Iberostar Selection Hacienda Dominicus reviews
12990 TripAdvisor reviews
Do not book
Pioneer02735509008 on Mar 15, 2024
I could not rate this hotel lower. Food: all the same and we each puked. Upkeep: old broken unpaintednot working Cleaning: staff beyond friendly but deep cleaning does not exist. Mold in showers, onclothing rack, no cushion covers ...and more No handwashing after holding raw chicken Activities advertised buy non happened. Oh! Mattress was foam-ripped cover in many places and stained and 100% from 1980s. The food was all the same regardless of restaurant and day. And not full of flavour! There was no inspirational chef just a lot of oil salt. No preparation of flavourful eg) pasta sauce was literal puree canned tomatoes. No chef. Tried a pair of candles for my daughter for her hurt feet, they would not exchange, I swear 30 seconds of wearing in front of them!!! They rubbed. They would not take back. Pushy pushy staff. Old decor. We paid for 4.5 star, this was 1. No better than the little hotel down the rd for local traveller's that yes we did look into. Of course this is bigger but that was it. Do not book.
amazing hotel
Maia L on Mar 11, 2024
the hotel its beautiful with a lot of great people and excelent service, always paying atention and including everyone. Andres one of the best in the hotel all the time he was looking if someone was missing or if they want to enjoy with the group
Relaxing but needs improvement
Dels1158 (Ohio) on Mar 10, 2024
Pros: The grounds and the beach are just beautiful. It’s definitely a very pretty property. Dive shop people are the nicest we met while here. Book excursions from them. Some wait staff nice. Be sure to tip the good ones. Download a translator. No one speaks English well. The dollar is strong here. Pools are nice when not crowded. Go out early to save your beach chairs or you won’t get one. CONS: the resort beach is right next to a public beach so you get a lot of traffic from the public beach over onto the property which makes for a lot more crowds. I didn’t come to a resort to share the beach with rowdy locals. I agree with other people that the food is so so. Avoid the Japanese restaurant. I know a few people who got sick after eating there. They assign you a concierge at some of the buildings, and they are more like used car salesman than they are helpful. Kept wanting to sell me trips with some guy named goof. I would never buy anything from Goof. We had to fend for ourselves basically on how to get maid service where the action was all that kind of stuff we ended up on our own because we stopped using the concierge because all he wanted to do was sell a VIP club ownership. When we checked in they talked to us about a VIP beach package and we are glad we waited until the next day to decide to take it because they didn’t give us our coupons until the next day and the coupons included an $85 discount and why pay for a night that you’re not even going to use .? Don’t buy the VIP the night you check in wait and get it the following day and use the coupon. The Room. Thank you to JAYSEN such a nice kid who helped us with everything wrong with the room and we had one of the upgraded rooms a junior suite on the beach. First of all the air conditioning did not work, the TV did not work and the refrigerator was broken. Jason was kind enough to bring us a refrigerator from his own place. We finally got the TV working the Chromecast never worked but at least we got some TV channels and the air-conditioning was finally ok. We met a few people from the states, but they are few and far between. One couple from New York told us they went to Jamaica and stayed at a fabulous place The Grand Rose in Montego Bay, which is probably where we are going to go next time I know we would never come back here.
Another great holiday
263stephenw (Darwen, United Kingdom) on Mar 09, 2024
We have just returned from another great holiday at the Iberostar Selection Hacienda Dominicus, even though it is 20 years since we first visited it is still a lovely place to visit. The hotel and gardens are well maintained and the staff friendly. We originally had a junior suite but upgraded on arrival to a rooftop suite having a terrace above our room reached by a spiral staircase. Whilst we perhaps didn’t use the terrace as much as we should have, it was nice to be able to go upstairs and relax on the sun loungers or in the jacuzzi and enjoy a glass of wine in private, the only downside was there was no waiter service to bring more drinks. There are five specialty restaurants, Japanese, Mexican, Italian Steakhouse, French and seafood along with the main buffet. We didn’t go to the seafood restaurant as my wife doesn’t like seafood., the Japanese is always good with the chef providing some entertainment as he cooks, the Italian Steakhouse we weren’t keen on, the steak said it came with potatoes and vegetables, but there were only potato wedges with it and I had to ask for the vegetables, the steak was a bit chewy as well. The French restaurant was the best, the service was excellent, the steak was so tender and the crepes freshly cooked. All the restaurants require a reservation apart from the Mexican, this was changed this year and it was a case of just turn up and see if they had a table. We found that the service was a bit chaotic as the staff didn’t know how many guests were arriving or at what time, the service wasn’t as good as last year and the food was just average, which is a shame as last year we visited the Mexican at least twice. The main buffet is very good with a large selection of food, in my case too much as I like to try so many things and I got the seafood that my wife isn’t keen on, Caribbean lobster was on the buffet twice whilst we were there. There is a good selection of desserts but I preferred to g to the Star Café where they had some excellent fruit tartlets. The lobby and bar is very spacious and has plenty of seating, with live music most evenings however, as we are Iberostar Club members we tended to use the SP lounge, it was quitter, cooler and free from people smoking. We caught a couple of the show in the theatre, both were good as the entertainment staff sang live, better than when wee first used to go when it was all mimed to taped music. Dominican night, held outside featured fire eaters and dancers who were very good. The gardens are well maintained and it is nice to walk around the hotel, where there is plenty of wildlife to see, the peacocks, moorhens, ducks, turtles, fish and pelicans swimming over the sea and diving down for fish. As is always the case nowadays, people were going down to reserve sun loungers early in the morning and not returning, in some cases, for a number of hours. Although the Star Prestige area of the beach had plenty of sun loungers and Balinese beds, some were reserved before 7:00 am with people not turning up until lunchtime, or people “reserving” both sun loungers and a Balinese bed. The beach at Hacienda is very good, with no seaweed. The Star Prestige area now has a lunchtime barbecue, burgers, hot dogs, skewers, chips, salad, which is handy if you don’t want to go the buffet. Excellent service from Star Prestige staff, especially Leidy, who arranged the upgrade, Carlos and Nady. The Club staff Noemi, who signed us up last year, and James, our waitresses/waiters, Minoska, Kilimanis, Ismael and Hairo, the Star Prestige staff at the beach, Domingo, Manuel, Emilio and Carlos, Juan and Samuel in El Colonial and even Raul the ever happy gardener plus so many more friendly staff. Our only complaints are with attention to detail, the doorstop in the bathroom was broken with a piece of metal and screw remaining on the floor, this could cut someone foot if they caught it; the bathroom door was difficult to close as it was catching on the door frame; one of the wardrobe doors had no guide at the bottom so would swing outwards, the cupboard door in front of the minibar was loose and dropped when you opened it, it just needs a screw tightening up (I didn’t have a screwdriver), there was no bottle opener in our room until the day before we left. At the top of the stairs to the rooftop terrace, there was an area of wall, approximately 3m², that had been roughly painted white, this looked like a temporary paint job as it wasn’t neatly done and the rest of the walls were a different colour, also the some of the decking on the terrace was lifting up and I stubbed my toe on it on one occasion. There is an Iberostar app that you can use whilst at the hotel, it provides information, restaurant reservations, ability to contact reception and at the end of the holiday you are asked to complete a questionnaire about the facilities. Most of the questions are tick box answers there is only one free form section at the ned where it ask about the app, it would be useful to be able to comment on the hotel, as some of the comments above could have been added to the questionnaire rather than putting them on Tripadvisor. Despite the above the holiday was very good and we are looking to book again next year for what will be our sixth visit.
Perfect place for sun and relax!
Vasilev (Varna, Bulgaria) on Mar 06, 2024
Great hotel at perfect location on the beach. Nice rooms with all that you can need, clean and spacious. Food was very nice and fresh. Personal is very polite and attendive. Pools are clean. Beach area is also very well maintain. Bars offers nice variety of drinks and cocktails. Overall this is a great holiday spot!