Occidental Punta Cana — Hotel in Higüey

Dominican Republic Occidental Punta Cana 5/31/25-6/07/25 First impressions were that this is a beautiful property. It quickly spiraled from there on out. check in May 31st - Mr Torres. Accommodating, but zero personality and zero friendliness. Took more than a half hour to be checked in. On our first day my wife approached the concierge to make reservations for the properties restaurants. She was informed that the only reservations were available at 9pm. The first available decent time was 3 days later and she was only permitted to make reservations for 3 days. None of this information is available or advertised on the website or in advance communications prior to our stay. first night at the lobby bar (31st) Samuel Lobby bar - outstanding and excellent service Breakfast June the 1st at buffet unfriendly staff (woman) asked my wife to move seats when no one was present at the table. No reason given. Seafood restaurant bar - June 1st manager very unfriendly to men and friendly to attractive women. Made staff provide substandard service to me with regard to personal cups. No limes. No smiles from any staff or servers at or from their restaurant. The sheer volume of vendors on the beach is unbelievable. The time they took away from our relaxation was unreal. 6/01/25 Spoke with the security guard at the life guard stand near the volley ball beach around 1pm who was very friendly and asked us to consider his peoples plight with regards to their lack of friendliness. 6/01/25 Toilet continued to run even though our room had been cleaned multiple days and our housekeeper must have made note but no action was taken. 6/3 When requesting carbonated water bottles (agua con gas) we were consistently denied and only provided discretely from a single weight staff once. 6/2 Beach bar (seafood restaurant) consistently provided flat carbonated water with mixed drinks. 6/2 Requested a cart ride from the lobby to our building (13) due to having all of our dive gear after returning from our dive. A gentleman staff Memeber reluctantly agreed to take us to our building, but not before nearly running me over as I had yet to place all our gear In the cart before he hastily tried to speed away without checking if we were safely in the cart and ready to go. No words were exchanged before, during or at the end of the trip. No apology given.. 6/04 - security at the front gate would not let our adventure driver from Ranchon Buggy adventure come to pick us up at the lobby. Lobby staff was not helpful and would not take us in a cart to the front gate. We were finally able to catch a ride with another van who was dropping off guests to the front gate in order to leave with Louis our buggy adventure driver. Upon returning we had drinks at the lobby bar. Two of the servers in the non smoking lounge were very friendly and did an excellent job serving us. Tonight we had reservations at the oriental restaurant. Service was ok. Ordered a drink with dinner which I never received. Food was better than the buffet but not by much. No one ever asked us if all was good and we never saw the first primary server after receiving our appetizers. Thursday the 5th. Headed to the beach after working out at the gym. Gym attendant was very friendly and courteous all four days I attended the gym. Once at the beach we set up and I headed to the seafood restaurant bar to find that they were out of sparkling water with no other direction. I asked for a mojito and was given some very nasty orange slush which I promptly poured out. I decided to trek to the pool bar where I found that they were out of Vodka and no specific time was given when it would be back in stock. We had another server who was excellent- Nairoby.

Unfortunately, this is not a property, based on our experience with other Barcelo properties, that we...

This was the worst experience of my life. I’m sure Orestes Almaguer, General Manager will be commenting a generic copy and paste response to this. Maybe if you all spent less time responding to poor google reviews and more time actually fixing the hotel, we wouldn’t be here.

However, if you’re here, I encourage you to read the below and actually do something about one of the many many issues.

We arrived to a rude and hostile staff (this continued the entire trip) who kept delaying the time the room could be ready. Upon arrival to the room, we noticed that both beds were stained on the sheets, pillowcases, and bedding. After waiting 4 hours, we just wanted to get into our bathing suits and enjoy the day but instead had to wait another 30 minutes for them to clean the room. They offered to move us to a room that they guaranteed was “clean” but that would’ve separated us from our group so we opted to stay and have them change the bedding. When the staff arrived to do so, they brought multiple options of sheets and I watched them go through 4 sets before they found ones without stains. Not sure who would be ok with sleeping on any of the first three but that’s not my problem.

The drinks are disgusting and watered down and often, after waiting 25 minutes for service than another 25 to get served, not what you ordered. But they are nothing compared to what this hotel considers food. Not even the pancakes or pizza were edible. Nothing is labeled, hair is found in almost every dish, and the same food is out for days at a time. You’re better off starving yourself because food poisoning is rampant here.

Staff is beyond unfriendly and rude. Maybe it’s the result of working in horrible conditions, but if I advertised myself as a 5 star all-inclusive resort, I’d expect a little more care from the staff for hotel guests. We were all treated like an inconvenience. Check-in was a nightmare. Check-out was a nightmare. Be prepared to spend half your trip waiting in lines. The water went out in our room the first night with no explanation and when we called the hotel lobby to ask about it they hung up on us.

The beach is just a bunch of old worn out chairs and people yelling at you to buy excursions and jewelry. No shade or umbrellas available. Sunblock costs $50 if you run out and need to replenish. If you are someone who enjoys the beach but is prone to sunburn, such as myself, you are forced to resort to staying by the pool in one of the few shady areas. I found one, but the covering still allows for sun and left me with such horrible burns that I couldn’t go outside again until it got dark. And yes, I did reapply sunscreen several times but the UV is too strong not to have some real coverings by the beach and pool.

Only one towel allowed per person and those are also, of course, stained. When I asked for a different towel at the start of my day, since the new one I received was stained, I was given attitude and towels were basically thrown at me.

on the morning of our last day, we woke up with spiders in our room and the ceiling leaking. the giant puddle in front of the room semi flooded the doorway so we were unable to get out safely. we told the hotel staff who seemed to be in no rush to help us. unsanitary AND unsafe.

If I had to write one positive it would be that it’s not that far of a drive from the airport so you won’t have a long way to travel when you immediately want to check out upon arrival. I’d book plane tickets that are able to be changed at any time so you can get yourself out of there as soon as possible.

I will never return here and probably never return to Punta Cana in general. My trip could not have been worse.

Do...

A group of 24 family members went here over Christmas 2024. For many of us this was our 2nd time. I consider this a 3 star resort. Pre-arranged (free) airport transfer from PUJ was painful. The guys working the counter  took close to an hour to find us transportation for 14 of us. Check in at the resort was also painful. We were exhausted after missing a whole day due to travel issues/weather and check in at 7pm took 1.5 hrs. There was a lot of standing around and going to a back room with very little check-in progress. Reserving the shuttle back to the airport was also a very lengthy process. The guy in the lobby was using an antiquated type of excel spreadsheet to locate our names and rooms and he was confused and also no sense of urgency. For 6 of us to get confirmed transfers, even though everything had been sent via email, it took about 25 min.  Beach was beautiful and clean. Lots of chairs, but you need to "reserve" them with your belongings, so consider carefully what you leave on the chair. The volleyball court was great, and usually busy but we were there at Christmas so not sure what "normal" is. We did take our own volleyball. Pools were nice and kept clean. Need to "reserve" chairs there early also with your belongings. Food was fine, you will not go hungry if you are flexible. The DR is not a foodie destination, any level of resort. Pizza and taco bar located on upper level/looking onto entertainment, only open after 6pm, was a favorite. After much discussion with our 24 in our group, my opinion is that 2 people got violently ill with vomiting and diarrhea (1 for 16 hrs, the other for days) most likely from food at the buffet. Many of us had stomach issues and diarrhea, but we did expect that with the diet change, etc. Many bars were out of vodka, bloody Mary mix, and soda water. This was a repetitive issue, daily. Drinks were not strong. There are ice machines in the buildings, which was very nice. We used the ice machines and did not get sick from the ice, but we did not drink any water from a faucet. Service was acceptable, but staff were not eager to please. The rooms were disappointing. We did not have A/C the entire time. We made many work requests to have it fixed, and one evening someone came and waved his hat at the vent, then said he'd be right back. Never saw him again. Our shower backed up so we had standing water-not every time but about half the time. Our waters and 2 small beers were restocked every day, but it was not the same for everyone in our group. We were on the main floor and had one large roach, my parents had 2 large roaches (that I saw personally but they never mentioned this issue to me) and they were on the main floor also. 19 of the group did the buggy excursion. We booked with "Orlando Bloom" beach excursion guy. He was very nice and not pushy, and almost 1/2 the price as online or the front lobby. Three teens left their phones wrapped in a towel in the buggy while they checked out the beach, which they shouldn't have done obviously, but their phones were stolen. They didn't realize until they'd left the beach on their buggy. We could see the phone location, so the tour guide went back with one of our guys, flying down the path on a 4-wheeler, and they searched bushes for 20 min. We pinged the phones, and a few minutes later, a police officer held them up in a plastic bag. So obviously they were stolen, we believe from the kids that were begging during the tour. Nightly entertainment was good, but too loud. Would be great to have some quieter areas to play cards, etc. Overall, if you are low maintenance, not looking for anything spectacular, this resort...