The Hacienda at Krystal Grand Puerto Vallarta

We stayed at the Hacienda, it was five star experience, our concierge Ernesto Perez was the main man who took great care of us and made us feel very special. We highly recommend this place and encourage you to visit it very soon. The restaurants were amazing, the pools were great, and the rooms were very clean and well maintained. Five stars all the way around.

One of the dirtiest hotels that I have stayed at. I booked it through Expedia based on pictures. It was disgusting! I had to get an Airbnb.

We have just returned from a week with Air Canada vacations at the Hacienda Krystal Grand Puerto Vallarta.

We now know the routine getting through the airport. (Second time) Once outside finding our AC reps and transport is a bit of a process but you are on vacation. Go across the street and locate transport vans lined up.

The hotel is a two in one.

If you are looking for a lively atmosphere for families book the Krystal Grand side. I large pool. Lots of chairs.
Beach access with Lots of chairs and umbrellas. The ocean breeze was always pleasant. Very choppy most of the time. Water shoes not needed.
A snack bar with drinks and burgers etc.
This side has a rooftop adult pool. The views are impressive. Very quiet in the morning until 11am. Offers a bar service at 11am and 1pm snacks.

Buffet for B,L,D. We used this for Dinner. Always good. Lots of choice.
Staff were very pleasant and most helpful.
The hotel provided a Mexican night with Dinner on the beach. The staff did a great job.

If you are looking for a quiet relaxing adult location book the Hacieda side. 2 pools with lots of chairs. Never had to reserve. No loud music.

The hotel does a great job of providing both options.

As per recommendations on Trip Advisor we booked a pool side room on the 3rd floor. Good choice.
Room spacious and bright. With a balcony.
Thanks to our cleaning staff for doing a fine job and who we never met.
Hacienda guests can access both properties.
Hacienda Breakfast buffet. Lunch buffet pool side. Both very good.
There are several à la cart restaurants to choose from located both sides. We did not book but heard all were very good.

Many thanks to all staff on the Hacienda side: A special thanks to those we got to know over the week Manuel, Migel, Ruben, Karla, Marissa, and Antonio (pool drink service) I have missed some names for sure.

Don’t forget to show your appreciation and tip the staff.
We will return. You should go!

It was our first time to go to Mexico and really enjoyed our all inclusive trip.
The service and food was excellent, my wife was vegetarian thus we requested for special vegetarian meals which was very well taken care of, I would like to specifically thank Mr Ernesto (relationship manager) who went out of his way to accommodate our meal requests and make our stay very comfortable.

I have never written a hotel review before—good or bad—but my experience at The Hacienda at Krystal Grand Puerto Vallarta was so unbelievably bad that I feel obligated to warn others before they make the same mistake.

My partner and I were placed in FOUR different rooms over the span of four nights. We never once unpacked our suitcases or felt remotely comfortable. We originally booked a Junior King Suite—the one with the blue accent wall, arched stone-style ceiling, and tasteful decor. What we got instead was a continuous nightmare.

Room #1:
We couldn’t even get in. Their key system was down, so a bellhop walked us to the room to try his master key, which also didn’t work. Annoying, but we were understanding. We went to dinner and were told our keys would be ready afterward. They weren’t.

Room #2:
Instead of the King Suite we booked and paid for, we were sent to an outdated, filthy room with
- TWO double beds
- No art on the walls
- No phone
- Mold on the curtains and chair
- Stained robes
- Dirt and hair on the floor
- A broken ironing board
- No deadbolt
- A TV with a remote that didn’t work
When I brought all of this to the front desk, the woman actually laughed and told me the room we booked “doesn’t exist”—even though I could literally see it from the hallway windows and offered to show her. Only after calling her supervisor did she agree to move us—but said it wouldn’t be until Monday. We checked in on Saturday.

Room #3:
On Monday at 4 PM, we finally received the “nonexistent” room we originally booked. It was beautiful—exactly what we paid for—but within hours we discovered the door didn’t lock at all, and the deadbolt was broken (again). The front desk’s “solution”?

“Lock your suitcases.”

Absolutely unacceptable.

A helpful staff member escalated it to a supervisor, who confirmed the door was broken and moved us to yet another room.

Room #4 (the “upgrade”):
This room was technically a suite, the only difference being a swim-out pool—which we never used because we saw raccoons swimming in it the first night. At this point we were exhausted and just wanted a functioning room.

But it didn’t stop there.

Room Service Disaster:
We ordered food one night with a 1.5 hour delivery estimate. Fine. Things get busy.

The food never came.

I walked to the lobby at 1 AM—because AGAIN, no phone in the room—and the only person there was the valet attendant, who kindly tried calling room service for us. The food finally arrived at 2 AM, waking us up from sleep.
Total wait time: 3 hours.

The ONLY Positives
The service staff at the bars and restaurants were wonderful—attentive, kind, and truly trying their best.
- Buffet: 7/10
- Hacienda breakfast buffet: 6/10
- Pool bar: 9/10
- Lobby bar: 9/10
But I’ve heard from multiple people that the food quality at nearby resorts is far better.

The Final Insult
After all of this—being moved FOUR times, dealing with unsafe rooms, mold, broken locks, hours-late food, and nonstop frustration—we received absolutely ZERO compensation or refund.

This was my first-ever trip to Mexico, and it was absolutely ruined by this resort. I cannot say this strongly enough: do not book here. Save yourself the stress, disappointment, and wasted money.

I genuinely hope management reads this and takes real action, because what we experienced was unacceptable on every level.

We had a few issues when we checked into our room with a jacuzzi — the jacuzzi area wasn’t fully clean and the air conditioning wasn’t working properly, even after several requests for maintenance.

Then Ernesto stepped in, and his service truly made the difference. He was very attentive, arranged for the AC to be checked again, offered us champagne and a restaurant reservation to make our evening better, and even helped us move to a different room the next day. Thanks to him, the experience improved a lot

Ernesto was professional, kind, and genuinely cared about making things right. He turned what started as a disappointing stay into a pleasant one — his customer service really stood out!

We enjoyed our experience, we had some difficulty at checkin but it was accommodated with an upgrade to a swim up pool which we greatly appreciated. The breakfast is amazing and the staff is kind and helpful. Great onsite performances and concierge is excellent

Generally, I had a great time and the staff really were incredible. However, I do think they need to put some more work into the variety of the food they serve. It is basically the same exact dishes everyday, all day. Variety would be nice.

Every staff encounter was amazing. They go above and beyond. I had a great time!

Loved the spa!
Loved the poolside cocktail service!
Loved the housekeeping and beverage service!

Hated the pool towel card service
The buffet food was not very good

2nd time there 10-10

liked the result, enjoyed our stay. I will come again.

Todo perfecto

The Hacienda is a quiet and pleasant hotel to be at. It is an All-Inclusive but you have to make reservations every day for restaurants. The attached Krystal Grand is a family hotel and has the entrance to the beach- which there is a bridge from The Hacienda to Krystal Grand (we learned this the last day). The rooms are a bit older and may have a smell to them. The towels and the sheets on the bed were clean and acceptable. You are given towel cards and they are for the pool/beach towels. You are able to swap the towels as you need it. The pool and restaurant waiters are wonderful!! Look for Antonio, he is such a great soul. He will take care of you and make sure you have a drink and or snacks by the pool.
Overall, the staff are great! Just as a reminder- in the check in process, they try to offer you a 90min tour with breakfast, they are trying to get you to shop for their “exclusive benefits”. It sounds good because they offer you discounts for excursions but make sure that if you are not interested to be firm with your response.

My husband and I chose this ‘all-inclusive’ resort in hopes of getting away and finding relaxation and luxury. When we arrived in the property appears very pretty at first glance. Upon entering the lobby (stifling hot) we were greeted with lukewarm welcomes. The gentleman who assisted us gave us a paper with all the hotel information on it and pointed towards our room. We saw others being taken to their room by members of the staff, but we figured what the heck we can find it on our own. We found our room eventually, and upon opening the patio doors, we realized we were in a corner unit covered by a lot of of trees and had a much smaller pool than all the rest of them when we looked down the row. We also noticed the abundance of noise and screaming coming from the pool as it was a weekend and apparently on weekends they got a lot of timeshare or vacation club guests as this property as it’s also a timeshare/vacation club. We came to realize that those guests were much more preferred and taken care of than hotel guests.

Upon changing our room two more times to find a pool that was actually a decent size and not covered by trees so we had sun, we were able to start enjoying our vacation. We quickly changed out of our airplane clothes into our pool clothes and jumped in the pool. Five minutes later, we were greeted by an unwelcome guest- a big raccoon that came right up to the edge of our pool through the trees.

I know many people have said that there are raccoons running around the property and while that may sound cute, the raccoons here are large and not afraid of people. Plus, they are wild and likely rabid. I’m a decent sized man and my husband is a bodybuilder and one evening we were carrying umbrellas and the roughly 30 pound raccoon that greeted us on the pathway to our room was not friendly and would have easily taken a baby given the chance.

Shifting over to the food, the first evening we went to the Talavera Mexican restaurant. I ordered the tuna tartar and when it arrived, it was brown. I pushed it around, but couldn’t eat any of it. Literally made me nauseous looking at it. This was a great indication of what food was going to look like. hot dogs that were barely cooked, hamburgers that were overcooked, tortilla chips that were oil logged, the list goes on. By day three we were sick.

Needless to say we had to go out several times to go find decent food and by the end of the trip we were drinking Pedialyte.

Apart from this one evening, our hot water went out and we contacted the front desk multiple times but heard back nothing for about 20 minutes and I was waiting to take a shower so I had to put clothes back on and go to the lobby. The gentleman told us he would send someone. Another 20 minutes past no one comes so now my husband went down. Same thing someone’s on the way.

Someone finally came checked the water and told us to give it a few minutes I’m not new and I know that if your water heater is off for the building, it’ll take hours if not all night to heat up. Which it did. We got to shower and freezing cold water that night.

After our stay, I reached out to Expedia and provided them all of this detail so they could contact the hotel. The hotel provided no refund and instead gave us one free night for a future stay within 12 months. My husband and I live in Florida and I am not flying to the other side of the continent to use one free night. This is the last you will ever see of us Krystal so enjoy your timeshare guests until they even realize that the food and service and raccoons are not worth it.

Don’t sell this as an all-inclusive resort. With all the weight you will lose from the food and the raccoons running all around the property., you should consider this a weight loss wildlife camp. At least then you would give the right impression.

Only customer service was poor . Some of the stuff

Maids need to be trained in how a room should be cleaned properly. Pool should be maintained properly every day. Elevators should all work in both directions and be cleaned properly.

The adult pool area was nice. We didn’t need to search for a chair. The staff were really friendly! Our room was clean, the rain shower head didn’t work though. The adult area was quiet, would not recommend this resort if you’re looking for a lively pool area.

The food options weren’t great and if you didn’t book an al a carte early, you were eating at the family buffet. The breakfast buffet was good but I wasn’t impressed with the evening buffet and it was very loud.

The alcohol options were good name brand liquors.

I truly enjoyed every moment I spent at this location. I stayed at La Hacienda which is the adults only part and it was absolutely relaxing. Maribel at the cafe in the front was outstanding. She really took care of us as much as she could and if I ever stay again at La Hacienda is because of her. The whole staff goes above and beyond for everyone. The hotel is also very close to everything. I felt very safe and welcomed here.

The staff was excellent and courteous thorughout the entire stay. Whenever any situations arose, the staff handled things well. The room was amazing, though I never used the swimming pool attached to my room. I thoroughly enjoyed my bachelor trip to Krystal Grande and would recommended it to others. It's smaller than some of the resorts I've been to in Mx, but it had fair quality food and a pleasant atmosphere. Bobo the iguana was a nice added experience.