My wife and I recently completed our third (and last) visit to the Fives Oceanfront in Puerto Morelos. It pains me to both write this review and say goodbye to the Fives, but here goes. First, the Fives is a beautiful, modern property—and easily the nicest hotel within easy walking distance of downtown and its dozens of restaurants and bars. On all three visits, we had a partial ocean view one bedroom residence that was large, comfortable, and well maintained. The staff are invariably polite, although vary in efficiency. The real problem is management. Each visit had its irritants, but nothing seems to improve. For example, there are too few lounge chairs at both the rooftop pool and the beach, when more could easily be added. The staff does nothing to prevent people from “reserving” them all day, creating a crack of dawn race to even get one for the morning. The service in the main restaurant is very, very, very slow, and the food just OK. The final straw for us though, occurred on the last visit when we had reserved (and paid for upon arriving) an ocean view one bedroom. Our check-in was delayed for over an hour without explanation. When we were finally shown to the room, it was in fact a cheaper, partial ocean view room (since it was on the ground floor, more jungle than ocean). In addition, the person who showed us to our room refused to allow our daughter and her husband in the room to look around (they were staying nearby and wanted to see whether they might want to stay there for their next annual visit), and went so far as to physically block them from entering. I immediately went to the manager, explained the room was not what I paid for, and that their employee’s actions were unacceptable. She wouldn’t explain why I was assigned the cheaper room, but offered a refund of the difference in price—some $350-$400. She apologized for the “misunderstanding” with her employee, explaining that non-hotel guests weren’t allowed in rooms, even to look around. I mentioned that she’d just lost a potential customer as a result, but she didn’t seem to mind—although she said they could come back and they’d make an exception (they didn’t want to come back). Before we left, I got the refund promise IN WRITING. That was over three months ago, and I’ve yet to see a refund even though they keep saying it is coming—and even sent me what purported to be a funds documents seven weeks ago showing it had been paid. They no longer respond to emails, and I’ve pretty much given up ever seeing a refund. The bottom line is that for the price, I don’t need the aggravation. For those who nevertheless want to give The Fives a shot, a final piece of advice—don’t do the All-Inclusive. The hotel really is too small with only two restaurants to pull it off (only one during the day, and the rooftop bar). We heard a number of people complaining about the lack of variety and, again, the slow service. Puerto Morelos is full of great restaurants within easy walking distance, and an excellent supermarket to buy drinks and snacks for the room. If you want all-inclusive you probably ought to look at one of the bigger resorts that dot the coast.
(The seat-saver in the attached photo really struck me the wrong way. It was out every day at the crack of dawn and I rarely saw anyone in the seats for more than an hour or two a day)
