Hotel Catalonia Bavaro Beach, Golf & Casino Resort — Hotel in Higüey

We have recently returned from a 2 week stay. We chose the Catalonia because we loved staying in the Mexico resort and had such a wonderful experience their. The staff in Mexico were outstanding. I do feel the staff were not as friendly at this resort as they were in Mexico. It took an hour and a half to check in to be told our rooms aren't ready. Not want you want to hear after an 8hr flight and a broken suitcase that we had to carry about. No welcome drink. We finally got in our room. We paid to upgrade. The rooms were modern but not the floor wasn't the cleanest. Lots of old stains and marks on the floor. The stairwell leading to the rooms were dirty too. Stains where cups had been. Marks all over the walls. The maids had a habit of leaving everyone's rooms service left over food on the wall outside our room which is directly above the stairs. We were top floor. So cats would naturally come to eat and knock plates off causing these to smash over the stairs (not the cats fault). We ended up having to keep moving these on to the landing floor to prevent further problems. One of the showers didn't work, one of the sinks. Air con didn't work in the other room our party was in. Can't fault guest services they sent someone twice but this still never got fixed. They sent the maids back with clean towels and water as these were never done. My daughter's bed sheets were dirty. So she reported to guest services. The maid came back looked at the bed and said it's ok. Then walked back out. Never replaced the bedding. They even took the champagne out of the room that was still half full whilst we went down for tea. Which guest services sent up as an apology. The next day. The champagne and bucket appeared on the landing. My new bedding had a squashed bug on but I really couldn't be bothered to report anymore. The maids did tend to come back in at night whilst you are out which I didn't like. The hotel and grounds are stunning. Love the wildlife. You could sit through an entire meal without being offered a drink. Both at breakfast and evening. I would have gotten a tea myself if I could. Some bar staff not so friendly either. Sometimes it felt like an inconvenience when you ordered something. To the point I was apprehensive about ordering. One bar member openly ignored me, served others that came after me. Then when he did serve me. He would walk off after I say one drink. Making it awkward when he came back I had to order 3 other drinks one at a time due to him walking off. One female staff member at the pure chill bar had a right attitude the day before we came home. We ordered a drink and she just stared at us for a moment then proceeded to do the drinks. It's a shame for such a beautiful hotel the service and some staff let it down. We won't be returning to the Catalonia again unfortunately. We did notice that 2 days before we left. A few staff members were actually pleasant and engaged in conversation. It was a strange feeling after almost 2 weeks of feeling like we were not welcome. I came with lots of tipping cash. I ended spending this on a trip as the service was not good enough to warrant tipping. I won't tip bad service. The staff at the buffet restaurant near the pool were more friendly than the main restaurant. The restaurants we had no problems making a booking. Food was amazing in the restaurants. It's a shame we couldn't just eat in these the whole holiday. Shout out to guest services. So polite and can't do enough for you. Always tried to put things right. Sellers on the beach were very repetitive throughout the day. I understand they need to make a living but it is constant throughout the day. Language barrier is a challenge. I just used Google translate where I needed too. The evening entertainment was ok. I've seen better in other resorts. The entertainment boards weren't updated. Resulting in people thinking the beach party was on but it was karaoke instead. This is just our personal experience. You can have the most beautiful hotel in the world but is the service and staff that make the...

Check in was slow. We arrived on a Wednesday and there weren't many people checking in. Our room was very outdated. You could see plaster or putty all around the shower walls and water knobs from previous repair attempts. The shower is super tight and in need of a gutting. The water pressure was low as well. The room was simple and small with horrible lighting. It did not appear to have been updated since the property was initially built. The grounds of the resort are beautiful. But the bones need to be renovated. On our first night we ate at the main buffet. The options were plentiful but not appeal. It all looked dry, over cooked and old.  The stations I was willing to try had to be cooked fresh. The workers were super slow and unrushing. I tried the stir fry station and with inly 2 people in front of me it took 30 minutes. Only one burner was in use and she was slow. Seems mgmt could have placed more staff in buffets to help with the demanding numbers. Food was not replenished regularly. They seemed to have set times for that. The entertainment stage was very under whelming. There was no draw to keep us entertained.  Once I finally figured out how to see what activities there were, I had to just pick one because they were scheduled at the same time. Nighttime entertainment was done in the native language.  I am not fluent so following it became too much of a task. I just got up and left. I couldn't enjoy it.  Getting drinks of choice is not possible at dinner restaurants. The wine options are limited to two unless you want to buy a bottle of something of choice. All Inclusive options are a chardonnay or a cabernet saviougn. I drink neither. Instructions in how to reserve for the restaurants was not thoroughly explained.  Had to take the long walk to guest services to figure it out. Food at the Spanish restaurant was severely lacking. Staff does not check back in on you. We had to flag someone down to get more water and tell them were missing a couple of the tapas that were ordered. We left there going to the buffet. It was bad. The steak house was better. Service was better as well but the same issue with drinks. Good thing we planned ahead and brought drinks with us from the bar. The italian restaurant was very good as well. The lighting on the walk ways at night are too dark. You can't see random guys hiding in the shadows. I had a guy step out on me and try to grab me when I was walking alone. One young lady who was part of my group was followed by an employee who would not take the hint to go away. She was able to text us and we ran out to grab her away. The highlight of this trip was my disastrous night of being awaken to a waterfall in my room. The people above us managed to flood out the tub or sick and we had a literal waterfall coming down on us. We called immediately and maintenance came within 10 minutes. The folks above wouldn't open the door or respond. Eventually the water stopped but now it's still wet, dripping and needs to be dried out and disinfected.  It's 1 am and we have not heard from management.  The maintenance worker who spoke no English (thank heavens for Google translate on our phones) said to call the front desk and speak with the supervisor if we had further issues or questions. I called the supervisor and he just couldn't be bother to really show empathy or concern for the matter. He was to call me back after speaking with the housekeeping manager but that call never came. The next morning, my husband and I took the long walk back to the front reception area to ask about a room change. The young lady speaks to her supervisor behind a closed door and then comes back to tell us oh she has to send maintenance to check it out because they said it was okay. My husband then politely showed her the video of the waterfall and said does this look okay to you? She borrowed the phone and went back to the supervisor behind the door once more.  When she came back we were told, they could move us to another but not until 330 because they had nothing available. out of room...

Upon arrival, my family and I were assigned room 1618. As soon as we walked into the room, there was a strong humidity and damp smell coming from the room. In addition, there was a lot of rust around the shower, tap sink and mirrors. As if that was not enough, the electricity area on the utility closet was uncover, with wires hanging out, which makes it unsafe under health and Safety risks, especially for children. Consequently, the bedsheets, along the bath towels, curtains and sofa chairs, were full of dirt and stains all over them. Moreover, the ceiling fan was full of dust, to the point that whenever we used to turn it on, all the dust on it were spreading around the room, causing my children to constantly cough and sneeze.||Right after having observed the above horrendous conditions of the assigned room, I contacted the hotel reception to make them aware of the situation, and to request to be immediately moved to another room as; the above poor and awful room condition were affecting my children's health( my 14 years old who suffers from allergies and my 3 months old baby). However, I was informed that there was not rooms available, hence, we were asked to wait until 3pm next day to be moved to a better habitable condition room. In the meantime, my kids had to continue breathing the humidity smell on the room. My baby was constantly coughing as a result of the intense damp and we were unable to get any sleep on the first 2 nights due to it.||On the next day (Monday, 21st) my family and I decided to go and see the Tui representative at the hotel named Cely, in order to inform her about the issue we were experiencing with our hotel room. The Tui representative didn't seem to be experienced enough on how to handle our issue respectively. As, despite that we told her the situation that my family and I were going through, she took us to the lobby and made us wait in the middle of a crowd for almost an hour before being shown the room that we were going to be moved to. Even though, we asked if she could request to the hotel if we could be given the key of the new room for us to see it first before moving rooms. And, despite seeing my baby being upset, she didn't consider and decided to left us waiting instead.||When we were finally taken to see the new room after almost an hour of wait, not only the new room was located on the third floor of the building, even though we requested the ground floor because we have a baby, but also the new room, as soon as we walked in, stank of smoking smell. And, the room condition was again terrible. Thus, we then again had to wait for another 24 hours to be assigned a new room. When we finally got a room in an acceptable condition ( after having wasted 2 days of our holiday) we went for dinner, and, on our return to the room, there was a big cockroach walking down the curtains, which caused my daughter to have a panic attack as she has katsaridaphobia. ||Consequently, the cleaning in our room has been very poor. The towels that were changed as requested, were full of stains. Some days, there was not towels left in the bathroom nor the mini bar were filled with the respective drinks. When we complained about it, the cleaner, was not happy about our complaint, even though we left a $5 tip for her.||When we booked our holiday with Tui, after spending so much money, despite of the bad reviews; we expected amd trusted that we were going to have a great holiday experience. Instead, so far, we have had an awful and extremely poor and dissatisfied experience. ||We trust that the above matter is handle and dealt with accordingly as; we invested so much money on this holiday.||We requested the Tui representative to submit a complaint report of the above incident, and to provide us with a reference number once having dose so. However, she never got back to us on.||Overall, our experience with Tui and Catalonia Bavaro hotel was disastrous. Both companies do not seem to deliver a quality customer service nor handle a complaint...