I want to be transparent about something my team is seeing over the past several months with increasing frequency: getting advance restaurant and park reservations confirmed is becoming unpredictable, if not impossible. It’s become a significant issue for my team and we’re actively managing daily, with limited success.
I wish there was a magic/simple solution to this but there doesn’t seem to be one. We’ve circled nearly every level of management, emailed and called constantly, been way more aggressive than I would like with the resort staff, and even literally showed up in person to the resort. Hardly anything we’ve done has made any meaningful improvements.
And we’re not getting any meaningful answers from the resort on what the issue is, so we’re left to make assumptions. Maybe they don’t have the staff to manage this? Maybe since the addition they are overwhelmed? Maybe it’s intentional to push guests to buy their timeshare with the “promise” of better future service? I want to believe that it’s a failure of staffing and not malicious, but we truly don’t have an answer for what the hell is happening with this.
So, here’s the reality: While the resort does allow reservation requests up to 30 days in advance, I would no longer count on this as a definite. I would consider this a “perk” that’s nice to have if you get it, but not a guarantee that I would count on.
Most other family resorts don’t allow advance reservations for restaurants (though, more adult only resorts tend to) so they really created their own mess when they starting offering this, but I don’t believe that Hotel Xcaret’s internal systems were built to manage the volume of advance reservation requests at the scale they’re now receiving, and I don’t anticipate this changing anytime soon.
Do I love this? Is it ideal? Absolutely not! But it’s the current true reality and I’d rather be honest and direct about a situation than sugar coat it any day.
No resort gets everything right! Each property has its pros & cons. And it’s important that you go into each one knowing the ups and downs. So, if this is going to be the thing that just ruins it for you, you might want to consider another resort option.
There are a ton of reasons I still am totally in love with Hotel Xcaret resorts for weddings, quinces, and family group travel in general, and I don’t think most people choose HX resorts specifically for the ease of pre booking restaurants and parks. Most people choose it because there is truly nothing like it – the total beauty of the entire resort, the gorgeous one of a kind venues, the authentic food that is above and beyond most other resorts, the fantastic rooms, the multitude of activities at the resort, the pop up happenings (like full Mayan performances, mariachi’s, and more), access to parks nearby, and more.
What now? Let’s talk strategy moving forward: Fortunately, wedding/quince/business groups are managed by a resort coordinator, which allows for the ability to make group reservations further in advance. So, if you, as the group leader, know that your entire group, or some of the group, wants to go to a certain park on a specific date, we highly advise requesting this directly with your resort wedding coordinator.
What about individual guest reservations? Once your guests have their confirmation number (which is normally given to groups 30 or so days prior to arrival – which we are also having issues with as of late, to be quite up front), they should start by emailing guest services and requesting the most current WISH LIST, as it changes frequently, then returning that document to guest services with their choices.
If they don’t get a response after a couple of tries over several days, we have been having the guest send the Wish List to the couple’s wedding coordinator and have them cc the couple (and if you are working with my team at Yellow Umbrella Events they can cc us as well) and ask them to hand-deliver their reservation requests to the reservations department in person.
Having your guests involve your wedding coordinator is seriously the worst and last option, because it then moves your coordinators attention away from your wedding and onto guest reservations. But thus far, it’s about the only thing that seems to move the needle. I genuinely hate recommending this, because it’s only going to eat up more of the coordinator’s time and cause even more delays with the actual wedding planning. So PLEASE use this option as a true last resort.
And the last backup plan for guests can be to secure individual dining and park times once you’re on property. None of this is ideal, but it’s the reality of park & dining reservations at this time.
I truly wish this was just impacting us, because at least I could offer a better solution, but it’s “system wide”, so to speak. On travel agent industry FB groups, there is a thread about this nearly every day lately and each thread has hundreds of comments from agents pulling their hair out because they aren’t able to get consistent reservations for their clients.
Here are the options that do NOT require an advance reservation:
- Park – Xcaret Park
- Park – Xplor
- Park – Xplor Fuego
- Park – Xenses (ish)
- Restaurant – Mercado
- Restaurant – La Trajinera
- Restaurant – Chibali
- Restaurant – Bio
- Restaurant – Cantina Los Faroles
- Restaurant – Costero
- Restaurant – La Xentral
- Restaurant – Xinema
- And of course, none of the pools on site, the bars, or nightclub require a reservation
So, there are a lot of options for your guests that they can just show up to.
And for the restaurants that require a reservation: the guest can still show up at the opening time and see about a table. That has always worked for me. I personally haven’t made an advance reservation in the past maybe 3 years of going to HX over 40 X and have always gotten in.
Moving forward: I don’t see this advance reservation situation changing soon. I know that’s not a ton of help, but it’s where we are. I would suggest letting your guests know throughout the process not to put a huge focus on secured reservations and encourage more of a go with the flow approach to their time at the resort if they can’t get all the reservations in advance that they want because there are still plenty of options.
I hope this helps bring awareness to a very real situation that some are already facing and helps prepare those couples and groups that are coming up in the future.
