We liked everything about this place - very homey, friendly staff (especially Lea) , great beachfront location but not crowded, excellent food and drinks. Wish we had more time, but hope to spend more next time !!
Ive already been 2 times this year and planning on a third. SHHH don't tell anyone, this is a very special place!!! I feel like Casa Sandra is my second home. I can't say enough good things about the service, ambiance, staff, and laid back luxury. First class place.
Rare for me to give a perfect 10 but seriously this has everything you could want for an eco luxe beach holiday. Not going to lie but there is seaweed on the beach and the evening meals at the hotel are pricey but really everything else is just perfect. You will have seen the pictures they do not lie but that’s only half the story the staff truly treat you like one of the family and you will unwind within moments of arriving. The air con works, room bed is super comfy, beach beds for everyone, 5 mins walk into town if tacos are your thing and much more. My husband is normally itching to get home this is the first time he has wanted to stay so thank you Casa Sandra we are already trying to book our flights for next year.
We really wanted to like this place. The stunning photos on the website. The ‘home from home’ ethos. The island get away. But unfortunately Casa Sandra does not live up to its promises. There were some positives: the entrance is charming, the bar and dining area were quirky and attractive, dinner was was excellent. But that’s where the positives end. The rooms are tired and nowhere near as chic as they look on the images. We stayed in two rooms: we initially booked a superior beach front king, and were then moved in what seemed like quite a hurry a day later to a garden suite due to what we were told was a problem with the roof leaking because of tropical rain. It sounded like this was a regular occurrence. Neither room had the level of luxury we expected - the bathrooms were particularly old; in the latter, the room had no natural light and the bathtub was chipped. The ‘included’ breakfast felt very miserly: any hot drinks apart from filter coffee or tea were extra, as were certain breakfast items; you were presented with a whole teaspoon of jams and butter. This seemed at odds with the convivial atmosphere they are trying to achieve. We saw nothing of the ‘cinema night’ and ‘Cuban music night’ advertised - they were never mentioned. As you may know, Holbox has an increasingly bad seaweed problem. This was absolutely horrendous when we were there and seemed particularly bad at Casa Sandra’s beach. When you come to an island get away, you want to spend most of your time on the beach: wading through least a foot long and calf deep blanket of seaweed to get into the sea is not part of the plan. The seaweed in itself would have been bad enough but my goodness the smell!! For two days the stench of rotten eggs lingered: not just at the beach, but around the whole hotel, outside the rooms, even the pool area, a smell so thick it made you gag. You were only safe inside. We basically couldn’t sit on the beach for most of the trip. Now, I know this isn’t Casa Sandra’s fault per se, but I do find it odd that they seem to do absolutely nothing to combat it - burning cedar wood around the hotel to mask the smell, digging a path, at last, to get to the sea without covering yourself in muck. This does seem a bit of a joke when you are paying upwards of $260 a night. As a final nail in the coffin, we were incorrectly charged $260 for a transfer due to the hotel’s misunderstanding which they have repeatedly refused to refund. We initially had a discussion about transfers, but then I emailed to confirm that our hotel in Tulum were arranging ‘all the transfers’ instead, which we prepaid for. When it came time to leave, we took what we assumed was our Tulum transfer, but later received a message from our hotel in Tulum asking where we were, because our driver had been waiting for us! I asked the hotel for an itemised copy of our bill (we were rushed to leave and my husband didn’t have time to look at it), to find the hotel had charged us for the transfer without confirming. When I queried this, they said they didn’t understand that I meant to cancel ‘all the transfers’ (the phrase I used was literally ‘all the transfers’), but we used the service anyway so too bad! I have tried to reason with them several times but their response has been simply to ignore me - terrible customer service and certainly not the warm welcome and hospitality they purport to offer. In short, if you fancy tired rooms, purifying seaweed, being stiffed for $260 and terrible customer service, be my guest and stay at CasaSandra, but otherwise steer clear!…
What a delight to be welcomed by the staff as we exited our taxi. A warm handshake and smile was extended to us as we walked up the wooden plank to this well appointed hotel. Every feature about this hotel is overwhelmingly positive. We stayed in one of the four rooms on the 2nd floor. The balcony provided a great view of the sea. The room was spotless and had everything one would need for comfort. Breakfast was tasty, dinner was out of this world - it was obvious the kitchen manager knew what he was doing to provide great food. Most of all, the staff were warm and attentive. I would go back to Hotbox if only to stay at Sea CasaSandra.
"Make sure they don't give you the room between reception and the pool on the ground floor - it's noisy with no privacy!"Read full review
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