TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

Pick any other resort for your stay in Punta Cana. I have visited DR several times, and this resort was the worst BY FAR. Very bad service. Resort is barely Adults Only. Room service took forever (if it even ever arrived). Staff was not very accommodating. Food was mediocre at best. There are so many hidden fees - and I am VERY familiar with all inclusive resorts. On my last day, the bellhops were meant to retrieve my luggage and never came so I had to roll all of my belongings all the way to the lobby in the extreme heat. Hotel staff watched me the whole time and did not offer to help once. I even mentioned it at check-out and they were completely dismissive. The best part of the stay was the room, which was nice. However, I would not return or suggest this resort.

We booked three rooms for 5 adults late May. The first (annoying, but minor) issue encountered was the painfully slow check in. The administration is sorely understaffed. In spite of there being only 8 people in 3 groups ahead of us, we were in the line for over an hour, as the sole check-in person dealt with the first group's complaints. There were 5 staff sitting at Premium Club desks doing nothing. The second issue was chaotic noise immediately behind our rooms as there was an all-day party everyday at that particular pool-- which itself looked unmaintained. We were told that the party isn't all day (when I asked the times I was told 9 am until 6 pm. Literally ALL day, there is no more day! Note that Thursday the party goes until 23h00) No sparkling clear water at this pool, instead it looked like a toxic milk bath, all week. The other pools, away from the party place, were beautifully clean and inviting. The entire toilet seat fell off in one room. This was immediately reported and maintenance was promised straight away but did not come at all until two other much bigger problems were discovered. Two of the rooms had no hot water, one had a lactating cat. The room with the broken toilet seat had used towels hanging in the bathroom and a dirty floor. We can only assume that the original occupants had discovered the hot water issue during a shower, and had been assigned a new room. The room clearly was just reassigned with no housekeeping or maintenance inspection. We reported these issues (not the cat, which matter at least had a humourous aspect!) asking for new, clean, functional rooms, away from the noise, and were told there were none, and promised immediate maintenance. Four hours later, still nothing had been done to clean the sullied room, fix the toilet or restore hot water. We returned to the lobby to remind the hotel management of the issue and were effectively told that the matter would be dealt with the next day. In other words, the hotel expected two of us to function and sleep in an unclean room with a precarious toilet seat, dirty towels and no hot water for three of our group. It took over 30 minutes and a visit from "the manager", who spoke no English (or French) in spite of most of their guests being from North America and Britain. This manager left a very junior staff member, Daniel, to handle guests who were extremely tired, and by this point, aghast and angry that this supposedly 5 star hotel expected two guests to stay in a used room, and three to be unable to shower. We finally made it clear to the poor junior clerk that this was an absolute management fail, his boss leaving him with no satisfactory solution to a problem outside of any limted authority he might have. We made it clear that we expected maintenance, housekeeping and the manager at the two bad rooms by the time we got back --a long walk, as there were no shuttles to be found. We returned to find a maid, a housekeeping supervisor, and two maintenance people working on the rooms...at 10pm. The maid was surprised when I put my hand in her mop bucket (cold water). The housekeeping supervisor had her redo the floors once the hot water was restored It was such a soured intial experience that it stood to taint our entire holiday. The hotel made absolutely no overtures to compensate our group at all. In particular we are disappointed for our oldest son, who is a Naval officer about to be deployed for 6 months, 3 days after our trip ended. The entire purposes of the trip was to have some great family time together, away from the demands of regular life, and the room he and his spouse had was the worst affected room. Smaller issues were the understaffed, under equipped bars. Pool towels were rarely available and the basket- style loungers, while inviting looking, had cushions which were disgustingly soiled and stained. I ended up grabbing clean bed sheets to cover the cushions for our use. The plusses: the serving staff are very pleasant. The food is decent and varied. There are few blender drinks available as, of all the bars--and there are many--only one had a working blender. We met many fabulous people ( in the clean pool!) and in spite of being told on our first night that there are no quiet areas, the noise level at all but that party pool was very acceptable. Festive, but not invasive. The beachfront buffet was a pleasant surprise. It has fewer options and is far from the "action", so underused. Given that we were there to connect as a family (without having to shout at each other) it suited us perfectly and the manager was fabulously attentive. It is a very pretty facility, but under-staffed and under-equipped, to its detriment. Comparing it to our last 3 room family trip to the D.R. ( a 4 star Bahia Principe) , this was a 3 star experience at best.

Honest review from 5/28-6/5 We (husband and I, celebrating 25 years) loved our trip to Ocean El Beso and let me tell you why. (Coming from an American) ???-Hotel was very nice. Staff was very friendly (and good looking if you're there for that). We never met anyone who wasn't very polite and smiling. The grounds were very clean (watched employees always cleaning the exterior, including even the exterior of the buildings with a mop on a very large pole to clean atleast 10 ft above). They pressure washed all the door areas one morning while we were still sleeping. I had read all these horror stories of mold. We never saw or had any. Yes there is moisture but it is the carribean. We just kept our A/C running all the time set at 70 degrees and brought 2 damp rids with us (which both ended up leaking but they did collect water). We never kept any doors open. The A/C is triggered on when the slider is shut all the way, otherwise it will not turn on, so if you go out on your balcony make sure you shut that heavy slider. Speaking of the slider, I think we were the only ones who struggled with our slider opening and closing. ??-Room was beautiful. We loved the comfy bed, all the pillows and the space we had. We had a swim up room (17104) and used the pool daily. It was so nice to have our own area right outside our room. The pool was cleaned atleast weekly, but possibly more. We used it in the evening after the main pools closed at 6pm. We did have some issues with the toilet not flushing well and continuing to run. We also were shocked to be channel surfing at night and to come across 2 porn channels. I'm not sure if the El Faro rooms have those channels, but I'd check before letting your kids watch tv. There are only around 4-6 English speaking channels, so I would suggest packing a FIRE Stick. (Which we brought thanks to other reviews). Maid service came a few times but if they hadn't reached our room by the time we went back to nap, we'd just call the front desk for towels and had them delivered in 30mins or less. We never used the safe, but instead hid all of our valuables in our luggage, that we then zipped and put out of sight. Never had any issues with theft. ??-Beach was ok. Plenty of chairs or hammocks available. People do walk around on the beach trying to sell things, so just nicely tell them no and they go away. The sand is a golden color (not pure white) and it isn't soft like baby powder. There was some garbage that should've been picked up but nothing bad. We never actually got in the water, but went to the pool if we wanted to get wet. I do wish the water was a clear, turquoise blue and it was not. ??-Food was really good. We really enjoyed Sakuras (went twice), Mikes coffee and Pez Dama (El Beso only buffet). We only DISLIKED two meals and that was room service (which did arrive in 45mins or less and was warm) and the main Buffet. I've never had an amazing desert at an All Inclusive Hotel. The sweet item I liked most was the ice cream. Getting dinner reservations was easy. Set an alarm and wake up at 7:58am. At 8am start requesting and refreshing until it pops up with available times. Usually we had a reservation by 8:02am and fell back to sleep. Use the App. ??-I had read all these reviews about tarantulas and snakes. The only thing we ever saw was the kittens with their Mama. I looked forward to seeing them nightly on the way to dinner. People brought her food and water daily. We did place a bath towel under the door every night before bed, just to be sure we didn't have anything crawling in since we were on the ground floor. ????????-This resort is HUGE! We were closest to the beach so walking to dinner was far. Once, we did wait for the tram because it was down pouring. We always enjoyed the walk back in the evening after dinner. ??-We never felt unsafe at this resort. In fact our building backed up to the side of the resort with all jungle. Not only is there a very tall chainlink fence with barbwire, but there was always a security guard standing outside our building, who would keep watch and call the tram for you. We brought approx $300 USD mostly in $1s and $5s and used about $150 total. We typically tipped $1 per drink, $5-10 at dinner and then $10 for the transfer. ??-Weather always called for rain, but only rained all day one day. It was a nice break from the sun. Usually it rained HARD at night, but we were always back in our room by 9pm or so. Bring sunblock and Aloe spray. The sun is intense (more so than Cancun). We'd give this resort at 9/10 and return again. Any questions, please ask.

Day 2 of our holiday and it’s been great during the day. At night, it changes due to the service of staff. We attended the buffet restaurant for a second night and the service for regular drinks was shocking. We had finished 2 meals each before our diet cokes came. We decided to attend the paino bar as El Beso guests. We asked for 2 Mojitos and were told no. No other explanation just a simple no mojitos. Now, there was fresh mint on the counter so that wasn’t an issue. Is there an issue with staff making Mojitos because it takes a little longer than normal drinks and they simply cannot be bothered? Why offer Mojitos on the all inclusive menu if the staff turn round and say no, with no explanation? We were also told no Mojitos at the El Beso adult pool bar. I hope this can be rectified otherwise it’s a downfall of the hotel, offering services that can’t be accommodated.

We spent a week at ocean El Faro and I will say They had a Great entertainment team! We loved Wanda and Enrique they were absolutely amazing! My husband had been looking for people to play dominos with and when he found them they joined in and made his experience even better!