Bahia Principe Grand La Romana — Hotel in La Hispaniola

Overall, the experience our family had at this resort certainly was not “luxury” as advertised. The buffet was overall the exact same every day, which got very old easily. The food was ok. Some things tasted great, but mostly it was mediocre. I did experience a stomach bug while staying at this resort, resulting in fever and frequent bathroom visits. I’ve never experienced this at other Dominican resorts/hotels, and I’ve visited this country many times.

The rooms are outdated. The caulking around the shower and tubs is in great need of being redone as there is mold. The bathroom ceiling looked questionable as it was a commercial drop ceiling that looked like it had been shuffled around. The shower awkwardly only had half a door, hence water went everywhere. The water was cold the first two nights. After bringing this to the attention of the staff it was fixed, yet it never was hot water, but just barely warm enough to take a shower in. The bathroom door handle randomly fell off one night as well (see photos). I’ve stayed in cheap apart-hotels in this area that have much better and luxurious rooms and bathrooms than this. A remodel is very necessary.

The service was hit or miss. Bartender Jose was wonderful and attentive. We throughly enjoyed him at the theater and Bahia village across the street. However, other staff members sometimes were not as professional. While at the pool bar I was pouring water for myself at a self-serve dispenser. After I was done and ready to walk away, a bartender handed me an empty plastic water bottle and asked me to fill water for her. This was strange. I had no problem doing so, yet it is definitely out of place for a guest be serving an employee of a “luxury” resort. It made me wonder if the staff receive proper treatment as employees if they are to the point they have to ask guests to fill their water for them. I’ve never experienced this before at other resorts. It was weird.

At the buffet, getting your glass filled with water is a hit or miss sometimes they do not ever come back to refill your glass to the point you have to hunt a staff member down and ask. At one point, a family member of mine left the table with empty water glasses asking staff if we could get a refill. An employee pointed to self-serve dispensers and told us we could pour it ourselves…. This is not luxury whatsoever. Sometimes it felt like certain staff did not care at all.

At one point we made a complaint that the liquor was very watered down at the pool bar. The bartender during the time of the incident became angry of the complaint and shoved drinks towards a family member in response.

The security protocols to enter and exit the hotel property are outrageous. I can understand there are real estate properties that need to be guarded, but I would not recommend this place to anyone who plans on venturing out away from the hotel during your stay. If you need someone to pick you up or if you are expecting someone to come to the hotel, you must go to reception and give them extensive information including the full name and ID number of the person driving, make and model of the vehicle, and license plate number. I had to do this over and over in order for family and transportation to enter the property during the stay. Also, sometimes the gate would be so backed up that we would be waiting outside 20-30 minutes to just come back to the hotel. It was a severe hassle every time. This place is better for guests who plan to arrive and remain on the property the entirety of their stay.

The electricity went out 4 or 5 times during dinner at the Italian restaurant. Then it went out again in our room the next day.

Overall, we will not be returning as we were disappointed in many ways. Some parts of the hotel are good, but the majority of the experience was far from a luxury 5 Star experience. We made the most out of the experience and still figured out how to have a good time, but we won’t be coming back as it definitely wasn’t worth the...

A full honest review after a lengthy stay:

Customer service: It is a hit or miss depending on who you encounter. The entertainment staff was by far the best. On our first day at the resort, we went through three rooms until we were given one that was descent. The AC was not working on two which made our first night very long due to lack of sleep. The shower pressure is extremely slow so if you get a good shower, you're in luck.

The kayaking kiosk was not pleasant. There was a gentleman with braids that was nice, however another gentleman which we can't recall his name was extremely rude and continuously changed prices for the excursions which was quite annoying. He was working on Friday 8/8 around 3 pm and wore a white shirt blue pants with short hair. The guy in braids and the the one with the short hair are always together, so you'll know who we are referring to.

Most of the bartenders were rude. Whenever you asked the staff for anything , it was always " we will give it to you but this is not allowed, this is an EXCEPTION." If I could make a dollar for every time l heard the word 'exception" Id be a millionaire. They did things as if they were doing us a favor. I'm paying for a service and hearing"exception" over and over defeats that purpose.

Aside from these experiences, overall the staff is quite friendly and accommodating.

The highlight: Big shout-out to Hector Gomez (Supervisor) and his staff from Le gourmet restaurant. They always went above and beyond to ensure a great experience. This was probably the biggest highlight of our trip.

Beach/pool: it will be not clear. It was brown/murky and has jellyfish. So if you're looking for the Dominican Republic nice waters, this is not it. The pools could use some cleaning.

Rooms: are very outdated and need severe work. Most of them smell like sewage. ACs are not working properly. Killed roaches in our room. Our safe and TV didnt work.

Food: They have three ala carte restaurants featuring Italian, le gourmet and El pescador (seafood). The best one is le gourmet. You get allotted three bookings per week, so choose wisely. The buffet...the food is repetitive and oftentimes bland. If food is important to you while on vacation, this resort is not it. They have "themed" nights of different types of food but the selection is limited, therefore you resort back to the repetitive bufffet choices.

A roach was spotted near the ice cream area.

In closing...

They have an event on Fridays called share your happiness in which all the staff wears a shirt with a QR code...and you are essentially asked/pressured to rate the resort. It's probably how they obtain majority of their 5 star reviews.

Unfortunately this is not a 5 star hotel.

We are a family that believes in making the best out of every situation, and that's exactly why we had an amazing vacation..not because of this resort experience.

Oh and bring a lot of mosquito repellent...

We are giving it two stars solely because of the experience Hector at le gourmet provided and the entertainment staff. All staff should exert the same and could learn a thing or two from them.

Aurora reception supervisor was pleasant and very helpful in ensuring we were taken care of after the mishap of our first day. Also Heury from guest services.

Brandy and Daniel from the buffet were also excellent.

Summary: Bahia principe is a hit or miss resort. What do I mean by this? You will have staff that will go above and beyond, but there's also staff that don't care at all and that is often. It's unfortunate because there are so many good genuine workers here but the others rude attitude overshadows it.

Do yourself a favor, before booking, click on reviews and select lowest. Read them because it...

Overall this hotel shouldn't be considered a 5-star resort, maybe closer to 3-stars based on my experience with other 5-star resorts.

Food: the food at the buffet is mid quality. We stayed during Valentine's Day weekend and only on Valentine's Day was the dinner actually noteworthy. Every other day, breakfast lunch and dinner was the same with nothing really tasting good. There was a pig roast one of the days at dinner which tasted spoiled/raw. The restaurants however (we visited the Italian and gourmet restaurants) were really good, especially the gourmet one! Chicken Parm at the Italian restaurant was OK, but olive garden can make it better (that's saying a lot), but the carbonara pasta was perfect and on the same level as an actual Italian restaurant. At the gourmet restaurant, the beef tenderloin and chicken cordon Bleu were excellent. Unfortunately you can only reserve the restaurants for dinner, and you're limited to 2 reservations total. There's a snack bar which seems to be open at the off hours, which was absolutely horrible. The chicken was spoiled, and all of the food at the snack bar tasted like old cafeteria food. I went there twice thinking the first day was off, but both days were absolutely horrible/non edible. We unfortunately had our very first "meal" at the snack bar because we arrived after the lunch buffet closed, and it really made a poor first impression for the overall resort for us. The food itself should make this resort less than 2 stars, but we had a really good experience at the gourmet restaurant so we will give the resort 3 stars.

Rooms: the room was decently sized with a big bathroom, however as other reviews stated, the hot water was an issue. The showers don't get quite hot...one of the staff members came with a thermometer and confirmed right at the head of the dispenser it was dispensing 36C temp, but when it hits your body the water is much colder. We also found cockroaches in our room which was disgusting and not something you should see in a "5-star". I've been to other resorts and haven't seen a cockroach issue. Thankfully the house keeping is daily and they do a good job cleaning up the room.

Hotel appearance: the pool is decent, though there's really only 1 large pool to swim in and a few jacuzzis (though the water wasn't hot). The grounds look OK, but we stayed at another resort in Punta Cana in the past that had a better appearance in my opinion. There is a "Bahia village" across the street which looks like it has a lot of potential to have restaurants and shops, but everything is half empty or closed. There was a burger joint there that we didn't realize until our last day, which looks to be open from 10pm - 7am for those late night cravings.

Amenities: there is a really small gym but you're able to achieve a good full body workout. Other resorts I've been to had massive gyms, so seeing this small one in a "5-star" resort makes me feel it doesn't deserve that 5th star. There isn't much to do otherwise except for sit on the beach or go to the pool. Online looked like there was an escape room on the property but when I visited that building was empty.

Beach: the waters were brown and cloudy, not the clear blue you see in pictures of the Caribbean.

Overall the resort is not that great, there are a bunch of others in the area that have more amenities with better food. We won't be returning to this resort or any of the Bahia resorts. The people leaving 5 star reviews were probably pressured to write a review at the resort in front of the staff members. They ask you to write it and give them your name (so they can check you left them a...