What to do to get good service in hotels in Cancun

The hotels of Cancun are the main engine of the tourist machinery in this Caribbean paradise. Just check your email to realize that since the month of January, you are invaded with offers and promotions from travel agencies to book your vacation in Cancun. If you are lucky, you will book some days in a good all-inclusive hotel at a good price. Even european plan hotels can seduce you with irresistible offers... The photos of the hotels and the stories they tell you on the Internet about them seduce you even more and you end up booking.

Finally, you arrived in Cancun and you have a contagious expression of happiness on your face! The bellboy of your hotel received you with a smile as cheerful as yours, he opened the door and took your luggage to your room and you thanked him with a good tip.

Now you are with your family enjoying everything that your amazing resort in Cancun offers you. You have ordered the first margaritas that were missing to finish putting your chip 100% in holiday mode. The waiters smile at you and serve you a drink or two and maybe a snack. The other guests (who are really many) are enjoying just like you. This really is paradise!

30 minutes after your last drink, you decide to ask more of the smiling waiter who is now a bit serious. Your drink does not arrive, your food takes longer to arrive and the smile has been erased from the faces of the waiters. What happens? The charm is slowly being lost and the service for which you paid so much is also disappearing.

Another 30 minutes passed in which you observed how the waiters served other people better but not you. What happens? You ask one of them for the drinks and food you ordered 30 minutes ago and the answer is "in a moment". That moment takes longer and longer to arrive. And I ask you, where was your smile? When did you lose it? Surely you do not have an answer, but you know that the service you are NOT receiving has a lot to do with it. Do you know what happens? The answer is that you have to pay to keep your smile. It is frustrating that all the magic that started with an email and for which you have paid vanishes in 30 minutes. Thousands of people like you have gone through that and have had to deal with the poor service of the hotels in Cancun, even though they already paid for it. So here are some tips so you always get the service you deserve at any hotel in Cancun, regardless of the type of plan for which you paid.

How to get the best service in Cancun hotels

We already stated that the holiday season may be the best of your life or the most frustrating due to the high demand for tourist services in any destination, not only in Cancun.

If the only season you have to travel is on vacation, you should prepare to face undesirable situations in Cancun hotels, such as the bad service you can receive from waiters, concierges, receptionists and hotel staff in general.

Unfortunately, in Mexico there is a bad habit (or good habit, depending on how you see it), that every service that someone receives must be rewarded even after paying for it. This reward is called as tip. This reward is optional in Mexico, although in many hotels in Cancun it has become a precious booty by service providers, who mistakenly assume that you have the obligation to reward them for doing their job. Many vacationers also tend to tip regardless of the quality of service they receive (which is welcomed by service providers), but perhaps those vacationers do not realize that with this practice of giving just because of giving, they are reproducing and reinforcing the idea in service providers that no matter the quality of their work, they will always be rewarded. Unfortunately, the guilty of this situation are all of us: those who give and those who receive.

When to thank with tips in Cancun hotels?

It is quite simple. If you are happy with the service you have received, say thank you with a tip. The tip can be as generous as you want, but it is not mandatory. In Mexico (and Cancun is not the exception) it is suggested to reward with 10% of the total of your purchase, regardless of the type of service you receive. With this in mind, here are some situations in which I suggest you thank for the service:

1. Food and drinks. If you booked a hotel in Cancun in european plan, you assume that you must pay for everything you consume. Necessarily a waiter or hostess will attend you and the gratification you want to give will depend on the service you receive. If your waiter is like the one I mentioned at the beginning and caused your smile to be erased from your face, you are in your right not to gratify him. On the other hand, if your waiter took great pains to offer you the best service, he attended you promptly and complied with your whims, a generous tip of more than 10% will speak very well about you and the waiter will continue to serve you as you deserve in the following days.
2. Cleaning your room. Not only waiters live on tips. There are people who you almost do not see but they collaborate a lot so that your smile is not erased. They are usually women who every day make a considerable physical effort picking up the garbage that you leave in your room, arranging your bed, washing the shower, changing your towels and cleaning up your unpleasant disasters if the night before you got drunk. The maids really do an incredible job so that every time you get to sleep in your room, your experience will be like the first time. Thank them! Here there is not a percentage of rewards, but USD $ 10.00 or MX $ 100.00 can be a great gesture on your part for these people.
3. Concierge. He is the one who helps you with all your problems. He makes phone calls for you, confirms your transfers and your activities. The concierge informs you of your messages, mail and attends your special requests. He is the angel who takes care of you. The concierges receive money for practically every service they provide, but, realistically, you only came to Cancun to enjoy, not to be your own concierge. Do you imagine being your own concierge? To answer this question, first think of yourself, how is your attitude to request services and how demanding are your whims. Now, do you think the concierge deserves gratification? Of course she/he does! Between USD $ 5.00 and $ 10.00 or MX $ 50.00 and $ 100.00 will be a good gesture from you for each service you receive.
4. Bellman. It is the person who opens the door for you when you arrive, loads your luggage, tells you which are the places you can enjoy in your hotel. It is also the one that asks for your taxis and warns you when they arrive for pick you up so that you do not lose your transport or your activities. It is another guardian angel. You are not obligated to gratify everything that he does for you, but you can balance. Did you arrive with 7 huge and heavy suitcases that you do not want to carry? Gratify! If the bellman recommended a good place to dine, reward him! The amount is the same, between USD $ 5.00 and $ 10.00 per service, although it may be lower or higher depending on your demands and his work.

What happens with the service if your hotel in Cancun is on an all-inclusive plan?

Here everything is different. Unfortunately, hotels do not pay very well to all their employees, so many receive the minimum salary that is not enough for much, sometimes neither to live. In these kind of hotels, employees tend to better serve the people who tip them for everything. It is true that you as a vacationer are not guilty and you should not suffer the consequences of this bad practice from employers who do not pay well. However, it is very difficult to receive a very good service in all inclusive hotels, because naturally, people will work better for what generates a higher income. Basically, your smile in the face depends on tips. Here, the amount does not matter as much as the intention. If you reward with USD $ 1.00 or $ 2.00 every 2 or 3 services you receive, I am sure that your smile will be on your face during all your vacations.

Remember: Tips in Mexico are not mandatory, but many service providers live on them. With your tip you can contribute to improve someone's life and also your experience in Cancun will be better. On the contrary, do not gratify just because. Avoid contributing to continue reproducing the vicious circle of bad service. Balance and be happy!

I await your comments. See you next time!