Banyan Tree Mayakoba 802

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Banyan Tree Mayakoba Banyan Tree Resort Mayakoba Mexico Mayakoba Mexico Review of: Two Bedroom Pool Villa 802 Preamble Notes: The Banyan Tree experience is one of attention to details. The food, service, and experience is the best in Mexico. The Villas are definitely aged, and need a refresh. The beach experience was fantastic. Snapshot Quick Overview of: Beautiful world-class resort and service with wonderful beachfront and golfcourse. Views of Sunrise and Sunset: Best sunset is from the upper level of the lobby and bar in the main building. Sunset is over the jungle, since the resort faces east/southeast. Sunrise from the beach, since most villas are within the jungle. Bar: Never experienced the bar. Restaurant: Restaurants were beautiful in appearance, fantastic service, and best tasting food of any resort I’ve been to in Mexico. Dining: Great food from room service or dining at restaurants. Service: Spectacular. All staff was friendly and helpful. Snapshot Bed Comfort: Bed comfort ok. Unknown age. For this type of resort, a bed should be exceptional. Snapshot Pillow: Pillows too soft. Not great. Snapshot Dress Code: Resort casual. This is an upscale resort. Breakfast: Breakfast buffet was wonderful. Food quality top notch. They even had a juicing bar. Of course you could get anything made to order (omelets, etc.). Food Quality: Amazing. All the food, including room service, was incredible. Resort Location: Mayakoba property shares several resorts and beachfront, and even a Mangrove lined waterways serviced by an electric boat that you can use for a tour of the wildlife. Getting Around: Each villa is provided with bikes. On-demand cart service to beach area or lobby area, where breakfast buffet, gym, and restaurants, are located. Booking Reservations: I booked via the Banyan Tree website with the Best Price Guarantee. I found a less expensive price on Expedia and other sites. I was awarded a $500 certificated to use for expenses when at resort. Keep in mind and a few meals will quickly equal that amount. But at least the Best Price Guarantee actually worked. How To Get There: Taxi, SUV, or shuttle from the airport or other resorts. It’s about half way between Cancun airport and Tulum, near Playa de Carmen. What Worked: Resort location, staff, service, food, beach, and wonderful architecture of the resort. What Needs Improvement: Villas are really showing signs of aging, especially the musty smell in our villa. The Experience: Wonderful experience, especially dining and the beach area. Attention to detail is evidenced throughout the resort. Website Experience: Website doesn’t really describe Villas well. Needs lots more attention to detail to describe the experience. Most other high-end resorts websites experience the same problem. The website booking isn’t great, and the price matching popup doesn’t really work, nor exhibit the reality of other online pricing. Cost Per Day: Per villa: Minimum of around $2,500 per day, and over $3,000 per day when you include food, tips, etc. Summary: Overall, our experience at the Banyan Tree in MayaKoba was wonderful. The charming staff and friendly service are really hallmarks of the stay. The beach experience was the best I’ve seen in Mexico. The food taste, quality, and satisfaction were off-the-charts. The aging Villas need some attention, but not enough to detract from the experience. Overall Impressions: This is an amazing resort. It is on the upper price range but well worth the cost. Service is top notch. One of the best resorts in Mexico, and the world. The main lobby complex is stunning, with a lagoon in the middle and fascinating architecture. Each villa has it’s own bikes, which is great to traverse the expansive resort. Cart service is provided from beach (lobby, restaurant, pool) to main lobby complex (restaurants, buffet breakfast, check-in/out, and other services). Boat service (electric boat) with limited hours from main lobby to beach lobby dock. Compared To Other: One of the most stunning resorts in Mexico for architecture, service, and quality of food. Check In: Upon arrival at the main entrance and lobby at around 1:30 pm, we were taken by cart to the beach lobby (about 10 minutes cart ride). We were immediately greeted with a fresh bowl of guacamole and chips, and a fruit drink. After they requested passports and a credit card, the time to complete check-in was about 15 minutes. The Villa was not ready, so we ended up going to lunch at Oriente (main lobby building), and then finally taken to the Villla 802 after 3 pm. You are given plastic key cards to open doors. Some resorts now have classy beaded wrist bands with the same RFID to open doors, which I now prefer (they use those as the Conrad Tulum). Upselling and Product or Service Shorting: Like most resorts, even Banyan Tree succumbs to the cheap and unclassy bar fridge and snacks for an extra fee. When you’re paying more than $2,500 a day (room rate, 15 percent fee, and lots of other fees, taxes). What’s worse is that at the buffet breakfast, where you already pay the most for any buffet in Mexico, you still have to pay a tip, even though a buffet is self-service. The entire tipping experience in Mexico is getting ridiculous. Full Review: Even though I experienced dinner last year at Banyan Tree, this will have been my first stay there. Originally we had booked one night, but I extended that to a full three total nights. This was a mid-week stay, leaving on a Saturday. They are definitely really busy on weekends, so a mid-week stay was perfect. The resort is located on the MayaKoba property, which is shared by other up-scale resorts (Rosewood Mayakoba, Fairmont Mayakoba, and Andaz Mayakoba) The white sugary beach is well groomed (the best of all the resorts). While most of the other beaches had seaweed, there was none at Banyan Tree. The beach experience stands out compared to other resorts. When you show up, you are escorted an any number of comfortable beach lounge chairs or sofas, and are provided with a small insulated wooden cooler with chilled water in bottles, on ice. Super classy. You can walk for a long distance on the beach, but we only found the Banyan Tree stretch to be weed-free and well groomed. The beach sand is comfortable to walk on. There is a watersports center with stand-up paddleboards, kayaks, and even a Hobie Cat sailboat. About 100 meters from the beach is the first set of weed fences, and then another larger (and ugly) floating boom/berm which helps reduce wind and wave action. The water was relatively clear and very enjoyable to swim. The Villas are well spaced, so you don’t feel crowded. Even though the main lobby (entrance) and beach lobby are far apart, there was never a problem getting a cart, taking a bike, or walking. Much of the resort is occupied by a golf course, Mangrove tree lined waterways, and incredible architecture. It is clear that a great deal of planning and cost has gone into the is property, and it shows. The main lounge with center water lagoon is reminiscent of a Venice in the jungle. Just stunning. You can even take a electric boat from the main lobbly to the beach lobby, for a tour, or even to visit another resort on the waterway (Fairmont MayaKoba, for example). The friendly staff really stands out, and completes the amazing experience at the resort. The Villa 802 was well-aged and showing signs of being really tired. In the improve section, I go over the issues. The Villa is huge, with a beautiful and warm pool which extends around the master bedroom. Across the master bedroom is a separate building with lounging sofa, minibar, dining table and coffee station. The second level has two separate smaller beds (if you’re over 6 feet in height, you will not fit in the small bed). Each bedroom has a card access door that automatically locks. So if you’re enjoying the pool or cold tub (it was never a hot tub, since it never got warm), be sure to extend the deadbolt out, so the door doesn’t shut and lock you out. The master bedroom on the first floor is stunning. The bathroom is wonderful and large, with a separate toilet area (no working vent), a separate shower with steam maker (I loved this feature), and then and enclosed outdoor courtyard with a huge bathtub, wall of candles, and outdoor shower-type waterfall feature. All rooms are provided with bottled Crystal water, which is perfect. Every now and then (only during the day) a slow moving iguana might show up walking around, to make the experience more jungle-like. We did see one Mexican raccoon (Kudamundi) which was fun to watch. We didn’t see anything scary, which is good. There were some mosquitoes at sunset, but there is repellent in the master bedroom closet, just in case. We also saw them spraying one night. On one day, our Villa had not been cleaned around 2pm, so we had to contact and request housekeeping. Same for turn-down service. As soon as you arrive, the staff (butler/attendant) will either text you or use WhatsApp for any requests. Use this for a more convenient method to request a cart, room service dining, housekeeping, etc. It worked great except for the multiple requests to turn up the heat in the hot tub (it never got resolved). I would write volumes of details about the incredible food and dining, but TripAdvisor only allows a limited description, so you will have to experience that yourself. We did have one issue. The second floor show drain was not working, and even though it was draining fine upstairs, it was clear that there was a problem with the internal piping, when water started dripping out through the master bathroom light fixture below, soaking everything (bathroom supplies and my shaver). Maintenance showed up and the problem was fixed within two hours, but since it was right when we were trying to get ready for dinner, we had to request in-room dining for that night. Upon checkout, I mentioned the problem, and the supervisor asked if anyone had contacted me about it (nobody had), and she apologized and offered a solution (certificate for a nights stay) which was received (by email as a digital certificate) four days after checkout. The staff was very cooperative to make things right. Other than that, there were no major issues. Overall, a wonderful stay. Items to Improve Guest Experience: Basic maintenance of the Villas and preventative maintenance needs to be improved. Before a Villa is turned over to the guest, a supervisor or manager should quickly to a spot check to ensure that first impressions of the guest is better. Boards broken on lower deck with lounge chairs near grass area. Hot tub temperature was colder than the pool (which was perfect temperature). Even after multiple requests, the hot tube temperature did not change. Possibly not working properly. Door to living room, coffee bar, and mini-kitchen area scraped on floor and was hard to open. Musty (moldy) smell in villas. This was even more evident by the use of wall plug in air fresheners and match-lit incense sticks. This really needs to be addressed. I recommend a solar-powered air vent handling unit, which brings in fresh air and also dehumidifies it. Water leak from upstairs villa shower into light fixture in master bathroom below, soaked everything. Was fixed within two hours. They said it was shower drain issue. Some of the electrical outlet faceplates fall off when in use.