My wife - then girlfriend - and I went off to Cancun for our first extended vacation together. We booked through American Airlines and chose the hotel on the price and on the beach location. The location is great. Don't be fooled by other parts of Cancun. Further down the Zona - as toward Club Med - the beach and ocean start to become hazards. Not at the Presidente where the beach is accessable and wonderful.

The bus stops right out in front of the hotel for quick trips into Cancun proper or down the Zona to the clubs. It is good to be far enough away from the clubs that your hotel does not vibrate from the noise.

We found the hotel service to be of the highest quality and the food was most excellent.

We also enjoyed the pool area and were glad that we could relax well into the night.

I was leery about booking this hotel given some of the recent negative feedback, but my wife and I were so happy that we did. Here are the positives:
1. Great location - close to grocery store and a few cheap eats across the street, bus stop in front of hotel (yes use the bus Rt. 1 it will take you up and down the hotel zone - but more importantly - it will get you close to Parque de la Palapas - all kinds of cheap and GREAT restaurants. Just try to stay off the bus between 4 - 6:30pm - it will be crowded at that time. Don't eat in the hotel zone - expensive and really mediocre food).
2. The hotel is older - but it is in wonderful shape for the age - recently updated. The rooms are simple - but this is a beach hotel folks - the tile floors and wicker furniture are functional - not damaged by sand and wet suites! I have never stayed in a cleaner hotel - leave the maid $3 per night and you will be treated like royalty and your room will be spotless!
3. The beach is the best in Cancun - enough said. Plus you are at the end of the hotel zone - away from thumping diso clubs. My wife and I like to read and relax on the beach - we walked by several hotels with bars that would not allow this type of relaxation.
4. The service is wonderful and we were not bothered one time by timeshare folks - they were there and made eye contact - but did not approach unless you looked interested. You will get hounded on the streets though. We did not eat at the restaurants in the hotel - we always travel to authentic restaurants when we are traveling in a foreign country.
5. Both good and bad - the resort is a very secure place. Why is this bad too - you almost felt like you were being watched by the "robo-cops" the head security guy thought he was a mix between Arnold Swartzenager and Don Juan!
Ok, now the minor bad:
1. The bar service was terrible - one bar to take care of the restaurants and the beach crowd. We did not use it much because we are not big drinkers - but the service was really bad.
2. There is a $21 fee per day for the resort and tips for servants that you don't come in contact with. I think they need the $ - but I would like to know exactly how much I am going to pay per night when I book the room - a secondary site did not inform us of these fees when we booked through them - I don't rec. onlinehotels.com. In the end I did not mind paying this extra daily fee because our room rate was a bargain compared to other 4 star hotels - and this was not a ICH problem - there web site states the additional daily fees.
We will go back to the ICH in Cancun - no it is not a brand new hotel - but the things people are complaining about on here are silly - this is a wonderful hotel that treats their quests very well. I think some of the complaints stem from English as a second language - yes all the front desk help "speak" English - but it is not fluent and they have trouble understanding complex long questions that are not the typical questions. Relax and don't be put off if they direct you to another worker - they are trying to get you to someone that can understand you!

Hi,

First I joined TA this year so I am catching up with reviews from current to past trips.

We stayed here the third week in June for 6 nights 2006 (didn’t bring the kids this time)

Check in: no problems, fast, friendly.

The Resort is old and it shows. I don’t bother about those things, but if you want a place that they keep refurbished and up to date then it might bother you here.

Room: the usual marble floors, stone accents too. I stayed here 18 years ago it was the Stouffer presidente back then. I think it’s the same furniture lol. I don’t care, but a bright plush room just adds that special feel it was lacking. Outstanding full ocean view. I have never had an issue with the comfort of beds in Cancun (except 18 years ago at this same place), but this place has beds so hard my husband and I just could not sleep well tossing, tuning, up and down a few times during the night. I’ve read so many who do have issues with the beds in Mexico, I just never have, only here (brand maybe?). Mini bar nicely stocked too expensive but expected that, they always are. Check your mini bar when you get back to your room each day and at check in. On two different occasions things were missing, we called right away and they did not charge us. The second time I was a little stressed because I worried if there might be a third time and they would charge us for someone else taking it, and the thought of it being stolen but thankfully there were no more incidences. Use the in-room safe.

Staff: I think Mexico has the best staff ever, I wish they could be employed through out the Caribbean and world. Quick, efficient, friendly and they all work so hard. Tip tip tip they make you feel like royalty and doesn’t that make your vacation that much more special. The staff here was the same great service you come to expect in Cancun and through out Mexico. There were a few times they were not always consistent, never rude or unpleasant though.

Pool: lovely, really liked the shallow water area (few inches of water) to lay in the pool and tan. This was great because I am one of those people who can not seem to acclimate to the humidity and am always getting up to dip in the pool or shower off every 10-20 min, nice not to have to get up and down. Pool bar friendly and great drinks.

Beach: Sand soft white, water warm and clear, the location is pretty good there is a lot of boating activity, maybe it’s my imagination I thought the water a bit oily. Other opinions on this?

Room service: Hmmm... well we ordered dinner to have out on the balcony and is wasn’t very good. I’m not a picky eater heck I even love AI food, but it was not good. I ordered steak, my husband pasta. We never tried room service again after that experience so maybe it would have been much better if we would have tried something different. Also over priced since they are not keeping up the quality of food served. I expect room service to be pricey I just want to be good too.

Restaurants: We only ate dinner at here twice but it was very good. We don’t eat lunch a rule so can not comment on that menu. We liked the breakfast buffet, there was nothing outstanding about it, but it was pretty good.

I feel terrible sounding negative. It wasn’t a bad place at all it just think with all the choices you really can do better, but if you do stay here I’m sure you’ll have a lovely time, we did. We had a great time, the things I noticed didn’t bother us. I’m on vacation I don’t let anything ruin that. Honestly I just wouldn’t stay here again. There was nothing so unacceptable that made that decision for us. The intercontinental presidente is too average in a place that you can spend the same amount of money or a bit more and have so many above average to excellent resorts and AI’s to choose from. When I stayed here 18 years ago I was very young it was my first vacation without my family (no, not a party vacation. I wanted to totally relax) so I didn’t pay any attention to details just remembered beautiful water and fond distant memories. Now I know the difference after going to the presidente again over 18 years later. I will keep the fond memories but go for the much better overall picture of other resorts now. BTW Dreams resorts are the only place we stay now in Mexico.

Firstly, you can't book directly and expect to get a decent rate. We booked two rooms back in January with hotels.com and paid $180.
The hotel is old - no doubt about it. The grounds and pools are where the main effort is spent to keep things up. Our rooms looked old and tired. The rooms have a stone / concrete combination that is a dusky grey and frankly, it looks very unattractive and dirty despite the daily cleaning from the diligent maids. We were on the street side of the hotel and on the fourth floor so traffic noise kept us awake at night and woke us each morning. Then again, we paid a cheap rate. Beds were not very comfortable - might be a matter of personal preferance here.
The claim of four restaurants is patently false. One of the four is a temporary facility that is used for conventions and groups. Another (the Italian) is next door, and the Pool restaurant has limited hours and not much of a menu. Our single dinner at the Italian was nice. Food was very good, and not too pricey. But the place was empty - we were the only customers at 7PM. We ate at the Carib four times - a lunch, two dinners and breakfast and found the service uneven and the food overpriced. (A discount option that is available after a visit to the Caribe and Italian was worthwhile - saves 30% off the food total.) The day crew is clearly the "second team" - we had very slow service at breakfast and needed to chase down a waiter to have water brought to the table. And $19 is absurd for the buffet breakfast - the food was mediocre at best.
The items we ordered from the menu at lunch and dinner were a differant matter. Somewhat pricey, but excellent. And the service at dinner was as good as the food.
Other have mentioned the supermarket across the street and that's the way to go. Much money is to be saved by a quick run, and they have pretty much whatever you need to avoid the expensive hotel food. Including cold beer!
Also the bus stop is right outside the door at the foot of the driveway and it's almost impossible to get lost. So don't bother with taxis.
There was a distinct lack of what I would call hooligans, and I believe that's due to the lack of an all-you-can-drink inclusive offer. A nearby Riu, bigger, newer, and fancier, was crowded with a big mob of these people, and after seeing that situation I was glad to be at the Intercontinental. There is no particular effort to cater to children or families either - no highchairs in any restaurant - no obvious "kiddie" areas, and a hot dog will set you back $10. And the lack of a disco may have discouraged that demographic. So I guess the main appeal of this place is relative peace and a lopvely, quiet beach.
We also had no problems with timeshare touts - which is good since we've no tolerance for them due to a previous experience at the Grand Maya.
I am in no hurry to book here again despite the lovely beach. There are lots of choices in Cancun and I expect our next visit will be somewhere else. But I would consider recommending this place purely on the basis of price.