experience with Melia in Punta Cana (check out the review here) and I was not overly impressed with the quality so we did not opt that here. Overall, it was not an impressive stay at Melia Milano. I have stayed at other Melia properties before and INNSIDE Melia New York NOMAD (review here) is one of my favorite places to stay in NYC because its convenient and the room sizes are decent for the central location; but this hotel was outside the city and is in a former factory so one would expect bigger rooms but the size of this room is what you would expect at a hotel closer to the city. The customer service was also lacking as we connected with the frontdesk staff many times and throughout my interactions only staff person was actually nice and helpful while the others barely did their job and barely provided any support. An example of that is we woke up one morning and the lobby entrance and access was restricted; apparently the football/soccer team was staying at the hotel before the gameday. While I understand they could not say why there would be distributions but altering the guests as to potential distributions to access would have been helpful and communicative.
