Hotel Catalonia Bayahibe — Hotel in La Hispaniola

This was our second time at this hotel, and boy has it changed from last year. While we really liked it last year - the location and beach, service and food, this year unfortunately we had a very disappointing experience.

We travelled in a group of 3 families. Our family of 4 with 10 and 6 year old kids was placed in a room with a king bed and some additional short twin, which was squeezed into a tight space between the window and the king bed, basically without any space in between them to walk. Our 6 year old , who tosses and turns all night through, had to sleep with my husband and me. I was 7 months along at that point, and needless to say that getting at least a bit of night sleep was a challenge. And while the accommodation was not the most convenient one, the room was kept clean and without any major issues. The other family we travelled with got less lucky. A few nights into their vacation they started having MICE in their room, that would run around in the middle of the night. They ended up changing the hotel.

Half of the resort is under construction, and they had to change the location of the buffet and restaurants as compared to previous year. Now the territory of the hotel is packed up with older and newer built wooden decking that serve as relocated restaurants, which leaves very little space for walking and an unpleasant feeling that there is not enough space for everyone. While the food in restaurants was decent, the buffet on the other hand had a pretty modest and repetitive menu. But this is not the worst part: a few days into our vacation different members of our group started experiencing stomach issues, even the kids who were very picky with the foods and often chose pizza and fries over the rest of the selection. Not sure if it was low quality ingredients or because of the heat in non-air conditioned buffet which caused the food to go bad in no time, but we also heard other people complaining about having similar stomach issues. The cherry on top was seeing a mouse running in between the tables in the buffet on our last morning in the resort.

During our stay we constantly had a feeling that the resort was badly overbooked. Both the beach and pool areas were always full and there were not enough beach chairs. If we wanted a nicer spot at the beach preferably with shade, someone had to wake up at 6 am to take a walk and “reserve” the spots for our big group. A few times we ran into unpleasant situations when our belongings were removed from the spots that we “reserved” in the early morning. Not sure if it was hotel staff or the other guests, but we had quite a few pieces of clothes missing after our trip. And another unpleasant detail that we encountered right there at the beach was that some guests were sunbathing topless in the public areas of a family part of the resort with a bunch of kids running around. Resort staff did not do anything about it, even though there were many complaints from other beach goers in regards to such inconsiderate behavior around children.

The only reason the place is getting 2 stars out of 5 is because of the servers who made up for the overall impression of the resort. The servers are well trained and super nice to guests.

Overall we tried to make the best out of the situation, and took trips outside of the resort as much as we could, but still I cannot recommend this resort, and would not come back here or to another Catalonia location after having such a...

We recently stayed at Catalonia Bayahibe and were impressed by several aspects of the resort. The beach is absolutely stunning, the gardens are well-maintained and lush, and the Privileged rooms are modern and nicely decorated. Entertainment was enjoyable every night, and the food was generally good throughout our stay.||However, our experience was impacted by a few frustrating service issues.||We had specifically requested a room with a balcony when booking. At check-in, the receptionist confirmed that our room had one. Upon arrival to the room, we realized it only had a terrace, not a balcony. When we brought this up, the receptionist insisted that in the Dominican Republic a terrace is the same as a balcony. While we understand cultural differences, this felt misleading, especially since our request had been acknowledged.||We contacted Reyna from customer service, who told us no balcony rooms were available but offered to help us change the room the next day around 12:30 p.m. She also recommended we not take our luggage with us and check the new room first. We appreciated the advice, but unfortunately, the room wasn't ready until 2:30 p.m., and when we finally saw it, it was smaller and had a strange smell, so we chose to stay in our original room. There didn’t seem to be any sense of urgency or prioritization with our case.||Another issue with the room: lack of privacy. The toilet and shower are enclosed with transparent glass, and the washroom and bedroom are only separated by two mirrors—definitely something to consider if you're traveling as a family.||We were also celebrating our anniversary, and wanted to make it special. One of our kids has PKU, which comes with strict dietary restrictions, so after carefully reviewing the menus, we decided on Rodeo, an à la carte restaurant that would work best for us. Reyna again said she would help us with the booking.||On the evening of the dinner, we arrived at the restaurant only to be told that Rodeo was not operating that night—it was Yuca instead, as both restaurants share the same space on alternate nights. We went back to guest services to verify if maybe the reservation was done for a different date and found out there was no reservation for Rodeo at all, but oddly, two reservations had been made for Trattoria, which we had not requested.||As for the “anniversary surprise”—we were told there would be one, and housekeeping did knock on our door around 2 p.m. while the kids were resting, to decorate with balloons. They seemed surprised we were in the room and said they'd come back later. They never returned. While I wasn’t expecting anything elaborate, once you mention a gesture like that, following through matters.||In summary, Catalonia Bayahibe has beautiful surroundings and the potential for a 5-star stay, but our experience was let down by miscommunication, lack of follow-through, and poor handling of basic requests—especially considering we were celebrating a special occasion. If not for the balcony mix-up and the failed anniversary dinner, I would’ve gladly rated it 5 stars. Hopefully, the management can take this feedback to improve the...

Forget about the good comments about this hotel, they are made because certain members of staff ask people to do it.

We arrived at Catalonia bahyahibe at night time. We were the first to do the check in, asked for a 2nd floor room, after arriving to the room and notice that it was a ground floor, went to the reception again and were told that we should have asked at check in. But that was what we did. We arrived at around 22:30 and the only food available was pizza, my parents in law with 60 yo had to eat pizza before going to bed. After eating only pizza, we went to the room to have some rest after a 24 hour trip to come here, went to take a shower and there was no hot water… Another trip to the reception where they told us we would have to wait 30 to 40 minute for the water to be warm because they turned the pressure off at night, weren’t they expecting guests?? shouldn’t they have prepared the room for the new arriving guests? (Check the room expiration dates on drinks in the mini fridge before drinking!) Next morning, we paid a room privilege with certain amenities and not even beach towels had in the room. Third day, pouring rain and not even an umbrella in our room, asked for one and got stucked waiting 40min inside and no one arrived, after 3 calls to the reception, I saw a staff member passing by who offer me his own umbrella. In the buffet we sit down to eat and wait 10 minutes for someone come to ask us what we want to drink and we finish the meal before our drinks arrive to the table, we have waited for more than half an hour for drinks, this happens every single meal since we arrived. With all of this happening to us no one from the staff was able to be nice or kind, not even a single smile, from the reception guys to the bar staff, no one! (The expeption were the cleaning ladies, super cute) Loud noises from various construction sites all over the hotel, next to restaurant la terrace where they decide to take down a bar on day one, the new building next to the pool, sidewalks under renovation next to our room… Been to a lot of places but the service with this one is shameful, worst experience in a while. And this is was only day 3. I wish to be near home, because I would certainly be left already. Absolutely no respect for the clients, they literally ignore you! There are a few exceptions of course, but the vast majority will only be nice if you wave dollar bills. This is not a cheap hotel and being kind coast them nothing. Shameful, after this we did an upgrade to the ROYAL part, I will comment there next.

Big thanks to the two guest service managers who listened to me and tried to solve our problems with the resources available to them!

Plus side: best beach in Bayahibe.

Unfortunately, I can say that I will never return to the Dominican Republic after this experience, they act like they are doing you a favor. From the hotel to the...