Where we are staying

Booked whole and split evenly. Mexico City is the confirmed charge, split 6 ways. Per person in bold.
Where	Dates	Who	Whole place	Each
Casa KM Del Valle Norte, Mexico City · booked	Tue 29 Dec to Sun 3 Jan 5 nights	6 guests	$3,837	$639
The Fives Oceanfront Puerto Morelos Two Bedroom Oceanview Residence	Sun 3 Jan to Fri 8 Jan 5 nights	6 adults	$5,323	$887

01Casa KMbooked

4BR Penthouse with Private Rooftop. Del Valle Norte, Mexico City. $639 each, all in, and partly paid.

Open the Airbnb listing

Check in	Tuesday 29 Dec 2026, from 16:00
Check out	Sunday 3 Jan 2027, before 11:00
Nights	5
Guests	6 of us, and 7 is the hard maximum
Layout	4 bedrooms, 4 beds, 4.5 bathrooms Every bedroom has its own full bathroom, plus a guest half bath.
Price	$3,837 all in, $639 each
Rated	4.99 from 139 reviews
Also	Washer and dryer in unit, 433 Mbps wifi, 2 covered spaces

Who sleeps where

Bedroom	Bed	What else
1	King	En-suite bath, closet, balcony, hammock, Smart TV
2	Queen	En-suite bath, closet, balcony
3	Queen	En-suite bath, closet, balcony
4	Full	En-suite bath. No balcony or closet. Host lists it as best for one guest.

Two couples take the king and one queen, both with their own balcony and bathroom. The two singles take the other queen and bedroom 4. Nobody shares a bedroom and nobody shares a bathroom.

The rooftop

Private rooftop one level up, with outdoor furniture, a shaded dining area, a grill, a stationary bike and open city views that reach the volcanoes on clear days.

How far from everything

Straight line from the house, so real walking is a little longer.
To	Distance
Roma Norte restaurant cluster	2.2 km
Parque Mexico	1.5 km
Em, Av. Amsterdam 76	1.6 km
Pujol, Polanco	4.7 km

Del Valle Norte reads as far out, but it is closer to Em and Parque Mexico than the Oasis is. Every venue is plotted on the map.

Why this one

Four bedrooms, each with its own full bathroom, so both couples and both singles get a private bath
Bedroom 4 is purpose-built for a single guest, which suits one of the two singles
Balconies off three of the four bedrooms, the direct fix for the Oasis airflow complaints
Private rooftop with a grill and shaded dining, so we keep the thing the Oasis was worth
4.99 from 139 reviews is the strongest record of anything checked on these dates
Gas stove, oven and a full kitchen, so the New Year's Eve plan survives
Smoke detectors in every bedroom, a carbon monoxide alarm, three fire extinguishers and a first aid kit
Washer and dryer in unit, 433 Mbps wifi, two covered parking spaces

Cancellation, now that it is committed

Free for 24 hours after booking, then partial refund only until 16:00 on 22 December 2026, listing local time

The free window has already closed. Until 22 December only a partial refund is available and after that nothing, so the money is committed. The second payment of $2,251.42 lands on 14 December, eight days ahead of that cliff.

Worth knowing before we book

Quiet hours run 22:00 to 08:00. This was not in the listing's rules summary and surfaced only on the confirmation. The New Year's Eve plan puts midnight on the rooftop, which sits squarely inside that window, so that plan needs either rethinking or an explicit agreement with the host. See the New Year's Eve page.
Exterior security cameras on the property, so treat the outside as recorded
Seven guests maximum, which leaves one spare place
The nightly rate rose about 29 percent between the 12 October quote and booking
Cancellation is free for 24 hours only, then partial refund until 22 December
Three levels joined by interior stairs, and the elevator only reaches the middle one
No air conditioning and no central heating, just portable fans and extra blankets. January nights run about 45F.
Del Valle Norte reads as far but is not; it is closer to Em and Parque Mexico than the Oasis is

02The booking itself

Confirmed 2026-10-18. The confirmation code, street address and host phone are deliberately not on this site; they live in the repo's gitignored private/ folder.

What was actually charged, taxes included.
Line	Amount
634.20 a night x 5 nights	$3,171.02
Taxes	$665.91
Total	$3,836.93
Split 6 ways	$639 each

When the money moves

Date	Amount	Status
Sunday 18 Oct 2026	$1,585.51	paid
Monday 14 Dec 2026	$2,251.42	scheduled

The second payment lands before the refund cliff, so deposits want collecting ahead of Monday 14 Dec 2026, not after. Both dates are on the to do list.

The rate rose before we booked

Quoted all in at $2,944 on 12 October, paid $3,836.93 on 18 October, which is $893 more. The receipt is $634.20 a night before tax against roughly $490 implied by the earlier quote, so the nightly rate rose about 29 percent in six days. Holiday inventory tightening is the likely cause and it cannot be verified after the fact. Treat the $2,944 figure as dead.

House rules on the confirmation

Quiet hours	22:00 to 08:00
Maximum guests	7
Pets	allowed

Exterior security cameras on the property
Carbon monoxide alarm
Smoke alarm

Quiet hours versus midnight on the roof

The 22:00 to 08:00 quiet hours appeared only on the confirmation, not in the listing's rules summary. Midnight on New Year's Eve sits inside that window and the property has exterior cameras, so the New Year's Eve plan is provisional until the host agrees in writing.

What it beat

The 4BRM Coolest flat in Heart of Condesa was the alternative at $760 each and is no longer in play. Cheaper options existed when we booked, the lowest at $307 each; the decision log records why Casa KM won on bathrooms and review record rather than on price.

03Why we are leaving Oasis in Roma Norte

It held the Mexico City slot until 2026-10-12. Its own reviews are what moved us off it.

Open the old listing

Guests report no windows in most bedrooms. One: "no windows in most of the rooms, which means very little airflow unless you leave your room door open." Another: "no A/C so the upstairs rooms get hot. no windows so there is no airflow but there were tower fans in all rooms."
Two separate reviews raise the smell. "The house smells very musty, and so do the towels and bedding. You can't rest because of the smell." A second lists "visible mold on ceiling of some bedrooms" and "occasional sewage smell by lower common area."
A guest notes "there is no real kitchen appliances to use", which the New Year's Eve plan depends on.
The street-facing first bedroom has road noise and a street lamp with no curtains. One guest bought and installed curtains during their stay.
At 7 guests it reprices to $3,996, or $571 each, the most expensive option on the board.

What it did have

Six bedrooms and 6.5 bathrooms, a private rooftop, no quiet hours, and 4.91 from 145 reviews. The bathroom count and the rooftop are the two things Casa KM had to match, and it does.

04The Fives Oceanfront Puerto Morelos

One Two Bedroom Oceanview Residence, 1421 sq ft, sleeps up to 8. Puerto Morelos, between Cancun and Playa del Carmen.

Open the resort site

Check in	Sunday 3 Jan 2027, from 15:00
Check out	Friday 8 Jan 2027, before 12:00
Nights	5
Guests	6 adults
Room	Two Bedroom Oceanview Residence, 1421 sq ft
Availability seen	10 units, with a 32% discount live
Reservations	reservations@thefiveshotels.com US and Canada +1 800 592 1246 Direct +52 998 580 0100

The four rate combinations

All taxes included. Split 6 ways, per person in bold.
Option	Non-refundable	Each	Flexible	Each
Room only then eat in the village	$4,525	$754	$5,323	$887
All inclusive	$7,054	$1,176	$7,852	$1,309

Recommended: flexible room-only. Free cancellation, refundable until 13 December 2026. A further 5% ($226) comes off through their loyalty programme, which offered at the room selection step for a prior Fives booking, or on signup

Room only or all inclusive

All-inclusive works out to $84.30 per adult per night at the current discount, so full board costs only $98 more each than room-only plus eating in the village. That gap used to be $239 each. Break-even is about two resort cocktails a day. Room-only is still the pick given the 16 minute village walk, but it is now close enough to put to the group.

Why 3 January and not earlier

The Fives runs a holiday rate band 24 Dec 2026 to 2 Jan 2027, with the next band starting exactly 3 January
The identical unit is $7,895 for 29 Dec to 3 Jan versus $4,990 for 3 to 8 Jan
A stay including 2 January has no all-inclusive board available at all

Confirmed, so nobody has to ask again

No resort fee
No reservation fee
No New Year's Eve gala charge
Only holiday charge is a 25 December gala at $100 per adult, which 3 January clears by nine days

Still to confirm before booking

Environmental tax at check-in, sources conflict between under $25 for the stay and up to $270
Whether the 32% rate survives to booking and stacks with the 5% loyalty discount
Kitchen items surcharge if anyone plans to cook

Deposits

Both legs want money before they are held, and Casa KM stops refunding entirely after 22 December. Collect from everyone first. The full cancellation position is on the costs page, and the booking deadlines are on the to do list.