I never had such a bad experience in a hotel - and I work for the hospitality industry and constantly travel for work and leisure. We came for a wedding - so first of all, if you don't STAY at the hotel with the group rate, which is almost double the price of the rate on any online trave agency, we did not have any right to attend the wedding. When we arrived, we were really hungry and they said the restaurant was open a little longer because they were expecting the group. When we arrived to the restaurant, nobody was in service and the buffet did not have food - I ate a little stale rice and overcooked meat that obviously was leftover from another restaurant. The bellboy was supposed to take our things to our room while we were eating - when we got to the van to go to the room, I did not see my luggage and expected it to be in my room - SURPRISE! It was back in the lobby - I had even tipped the bell boy in beforehand expecting that my request was being filled. Once I got to the room, the temperature was not adjusted and we had to wait for the AC to cool the room (which took a while because it's obviously not powerful enough for the size of the room). I haven't slept here and I am afraid of what to expect for the rest of the night. I'm definitely not coming back.

I'll start by saying that me and my family stayed at Matlali Hills during a weekend where two weddings took place (at the complex and at the beach club) and maybe the amount of guests that were staying in the hotel had repercussions in our hotel experience (specially in our experience with the restaurants), with that being said:

The hotel is huge and really has a chic eco-friendly vibe that is hard to be found in other lodging options in the area. The rooms are pretty big and amazingly decorated, you truly feel like you are staying in an incredibly expensive hotel that has amazing views from every balcony. There are some average pools with nice heated-water for the kids and there are some secluded pools/hot-tubs for adults with terrific views and great service from the bars that are close to this "adult-only" locations. The lounge-settings in the adult only areas are extremely beautiful and invite the guest to never leave those pool havens.

The staff was always nice and accommodating, the booze goes from downright scary-cheap to premium so you better know way around liquor or you'll end up with something crappy in your tropical cocktail.

Our biggest issue was with the variety of food options, the taste of the food and the fact that we didn't have the chance to try any of the a-la-carte restaurants because none of them were open during the days that we stayed there. There was no japanese or steak restaurant, we only had the option to have breakfast at the restaurant that's next to the basketball court and dinner at the Raixes restaurant, but both options during our 3-day stay consisted in a buffet that was lacking flavor and a variety of food options. During the breakfast we had to endure half-hour lines in order to order an omelette (only one person in one station), bad planning on behalf of the chefs who kept making dishes like "sorted steam-vegetables" while dishes with protein were non-exisitng or even chilaquiles were not found during any of our breakfast periods. In the evening one night we had to endure an "italian night" with only pasta options in the buffet (these pasta didn't have anything else on them and consisted of only the dough with some sauce), a lot of vegetable options and again no protein or main dish that could really fill your stomach or that could even suggest you that they were not trying to be cheap and just give you low-quality ingredients to save some money. During dinner you couldn't ask for liquor or a cocktail from the bar because "the bar is too far away" so your only options were cold water or a terribly bitter red wine.

So summarizing I can say that this could be an amazing lodging option with extraordinary facilities and a good beach club (the food at the beach club was the best out of all that we had), but I can say without a doubt that in this hotel we endured the lowest quality of food in an all-inclusive accommodation; also, the place is not in the best possible location.