Grand Palladium Bavaro Resort — Hotel in Higüey

We went to this hotel for my sisters wedding. There was 27 members in our group including a pregnant lady and 2 young children. There’s a lot to get through so I will break it down.

First impressions: check in took over an hour, after a long flight and travel from the airport in the heat this is the last thing a guest wants to do! We weren’t offered water and had to ask for it, we were made to feel like it was a lot of trouble to just get a few bottles of water despite the bar being in the same lobby! The staff took our bags and showed us to our rooms he pretty much stood waiting for a tip with his hand out the moment he opened the door to our room, we were planning to give a tip but that was plain rude. Turns out there is a terribly rude culture throughout the staff in this resort and there were very few people that were actually kind or smiled.

Service and food: The food was diabolical, the put fresh food on top of old food, touched salad with poultry hands (without washing their hands) there was about 5 different people we were with that whitnessed this at different times during the stay, the food wasn’t covered and the flies were rife! The food hygiene was so bad that 24 of us in our group contracted salmonella poisoning (tested and proven), including the children and pregnant lady. We weren’t the only party to become sick, we spoke to different people we had met through the holiday too and they were really sick also. So much so they had ran out of replacements salts, Imodium and paracetamol in all of the shops on the resort. We had to get it off of other people that had brought it with them from home, just to be able to fly home! When the youngest child was poorly, her mother and family members called reception several times over 2 days just trying to get them to bring water where they don’t restock the fridge like they’re supposed to. The child started to dehydrate because they kept telling them mum they were bringing it and they didn’t. The family members walked down to reception to get it for them in the end because the mother couldn’t (it’s lucky they were there with them or it could have been dangerous for the child!) water is a basic need and a minimum requirement and the hotel wasn’t even providing that! We tried to take some food to the child as they were on the recovering side of being poorly. It were still too weak to go to the dining room, staff tried to stop us despite being told why we were taking food out of the dining room (it was just bread and fruit not a full blown meal!), one of them tried to physically stop us, the grandfather stepped in and had to assertively tell the staff to take their hands off and that they weren’t going to stop us taking the food to a child that needed it. It was the hotels fault she was sick in the first place. The staff said “fine, you have to bring back the plates” 🙄🤦🏼‍♀️

We had to request sheet and towel changes because sometimes there rooms weren’t cleaned for 3-4 days. There were cockroaches, the toilet stall door gave no dignity whatsoever. The bathtub was filthy and the shower was rusty and covered in limescale.

Also when it rained the marbled stairs to the hotel room were dangerously slippery.

The hotel messed up the booking for the restaurant on the hen party night, so we had to go to a different restaurant.

The beach was dirty and the pools were murky and often had an oily lining across the top of them that shined multi colours in the sun.

We all had to stick to eating cooked omlette for breakfast as it was freshly made and cooked in front of us, or ate at the sports bar which was pizza and fried foods for the rest of the holiday just to avoid contracting anything else. Even fresh foods were a...

Time of year: April; Length of Stay: 4 Days, 5 Nights

The reason I am providing 4 Stars is because when I consider the price to the experience, I feel as though it met my expectations but didn’t often exceed my expectations. I think those that offered less than 4 Stars may need to level set their expectations or they truly had a fluke poor experience.

At the end of the day, due to the length of time I was visiting what I wanted was a place that was clean, cool pools/swim up bars, and beautiful beaches. This checked those boxes. I felt as though the grounds were beautiful and well maintained.

Here are some of my other thoughts:

The food. This place is NOT for foodies. I mostly kept my food selection to foods like bread, pasta, pizza, chips, items that I didn’t feel could risk me getting sick. Some of the raw foods or cheeses at buffets or by the beach lunch spot were kept out in the sun and it just didn’t make me feel good about the temperature control of some foods. One friend in my group got sick, from presumed food at the buffet, she is out for a day but was able to join us by the end of the trip. The buffets had the most lack luster food, but we made it work. We did 3 restaurants, the hibachi, Italian, and El Dorado. We all agreed that the best foods were from the restaurants, with the exception of the Italian which was underwhelming. Our best experience by far was El Dorado. Biki and peers clearing out should set the bar of what service is like at the resort. The food was great, the restaurant had proper AC, which made me feel good about the salad bar, and the meal was simply the best of the trip. Some people said booking restaurants is hard, but I can’t say I had that issue. There were 6 of us in multiple rooms and what we did was wake up each day and go down to guest services to get our reservation secured. If you are just reserving for people in your room, you can use the app. You won’t be able to book restaurants until you get your room number, which I was not provided until check in.

The service. This was my first time in the DR. I grew up going to Disney resorts and so my expectation for service are high. I thought people were friendly enough, but the language barrier was sometimes hard. I got this sense that they were being nice to you for tips, which is something we did, but the energy is different when people do something because they want to make your experience great in contrast to they want something from you in return. Also, there were a few times people came up to us and asked us to fill out Google Reviews for all 5 stars and watched people fill them out. I understand wanting people to do reviews, but don’t look over their shoulder and make the submit something on the spot.

The experience. There are a few things I’ll touch on but it might not encompass all you are looking for. First, there are activities that you can locate in the app, we did Archery and that was a great time. We also went to the White Party and UV party and those were really fun and entertaining. I got the sense that a lot of families stay at the Punta Cana and Pallace location, Bavaro was until construction. TRS is certainly the elevated experience, we met some of those people at the adult pool. I would say if my trip was longer I would have needed an excursion to get off site. On the beach some people may come up and try selling to you, but I did not find it overwhelming, and they walked away if you said “no”. Finally, we couldn’t figure out the “free transportation” so we booked DAT and it was private and seamless.

I hope this helps you! Finally, bring the card you purchased the reservation on. I did not but luckily it was on my...

A hotel to avoid at all costs. Be aware that most reviews are either bought or a NDA signed in order to stop customers posting reviews after having a bad experience at the hotel. Rude, helpless staff and poor experiences at the A La Carte Restaurants.

We had problems on arrival with incorrect room provided and suggesting no other rooms were available. Arriving at 7pm, With 2 small children, we had no beds for them to stay. We waited till passed 10pm for a cot bed and sofa bed to arrive only for no pillows, sheets, bedding for both provided. We chased all night but nothing till late the next day. We had mould in our room, along with someone break in at 10pm at night with a room key card. A broken door lock, a broken safe, electric broken, lights broken and problems with no sheet changes, no fresh towels and mini bar not being stocked as paid for. We made all these complaints to a manager - who offered a late check out and a free use of a pool in the private spa. We didn’t take them up on these and wanted more obviously after spending the first time a waste with two kids not sleeping and then not having child care to use the spa. We wanted more.

We had broken key cards 3 times in the last 3 days, they kept cancelling our cards, and after 12pm they did this again on the last day.

We also struggled to book any reservations for tables at restaurants due to staff getting paid for table bookings and arriving with no bookings ment we had no where to go but the buffet for the first 3 nights! We went with this hotel for the options for food at night.

Towels and sheets on day arrived dirty and stained. House cleaning not even filling the tissues when we arrived. And other friends rooms had amending kits and extra that ours didn’t.

We wanted a late check out, so decided yes we will take this from the manager - only for them to only offer this if we signed an agreement that we wouldn’t complain or write a review - something we refused to sign. They said it wasn’t legal, then tried to get a new one signed with it in Spanish. I again refused and settled with a late check out without signing anything after a long stand off and management saying this is company policy and we can’t give it without signing. They tried this with other guests we know who signed after changing rooms due to mould all over one side of their room! And another 3 couples we spoke also were forced to sign these NDAs. It’s clear they have a problem with this hotel and very rude and pushy staff.

We had a massage charge on one our bill, to which we refused to pay until we had something in return, only to be chased down by our taxi and was demanded to pay the 100$ and being held unable to leave the resort, it was totally unprofessional and having a manager threaten us with violence was totally unacceptable and we paid quickly to get out of this hotel. We want at least two or more nights of our stay refunded back. We were offered free spa treatments and when this charge at the end came up, the manager went back on her word.

We are still awaiting a response for compensation for the treatment received.

I’d recommend avoiding at all...