My husband and I booked at trip here with Vacations Express for our honeymoon. After reading some reviews on here, we were skeptical.

Sure enough, when we arrived, they took us to the left waiting area by the pool and explained that there were no rooms available. There were others with us with Vacation Express who were in the same boat, and we created sort of a united front about this.

We threatened to call VE, and they basically laughed at us and said to try it. They nod their heads, listen to you, and then make offers to other hotels in their chain.

After several drinks to us and several of the men exchanging harsh words with the manager, who was unapologetic and looked as if he did this every five minutes (and taking the owner's name and number), the others decided to take the deal, with what they would recieve in writing - this is GPR was hoping for, obviously.

I, however, decided that this was my honeymoon and I wasn't going for the "bait and switch routine" and I wasn't going to give that organization or the other hotels involved with them one dollar - especially when I saw seven more couples come in from another agency and check in to the right meeting room after I was told there were no more rooms. (I actually followed the last two couples in, with their permission, so I know that they did in fact recieve rooms.)

I asked how and why the latecomers got their rooms, and they refused to answer me other than to say it was another agency that booked them.

I said, "No rooms available are no rooms available, sir, that's what you told me. I deserve an answer."

I got nowhere with this, and I called our travel agency, who was extremely apologetic and got us a better room at a better chain of hotels (Palace Resorts). Instantly, they started scrambling, offering us free tours, etc., and asked for us to sign a waiver not to complain to the hotel or vacation express - I did not sign it, my husband did.

I also informed them that I had another couples' name and hotel, and I would be informing them of what had happened.

I left a message at that hotel at the front desk anonymously for that couple, and funny thing - we saw them on the plane back home, and they said, "It was really strange - the next day they were offering us free cab rides, free tours...stuff not even written in the agreement."

I said, "Did you get my message?"

"No..."

I figured not...all's well that ends well. They can't keep this up forever. :)

I have stayed at the Porto Real on several vacations. While I actually like the hotel I have had major problems with the management following through on there comittments.
I made a Guaranteed reservation almost 10 months in advance and was called three weeks before my trip and told my reservations could not be honored. I was offered rooms at the Gran Caribe in Cancun. This is a regular practice at the Porto Real and it has happened to other guests we have sent to the Hotel.

The Gran Caribe is home base to the companies VIP Time share program. They have double billed my credit card. Failed to fulfill several of their written committments and are generally a fraud. Management has refused to address my complaints about the VIP club.

I can no longer recomend Bestday Resorts.
but if you go avoid the Sales pitches you will be constantly barraged by.

We stayed at this resort from Dec. 1 to 8th, 2002 all-inclusive plan.

The room: Outstanding ocean view junior suites overlooking the beach and Caribbean. Very spacious, clean with great balcony and huge roman shower. View from it was outstanding (we had 339). In the top two rooms we have had in our many travels. 9/10

The Beach:
The beach was very nice, but too small for the number of people on it. If there were half the number of people it would be great. It also seems to have suffered from erosion and is quite narrow and rocky in places. It would be greatly improved if rocks were removed and sand added to widen it. Very shallow and warm and relatively calm as there is a break water to the left of the beach to soften the waves. 7/10

The Service:
Outstanding. Beach butler service on the beach that was very prompt, friendly and courteous. In all the restaurants and bars was consistently outstanding. In the top 2 of the resorts we have stayed at. Very close to as good as Omni Cancun and better than Sandals Antigua. 9/10

The Drinks:
The quality of liquors was good with many top shelf brands and most mixed and tropical drinks were good, but not great. The beer selection was rather limited with only Carona, Modelo and Modelo Light, but these were all either bottled or canned which is better than watered down draft that is often served at all-inclusives. 8/10

The Food:
This was a big disappointment as we found it to be inconsistent and rather limited in selection. We had a number of very poor and tough cuts of supossed filet mignon, that could not have been anything better than flank or something worse? I also had the worst serving of supossed veal I have ever had and could not finish it. On the other hand, we had a few good dinners with grilled shrimp and an excellent large tender and tasty lobster tail for a $14 US surcharge. There was a very limited selection of Mexican food and no sopa de lima! Le buffet was generally uninspired, of limited selection and usually cool or luke warm in temperature. Dito for breakfast fare at le buffet, other than the omelet, pancake and waffle station which was quite good. No bacon or decent breakfast sausage!
Lunch fare was generally pretty good with good burgers, shrimp ceviche and sandwiches available. 6/10

Building and grounds:
Very nice building excellently located just off the main strip of Avenida Quinta and on the main beach in Playa del Carmen. The grounds are very small however as the hotel was put very close to the beach and on the other sides of it are roads. The look, design and architecture of the resort are a mixture of hacienda style and art deco, particularly on the new annexed portion of the resort farther away from the beach. Gym and spa looked quite small and cramped with little in the way of equipment. Main pool was pretty decent, but a little on the small side. There was a cool little roof top pool on the 3rd floor closer to the street side of the hotel and a roof top hot tub on the 5th floor that looked great. One other note that we were not impressed with is that all of the restaurants are open are and have no air con. It was hotter than hell on most nights when there was little or no breeze. I literally had sweat beading and sliding down my face and forehead. 7.5/10

All in all not a bad place to stay for a first visit to Playa del Carmen given the location and quality of the rooms (it was our third), but we would not stay there again due to the inconsistency and relatively limited selection of food and the lack of room/small size of the beach relative to the number of people at the resort which is about 270 rooms. Overall, we give it a 7/10 or 3.5/5.

We were talked into going to the Gran Porta Real by our travel agent. Before we booked the trip i raise concerns about the over-booking problem reported on this site. But I was assured that the ocean view jr suite with king bed will be waiting for my wife and I with no problems.
When we arrived at the hotel after the bus driver went the wrong way down a one way street. The hotel looks great from the outside. We check in and taken up to our room a double bed, no ocean view suite, we did have a view of the alley and of some of the hotel bus boys smoking dope in the alley. I told the bell boy to take the bags back down to the lobby because this was not going to work.
The hotel manager was no help at all and said maybe tomorrow. I was lucky to have my travel agent number on my e-life cell phone and call right away. By now it is 3:30 pm he told me hold tight and a funjet agent would meet me at the hotel in about 20 min. My wife and i took a nice stroll down to the rock infested beach and watched mexican dogs running around grabing food left on plates in the sand. you have to walk about a quarter mile to find any beach that was any good. now 4:00 pm still no funjet rep at 4:45 he arrived and finally at 6:30 we got a hotel in cancun. overall this trip sucked i've been in cancun 13 times and would nerver go back to playa del carman again.
so if your don'twant a rotten vacation don't go to porta real goto cancun. any comments or request for pictures email me at troybomstad@hotmail.com