As a wedding photographer, I take my responsibility seriously. I work tirelessly to ensure my clients have the most joyful and stress-free experience possible on their wedding day. That’s why I cannot stay silent about what I witnessed at Sandos Playacar—a resort that misled my clients, ignored their concerns, and ultimately turned what should have been a dream wedding into a physical and emotional nightmare.
This is not just a review. This is a warning. If you are considering Sandos Playacar for your wedding, please read this and think twice. No couple should ever have to endure what my clients went through.
A Bait-and-Switch from the Start
Planning a destination wedding requires trust. Couples rely on resorts to provide accurate information about venues, accommodations, and services so they can confidently plan their big day. Sandos Playacar completely betrayed that trust.
For months leading up to the wedding, the couple worked closely with the resort’s wedding department, selecting venues, reviewing décor, and finalizing all the details based on photos and descriptions they were provided. Everything seemed set.
Then, upon arrival, they were blindsided by a devastating revelation—The information and photos they had been sent were from an entirely different Sandos resort.
The wedding location, the setup, the décor options—everything they had envisioned and planned had to be adjusted. They were expected to completely replan their wedding on the spot.
“The ceremony location she sent me was the whole reason I picked this place and now we’re stuck in the middle of a crowded beach!"
Instead of taking accountability for the massive error, resort staff brushed off the couple’s concerns, offering vague excuses and dismissive apologies. When the bride and groom asked how such a critical mistake could have happened, they were met with shrugs and empty reassurances.
Suddenly, a wedding they had spent over a year meticulously planning became a last-minute scramble to salvage what they could and begin compromising on their vision.
A Disastrous First Impression
As if the initial wedding planning betrayal wasn’t bad enough, the check-in experience only confirmed that Sandos Playacar had no interest in providing quality service.
After a long day of travel, our wedding group was left trapped inside the shuttle bus with no explanation. The driver simply walked away, and resort staff ignored us. When we were finally let out, we were met with chaos, confusion, and complete disorganization.
- We were given no welcome or instructions to check-in. Guests wandered aimlessly, trying to figure out where they were supposed to go.
- Elderly guests and those with mobility issues were forced to struggle up multiple flights of stairs because none of the elevators were working which was the first of many instances of things not working at Sandos Playacar.
- The upgraded room that the couple was promised was a lie. Instead they were given a dingy room with faulty air conditioning and no working lights.
- Guests were given keys to the wrong rooms, including occupied ones, leading to horrifying mix-ups where strangers walked in on each other.
- The bride’s grandparents, who had specifically requested a wheelchair-accessible room, were placed on the second floor with no elevator access.
- Calls for help to the front desk were ignored or dismissed.
From the very beginning, Sandos Playacar made one thing clear: they do not care about your experience.
A Wedding Celebration Turned Disaster
Despite the broken promises and poor first impressions, the couple remained hopeful that their wedding day would still be beautiful. But Sandos Playacar continued to let them down at every turn.
Overpriced Add-ons and Terrible Service
The resort began piling on unexpected charges at every opportunity, as if they were about to start charging the bride and groom for every breath they took.
- The couple had paid for a reception extension to last until 10 PM, but upon arrival, they were told that the extension had been applied **to the beginning of their reception—**a time when guests were still at cocktail hour and the couple was taking photos. They had no choice but to pay even more to extend it to the originally planned time.
- Want gold-coloured table settings instead of the standard silver? That would be an extra $450 USD—which, for 29 guests, worked out to $15 per fork.
- A light-up dance floor on the beach? $1,700 USD. Not only was this absurdly overpriced, but the floor itself was faulty—a key panel flickered on and off throughout the night. When the bride asked for a refund, the resort’s response? “We gave you complimentary desserts, so we’re even.”
- The $200 USD additional fee paid for a cold-sparkler moment, timed for their first dance, late, causing a for a awkward lead up to their first dance.
- By the time the trip was over, the couple had been hit with approximately $3,000 USD in unexpected charges. Sandos Playacar knows that once couples arrive, they have no choice but to pay their insane fees for everything.
An overall lack of professionalism. The wedding manager, Armando, was described as rude, dismissive, and completely unhelpful. He blamed the bride, the wedding party, and even the guests for the resort’s own failures. The bride later wrote,
“He did nothing but stand there with his arms crossed, blaming everyone else.”
A Health Crisis the Resort Denied
Besides the wedding service failures, the resort itself was a health hazard.
- The wedding was scheduled for Saturday, four days after arrival. By that time, almost every single guest in our party had fallen violently ill.
- The cause? Likely norovirus, but between the terrible food, unclean conditions, symptoms, and the raw sewage smell permeating the resort, our suspicions led us to a possible bacterial contamination. This suspicion was later validated by the doctor who was brought in to treat the bride. This doctor, who the resort would only call if they paid them $200 USD per person, said he has been back in forth to this resort non-stop for months and believed that they were serving contaminated water to their guests in the buffets, restaurants and bars.
- The night before the wedding, both the bride and groom were battling an aggressive illness. To make matters worse, the front desk continued assigning their room to new guests, resulting in multiple strangers walking into the bride’s room while she was in a vulnerable state. Imagine spending the night before your wedding like that.
- Need bottled water? $12 USD per bottle. Need medicine? 5-10 times the price from a store in town. Calls to room service? Ignored. Our group resorted to using delivery apps to get food, water, and medicine for the rest of the trip.
- As we later discovered, this was an ongoing issue affecting nearly every guest at the resort for months. Yet, when we approached staff for answers and care, we were gaslit and dismissed. The official response? “Every guest must have been sick before they arrived.”
- During our stay, our group encountered 5 other wedding groups and more than 300 other Canadians who have recently been to Sandos Playacar with identical experiences.
CBC NEWS: Dozens of Canadians got sick at Mexican all-inclusive resort, call for facility inspection
A Forced Wedding Postponement and Even More Extortion
The wedding did not happen on Saturday. The couple, still recovering, decided to push the wedding to Sunday—the only other available day. But Sandos Playacar saw this as another opportunity to extract money from them.
- The resort demanded that the couple pay for almost their entire wedding package again.
- After an exhausting back-and-forth, the family was able to negotiate the fee down to an additional $600 USD
By the time the night was over, the newlyweds were not celebrating—they were simply relieved that it was finally behind them.
The Cover-Up: How Sandos Playacar Hides the Truth
This is a massive resort with glowing reviews on WeddingWire, Google and TripAdvisor, How could this all be true?
We did a deep dive into the online reviews and noticed a pattern: every negative review was quickly buried by suspiciously generic 5-star ratings.
Even worse, Sandos Playacar’s WeddingWire profile falsely portrays it as a top-tier wedding venue with glowing reviews and multiple “Couples’ Choice” awards. It’s clear that this resort is paying to maintain its high ranking while real couples suffer through the worst experiences of their lives.
In fact, this was made all too clear when the Bride and Groom told their wedding coordinator they would be sharing their terrible experience. Her response?
“That’s okay, we have other reviews”.
Final Thoughts: Do Not Book Your Wedding at Sandos Playacar
Sandos Playacar is not a wedding destination—it is a trap. They lure couples in with misleading information, fail to provide basic customer service, and refuse to take responsibility when things go wrong.
For couples dreaming of a stress-free, beautiful destination wedding, do not make the mistake of booking here. Sandos Playacar does not care about your wedding, your guests, or your happiness. If they deceived one couple, they’ll deceive you too.
Don’t let Sandos Playacar profit from your misery. Choose a better resort.
