The trip was fantastic. The food was great and the side trips of kayaking, biking and beach walking were quite relaxing. Most of all the food was excellent.

I have never been motivated enough to write a review, but the service at Casa Magna galled me so much, I felt obliged. We booked three rooms in Casa Magna, House 1 for the week before Christmas four months in advance. The good thing is you can go on their website, see the floorplans and pick which room you would like. Before I paid in full in advance (obligatory) I confirmed twice with Melissa the owner, about the specific rooms we wanted. We were booking the three most expensive and all had sea view balconies. These three rooms were confirmed as available and booked. When we turned up, my husband and I were shown to a room with no balcony, and no explanation. This room was inter-connecting with our parents-in law´s suite by a flimsy bamboo door and you could hear everything that went on in each others rooms. When we questioned the receptionist (who turned out to be the Yoga instructor), she said she noticed a mix up in our bookings that day, as another couple has been put in our balcony room. She didn´t want to move them because they were staying longer than us, even though our reservation was made before theirs. When I asked what she was going to do about it, she offered a smaller room in house 2, without an offer to refund the difference in price. We said no to this, at which point she offered us a massage?!?!? We finally agreed on breakfast to be included for all our party. This was after her only excuse was that "she was exhausted as she had been up since 6am doing yoga classes, and was not the main front of house person". As if that was our problem. The Yoga instructor never told Melissa about this, as when I asked her what went wrong, she just looked at me as if I was mad and said "oh yeah I heard there was a problem with your booking". No apology....

So we went back to our room without a sea view balcony to find the bath didn´t work and there were no curtains. "oh yeah, they were taken to the dry cleaners". We had to ask 3 times for replacement curtains. Finally they put up net curtains which offer no protection against the dawn sun at 5.30am. It was two days before we got curtains. Roll on the next morning, and our breakfast. Well, their ice delivery only comes at 11am (if it turns up at all) so don´t expect cold juice for breakfast. Also their choice all week was banana or papaya - a bit random when all you wanted was orange or apple. They ran out of regular tea-bags after day 1. We asked twice every day could they buy tea on their next supermarket run. It never appeared.

If the said ice runs out during the day, don´t expect anybody to be rushing out getting more, you just have to put up with warm drinks in the hot sun. One night, i came down to the bar to get some cold drinks, only to be told that there was a private dinner in House 2 that night and the one box of ice and all the kitchen staff had gone to House 2, leaving no-one to serve guests in house 1.

Our toiletries were never replaced all week, even though they ran out on day 2. The housekeeping staff took some one of our party´s personal towels to be laundered (even though it looked nothing like theirs) and despite repeated requests, it was never returned.

We never had dinner there as they staff never looked interested enough to cook for you. Roll on check-out. We were billed for all the breakfasts, the Yoga Instructor said she would waive. She then denied it was for the week only for the first day which was a blatant lie. I told her about all the problems we experienced and bad service and asked her to discuss with Melissa the owner. I said to then come and find me on the beach to let me know the outcome. 8 hours passed and I heard nothing. I bumped into Melissa in the bar and asked if the yoga instructor has spoken to her, she said no!! I told her we wanted breakfast included all week, and she was fine with that. So the Yoga Instructor was trying to pull a fast one on us.

The final straw was that seeing as Melissa actually seemed quite nice, we assumed she just must be unware of all the BASIC service issues. So we sent her a nice email saying we enjoyed her beautiful house (which it is) but was she aware of the following etc. SHE NEVER REPLIED! and that is what prompted me to write this. She and her staff just don´t care about guests. They have a lovely property on a beautiful stretch of beach, but make you feel like you are lucky to be there.

Casa Magna is not worth the money when you are treated badly, even though the stretch of beach is beautiful and its one of the more upmarket boutique places to stay in Tulum. Book it at your peril!!

Still-waiting-to-be-replied-to. Mexico City.

We recently returned from vacation at Casa Magna. Sure enough, the location of the hotel is absolutely marvellous - the beach is superb. And, unfortunately, sure enough, the reviews commenting on disorganization and service issues were also accurate. The food was inconsistent; asking for anything other than what was presented, while an option, was met with unahppy faces...it's as if they were performing a unpleasant personal favor. Further, if you're don't ask, and ask again, and again, nothing is done. The staff service is also inconsistent. There are people that are trying very hard and others that would clearly rather be doing something else. The entire staff suffers from the overall level of disorganization at Casa Magna.
The facilities have tremendous potential. The area of beach is beautiful. If it was managed professionally, I can imagine wanting to return in the near future. As is it, I would not recommend Casa Magna to other travellers. And that's a shame.

we recently spent more than a week at casa magna. the hotel is beautiful and that particular stretch of beach could not be nicer, but the woman who owns it, melissa, is a liability. she doesn't hold anything back in front of guests (even yelling at her staff).

half-way through our stay she literally harrassed us for money, demanding that we pay for everything up front, in cash, immediately, as if we had threatened to run out on the bill. apparently it was pay-day for the employees and she needed cash, but we were miles from the nearest bank machine. we eventually paid everything in advance, with a credit card, so that she would leave us alone. but the whole experience left a bad taste in our mouths.

the service is not good--inconsistant meals, disorganized staff--but we were willing to overlook all that when people were friendly. the first few days we were there melissa was gone and the manager, an argentinian woman named carolina, was very nice, helpful and easy-going. we felt at home and forgave the various hiccups in service.

but when melissa came back and agressed us, we suddenly felt totally resentful! ie, when they ran out of both bread and yogurt for three days in a row at breakfast, we thought, why should we put up with this chaos just to be treated like thieves?

we have stayed at beautiful boutique hotels all over the world and have never had an experince like this. when we told melissa that, she did not apologize. she said that "here in the zona this is how things work." but her hotel is nothing like any other place in tulum--it is nicer and more expensive, so it attracts a different kind of guest with higher expectations.

i didn't read about the place on this site until i got bback but now i see that others have had similarly unfortunate experiences. it's a pity, because the place is so nice. but if she doesn't learn how to treat people differently, or leave the management to carolina, i think very few guests will go back twice.