In general the hotel is fine although the service leaves much to be desired given the lack of motivation of the staff subjected to many hours of work and very low salaries which in the end has an impact on the final customer. I would like to thank the excellent attention of the hotel doctor who attended me in a very professional manner. And a special thanks to metre Alex who unfortunately decided to leave his job and go to another hotel where he is valued and remunerated better. Thanks to all the employees who despite their enormous effort I understand that they go through moments of discomfort after many hours of work; these are the real heroes of the hotel. It should be noted that some employees accept tips as a bribe; for example, I saw with my own eyes how the grill waiter served a customer who offered him a few dollars and left all the other customers with a puzzled look on their faces. Later in other days I saw how these tips are passed from one waiter to another in order to hide them so that no one catches them. This is in total violation of the compliance policies of any company today and should result in immediate dismissal.…
We booked a last-minute 4-night, 5-day stay over the March break, traveling with Air Transat. After 2+ years of staying home due to the pandemic, we had very high hopes for our girls’ getaway and we were not disappointed. We flew into the Samana airport, which is about a 45-minute drive to the resort. After going through customs and security, we lined up to check-in before getting on the bus. As a party of four, I had successfully checked two of us in on the BP app, but I hadn’t been able to add the remaining two members of my party. Check-in was easy and efficient and, once on the bus, we were given instructions to go to the buffet for lunch and then we could go to the front desk to collect our key cards. Check-in is technically at 3:00, so when we returned to the front desk at 2:30 only one of our rooms was ready. We confirmed that our rooms were side-by-side and had all of our luggage placed in the first room so we could enjoy the remainder of the afternoon at the beach and pool. We stayed in Villa 11, which turned out to be directly beside the quiet pool and close to the BP “Village” and only a two minute walk to the lobby/buffet/pool. No matter where you stay, if you’re someone with mobility or health issues, you can always get a ride to and from your destinations. We were VERY impressed with the cleanliness of our room. The standard room had two double beds and was very spacious. Our balcony overlooked the (quiet) pool. The mini bar was stocked with water, beer (2), Pepsi, Pepsi Light, and orange soda. I left a nice tip on the first morning with a special request for more Pepsi Light and water (we’re not beer drinkers!), and I was happy to see that we had lots of both when we returned to our room at the end of the day. Some key areas to comment on: Buffet: Good service. COVID protocols were in place (masking required to enter buffet and while serving yourself, you must wear a glove—provided to you—on your serving hand). Breakfast is the best meal at the buffet—lots of fresh fruit, bacon everyday and omelettes made-to-order. Lunch and dinner are good, too. The food is decent, but not spectacular. A la cartes: I tried to book our a la carte meals through the app, but it wasn’t working. I was able to book us at the Greek restaurant for our final night, but unable to book our second due to a lack of reservations available (they’re currently only opening 2 of their restaurants each night. I presume this is due to COVID protocols/staffing/etc.) The Greek restaurant is beautiful! The service was excellent and the food was lovely. Pools: There are 2 pools at this property. The main pool is spacious, very close to the beach and definitely where the fun/action is! Music, activities and entertainment can all be had here. There is a swim up bar and our favourite bartender Armando provided excellent service and strong drinks! As mentioned, there is a quiet pool as well, but it’s truly that: very quiet. It also has a bar, but not a swim-up bar. We preferred the action at the main pool, but the second pool was quite lovely, too. Beach: The beach is stunning with gorgeous turquoise water. We went for several walks each day and enjoyed a few swims in the sea, too. Guest services: The staff were kind, friendly and very helpful. Tipping: Please tip the hard-working staff! We were shocked at the lack of tipping we saw throughout our stay. Overall, we had a wonderful family girls’ getaway and we’re already talking about returning to the el Portillo.…
Very nice resort. Beautiful grounds. Also Beautiful Beach. Nice and clear. Excellent food selection and service at El Limón Buffet. Lots of food varieties and flavorful. Hardworking working staff. Especially animation team. Great night shows and activities throughout the day. Shout out to Monique! Has a mini water park. Highly recommend 🤗
I Booked 4 rooms for family reunion. And I did call ahead to secure all rooms together and I was told it must be done at the check in time at front desk. Got here early to do this, and 2 rooms were together and the other 2 were both in separate buildings. My room was dirty (They didn’t clean from previous guest, even their trash was in the room). No towels, dirty bed, no blanket, coffee maker wad dirty, etc. So, I called to get to get room cleaned and nobody showed up. Ended up having to sleep on a dirty room. NASTY!!! Let’s talk about the Food: 1) If you are a "Golden Corral Lover" this is your place. Same food every day, Buffet, with extremely poor AC. I asked for coffee (because there is not available for self-service), and those were delivered, and when I asked for another one, the waiter "Daribel" told the other waiter "Que se sirvan ellos mismos" (That means: They can get their own coffee!) 2) Made a dinner reservation for the Brazilian Restaurant (you only get 1 dinner for every 3 nights), and we had to call several times to get food to the table, at 45 minutes later my son and other people from my group left and only bread on table. This is not a rodizio for sure!!! I wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone. Good luck if you take your chance. N La peor experiencia que he tenido en mi vida. Sucio, personal nada amigable, y la comida es lo mas barato que se puedan imaginar.…
Our stay was very good and we will be back. I had great experience using the app. When the app did not allow me to do web check in all I had to do was go to the actual website and check in early from there. Arriving, place is secure, security guards out front check for reservation. Parking spots near the lobby are limited and there was a little confusion at first. We had to park our vehicle in the back parking lot. Smooth check in. The limón buffet was great! Try to get there as soon as they open that way you will get to choose your own table. The snack bar was good also. The Sports bar makes really good capuchino and mojitos. The room. The air was not super cold but it was the right temp for me. The bed was so comfy. A king size bed in Junior suite superior. The rooms are well kept. The bathroom was huge. The only thing I would say to fix is a foul odor coming from the jacuzzi TUB JETS. Also the water to shower with is salt water, but it needs more filtering because it is salty when taking a shower. I gave 5 stars for the over all experience. Beach is amazing. We Will come back.…
Hi well I’m going to tell all about the good and the bad Good Super nice beach near kiteboarding school Easy parking Good staff in general Not so good Key stopped working, damn long walk back to reception Long waits to get a drink and sometimes for the buffet Laundry got lost, and ice took multiple calls to get delivered Maybe back but I hope they improve things next time
We stayed from June 17th to July 1st 2022 as a couple. Its been one of the worst vacation we had in our multiple travels in the last decade. And we have been in many all inclusive vacations and with Gran Bahia Principe among others. Based on our experience, we will NOT come back. Its too bad as it is such a nice hotel and beach. Its the first time we wanted to come back home several days before the end. The Good: . Great beach, very nice facilities and very good food overall. . Excellent service from Victor (front desk) and the following employees in the restaurants: Elsy, Martina, Diomedes, Carlo, Aheiri, Francisco, Anabel and Abelito. . Fast checkin with the Transat process at the airport. . No problems with the room facilities. . Nice shows. The Bad: . Having to reserve a beach chair early morning. (Vacation turn-off) . The waiting lines to get in the buffet at certain times (lack of employees and bad work organization in our opinion). . Maids shouting early in the morning. . Guest Service did not want to book us more than 4 restaurants and told us to come back. I downloaded the Bahia Principe app and was able to do it up to our 7 allowed restaurants. . Guest Service told us there was no duty free shop at the airport. Dont’t be fooled as there is one so no need to buy everything at the hotel before leaving. . Many Dominican guests short circuiting waiting lines. . The Spa was monopolized by Dominican families with one time 15 people in it. Many parties, shouting and playing in this small spa. Never able to use it. The UGLY: . Our stay was plagued by noisy guests with kids in our building past 11:00 PM. Victor at the front desk did his best to help but it was not enough towards the end. We had to call security several times or even bang on the wall for quietness or step outside and tell a few to shut up.There should be a few buildings reserved for singles and couples only. We are entitled to peace and quiet while on vacations and not have to deal/suffer with everybody’s kids. The hotel should have security rounds past 11:00 PM. . NO basic health measures before entering the buffet and restaurants. There are purifying gel stations at the door but no one used it and the employees at the door never enforced the usage. Even after mentioning it to an employe one time it was like ‘I dont care and i dont want to do it’ type of attitude. There was a lot of people coughing or not washing hands after going to the bathroom and it should be a basic step to minimize spread of germs and infections. We even saw employees coming out of the bathroom without washing their hands. It was not a safe place for health when we were there. . We saw kids picking up food with their hands from the trays and employees seeing them but without saying anything to them. We believe they should be proactive in that regards. Probably the fear of offending the parents and getting bad ratings stops them. . One of our maid was sick (flu ? covid ?) and not wearing a mask while cleaning our room. We saw this when coming back to our room to get something. We asked her why she was not wearing the mask and she responded that its because we were not there. Unacceptable because her coughing surely landed germs on our bed sheets or drinking glasses. Maybe its the reason we also got sick. . The beach restaurant-buffet does not have closed cabinets for the cold food like veggies, desserts, cheese for example and lots of flies and insects are having a feast. Conclusion: Hope it will be a different trip for you……
room was nice, pools were clean, food was good. great and friendly staff. resort kid friendly. security protocol held accordingly. the only thing i did not like was the lack of availability for the other restaurants. They required a reservation and when we arrived there were not reservations available for the 2 days we were staying.
Room not verified before rental, shower head didn't work and hand held shower in bathtub also broken. AC didn't blow strong enough to cool the room (AC system antique) and the bed was hard as rock (flintstone era). Only the shower head was fixed, the rest wasn't properly addressedto my liking. Wait time for lunch and dinner lineups was up to 30 mins, but most of the time was 8-12 mins. Shows were very poor, always for kids and very few if any were good for adults. Beach was the best I've seen from all the Bahia's I have been to. Excellent for people (like my wife) who can't swim, you can go out 50 feet and it's at mid section height and this was for kms everywhere on both sides of the resort. Kite sufing 5 mins away. Pool was full on weekends since they rent rooms to the locals. Service on weekends is horrendous since they increase the room rentals to locals but don't increase the staff. Beach bar service could take up to 1/2 hr. No where to sit on the beach on weekends. Staff have a hard time to understand plain english except for Lidia who was very helpful. If your a privilege menber of any sort, you will be equally ignored like everybody else. I feel generous today and will give a 2/12 star rating. Definitely not a 5 star. Paid $1449 for a superior jurior suite in first class (still too expensive for what is was worth) CAD with Air Canada from Montreal. Unless you have very little money, DON'T GO THERE!!!!!…
This is what I wrote to the Ministry of Tourism. We stayed at Bahia Principe Grand El Portillo for four (4) nights. My parents are handicapped they cannot walk too fast nor cannot climb a golf cart to be transported. The hotel does not have any accommodation for these types of needs. We asked for a wheelchair a month before we got there, but nothing was offered and when I asked about it, the front desk agent told me that I have to pay $15.00 dollars. Am not sure if it was daily or for the whole stay. We have stayed in many others hotels in Punta Cana and Bavaro and have never had this problem. Being a resident US Citizen from USA makes me mad because in USA that type of poor service wouldn't happen and the whole hotel would have been fined or closed for "discriminating" unintentionally handicapped elderly people. We stayed there from June-19 to the 23 2022. We also experienced a terrible bad attitude from a waiter named Francis (bald head guy) with white skin about 6ft tall or less. Some of your male waiter and server (the food server) have an issue with Dominican American or Dominican locals, as soon as they hear that you speak Spanish and the same dialect their service attitude change immediately, and talk with a humiliating attitude. My wife Arlenny De Jesus experienced that with Francis. I told a few other servers about it. There were many other good servers that went above and beyond with their services and they received good tips from me, Leonardo, We stayed in rooms 19103, 19205, 19204 and 19206, and 20105.…
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