Impressive Punta Cana — Hotel in Higüey

For anybody due to travel to this hotel or intending to book, I encourage you to read this and other reviews which I think will echo each other’s views. |I travelled out for two weeks this August with my wife, 2 children and my father in law for what we hoped would be a special stay. Whilst it was nice to get away and chill, our stay was tarnished for many different reasons and as a result we have all agreed we will not be returning. Our previous trips to the Dom Rep though a while ago and to different resorts were so much better. ||Food - virtually everything is cold and not just at the buffet restaurant but also at the table service restaurants which you can book. Service at the restaurants that need booking is also very slow. |At the buffet restaurants, it’s a mission at times to even find a plate. I don’t think the hotel even knows what a tea spoon is, you don’t even get one supplied with your hot drink. |I also noticed that the general culture is appalling. People seem hell bent on pushing in and unable to wait their turn. My 9 year old patiently waited for some Pepperoni pizza and once it was cooked and put onto the hot plate, another family got in and took it all when my daughter had been waiting before them. The chef noticed this and so once she patiently waited another 5 minutes for the next pizza to come out to take a coupe of slices, the chef purposely placed it on the hot plate right in front of her. Be warned, there’s a lack of queueing, giving way or common courtesy, it’s like a free for all. |Drinks - soft drinks are poured using big bottles which get opened as and when which often meant that sometimes drinks were flat. |The choice of beers is the worst I’ve ever had at a hotel though I understand this is personal choice. You get a local beer or Coors Light if you want something more premium. Since when has Coors Light been premium. 🤷‍♂️🤢|Cocktails/Mocktails are okay though nothing special, served in small plastic cups. As a result, many holiday makers we noticed, tend to take their own larger flasks and get these filled instead. ||Other than select few members of the staff, most of them seem grumpy, rude, completely not interested and just there to do a job which is a shame as there were a few really good ones. Esperenza at the buffet restaurant was fantastic especially with the children, a dark haired stocky white chap at the beach bar too, wish I had got his name! Also our butler Guensly was good and attentive to our needs. ||The Pools, generally fine and there is plenty of choice but they all need a damn good deep clean. |We were part of the premium part of the hotel and we noticed that there seemed to be people who weren’t that were still using the premium facilities, pool and bar which you can identify as they use a coloured banding system. I only saw one lifeguard managing this and telling people who didn’t have the right coloured bands on to move to a different area and this was only seen on the one day. ||Not the hotels fault but the Sargassum issue was gutting. For those of you who like the beach, I feel for you. There is loads of it, the local staff are working tirelessly to get rid of it but it’s almost a case of trying to achieve the impossible. We were sat at the beach in the afternoons for the breeze watching bulldozers driving along the beach trying to fix the issue so unfortunately the beach comes with noise and an occasional unpleasant stench. |This is a big problem all over at the moment, just don’t go expecting your typical Carribean white sand and lovely water, that’s not what you’ll get, at least not at the moment. Nobody seems to have any idea how long it will take for the issue to be resolved either. Had the issue been present when we booked back last December, we would have chose to have gone elsewhere. ||The hotel was spacious, generally clean enough, well presented and the rooms are always cleaned well and are of a generous size, it’s just gutting as the basics are there, the hotel could be so much better than it was. ||As a general rule, if you want better service, tip. We noticed that this worked a treat. ||Those who worry about the weather, don’t. It’s hot, nice and just...

We booked directly on the Impressive Website. THAT WAS THE MISTAKE I THINK !! RECEPTION: We came in the evening after we wrote that we will come and after confirm the arrival like the Hotel wanted in a mail. So everybody knows it 3 Times. From the Reception we got a Room far away from the premium area(room 12209) with a view to a wall 3-5meters away and Construction-Sound from the Neighbourhotel. Bad smelling AC. For me: Lowcost..not premium. I think that was also the reason why there were no premium drinks in the fridge and why the Roomboy, who brought us to the room, didnt show the safe ( no function because it was locked with open door). The Lady told us nothing about the "Buttler"-Service. We went back to the Reception and told our Problem. Another Receptionist told us, that he have a more premium room (Block 23...) on the next day. We slepped in the Room and after Breakfast we went again to the Reception, told our Problem again and a man told us that we got a room in block 23 in the afternoon.

From the other Receptionist we got than a name and the Information about the "Buttler". At 5 p.m. we got the room (23212) what is like we booked. So late because it was closed to show the Director (why? Something with the constructions. ) A few Days later we had a Problem with the Safe. We went to the Reception, told the Problem and the man said: Dial the 0 on the phone and tell him. We went back to the room. Later we dialed the 0 , told the problem...nothing happened. Half hour later we dialed the 0 again, told the problem, than we came to the next person: told the problem and a friendly man came a few minutes later and helped us. IN EVERY HOTEL I'VE BEEN BEFORE YOU TELL IT TO THE RECEPTIONIST 1 TIME AND THEY ARE DOING. NOT in the Impressive Premium Punta Cana. Here you have to tell it 4 Times and help yourself.

9 Days after Arrival our Roomcards did not working...Both... We went to the Reception...after the Beach, tired, sweating,... told our Problem, a man took the cards looked for many things i had to write my name and room number, showed the reservation on my phone, and 10 minutes later he gave the cards back with the words : "Thats it". No SORRY or ...

COFFEE-BAR: The ladies were more talking eachother and the clients disturb. You got a coffee, say GRACIAS: no Denada; you put money in the Glas: NO GRACIAS; in the morning the women with the glasses press 4 espressi with 1 filling (only 2 possible) and gave 1 to me for my order (1 espresso doble) and 1 to a lady as an americano. Only to have more Time for the orders from the colleagues ( 1 ordered 3 coffee). Other day i was standing in the Row, 2 other people came (1right side 1 left side) and the lady gave both before. I gone with a loud "BUENOS DIAS". All the days before: never Denada or gracias and talking privat during the clints are there. CLEANING: Since we came in our “second” Room Nobody changed the Bed. Everybody is sweating and the only thing what was changing was the Pillow. We tried all: With a Letter, the sign from the bathr. a few dollars but nothing happened. With the Tip we tried a few Times, first week ( with 2 cleaning man) and next Monday with a woman. The same with the cleaning time. If you come from the beach you are tired, wants a shower ...before dinner, but the cleaning in our room is between 4.30 p.m and 5 p.m.. We asked:Why? but no answer. And all the time we got only 3 Days our Prem.drinks in the fridge all other days only water and 2 times nothing...no coffee, no beer, no cola. And Last but not Least: The cleaning was very bad. We had 2 Weeks the same footprints in the Mainroom. BUTTLER: Nobody need it. All the Problems we wrote to the Hotel during our Stay and later we talked with the Premium Chief about. She was friendly and told us, that we got a Refund of 2 Nights…..till now..15 Days after Return…we got nothing on my Credit-Card…. We will see…if the Money comes I will write it here. PS: The Response to my Review was just a standard reply and till now (5 months later) the refund has not been made...promises are...

Definitely was not impressed. Book somewhere else. The entire place was EXTREMELY unorganized and no one in the resort is in communication with one another.

I was traveling in a group of 12, however we had 4 separate reservations. We had emailed the resort multiple times months in advance and again a week and a few days in advance to let them know that while we had separate reservations we were all travling as a group, and included our booking confirmations to see if they could accomodate rooms near each other. They said they left a note and would try their best every time we emailed. We get to the hotel and the front desk tells us they are overbooked and do not have a room for us they tell us we will be at Impressive Premium for a night and then we will switch to a regular room, we are fine with that. Then they send us to a cab, we are thinking we are going to the premium part of the resort. No. The cab driver asks where we are going and we say impressive premium. They say no you are going to Vista Sol, which is a different hotel.

The front desk lady did not mention a different hotel at all, so we went back up to the front desk for clarification. We spoke with someone else, explaining how we paid to stay here, not there and this was not right. We were a group of 12 girls and we all wanted to stay together at the hotel we researched and booked. We talk with the supervisor at the front desk and they said they did not know we were all together (even though we emailed them that we were SO many times) and then finally said we could all stay at the different hotel for the night then we would all come back the next day and get the premium benefits, including a butler.

We wait for the rest of our group to get there and they finally do and the same supervisor we talked to is saying he never said that and that 6 of us have to go to the other hotel, and that the other 6 would not get premium. It was all or none for the premium, because the point of our trip was to be together. The supervisor essentially lied to us, and they were not offering any other compensation than a premium wristband.

We come back the next day and we were told we could speak to the supervisor that morning at 7am and then the manager when he came in at 9. We never got to speak to the manager, just the supervisor who gave all 12 of us the premium wristbands (after much back and forth) and then they told us it didn't include the butler. So again, ANOTHER miscommunication.

We try to book dinner reservations since everything fills up fast. turns out you can't book dinner reservations when you don't have a room number which we didn't since our room wasn't assigned until 3pm the next day. It took the Top Tours people standing around the hotel to tell the conceierge people to help us because all they do is say book it on your phone but we literally couldn't because we did not have a room number.

We got no "premium" benefits. We did not get premium rooms, we did not get the butler they said we were going to get, and we could not book the only premium restarant they had because you had to do it through the butler which we did not have. lol. So we go in person and explain the situation to the premium restarant and they write down a reservation for us for the next day. We go the next day to double check they literally don't have it and tell us to book at the front which again, we can't do because we did not get an actual premium room. We had to eat at the regular buffet when we were supposed to be getting premium for 2 of the nights. Terrible terrible service, hospitality, and communication.

On top of this, we finally get to our room and the vent above the toliet is literally dripping water all over the toliet seat. they fixed it and then it started again the rest of the trip so we had to just deal with it. We also asked the hotel to recommend us a cab driver. The cab driver they recommended literally pulled into a gas station and tried to switch drivers, and told the other driver to pick up other prettier girls at the occidental. We...