Don't go there, please!!!

Travelling with two young kids, day of arrival, room not ready before 5PM. I had a premium oceanview room that I paid extra for at the resort but it's probably with the least broken stuff, no shower pressure, watter leaking from ceiling lights in bathroom and sparking, broken fixtures, tiles. Beach towels are very rare, we were only able to exchange it twice the whole week. Towel staff very rude, refuse to exchange towels because I had 4 to exchage, also no towels after room cleaning, had to mak [... read more]e 15 calls to get 2 sets of towels, this happened on two occassions during the week. Restaurant and Bar staff were nice but the food was very poor. Food is recycled a lot in the buffet from lunch to dinner to next day. It was a constant hassle with front desk and customer service staff to a point were I gave up and just wanted to come home. Met two other families with the same issues as me. If you don't care about these things above, than it's fine. Pool (quiet pool and kids waterpark) and beach is very nice as well as the ground. The activity pool is where all the teenager hang out was disgusting with food and garbage floating. Great kids activities though.

Beautiful grounds, but service lacks

My wife and I recently stayed at Barcelo Punta Cana. The grounds are beautiful and well maintained and the beach is amazing; the only flaw was the accommodations and service, or better lack thereof! • Water Leak above our sink – We had a slow water leak above our bathroom sink which turned into a large downpour half way into our stay. We told the front desk mid-way into our stay when it got really bad. We notified the front desk at 9:00am. We returned at the end of the day to find they did n [... read more]ot inspect our room, and water was still leaking!! When we went to the front desk again, the employee said to us “why didn’t you come back in the afternoon if it was not fixed?!” …I told him “I came at 9:00am!! You had a whole day to fix it and it’s my vacation!” • Housekeeping – Day 1 we tipped $2 and received only one set of towels, when we are two people staying in the room! Day 2 we did not tip and received only ONE hand towel, no bath towels or face towels at all, nor did we receive new bottled water and pop! Day 3 we tipped $5 and received two sets of all towels!! You should NOT have to tip to receive the basic amenities! We spoke to many others on the resort who also experienced the same problems with housekeeping. • Towel Hut – Employees question you if you attempt to get more than one towel per day. I went to switch our towels around 4:00pm because they were wet and the employee at the towel hut said "you were just here 1 hour ago – you are only allowed one towel per day, hotel rule!" I said “excuse me? If towel is wet, I'm allowed to switch it as many times as I want!!” • Showers – The showers in our rooms had sporadic water pressure and cold water. • Toilets – Half of the toilets around the resort do not flush well. A poolside washroom overflowed with dirty water about 1-inch deep one day! • Beach chairs –We were up and at the pool/beach by 8:30/9:00am and many of the good spots were gone already! And the best part, those people did not show up many times until after lunch! • Rooms – rooms are old and should be renovated • Pasta station – the pasta station at the buffet needs more than one person to run it. We waited for 45 minutes to get pasta, because the poor guy was cooking AND washing his own plates on his own!! • Burger hut – the burger hut near the pool NEVER replenished the French Fries during peak lunch time hours. We would wait in line for burgers and hot dogs, only to find out the fries were finished when it was our turn! Cook for your anticipated crowds. • Drinks – Various times the pool side bars ran out of pina colada mix. The speciality restaurants did not have rum during peak dinner hours. • Drinks – The servers will ask you what you want to drink …but NEVER bring it to you! Why ask if you aren’t going to follow through?! This happened MULTIPLE times. • Internet – Internet is lousy and expensive! Not even free wifi in the lobby.

Nice resort, too many springbreakers

This was a well kept and clean resort. The staff was awesome, always there to help. Food was awesome with lots of variety. If you go to the casino avoid the scam with the free chips at the entrance. Spring breakers took over pool every day open to close (and some never got out) I really enjoy the swim up but choose to stay out of this one. Beautiful pools just don't like swimming in.....

Good Value Last Minute Trip

Grounds were lovely and well maintained. People were friendly, polite and helpful. Room was a little dated but fine. Buffet food was good, however, a la carte was spectacular. Has by far the best strip of beach in the vacinity. Evening entertainment was OK. Sometimes certain drinks were difficult to obtain. Good cross section of age groups selected this location.

Best resort in Punta Cana!

The grounds are heaven; the layout was fantastic; the food was tasty. I would have liked more music on the patio at nights. It can get boring at times. The water was rough; maybe because it was March.

Solid 3.5 Stars Experience potential for 4

Spring Break Stay with lots of college students on ground. Knowing that, there are separate pools if you need to relax and enjoy the peace and quiet. Condo style resort with good food, beach and service. Staff spoke very limited English but we had a Spanish speaking person with us so we were good most of the time. Rooms keys timed out and needed daily registrations at the front desk; found that fairly frustrating. top floors have vaulted ceilings but water pressure was lousy along with hot water [... read more] availability. Make sure to check out the Pizzeria upstairs in the main Pool Area for great pizza and a spectacular view of the of ocean. Daily entertainment was fantastic both daytime and evening. Bring American money tip and travel in taxis. 40 minutes from Higuey, 20 minutes to San Juan shopping centre and 5 minutes to Punta Blanca Shopping Market. Come visit with low expectations and you may be pleasantly surprised liked us. Cheers and Happy Travels!!!

Barcelo punta cana

This place was really nice, the beach was awesome and the food was excellent. This my second time at this resort love it .Wish they had a bit more entertainment at night.The buffet was great and a la carte was excellen.

Nice resort

I thought the hotel was beautiful and clean! But customer service was a bit lacking. We actually called for something we needed in our room and it took 3 days and never got it anyway:( You would never be able to have a bath in this resort. People were friendly for the most time and really appreciated their tip

Not Impressed

- Started with a 6 hr delay in the flight to Punta Cana - The bed was so bad that we had to stuff pillows at our sides to stop us from rolling into the middle. We ended up sleeping on the bed sideways - Balcony door was broken and would not lock. We were on the second floor and used the room safe - Cold water cut out while taking a shower - Water was leaking from the light fixture in the bathroom above the sink - Alarm clock in the room had no power cord. I asked for one but it didn't come  [... read more] - Soap dish in shower was on a 45 deg angle. Broken - Ice machines were out of order ( 2 ) closest to our room - Elevator was on again off again. about 50 - 50 - My wife got ill the first night and spent 4 days and 3 nights in the Bavaro Hospital. ( no fault of the hotel ) - Staff at the Barcelo Punta Cana were 4 out of 5 - Doctor 5 out of 5 - Food 3 out of 5 - 2 out of 5 we return

Beautiful Grounds!!

The grounds were absolutely beautiful, the food at the buffet was good but the a la carte restaurant food and service was even better. The rooms were not very nice, outdated and the freezer in the fridge was broken and the mirror in the bathroom was also broke. There were also not enough beach/pool chairs to accommodate all the guests at the resort. Aside from that we had a great experience! The rock climbing and trapeze was fun! The massages at the spa were excellent. The beach is amazing and y [... read more]ou can walk for miles!

Great place!

The Barcelo Premium provided my boyfriend and I with a great experience during our stay in DR. Beautiful beach/pool area, amazing a la carte restaurants, and friendly staff ! I would return to this resort

Amazing Resort!!

Everything is great about this resort! That staff was excellent. Pools and beach were perfect and didn't have to walk long to get anywhere. Entertainment was not as good as it has been in the past years at this resort but overall I love the resort!

Great Resort!

Beach was stunning. Food was great especially the a la cartes. Tons of entertainment and staff was awesome. Shows were great at night - more so when they involve the crowd. Drinks are good and tons of alcohol in them. Big resort but definitely fun.

Disappointing

Pool area and beach was amazing. Resort was pretty close to the airport. Disco was very fun. Rooms were not very nice. Food was not very good. Most staff were not overly friendly. Entertainment was poor

Our stay at the Barcelo Punta Cana february 2015

We had no hot water in our room for 4-5 day's. The bus that took us to Nicole's we had to book our seats, when we were to come back the bus was smaller which left 4 of our members left behind as I had to wait over 1 hour for my husband to come back to the resort with our room key. when I bought the internet they asked me which 3 day's I would like as I did purchase the 3 day package I said mon/wed/and Sat as I came to use my Saturday it did not let me connect as I went to see about it, the atten [... read more]dant told me it was 3 consecutive day's so I had to repurchase another day for 12$ as the 3 day's was 27$ went to pay at the lobby they told me it was 13$ so added another dollar. We were 12 people in our group and only 1 of us did not get sick the rest of us all got sick while we were there.

It was an ok resort

Well it sure had its ups and downs. The downs being the water was hardly working in our room so we couldn't flush the toilet or shower, and I found some of the employees really not friendly. Also I didn't find that the entertainment staff tried to get people involved as much as they could have. The beach was lovely and the pool was nice.

Had a Great Time!!!

Resort is good and I would recommend/return. Service in restaurants, bars and around pool was excellent. Food was good; had an omelette everyday, custom pasta bar was great, a la cartes also nice. Only downside; not enough lounge chairs around pools or on beach. This lead to people stealing chairs; witnessed several altercations and had my chair stolen once. Definitely affects the "holiday feel" of your trip having to battle for chairs and always having to leave someone from your group with yo [... read more]ur chairs.

Barcelo is not what it used to be!!!!

Food was great both buffet and restaurants, service was also really good. Our room and resort was very tired looking. Our air conditioner and shower did not work, and the plaster from the ceiling was falling down onto bed when sleeping...

Good time had by all

We stayed at the Barceló Punta Cana from Feb 6 – 13. We were a group of 13 and we all overall enjoyed our stay. It was a nice convenient 25 min ride from the airport. First of all, I’m pretty basic when it comes to vacations and don’t normally stay at high end places so if you're use to 5 star luxury resorts you may want to reconsider. The resort is older, but they manage to keep it very clean and I would always see workers cleaning/updating things daily. I only had a few minor complaint [... read more]s over the week we stayed, most of them being around customer service from the front desk. We arrived late to the resort, around 12am, so we were all tired after a long day of travelling. Check in took over 45 minutes and they would allow other guests to butt the line of people waiting to check in. I had e-mailed the resort ahead of time requesting our group be placed together and to be in building three – I kept e-mailing them until I finally got a response confirming they received my e-mail. After waiting a long time to check in, we did manage to get rooms in building three. For the most part our rooms were fairly close together. ROOMS I stayed in room 3221. It was clean and had a very nice view. We always had hot water (sometimes a little bit too much hot water). The door of the room over looked the buffet so sometimes it would get quite noisy and hot from the heat of the buffet. A few of the nights they would be doing repairs during the middle of the night with power tools etc . I thought it was strange but I was still able to sleep and didn’t care too much. Majority of the nights after 10-11 p.m. our toilet would not flush. The other five rooms of our group had the same issue. Our Air Transat rep told us it was due to some water issues they were having and it was only going to be 1 or 2 nights, but it ended up being the whole week. Everyone’s A/C worked good and the rooms have ceiling fans as well which I found helped a lot. Beds were quite comfy and the cleaning lady changed the bedding every day. We got fresh towels everyday and the mini fridge was stocked daily. We did leave small gifts and a small tip for the cleaning lady every day and she was always very happy and appreciative. We had a nice flat screen tv but found it to be quite blurry. I found majority of the channels were in Spanish but did manage to find a few decent stations. Never saw one bug or anything in our room. About half way through the week we did receive a call from the front desk or something asking if we were happy with our room…so I did appreciate the follow up, but overall I was quite happy with our room, especially since it was so close to everything. Elevators were quick and worked every single day except the last day we were there because it was raining and somehow flooded them. POOLS I found both pools to be gorgeous. Service at the time up bar was pretty good – didn’t have to wait long to get drinks. The only complaint I have about the pools is the lack of lounge chairs. People would constantly throw their towels over lounge chairs to “claim” them…at times I would never even see people that entire day come back to their chair. I just felt like we wasted so much time trying to find somewhere to lounge. Aside from that, the pools were kept very clean and maintained nicely. BEACH The beach was beautiful. They would clean the seaweed away every morning. The waves were quite intense and usually had a yellow or red flag out, so you couldn’t expect to really go swimming without being slapped by waves. FOOD I found the food to be quite good at the buffet. They would change it up every night so it wasn’t too repetitive. Breakfast was pretty much the same everyday but quite tasty. I give kudos to the guy making the omelets – from the beginning of his shift to the end he was always smiling. We did four a la cartes – the Dominican, Japenese, Italian and French. The Japanese was by far the best one we had. Food was made fresh in front of us and was an awesome show. The other a la cartes were just mediocre and the service was quite slow. Some of us would get upset stomachs afterwards. We never had any problems booking the a la cartes. The hotel actually prebooked our reservations, but we had to get them all changed and had no problem doing so. You were only allowed to book three in advance, but they would post availability daily and you could make additional reservations if you booked the day of. The pizzeria at the pool bar was good – but again service was slow. One day it took us over an hour to get our food. I do realize they were only limited to the one oven and the waiters would constantly keep bringing us drinks without even asking so it made the wait a little better. The pizzas and calzones were stone baked, fresh and delicious. At night the pool bar would serve food up until about 4-5 a.m. They had food such as hot dogs, quesadillas, chicken wings, French fries etc. NIGHT LIFE To be honest…I only made it out to one nightly show. It was one of those ones where they pick people from the audience. It was funny but felt really disorganized. Our a la carte dinners were usually late so by the time we were done dinner the entertainment would be over or else I would of checked out more shows. They would sometimes have live music playing in the lobby but that didn’t seem to go on late. The disco at night was open until 2am. It’s in the downstairs from the lobby and the sound seemed pretty well contained. I found some nights at the disco better then others…they would tend to play a lot of latin salsa type music…which fine for a few songs but they didn’t seem to mix it up very well. We would request songs and then would have to wait half an hour to hear them even if there was hardly anyone else there. It was nothing special but at least something to do at night. CHECK OUT Unfortunately we had a 10:30 p.m. flight and the bus to the airport wasn’t coming to pick us up until 7:30 p.m. Check out is at noon and they leave a note under your door the night before explaining you can request late check out for $10 an hour. We figured we would try and keep one or two rooms to shower and keep our luggage. I inquired about this service the day before we were to check out. I was told to come back the next day and they would be able to help me. About 2 hours before check out I requested the late check out and told I wasn’t able to do late check out because it was “too busy”. The maximum they could provide was until 2:00 p.m. I was however informed that they have “courtesy” rooms so people can shower etc. We decided to go this route as we wanted to enjoy the full day by the pool. Unfortunately after checking out it decided to pour rain all day long. It was just unfortunate to not have a room or have anywhere to go for an entire day due to the rain. I did decide to use the courtesy room to shower and was told we could have half an hour each. After waiting 45 minutes we had our turn and not even being in the room for 10 minutes front desk was already calling asking when we would be done. There was a pretty big line up to use it, so I recommend if you have a later flight to really push for the late check out and keep your room. The courtesy room we used was in building 5 on the bottom level…I would definitely have to say our room in building 3 was A LOT better and made me appreciate it even more. I should note that check out was really fast and easy. I hope in the future they develop a better system for check in as it was ridiculously long and disorganized. OVERALL Overall I really did have a good time. I believe most of this was due to travelling in a large group, because it’s really impossible to not have a good time. There were some minor stomach issues here and there with everyone in group due to the food…but it was nothing really consistent. I believe we all had the same opinions about the resort as we all had a good time. I can’t complain about the room we received at all. We had a birthday in the group mid-week and they put a banner on her door and had a fruit basket and bottle of champagne delivered which I thought was really nice. I also asked if they could do a cake for her birthday which they did for us at the Italian a la carte at no extra charge. We got this resort at a fairly reasonable price so overall I am happy with my choice. Wifi is available but is at an extra charge. Some people were able to get a connection in their room but I found you had to walk around to get connection. The wifi is kind of overpriced in my opinion ... $12 for 24 hours or $50 for a week. That gets you one code so you can't use it on multiple devices at one time. Not sure if I would return to this resort as I like to try new places, but I would recommend this resort if you got it for a good price. If they could work out the consistency of service between staff then this place would be awesome. For the most part I found you didn't need to tip a lot to get good service.

Great Vacation!

Overall, the hotel is very nice but is in need of continued updates which I know are taking place. I would suggest paying the extra for an upgraded room, as the older rooms are very basic and not in the 'nicer' area of the hotel. The food was great! We enjoyed the following a la carte restaurants: Japaneese, Dominican and Seafood. All were absolutely amazing; food and service! We also enjoyed the pizzaria for lunch twice, and couldn't get enough of the burgers at the pool grill...D-lish! The str [... read more]etch of beach in front of the Barcelo is one of the nicest, with enough room for lounge chairs and people to walk along the surf. The main bar opens at 8am, offering specialty coffees...with Bailey's or Kalhua and they even had clamato for Ceasars!!! Yippee!