Overall, we had a great experience at Hacienda Tres Rios. Here's the breakdown...

Working with the H3R Wedding Department

During the initial phase of the planning and contracting, we worked with Guillermo Rodriguez. He was ok to work with. The way they present the charges is somewhat unclear, and we had to ask for clarification on what is included several times. It became clear to us that the wedding services department appears to be understaffed, because he always seemed overwhelmed. In my view, he became less helpful after it became clear that we would not be using the vendors recommended by the hotel. He kept sending us back to them even after we made it clear we would be using other people. The answer to many questions became "no, we can't do that". That said, he was always polite (even while saying no). Later on the in process, our plans were passed to Daniela Flores. For anyone planning a wedding at H3R, I would HIGHLY recommend that you ask to work with her from the very beginning. She is much easier to work with and very sweet. She has five years of experience in wedding coordination, and started at Hacienda early in 2013. She was very responsive to my emails and was there for me during our stay at the resort.

The price per wedding guest staying at the resort is $20, which is very reasonable. What I found less reasonable is the price per guest not staying at the resort, which for us was $85 (the original $20 plus $65). Although we tried to encourage everyone to stay at the resort (without being too pushy), we had quite a few that stayed at other resorts. I can't really recommend a way to make people stay at the resort. What we ended up doing was asking the guests to pay the difference, which I hated doing, but it was just too expensive (there were 12 people staying off site). The price is especially painful given that the bride and groom's room is not included, which is not the case at other resorts.

Overall, the service, especially from Daniela, was great. Do not, however, expect any extra perks beyond what is agreed to in the contract.

Reservation Department

Somewhat inconsistent service here. Many of my family and friends worked with Jorge Perez. We were given a $185 per night per person wedding block rate, and some people were able to negotiate better rates than that over the phone or by using travel websites. That rate is for a couple. I would recommend that you also ask for a fixed rate for people coming by themselves. We didn't have one and those rates were all over the map. Some people had to call the reservation line multiple times, left messages and were never called back. They just had to keep calling. I was quite surprised, when we arrived at the resort, to learn that the reservation department is located in Cancun. Overall everything worked out fine, but I didn't find it to meet the expectations I have of a five star resort.

Our checkout process was a bit rocky. We had a some extra money in our payment to the wedding department that we wanted to apply to the bill. It took them over an hour to figure out how to do this (no one from the wedding department was working that day - Sunday). Luckily, we just sat by the pool and had lunch while they were doing this, but the lack of communication and coordination between departments was a bit shocking.

Airport Shuttle

Do not use this service. It is a total rip off. A round trip is $187, and the van can fit 7 people. You can find shuttle services for half that price with the same quality of service. Jorge also assured my dad that the van was reflective of a five star resort, and that was not the case at all. 

Resort

Hacienda Tres Rios is BEAUTIFUL. The beach, grounds, rooms, pools, restaurants are gorgeous. For me, this made up for many of the service flaws. We didn't try all of the restaurants, but the food in those that we tried was good, as was the room service. The best food we tried was at the Italian restaurant (which unfortunately had the worst service). A bunch of our guests went on the Segway tour, and really enjoyed that.

Wedding Day

The service on our wedding day was great. My bridesmaids and I got our hair and make up done at the spa on site, and it was REALLY expensive, but the results were amazing. I don't regret spending a penny of that money. The spa actually contracts with an outside company for that. Daniela was available for me all day, and did a wonderful job coordinating everyone. The service at the reception was especially exceptional. The waiters were refilling my guests' drinks without having to be asked, and the event was fully staffed. No one wanted for anything. The food was great, and everyone especially liked the 7 Seas soup. We opted for the buffet menu so everyone had choices and I was very happy we did that. We had over 40 guests and there's no way that one plate would have worked for all of them.

Please contact me if you have any questions!