Ocean Village Deluxe — Hotel in La Hispaniola

Stayed at Villa 24 with my wife and 3 small kids for 4 nights.||||Pros: ||||- The villa was very nice. Great really. Large, modern, great private pool. Couldn't have asked for anything more. ||- The price, both of the villa, and food and beverage on site extremely reasonable/ almost underpriced.||- Location - close to the airport. Super close to Sosua Beach, Playa Alicia, and very close to Cabarete. We went to Kite Beach for a day. 10 min taxi ride. Awesome day.||||General note:||- From what I can tell there was an old hotel called Sosua Ocean Village which no longer exists. The old pool from that hotel, which has some waterslides, and a little boat shaped bar are still open, but a little run down. Decent shape, but not great. There are pictures on the website of a larger waterpark, and restaurant Laguna. || For us at least access to these areas was not included. The pool area we could access, on the eastern edge of Ocean Village Deluxe, also gives you access to the beach. The beach here is strikingly beautiful. But it is not really ideal for spending time in the water. At least while we were there red flags were up the whole time. Very rough surf. This is not a long beach, more a little beachy area surrounded by rocky cliffs. ||||On the western edge of Ocean Village Deluxe, where we checked in, they seem to be building the center of the new Ocean Village Deluxe resort, and you are basically in an active construction site. The pool and restaurant over there are fully under construction. Like bulldozers, the whole nine yards. There is one restaurant that is open, a short walk away, with a big pool next to it, and 3 whirlpools on one side. This restaurant is mostly outdoors, gorgeous, and the food and drink were all very good. But it is the only restaurant.||||Cons||- Hospitality - The staff here were all very nice and friendly, but I kept getting the sense that management and the rules they are told to follow were the impediments to us really getting a sense of hospitality. Some examples - upon check in to the villa, one of the first things we were told was to take pictures of the plates and glasses so we could dispute any charge related to them being missing or broken upon checkout. Weird. You are given a bracelet that you can use to charge things to your room and access some locked gates, etc. We were given a stern warning losing one would result in a $25 charge. At dinner one night we asked for the check without stating we wanting to charge to our room. We were told it was too late once the paper check was presented to switch to a room charge and had to use a credit card. Our stay included breakfast. We were told to bring a paper voucher to the restaurant each morning. One morning we forgot and were not allowed to place our order until I went back to the villa and got the voucher. None of these were huge issues, but altogether just destroyed any sense of us being welcomed to the resort as guests.||||- The restaurant was listed as opening at 8 and we were able to be sat then, but it seems like the chef does not get in until closer to 8:30. First two mornings it took almost an hour to get our food. Tough with 3 kids.||- One morning we were picked up for an excursion at the resort at 8:50. At 8 I walked to the restaurant and asked to order some quick food to go, i.e. a croissant, a bagel. Was told kitchen was closed. I asked if they could drop food at our villa once ready, as long as it was by 8:45 when we had to leave. The food was not ready in time. I got a bunch of WhatsApp messages throughout the day making sure I would sign the invoice for my free breakfast that wasn't delivered in time for us to eat. Not a big deal, but annoying, and I got the sense the person sending the messages was nervous they'd somehow get in trouble if I didnt sign the check.||||- On departure day, we informed the front desk we were getting picked up by a taxi at 8:15 to make our flight. They asked if they could come by to inspect the villa at 8:15. We explained that would not work since we had to leave. They said they would come at 8. They did not. In the taxi to the airport (around 8:20) I stopped at reception to let them know we were leaving. They tried to convince me to go back to the villa to do the inspection. I told them I had no time and got in the cab and left. Not a great parting experience.||||- Villa has a dishwasher and washer/dryer but no detergent. There is no store on site, nowhere to buy detergent (or things like suncreen) which would have been a nice convenience. ||||Overall - Really great value. Great location. ||||Despite my complaints listed above, which did irk me, I would come back here assuming the same nightly cost. My kids had a blast. This part of DR is awesome, and we had a great time. Some little tweaks could make Ocean Village Deluxe nearly perfect. My fear is once construction is done it will be out of our budget. ...

Pros |- [ ] Beautiful view |- [ ] Large pool|- [ ] Clean |- [ ] Friendly staff|- [ ] Large bedrooms |- [ ] Nicely decorated |- [ ] A lot of seating in the backyard with tons of comfortable loungers |- [ ] Huge property |- [ ] Tons of privacy, feels like you’re completely on your own |- [ ] No loud noises/parties at night |- [ ] Family friendly |- [ ] Nice atmosphere |- [ ] VERY Safe, gated community |- [ ] Cleaners did an excellent job during our stay - house was spotless |-Restaurant María staff was amazing, only a short walk, food was incredible! |-watching several cruise ships go by daily was amazing. |-AC in every room || Cons |- [ ] No paper towels or napkins |- [ ] No dishcloths |- [ ] Minimal cookware & very dated |- [ ] Require lighter for oven, lighter they provided did not work |- [ ] Water pressure low |- [ ] Finding the place was difficult |- [ ] Entrance was confusing/ no one to greet you until you reached the gate. |- [ ] No BBQ |- [ ] Very confusing set up to get access to the restaurant Santa Fe. We thought we had free access but when we went for dinner we had to pay upfront for our food & wear a bracelet to gain access. Once we got the receipt for our meals we had to give it to the front entrance staff & they would figure out any price differences. But what was also strange was that once you enter Santa Fe, you’re not allowed to leave. If you do you have to pay to get in again. We didn’t realize that was not a part of Ocean Village Deluxe. |-no clue where the water park was that was advertised. The advertisement made it out to seem like this was a resort style. It’s not. It’s a subdivision with people who own these homes. |- [ ] For the amount of money we paid for this place I don’t feel we should be told that they’ve taken inventory of the every inexpensive item (cups, cutlery, etc). I’ve stayed at so many airbnbs & not once have we come across this. We’re not taking your forks. |- [ ] Wifi is spotty. Does not work away from the patio & even the back bedrooms had difficulty connecting or none at all. |- [ ] Cannot manually power on the jets in the small pool closest to the ocean. Only come on for 2 hours a day & the last few days that pool completely emptied & despite us advising staff, it was never fixed. |- [ ] No food covers (ziploc bags/saran wrap, etc). |- [ ] Furniture inside isn’t the most comfortable & the tv’s have a hard time connecting to wifi so we didn’t get to watch anything the entire trip. (Not like you vacation for tv but still something that didn’t work) |- [ ] Hot water went out after a day |- [ ] Have to pay for filtered water |- [ ] Power was constantly going out |- [ ] Cockroaches in the bedrooms & outdoors |- [ ] Did not clean the pool daily - had to ask for it to be cleaned |- [ ] Did not provide garbage bags until we asked |- [ ] Provided a small amount of coffee filters |- [ ] As stated they provide a bag of ice-however one was not provided for us |- [ ] Close to the airport-see & hear loud planes daily (we loved this but some won’t) |-safety issue close to the ocean - there is a ledge that you can sit on & watch the ocean/waves but it’s a top a very steep coral cliff. I would NOT recommend small children/pets to be anywhere close to this area. |-large patio area seems like totally wasted space near the bottom where the small pool is located. |-could not figure out any of the ceiling fans |-home is showing signs of age/rusty exterior/loud screechy cabinets/broken lamp shades/stained exterior cushions ||Overall I would rate this...

Let me start by saying that I hate writing bad reviews, but in this case, I had to. Before writing this I went back and read all the reviews written and my conclusion is that Ocean Village will post a politically correct response to this, even though I have been waiting for over a week for them to respond to me personally with a resolution to compensate me for their lack of providing us with what was advertised, a quiet luxury oceanfront villa. I will make a detailed list of everything we experienced to hopefully help others with their decision to rent here:||As others stated, the communication with staff when reserving was terrible. They take forever to reply, if at all. This should have been the first red flag but we visit the DR frequently and this is common for some places so we overlooked this.||The arrival process is confusing and we went to 3 places before finally being told by security where to go. When we finally found it, we were told we had Villa #1, which I had specifically stated I did not want. It was the only one available so we didn’t have any other option but to take it.||The villa was nice but definitely needs a lot of updating to be considered luxury. Lots of rust all over, drawers falling out when you pull them out, locks that don’t open/close because of rust, pots and pans are old, etc. Also, appliances need updating, dishwasher didn’t work at all. We reported it but never got any response so I had to hand wash dishes for our entire stay.|| We did not have hot water for the first 3 days, even though they told us each day it was fixed.||When we tried to go to the beach, we were told it was closed. I had been informed that the restaurant Il Porto was closed, but they did not tell me that the beach, pool bar and infinity pool were also closed. Also did not say it anywhere on their website. They have a pool at Maria’s and Santa Fe but you have to buy their food and drinks there. We prefer to go to the beach with our own drinks in our Yetis to keep them cold (which they don’t let you take into Maria’s or Santa Fe, even empty)||We could have overlooked all of the previous items except for the fact that they gave us the villa right next to the Santa Fe Waterpark and the entrance to the waterslide and the lifeguard stand was situated right next door to our villa and looked right into our backyard. They had music playing every day from 9am to 9pm on the weekend and 9am to 6pm on the weekdays. In addition, the lifeguard blowing his whistle the entire day, kids screaming, people yelling and everyone on the slide looking down into our backyard. I tried to post a video with this review so you could see how bad it was, but was unable to.||Bottom line here, we paid for a luxury villa with certain amenities and that is NOT even close to what we received. Had I been informed of all the details previously, I would have rented elsewhere. Management was terrible about handling the situation. The only thing they offered us after over a week of trying to get a response was a guarantee of a nicer villa if we went back. Totally unacceptable as we will not be going back.||I truly hope this helps others in their decision to rent here. We have been coming to the DR for many years and there are so many beautiful places to rent in Sosua/Cabarete where you will receive much better service and amenities. Listen to the bad reviews here, sadly, they are...