Hello management at Emporio. I am almost about to purchase a 5 night stay at your hotel for Nov. 18, 2007. After reading these reviews I am hesitant for various reasons, service is a big one. The thing that would make me purchase right away would be for a confirmation of a ocean view room. The description of the room is Deluxe Room Oceanview. Is this 100% for sure I will get an ocean view? Thank you.

Thank you in advance for your reply.

They had a wedding on the beach with disco lights and blaring music until 3:00 AM. I was on one of the top floors and could not go to sleep and believe me, hardly anything keeps me awake. After repeated requests to have the music turned down, I had to threaten to call the policia and go crash the wedding party before they would even turn it down let alone close it down. They had no concern whatsoever for their guests other than the wedding party. Apparently, the money they make from weddings matters more that the hundreds of other guests in their hotel and the neighboring hotels. The least accommodating service I've ever experienced at a hotel.

We spent a week in Feb 07 at the Emporio. Room was OK, the beach was fantastic!!! Food at the buffet was marginal---I feel for anyone who had All-Inclusive as the other restaurant was never open while we were there. There was never enough ice---at times there was one or 2 machines for 11 floors. For 49 pesos, the drinks at the pool were terrible---weak and small. There was never enough barmaid service at Happy Hour and chairs were hard to come by. Many reserved them with towels, but never sat in them all day long.

Here's the worst-----when we checked out we owed 420 pesos ($39-40 US) for tips etc for the week so I put it on my Visa card. 2 months later my credit card bill shows a charge from the Emporio for $419.00 US. I called VISA and they contested it so I called the Hotel. As usual: "We will call you back" So far no call back to explain or make it right. My suggestion would be to pay cash.

Otherwise we had a great time---

We stayed at the Emporio from Mar 24 -31, 2007. We had a beautiful, mountainview, corner room on one of the floors that has been renovated/redecorated. The bed was king sized and lovely and soft. The room had a fridge, microwave, toaster, coffee maker, cutlery and dishes. I presume we were upgraded because most rooms did not have those amenities and other patrons at the hotel complained about the hard mattresses on their beds.
Most of the renovated/redecorated ocean front rooms are reserved for RCI time share customers so not available to others.
The hotel is a nice size (200 rooms); has a lovely, open air lobby; the main restaurant was nicely situated on the ocean front; all of the staff were friendly and helpful; and you didn't have to be up early to find a palapas on the beach or an umbrella around the pool.
Our only complaint was with the all inclusive option that we chose. We had to sign for everything (drinks, meals, coffee etc) although it was included. There were endless streams of paperwork for AI and paying customers. It slowed things down considerably. Breakfast was nice, and the hamburgers for lunch at the grill were excellent. At dinner the buffet was mediocre and soon became tiresome .
The daytime bar service generally was pathetic but I believe it was because management encouraged the staff to focus their energies on the paying customers. There was only one bar accessible to all inclusive customers during the day and you either had to get into the pool and swim up to get a drink, or you had to line up with the waiters at the "back door" of the pool bar. There was definitely controlled access to the AI bar service by the management. We have been on all inclusive vacations annually for the past 15 years and have never experienced this treatment . We aren't big drinkers and the staff at times seemed embarassed. Paying patrons received excellent service but in spite of tipping for bar service we could rarely get served. We felt like second class citizens.
In the evening the Lobby Bar was open and the service there (Alejandra and her co-worker) was excellent. Management must have gone home by then!!
Would we come back here? Because of the bad experience we had with the AI option we would consider coming back but not all inclusive. There are lots of great restaurants in Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo and your money would be better spent on them. If I were to return I would also try to book a renovated/redecorated room.
One other thing to note is that the ocean has big waves and can be treacherous at times with strong undertows. There were lots of people with boogy boards who were enjoying the wave action.