TLDR:
Came to resort for vacation, toilet broke, front desk tried to shake me down
The resort overall was decent. Ok food, the standard. The reason why they are 1 star is because of my experience here.
On day 1, after a long day of travel on the plane, the toilet seat in the bathroom broke while I was using it. Usually, no problem, every hotel/resort I’ve been to has just said “glad you’re not hurt, we will replace it when we clean the room”. Not this place tho.
They first tried to say that breaking the toilet seat is entirely the guest fault then proceeded to try and charge me 5000 pesos (~$300 USD). I disagreed, I believe it’s Barceló responsibility if the toilet seat breaks while I’m taking a poop, but I wanted this problem to go away because im on vacation. I pretty much said if we can make it $150 USD, I’ll pay it and we put this problem behind us.
The front desk proceeds to try and charge me 3000 pesos (~$175 USD date 5/5/26 ) like I cannot do simple math. I escalate as I said I would pay $150 USD not $175 USD. Front desk manager says if I do not pay, they will shut down electric to our room. I ask to see someone higher up, and they claim they are the highest level. Please bear in mind, this is happening in the front lobby, in early evening (~5 PM).
Now we are in full disagreement, not only have they lied directly to my face, and tried to pull a fast one; they have now threatened me and my family by having us lose access to our room during vacation. I am quite upset at this moment, and per the front desk managers escalation, I also escalate by saying “if you turn off access to our rooms, I will then need to refute this charge on my card as I will no longer be getting the services I am paying for”. After a this whole exchange, front desk manager says we have a general manager you can speak to….
General manager enters now, I am disappointed in this whole ordeal and she only adds more fuel to this fire. Effectively, she says that if it was truly an accident, I would have called immediately to get the toilet seat replaced. I’m in utter disbelief because there are plenty of reasons to not calling immediately, mine being I just arrived from a full day of travel and didn’t want to be bother to have it replaced.
I’m either case, I point out that I will pay $150 USD to get this resolved, but not the 3000 pesos (~$175 USD). She continues to gas light me, like I can’t look at the current exchange rate. We eventually get this resolved at $2650 pesos, which I still feel I have gotten fully shakes down for.
TLDR:
Came to resort for vacation, toilet broke, front desk tried to shake me down
Edit 1: some people don’t seem to believe this is real. I’m just giving you guys my experience. Take it at face value. This was my experience at barcelo, just like you may have poor experiences where others had positive ones.
Edit 2: Yall are obsessed with people’s way of pooping. Addressing the broken toilet seats in the past, I’ve traveled for work for over 5 years with peak 75% on the road. Either way, how is this relevant? Does this mean your history with breaking toilet seats should impact the way hotel staff treats you? The seat got broken, they demanded a ridiculous repayment, we fought, they threatened, I was forced to pay. If you believe that this type of service and behavior is acceptable, then I cannot recommend barcelo more. Have fun!