cmx

They also didn't post points for my spend.

EleanorMcDaniel

From the resort's Facebook page


So can you (the resort) please address the issues shown in reviews of your facility, especially 1) non-existent internet, 2) no doors between bathroom and hotel room, and 3) poor service in the restaurant?

Please see here:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/starw...-dec-13-a.html

The Westin Puntacana Resort & Club:

1) Internet was fixed, no more problems with this.
2) Doors of the bathrooms: We are working on this, but we can give to you an upgrade to other room that does not have this problem
3) Food service: We made some changes and is much better, but please keep in mind that as soon as we opened we were filled almost to capacity.

We apologize for any inconvenience and value your input.
Like · Reply · January 7 at 3:26pm

fishermb

We got back yesterday from our 5 night trip.

The WiFi issues previously reported were non-existent, worked perfectly fine in the room, by the pool and in the lobby. Doesn't reach the beach, but then that's probably for the better.

Rooms were very nice, we were upgraded (Gold) to a larger room which had a bathroom door, so I don't know how bad the issue is with other rooms that don't have one. There was a nice entryway area and large dressing room. My only 2 real design complaints were that there's only 1 bathroom light and it's very bright, so going to the restroom in the middle of the night will wake you up; the other issue was lack of a tub. The sound proofing wasn't perfect either and we could hear the people above us from time to time.

The staff is mostly overly nice/friendly and seemed like they genuinely want to make you happy. The general lack of English-language skills made some simple requests difficult for my wife who doesn't speak any Spanish, but I got by perfectly fine with what I'd call "decent" Spanish. My main issues were that half of the staff walks around chatting and texting on their cell phones right in front of you as you walk by them, even the Security workers (seriously).

On-site restaurants as well as others within the grounds just aren't good. It's really a shame because some of the settings are quite beautiful right on the beach like Playa Blanca the seafood restaurant, but the food just was disappointing. You should also know that you can't drink the local water, and so you have to buy bottles everywhere you go. The hotel gave us 6 bottles per day, but that was gone within 3 hours of laying on the beach. Go to the Nacional supermarket and stock up on a few gallons for $5, it's the smartest thing we did and probably saved us $100 over the course of the trip, no joke.

Lastly, I should say that the beach setting itself is absolutely beautiful. There's nothing really on either side of the resort, so it can feel quite private. We were there for 5 nights over a holiday weekend and the beach chairs were never more than half-full. Not sure if it was a slow weekend or if people were going on excursions a lot, but it often felt empty. Before noon we were the only people on the beach some days. As has been mentioned, there is a lot of seaweed in the water. The maintenance staff tries to pick up whatever washes ashore, but if you go in the water, half of the area is covered in seaweed. In regards to the pool, the lounge chairs were rarely half-full, and never more than maybe 10 people swimming, despite being rather large. It's a nice setting to lay out if it's too hot by the beach and we spent quite a lot of time there.

Overall I realize this review sounds rather negative, but looking back we really did enjoy ourselves. Starwood needs to bring in some corporate staff to get the local staff with the program of how to treat customers. We used points for our entire stay, I'm not quite sure what it would have cost had we paid for it, but this property really does have a lot of potential. Our room had a picture-perfect view of the beach and the perfect high 70s/low 80s weather couldn't be beat. If they can straighten out some of these issues, I'd definitely recommend it, but right now they've got some work to do with the food and getting the staff better trained in my opinion.

schley

gald to hear the internet is fixed..... this is much easier to fix as opposed to training of staff or installing dozens of doors in the bathroom.

bsdstone

I just called the hotel with what I thought was a simple question...traveling from the US, do I need adapters to the use the electrical outlets in the hotel?

3 calls and I still am not sure if I do or don't...the googles gives me several different answers as well...so for those of you that have been, do we need electrical adapters traveling from the US?

bsdstone

We're here on our last night of a 4 night stay.
I'll post a detailed review when we check out, but most of it will be positive. There are still some construction kinks being worked out, but one thing that has been consistent is that the staff is VERY friendly and eager to help...English is spotty but when confused they find someone who can speak it pretty well to help out!

One final question I'm hoping someone can help with. When I check out tomorrow...what charges should I expect for my "free breakfast"? We have had only the continental breakfast...should it all be wiped out, or will the taxes and tip remain?

chrisy14

Any updates on The Westin Puntacana Resort & Club?

Starwood Lurker

Got this recent offer in a seed email in case anyone would be interested...

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Terms & Conditions
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•Offer available for booking through October 14, 2014.
•Offer valid for stays January 2 - October 15, 2014.
•Cancellation required 21 days prior to arrival in order to avoid a one-night penalty charge.
•5 night minimum length of stay required. Book online or call 866-716-8108 and mention promo code P5N.
•Offer is subject to availability at the time of reservation.
•A limited number of rooms may be available at these rates.
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•Offer not applicable to groups.
•Not to be combined with other offers or promotions and subject to change.
•Not responsible for omissions or typographical errors.
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•Starwood reserves the right to discontinue this offer at any time.
•Starpoints, SPG, Starwood Preferred Guest, Sheraton, Four Points, W, Aloft, Le Meridien, The Luxury Collection, Element, Westin, St. Regis and their respective logos are the trademarks of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc., or its affiliates.

5 night minimum length of stay required. Book online or call 866-716-8108 and mention promo code P5N.

©2014 Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.

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[email protected]

EleanorMcDaniel

We are now finishing our four night two room stay here, I am posting some thoughts and answers to many of the questions in this thread.

1. Yes, the taxi from the airport to the hotel is 5 minutes and $20. But they have big vans and since we are four plus luggage, I was fine with the price.

2. There is an entry fee into the DR of $10 per person, cash. Be prepared. I believe there is also an exit fee of $20 per person, also cash. (EDIT: Our exit fee was included in our plane tickets, so we didn't have to pay that on the way out)

3. Check in was easy. I speak Spanish, but my spouse and kids don't and there's no problem here with English.

4. I am an SPG PLT, but had requested connecting rooms, which we got, so no upgrade, as I wanted the connectings.

5a. One bathroom has a sliding entry door, and then inside are a toilet and walk in shower. (Two queen beds) It's really a one person bathroom unless you don't mind seeing the other person doing their business.

5b. The other room (king) has no door to the entry of the bathroom, and then a frosted glass door that closes off the toilet and walk in shower. So one person could be at the sink on one side of the door, and the other at the toilet or shower. But same thing, the toilet and shower are together. Bring a small nightlight for the bathroom, because it's either VERY light or VERY dark in there at night.

5c. Everything here is 110 volt, plugs same as USA. No converters necessary.

5d. Both rooms are very large, with a seating area, outside patio, etc... I am not wishing for an upgrade at all. Four of us in two rooms is perfect.

6. As noted, you get four bottles of water per room per day. I brought $100 in USA $1 bills, and I suspect a $5 tip could yield more water easily.

7. Wifi is ok. Not great, but works. There are three networks that cover the resort, and most places most times you can find a network that works. The beach has no wifi, which for me was awesome.

8. The resort is a big U shape with the balconies overlooking the middle. One side gets morning sun, one side afternoon sun. The end rooms of the U overlook the beach, I am guessing those are the suites. Four floors, we are on the first floor, and I like that we can walk right out the sliders to the pool.

9. Lots of kids and families here. There is a playground/kids club, and lots of kiddie pools and shallow places. The beach itself is very kid friendly with almost no waves and a long walk out to water you can't stand up in. Huge hot tub off the pool. The pool technically closes at 6pm, but we visited the hot tub each night after dinner, and there were always other people there too. No towels that late, so save a fresh one from the day.

10. Tons of chairs and umbrellas everywhere, pool and beach. No need to get up early and stake out a place. There are two huge cabanas poolside, but I didn't inquire as to rental. Really had all the space we need, sun or shade. And this is school vacation week for us, I am guessing there are more kids here than normal.

10a. Towels. You give them your room number, they give you towels. End of the day you return the towels and they mark you off as returned. Very simple. I don't think their record keeping was the greatest, but at the end of the stay we were even, and there was no charge on the bill for towels, so that was good.

11. I did see a couple topless ladies at the beach, but it was not obvious and nobody seemed to stress about it either way. None at the pool, which is where most of the kids are.

12a. Continental breakfast as an SPG Platinum is included for two people per room IF that is what you choose as your amenity upon check in. For free, you get everything cold: fruit, bread, cereal, meats, cheese, jogurt. There is a hot bar with eggs, sausage, bacon and omelettes, the upgrade to that is $9/day/person. They do charge you for breakfast, and then supposedly take it off your bill upon checkout. I'll be looking to make sure that happens. (EDIT: no problem, all the breakfast charges were removed from the bill on checkout)

13. So far, I haven't seen any need for Dominican Pesos, but we haven't yet left the resort. There was NOT an ATM machine at the airport, but there was a big foreign exchange window with decent rates. (EDIT: left the resort, everywhere takes Amex or US Dollars. I would not bother to exchange one penny into pesos) (EDIT: Yes, there is an ATM by the check IN counter, nothing near arrivals.) (EDIT: Today's rate is 43.1, they buy and sell at the exchange counter are 40 and 49. So you're going to lose a lot at the window. And there is a limit to how much you can sell them back at the end, so be careful how much you buy.)

14. Small but decent health club. Free weights and treadmills, bikes and elliptical. 24 hours.

15. Plenty of waiters selling $9 fruity drinks on the beach and poolside. We had lunch at the beach one day, good food, fair price and came pretty fast.

16a. We had a very nice dinner on property. I was expecting expensive ok food (par for the course in the caribbean) and the food was surprisingly good and not super expensive. Beware the $9 bottles of Pellegrino or Acqua Panna however, and you can't drink the tap water.

16b. Next night we went to the barbecue at the Kite restaurant on the hotel property. US$30 per person, all you can eat. Good food, good value. That starts at 6pm and goes late.

17. We took the shuttle bus for the 10 minute ride into "town," right by the Sheraton Four Points. There is a supermarket, a pharmacy and a half a dozen shops and restaurants. Took 15 minutes to walk through everything. Unless you need oreos or bottled water, skip this.

18. We took the shuttle bus one night to La Yola retaurant. GREAT food, super atmosphere, prices fair enough. Really enjoyed it a lot.

All in all, we loved the resort. It was exactly what we were looking for in an April school vacation stay. Awesome beach, awesome pool, good food, great rooms. I liked it much better than the Four Points in Humacao Puerto Rico where we stayed a few years ago. I liked it better than Le Meridien Cancun, my spouse liked Cancun better, because we had a HUGE suite there, and there was a lot to do there. Punta Cana there is the beach and the pool. I guess there is golf, but I don't know. Four or five days is the perfect time for here if you want to relax and do nothing. You don't have much choice, though, because there is really nothing to do but beach and pool. Ahhhh....

Feel free to PM me with specific questions.

Eleanor

schley

There is an ATM at the airport but is by the checkin actually. You have to walk all the way across the airport to find it. Not well marked and IMO a way to play into the exchange counter mafia.

EleanorMcDaniel

You are correct, we found the ATM when we checked in to leave the island.

ZW4348

Returned from the Westin Punta Cana earlier this month after a 6 night stay. I’m a SPG Platinum Member and used Cash & Points. With two toddlers, I had called to confirm a suite upgrade and paid the extra $75/night. Despite multiple system generated reminder emails preparing us for our upcoming stay at our suite, there was no record of the confirmed upgrade upon our arrival. We were told that upgrades were subject to availability. After much discussion (in English and Spanish) and physical evidence of reservation confirmation and receipts, it escalated to a manager who got us into an accessible suite. We got the extra seating area, but it was interior with no windows. Clearly a disconnect between Starwood and this particular location.

Half-way through our stay, they added a layer of security to the wifi and required a login. While there appeared to be a strong signal in the lobby, guest rooms, pool, beach, etc. everyone seemed to have trouble with the registration and sign on. Half the guests stormed off to complain and the other half, just ordered more drinks.

In general, staff was as outstanding as prices were outrageous. As long as you resign yourself to overpaying for everything and just enjoying it … it’s a very relaxing and peaceful location and a brand new property.

SkyTeam777

Is La Yola restaurant located at the hotel?
Is this property connected to the Tortuga Bay resort?

EleanorMcDaniel

La Yola is a mile or two south of the Westin, on the water at Tortuga Bay.

joetro

What is the 4points like? Seems like a great value as category 1.