I traveled to Acapulco with 6 others during the week of March 8th, 2009. All of those traveling within our group were in their early to mid twenties and male. We chose to stay at the Playa Suites specifically because we were told that it was a Spring Break 'hot spot' destination. NOTE TO TRAVELERS: This hotel during the months of March and April is a SPRING BREAK destination. If you go during this time, expect to see topless women, hear loud music, and be surrounded by excessive drinking. If you are going to this hotel on Spring Break, you will have a blast as long as you are under 28 years old. This review describes other aspects of the hotel for those traveling during other months, but just be warned if you are 'not' a spring breaker and are planning on traveling during Spring Break season.

CHECKING IN
As we arrived at the hotel, we were greeted by a bell hop who loaded all of our bags (all 15 of them) onto a cart for us. He didn't speak much english but was friendly and courteous. Checking in at the hotel lobby was a breeze and every one staying in the room received a key. The reception staff was very friendly and spoke fluent english.

ROOM
We were staying in the 'penthouse suite' on the top floor of the hotel. The room is EXACTLY identical to one of the smaller suites except that it has a spiral staircase leading to a second story bedroom that has it's own bathroom and larger balcony (there is also a balcony downstairs). The room was clean for our standards but the amenities are basic. Don't expect luxurious bedding, a flat screen TV, or marble floors. The bathrooms were clean enough although I wouldn't take a bath in the shower/tub. The toilet paper was one or two ply and the towels were not soft. The upstairs balcony was our favorite part of the room. We moved all of the furniture from the room (table, chairs, coffee table, etc.) onto the balcony and spent most of our time there. The only drawback was that our view was of the hotel next door (and garbage below) and that the light on the balcony didn't work (none of the rooms' balcony lights worked for some reason) but there was enough light pouring outside through the glass sliding doors that it didn't matter that much.

ELEVATORS
The elevators usually had workers in them to push the buttons for you which was nice, but they didn't have air conditioning and got really hot. The main problem with the elevator was that if there were more than 7 people in it, the doors wouldn't close (because it was over the weight limit). Sometimes the doors would close, and the elevator would go up a floor or two and then literally STOP in the middle of two floors. this happened to me once and I heard about it happening to others. We literally had to PRY the elevator doors open and jump out of the elevator while it was in between floors.--not a 'huge' deal if you're a drunk twenty-something guy on spring break, but I can't imagine that my 55 year old mother would be enjoying herself.

POOL & AMENITIES
The pool, 'Corona Lounge', and proximity to the beach & water sports were the best features of the hotel. The pool was large but no more than 4 or 5 feet deep in any given place. The hotel took out the bar in the middle of the pool (which is in a lot of pics of the hotel pool) and replaced it with an island for sunbathing and 'contests'. There was ample room for sunbathing, with many chairs set up for this purpose. I believe there was also a kiddy pool in the pool area as well.

The hotel property is literally on the beach and a walk downstairs leads you to the entrance of the public beach. During Spring Break, Corona sponsors an open beer bar called the 'Corona Lounge' where there's a live DJ and several Corona Bikini Models hanging out daily.

FOOD
We received the '24/7 All Inclusive' package which granted us access to food at all hours of the day. One of the benefits of the Playa Suites all-inclusive is that they server unlimited BOTTLED WATER, which I heard is very rare. It's important to drink bottled water because Mexico water is laden with bacteria and who knows what.

The food itself was decent but certainly not great, and you'd be doing yourself a favor by eating at some of the local restaurants during some of you stay. The food was served buffet style daily and for lunch and dinner always had the same staples: guacamole, tortilla chips, elements to make salads (lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, etc.) and dressings of different kinds. The 'entrees' would change daily but there was usually a couple of meat options, a pasta, and a rice. There was also a dessert table with fried platanos, cakes, pies, and more.

A note on the food: I'm a vegetarian and I got by just fine. I do eat fish, and I would say about 60% of the time there was some sort of seafood option. For those eating meat, there is almost always some sort of chicken and/or beef or pork. For those who are vegetarian or are simply more picky about their diets...I would highly recommend getting the tortilla chips along with guacamole, salsa, rice, and vegetables. This was a combo that was almost always available and was tasty and healthy. For those looking to eat at a restaurant around the hotel, I would HIGHLY recommend 'Paradise' which is a couple blocks down the street. Excellent food for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, and they have parrots and toucans just hanging out. They are also right on the beach.

CONCLUSION
The hotel was fairly inexpensive and was suitable for the needs of a group of 20-something guys looking for a Spring Break party scene. I would HIGHLY recommend this hotel to somebody looking for a Spring Break experience. For all other travelers...this hotel meets your basic needs and the staff are courteous. If the rates at this hotel are cheaper than others and you aren't needing to be 'pampered' all week, this hotel will suit you just fine.

I went here for spring break and had a great time! If you are going for spring break and you are in college, you will have a blast. If you are going for any other reason, DONT! Its a 24/7 party here, great pool parties/beach parties, pool bar but small and murky pool, okay beach (large but kind of dirty sand), big waves, rooms were actually very nice, food was terrible but drinks were decent!

If you are going on spring break and are reading this, get ready to have the time of your life!!!

If you arent going for the spring break experience, dont stay at this hotel!!!

For some context, I was a 19 year old female spring breaker. The hotel was fine for that kind of trip (I guess) but not for any others (ie older people, couples, families)

-Food: laughably bad
-Pools: typical of a cheap hotel- overcrowded, murky, saw a condom in there one day...yep.
-Beach: pretty big, water was really rough and had lots of weeds, but I think that's typical of Acapulco
-Rooms: not horrible for the price and pretty big. ours mysteriously flooded one day though, soaking all of our luggage. that really blew. staff didn't speak english or care about the problem.

if you NEED somewhere cheap, i'd stay at copacabana

My boyfriend and myself stayed at this hotel for the last week of August. After reading previous reviews, I was in two minds whether I should book this place or not, but thought I would give it a try.

First of all at check-in, they were really quite rude to us. Once checked in, I enquired as to what time the breakfast that was included would be at. She then quite rudely pointed out that breakfast wasn't included. So I gave her a copy of my booking confirmation to show that it clearly stated breakfast was included, but she refused to accept it. We argued (never shouted) with her about it, but she then started ignoring us and walked off. After this we left to go for a shower and get something to eat as it was getting late.

The following morning we returned to reception to claim our rightfully paid for breakfast, but again they refused to allow us. We stood there trying to get an answer as to why, when it was in black and white, they kept refusing us. However we kept being passed from person to person, then they would just ignore us and walk off or start doing something else. Eventually, after waisting our morning, a woman told us to get in touch with where we booked the hotel and get them to send confirmation - even though I already had confirmation in black and white and could easily print them off a copy of my confirmation email. However, they wouldn't allow us to use any of the hotel computers to do this.

Eventually, we gave up. With only having 3 days left, I wasn't willing to was anymore time on the incompetent, rude, unhelpful staff. And it wasn't from the lack of speaking Spanish - my boyfriend is Mexican!!

Apart from other isssues which required 'help' from cluless staff, we had a good time in Acapulco - but thats was probably because we spent most the rest of our time away from the hotel. The only pro for this hotel is that there was always hot water for a shower. The rooms were adequate, but very dated with a lot of broken things and the maid sometimes didn't leave any clean towels - or any towels at all, in which we had to wait about an hour to be sent up (even after I went down to reception personally to pick some up after a 30 min wait, but they refused to hand me any and told me to return to my room and they would be sent up straight away - where straight away means another 30 mins).

As for entertainment - yeah right!! The staff seemed to be organising a beach volleyball match, however it wasn't for guests - it was for staff v staff. Then to make matters worse, the remaining hotels staff who wern't playing came to watch. They were like a swarm of 100 flies. They were stood all around guests sunbeds and blocking the path to/from the hotel and to the sea. They were all screaming and shouting and doing stupid things- it was like a kids party. Im all for having fun, but when staff take over the place like this and I can't hear my boyfriend talking to me from a foot away, its kind of bad manners.

I felt bad one day when we went past the Hyatt hotel, as the final decision was between here at Playa Suites and there, and there looked so much better. I felt I'd let my boyfriend down and wasted my money by booking this hotel.