Azul Beach Resort Riviera Cancun

The price should have been the first hint that the pictures were too good to be true. The resort looked like the pictures on the website, but it looked like the pictures on the website were from when they opened up years ago, and the place, bedrooms, furniture, and restaurants looked dated in person. The balcony patio furniture was worn, torn, and dirty. The Jacuzzi did not work in the rooms. There were only 3 restaurants open; the pools were not clean, and one of the bathrooms at the main swim-up bar was broken. The drinks were weak and watered down. The food was subpar. The buffet looked like a potluck and was tasteless. Raccoons were running around in the pool area during the day and night. The staff put on high pressure to get you to buy into a timeshare to their vacation club. The mini bar only had soda and 2 beers.

We arrived at this property, rebranded about six months ago as Iberostar Selection Riviera Cancun, curious to see how the transition had gone. As frequent Iberostar guests, we've stayed at several properties across the brand over the years, and we came in with high expectations, especially given that "Selection" is supposed to represent the top tier of the Iberostar portfolio. Unfortunately, this property fell well short of the standard we've come to expect, starting from the very first moment we arrived.

Our check-in was, without question, the worst start to any vacation we've had, largely thanks to Roberto at the front desk. We were bounced between multiple lines with no explanation, and by the time we reached the front desk, guests who arrived after us were already walking away with their room keys. When we asked Roberto why we'd been moved around, he became argumentative instead of simply explaining what was going on. He blamed the confusion on guests themselves, claiming customers were the ones creating multiple lines, rather than taking any ownership over how his own team was managing the process. We calmly explained we'd been told we were in the wrong line and redirected, even though we'd already completed check-in and just needed our keys. He remained rude and dismissive throughout the entire exchange, talking over us rather than listening. What made it worse was that this wasn't an isolated moment. Roberto was short and dismissive with several other guests in that line as well, so it clearly wasn't just us having an off interaction, it seemed to be how he handled the front desk in general that day. For a "Selection" property, that kind of treatment at the very first touchpoint of the stay is a real problem, and it colored our first impression of the resort before we'd even seen our room.

Things didn't improve much once we settled in. The ceiling above the buffet was leaking, not once, but multiple times throughout our stay. Then the air conditioning stopped working in one of our two rooms, the one my parents were staying in. We called room service and were told someone would come fix it right away. Time passed. We called again. Nothing. By nightfall, still no one had shown up, so my parents went up to the front desk themselves and were ultimately moved to a different room.

The next day, our room key stopped working entirely. We called the front desk and were told someone would be right over. Two minutes turned into much longer, and we ended up stuck outside our room at night with no key and no help arriving. Eventually we walked to the front desk ourselves to get it resolved.

To their credit, customer service did try to make things right. They first offered us a complimentary cabana for two days, but the cabanas were located all the way on one corner of the property, completely opposite from our rooms, and with two young children, staying close to our room mattered more to us, so we declined. They followed up by offering hydrotherapy instead, which we're planning to accept on our last day. We appreciate that they kept trying to find something that actually worked for our family.

One more thing worth flagging: the seaweed cleared from the beach gets piled up on the side of the property near the main entrance, directly across from our room. Every time we opened our door, the smell hit us, and it took away from the feeling of being on vacation.

But here's where the story really turns around. Mateo, who worked the breakfast buffet every single morning, was nothing short of phenomenal, and honestly deserves his own paragraph. He remembered our family day after day, checked in on our kids, made recommendations, and just had this genuine warmth that you can't train into someone. He told us he'd been at this property for 15 years, through multiple ownership changes, and it shows. He's clearly someone who takes real pride in his work and treats every guest like they matter. In a stay full of frustrations, Mateo was the one constant that made us smile every single morning, and he's a huge part of why we'd consider giving this resort another shot. Pablo, also working the buffet, was great as well, friendly and attentive, and between the two of them, breakfast ended up being one of the best parts of our day.

The kids club deserves a shoutout too. The staff there were genuinely kind and friendly, and our children had a great time every time we dropped them off. It was one of the few areas of the resort that felt fully dialed in, no hiccups, just attentive, cheerful staff who clearly enjoy working with children.

On the food side, it was a mixed bag. The breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffets were fine but grew repetitive fast, the same rotation of dishes day after day. The Mexican restaurant was a real letdown; much of the food lacked any real flavor, which was disappointing given the location. The Italian restaurant, on the other hand, was a genuine hit, quality pasta and dishes that actually tasted like someone in the kitchen cared. The Spanish restaurant landed somewhere in the middle: the appetizers showed promise and were clearly a good effort, but the main courses fell flat. I ordered the ribeye expecting a highlight of the meal, and instead got what can only be described as a dry, rubbery piece of meat.

And there's clearly more work to do around the property. The Caribbean restaurant, which had a menu that looked incredible, was closed for our entire stay, a real disappointment since we'd been looking forward to trying it. The family pool bar was also closed for two of our days.

The bottom line: Having stayed at multiple Iberostar properties, we know what this brand is capable of, and this Selection property simply didn't meet that bar. There are real gems on staff here, Mateo and Pablo at breakfast and the entire kids club team among them, but right now it feels like a resort still under construction, literally and figuratively. A genuinely bad check-in experience with Roberto set the worst possible tone from the start, and leaky ceilings, AC issues, malfunctioning keys, lingering odors, closed venues, and inconsistent food quality followed. If they can nail down the front desk experience, invest in real customer service training, and address the infrastructure and dining consistency, this could be a real winner. For now, it's a mixed bag, and one that left us hoping the next Iberostar Selection property we visit gets closer to the standard we've come to expect from this brand.

Our honest opinion of our stay.

It is tough place to review because there are a lot of great things about the resort, but there are some major flaws that make us regret coming here. We expected a lot more.

The good:

1. Food
2. Rooms
3. Pools
4. Food service
5. Hotel is clean
6. Airport tranfer

The bad:

1. Paid for the upgraded premium swim-up room, but it was a complete disappointment!

2. $400 resort credit is only if you spend an extra $1600.

3.  No usable beach or swimming. Worst beach we have ever been to.

4. Bad smell around resort, water in shower and sink smells like sulfur.

5. Pool service is unreliable.  It can be good or take a very long time (30-45 min).

6. Most of the drinks were not good. Dos XX is only beer. 2 white and 2 red wine options our first day (only one wine option after our 2nd day).

7. Oh! And they try to sell you on a membership when you are checking in. And almost every day at least one employee tried to sell you something, like a an excursion or massage.

Details

1. Food was great, even the buffet (until the end when it got busy). The service was good too until we got to the weekend.

We really liked the Italian and Mexican restaurants. The Spanish/Mediterranean was ok. We could never get into the Caribbean restaurant since it was closed all week.

Pizzas take around 30 min but are good. Cafe had a few small bites that were good, but can take a very long time if there is only one employee and a few people order coffee in front of you.

2. Food service was great, but bar and pool service was unreliable. Some times good, other times really bad.

3. Room was very nice, big, clean, and A/C worked great.

4. Whole resort is clean, except for beach.

5. Above and Beyond employees that made our stay good despite how Iberostar treated us: Eduardo/Elalo, Cristina, Mauricio were all unbelievable.

Why we would never come back or stay at any Iberostar ever again.

First, I knew there was no beach because it's overrun with seaweed (the people that didn't read the reviews had no idea and were pretty upset), but if you want a beach and to swim in the ocean, this isnt for you. Their website would give you a different impression: Are you up for starting the day with a snorkeling session? Explore the ocean, practice water sports, relax with a massage, or play a game of tennis.

My wife isn't much of a beach person so we were coming for the resort amenities and pools, not the beach. Which leads me to our biggest problem.

We upgraded and paid more for a swim-up room so you can just go right out to the pool and to the swim up bar, but later find out that the pool and bar area that our room is attached to is for members only and we got kicked out. If we pay extra for the swim up room we want to be able to use the pool and swim up bar that's attached to it.

Why would they put us in a member only area when you can't use the pool or services?  There is another building with the same type of rooms that connects to the main pool and swim up bar. Thats where our room should have been, but those were probably overbooked. 2 other guests in our area were in the same boat and super mad about it too.

I looked on their website to see if there was a way to book in the other building instead of where we were put, and there is only 1 swim-up option. According to their website: it features 5 pools , spacious suites—including our exclusive Swim-Up Suites with direct access to a semiprivate swimming pool.

Our swim-up did NOT come with access to the pool or bar that was attached to it! We literally can go into the water for our room, we can see the pool and swim up bar, but we are not allowed to access any of it. It's so ridiculous. Again, why did they put us in this room and not the other side that are for non-members? This is a question they could never answer for us (I asked 3 different people, including management and public relations).

So every day we would get all of our stuff together and walk over to the main pool and not use our swim-up room. We should have gotten the cheaper room for $50 less a night if we are going to do this every day.

*(NOTE: If we did the Membership/timeshare Presentation they would have given us $200 that we could use to access the pool and bar that connects to our room that we already paid extra for, but for just 2 days. Why not just give that to us since we paid for the swim-up and THEY put our room in the members-only area.

Also, on the second night they offered to move our room to the area that we really should have been in the first place, a swim-up room with a pool and bar for regular guests that we can use, but we didn't want to repack everything and unpack again halfway through our trip. So they did try to make things right after they screwed up, but for us it was too late and a big inconvenience at that point.)

Pool bar service can get bad. Once someone finally comes over it can tske 30 minutes to get your drink. Its just better to walk over and get yourself, which can still take 5-10 min. Most drinks were bad and we threw out. Only 2 beers, 2 white and 2 red wines, but after our 2nd night they were down to 1 option each.

Overall bad smell on resort. Probably from seaweed. Shower and sink water has very strong smell of sulfur.

There are activities that are ok and I would say the norm of a lot of resort activities.

They try to sell you on a "membership" presentation when you check in. That's not what you want to hear when you arrive after traveling. In fact, we were sold on something everyday that we were there. Get a towel and your asked to sign up for an excursion. Go work out and you're asked if you want to buy a massage. What ends up happening is that we start to say "no thank you" to everyone offering things, but half of the time they are just inviting you to do resort activities. You don't know when it's them being hospitable or a sales pitch to buy something.

We feel the $400 resort credit is false advertising. We have gotten resort credit before, and its actually credit you can use to purchase upgrades at the resort. However, this hotel gives you $25 off for ever $100 you spend, up to $400. In my opinion, that is not a credit, that is a discount. Spend $1600 on extras and you get $400 off. A resort credit of $400 means you can spend $400 at the resort without stipulation. Like i said, if we did the Membership/Timeshare presentation, they would give us $200 in real credit to use towards the hotel, excursions, massages, etc without having to spend any minimum, but thats only if you sit with them for the 90 minute presentation.

We made the most of our time and tried to enjoy the good things that the hotel offered. But honestly, our room situation was super disappointing, along with the other negatives, and we feel we did not get what we paid for, and we will never use Iberostar again unfortunately. We just don't trust them.