Sandos Papagayo Hotel

"Another excellent stay, our 6th in total,already booked for next year. Love the hotel, especially the fact you don't have to get up early to get a Sunbed. Food was lovely, we went Royal Elite and thoroughly enjoyed the Elite restaurant along with the Elite bar/Lounge. Staff were ever so Friendly, Particularly Jessica (i think that was her name) who was running the Pool bar while John was off, she did a wonderful job, always smiling and didnt take her long to remember what drinks we liked. But credit to all staff who make your stay wonderful. Well done Sandos Papagayo 👍"

"Overall experience, disappointed. Positive things about our experience in October, easy to park if you have a rental car, variety of food, many pools with few people after 5 PM, good views for sunsets, easy access to Mujeres and Papagayo beach and Zack who was in charge of the entertainment made our stay more lively and fun, in bingo, yoga, sunsets to the sound of the saxophone and other activities. On the negative side and with the goal that it can be improved. The "superior" rooms have views of an iron fence and some pipes, they were under construction with excavators, very noisy, we had to talk to the operator to change rooms and they gave us some with sea views, very good views, but a bathtub, no walk-in shower and there are no double beds. The smells, the main dining room called International smells of smoke and fried food from noon onwards. The grilled meats and fish we ate were mostly dry, very bad, the stews and desserts are fine. The drinks, the worst are the cocktails, they are from a machine, the rest of the drinks are fine. The chairs in the restaurants are falling apart; we even saw a person fall in the Italian lounge, they should all be checked. The 24h bar, we don't know the reason, but the entrance had a very strong smell of rot, several users complained, it gives a bad image and it took away the desire to enter. Misleading advertising, there are 2 days of Asian dinner and 3 days of Mexican dinner, you cannot book every day, they have some restrictions, the Mexican one is good, the Asian one is not worth much, but it is different from the rest of the restaurants. The heated pool does not exist, at least in October it is at room temperature. The mini golf was under construction, they are changing the floor, we could not play. From less to more, as the days went by we adapted to the characteristics of the premises and were able to take advantage and enjoy the last days, but the first ones were very disappointing in general."

"We arrived at the Hotel at 11;30pm on Saturday 10/10. On arrival we were allocated room G926. On entering the room we were met with an overwhelming smell of damp and mould. The ceiling beside the air conditioning had a large, black damp patch and the aircon unit itself was thick with dust and fluff . On entering the bathroom we discovered the full extent of the problem. The area around the shower and sink unit were think with black mould, not staining, but actual mould. The timber shower divide was all split and swollen with water ingress also holding black mould and was loose as the fixings had broken away from the damp timber. We went to reception to complain and were initially told we had to stay in the room overnight, then vacate the room the following day at 11am to allow then to give the room to someone else, clearly ignoring the issues we had highlighted. We were then told we would have to place our luggage in a room next to reception and wait until 3pm to be allocated a different room. Great start to our first day ! On stating that wasn't acceptable, we were then told we could keep the room until 2pm and come back to see them to be moved. We were eventually move to C block which was perfectly clean and had the sea view we had paid for. When we initially entered room G926, the sofa bed was made up for a family which we thought was strange. On our key card holder we discovered that our original room number had been in H block, this had been tipexed over and G926 written over it. We can only assume that a family had been allocated the room before we got there and had complained, leading to us being swopped over hoping we would not complain. We spoke to 2 other people round the pool who also had mouldy rooms in G and H blocks , one was told they had to wait until Friday to change and it had upset them, so we encouraged them to complain as we did and they were moved the next day. We were given a late checkout FOC and a box of chocolates left in our room with an apology for the trouble, but it isn't fair to expect people to pay for 4* and be allocated a mouldy room not fit for habitation, especially children ! We have never had to complain about a hotel before and it wasn't pleasant having to do so. We also showed our JET2 rep. the photos and he was horrified. That said, the rest of our holiday was very enjoyable. The food was great , the communal areas of the hotel were kept spotless and all the staff and animation team worked extremely hard to keep everyone fed and entertained. The hotel is about 2kms from town, but it's a beautiful walk along the cost and there is a free coach from the hotel twice per day. There is what I can only describe as a 'dogfight' for the best sun loungers in the morning from 6am onwards and then some of them lay empty all day with towels on. Come on people, don't be selfish ! A potentially great week, tainted by major problems with the room which I would suggest they already were aware of, but hoped we would just accept it. If you do end up in a sub-standard room please complain, don't let it ruin your holiday when you have worked hard to pay for it and expect 4* to mean 4*. I didn't expect gold taps, just basic cleanliness. It seems to only be an issue with H & G blocks."