Stayed at the hotel last night in Oct.
Many different prices floating around, some with food, some without. We found best rate was calling reservation office.
Hotel desperately needs a serious face lift. At the same time, it's located on a great stretch of beach and you can enjoy some great views. We also stayed int he newer Holiday Inn and we much prefer the part of the beach that this hotel occupies. Service staff are mostly friendly. In all, we had a pleasant stay.
Our checkout did leave a bad taste, however. We asked for some extra time beyond noon as we had a 6 pm flight. Best they offered was a silly price of 700 pesos extra till 3pm - out of proportion from our 1800 nightly rate that did not include lunch anyway. OK, fine, we agreed to let them hold our bags while we used the facilities and had lunch. Then the unfriendly woman at the reception told us we could not use the pool area, only the non-hotel areas of the beach. Stupid. We left with out bags and went next door to the more upscale hotel. The neighboring hotel was delighted for us to spend 1000 on lunch, hold our bags and let us hang out a bit at the pool.
Probably, this is an issue of poor training, both for the unfriendly front desk clerk and the manager she consulted by phone. However, rule of thumb in the hospitality sector is never turn away a client who wants to spend money - either on lunch or on a (reasonably-priced) room extension - the hotel was nearly empty. We not only left with a poor impression of the hotel's customer service, but convinced we will never return on subsequent trips to Mazatlan.
Still, it's a good setting, so if the hotel pushes forward its renovation and better trains its management/front desk staff, this would be an excellent place to stay.
