The Mayaland Hotel at Chichen Itza

There is a toll road to Chichen Itza, but we take the old road passing through several towns and villages. The drive takes a couple of hours and we arrive at the Hotel around 3pm. There is a town a couple of miles away full of inexpensive hotels and restaurants, but we have booked the more expensive Mayaland Hotel, which is right next to the Archeological site and affords access through the back entrance, allowing you to beat the crowds in the morning
The Mayaland Hotel bills itself as a 5 star hotel, which proves that there is no Trades Description Act in Mexico. It is set in the most beautiful grounds of over 100 acres of tropical gardens, and from a distance the hotel looks enchanting. But up close and personal it is anything but. Our experience starts at check in when the front desk tries to get us to upgrade our room to a more expensive one. When we decline, he tells us that they are sold out of our rooms and we have been automatically upgraded!
The only nice thing we can say about the room is that it has a lovely balcony overlooking the gardens. As far as the 5 Star experience is concerned, here are some of the things we found:
Paint peeling on the corridor walls
No lights in the corridors or outside our room after 9.00 pm.
No phone in the room
No internet in the room
The yellow bedspreads are filthy
The white towels are thin and grey
The bathroom boasts only one soap, which is the smallest piece of soap known to man – and has to be carried from the shower to the washbasin
No free water provided, despite the fact the water supply is unfit to drink
If you get to breakfast after 9.30 you are turned away.