First let me tell you our reference point. I am accustomed to the Lonely Planet type of accommodations as well as to four stars European hotels. My friend travels in 4-5 stars hotels exclusively. We agreed that the $300 room charge [including the 17% tax] at the Hacienda could have been a reasonable price to pay.

We both loved the peaceful surroundings. The garden is delightful; the dinning room is serene, spacious and very quaint. The food is good and reasonably priced. The service is prompt and courteous.

The room - Thompson suite- was quite nice but basic. If they had a door to the bathroom we would have given the place an excellent mark. However, staying in a room adjacent to a fully open bathroom is not our definition of a classy hotel that merits excellent ratings.

In addition, they allow smoking on the porch. We shared the space with two other rooms. The guests were smokers who smoked excessively. That made the entire space unpleasant. We were lucky to have a private porch and could escape the nuisance; otherwise we would not be able to enjoy a peaceful evening after a long day at the archeological park.

The Hacienda is a wonderful place to stay if you do not mind the open bathroom and the potentially smoked filled porch.

We loved our recent 2 night stay at Hacienda Chichen. The room in the lush green grounds was spotless, well decorated, cool. It had a patio with chairs and a hammock. We spent some quiet hours at the pool and also each had a hot stone back massage which we would highly recommend. The hotel organised a guide to take us to the ruins at 8am to avoid the crowds. Our guide was superb and going in early meant we could enjoy the wonderful hotel grounds later. The hotel is peaceful and tranquil, a little oasis of calm . A great find.

When we got our room there was an overpowering sweet smell (like the airport men's room). We thought it would go away. It didn't. We woke up with ants in our bed. My wife when to the bathroom and it was full of ants. The walls do not block noise. The neighbors were loud and abnoxious. I went to complain at the office and no one was there. The manager was not too thrilled to help us with info but wanted to sell us hotel tours and spa.I give The Hacienda 1star for it's beutiful grounds and location next to Chichen Itza. I will stay at the Mayaland next time.
P.S. If you go to the night show, make sure to get the English language headsets.

We were looking forward to this stay based on other online reviews and the hotel website. We stopped by the Hacienda on our way to Merida and were quite impressed by the gardens- they are beautiful- we talked to the front-desk and confirmed our reservation for later in the week and asked about our accomodation. The attendant referred to our reservation and gave us a room name (Natalia?) that would be reserved for us. We were very pleased. Upon return 3 days later, we were led to a very different room at the back of the property that is very unpleasant- it looked like the back of the garage! When we said this would not do they finally gave us another room within the gardens -- the room was pleasant but the water heater was defunct- once we had no hot water and most of the time it sounded like the bowels of a volcano. We had several meals there. Believe me, the food is nothing to write home about unless you're going to mention that it's way overpriced and served tepid. Really, cold pancakes, cold eggs, cold fish. It's definitely not value for the price. We were quite willing to pay $250/night but we expected that much in value. The value is about $125.00/night. We have travelled widely and frequently and have plenty to compare Hacienda Chicen Itza to---stay one night for convenience to the ruins, but don't expect to be WOWED.