Presidential Suites By Lifestyle - All Inclusive — Hotel in Puerto Plata

First I want to start my saying the staff who worked at the Presidential Suites where fantastic.| Our Concierge Julissa Santana, went the extra mile for our family during our stay, my wife and I celebrated our 25th Anniversary during our stay and Julissa had our room decorated making us feel appreciated and welcomed. She deserves the recognition and praise, and a raise…! We witnessed other people in her position not taking the time to make their guests feel as welcomed, if you are heading here, search out and request Julissa as your concierge.| Our ladies who took care of our room we great, thumbs up to Sedalia and her team, great job!| Other supporting members who I’d like to mention as people you want to search out while you are there is Sixto Jimenez and Francisco Cespedes who where able to help us navigate the resort and provide us with very helpful information on where we could buy locally off the resort at much lower costs - look these people up!|| The resort itself… the place is in need of repairs. The pool looked dirty, although I saw it being cleaned daily. The waterline had cracks all the way round which I figure factored into the equation. Plus anyone who had sunscreen on that stuff gets into the water. There was a hot tub that turned out to be a spa, no children signs posted and labelled as “adult only”, however kids where in it all the time, some very young in waterproof diapers, some with parents, many times without. Never ventured there, water in the morning was gross, lost of sediment on seats and lower in a brown hue… Cracks in the concrete around the pool area.|| We decided to treat our entire family to a spa while we were there, much better pool, I would recommend using this one during your stay. Please note there are (2) Yin Yang Spa’s on site - the larger spa closer to the Cofressi is the one we used - but again something things needed repairs, steam rooms broken, hot tub outside, broken. || Restaurants a plenty, some buffet and some you had to book, the Presidential Suites are a section of a larger complex, to give you an idea of how large it is, they brag about the 7K employees they have. To put that into perspective the complex hosts on average +20K guests weekly (that number is probably low, just ballparking). The buffets are great, food selection is good and changes daily between breakfast, lunch and dinner. The Blues. Pearl and the Tropicana each had their own individual flare. The Blues being the smallest and the Tropicana being the largest.|| The trap… Lifestyle is the parent company, others like RCI have an affiliation. Lifestyle reps are on hand to try and get you to buy into this vacation lifestyle, if you like this type of vacation great, but this wasn’t for us. They want you to pay tens of thousands up front for being a “member” the pay again each time you want to stay at a Lifestyle resort. There are plenty of Lifestyle connected resorts to chose from but trust me many hidden costs and you need to read the contract line for line because as we where told by several other “members” what is said verbally and what is in the contract doesn’t compare and once you sign it’s too late and no chance to amend. Just be careful if you do decide this is what you want, some contracts are for 28yrs while others are “Lifetime”. They offer up limos and helicopters as transportation to and from the airport, but again speaking to many of the VIP’s, deeded owners and Chairman’s Circle members, this isn’t always the case either, nor are the accommodations they say you’ll stay in once you are a member. After taking the tour and having the “guide” not being able to provide us with bottom line numbers, saying his hands where tied on the weekly numbers provided and that he’d need to bring in his manager to discuss membership and best weekly rates, it left us puzzled…and bemused. When manager belittled his employee by throwing out lower numbers and trying every tactic into getting us to sign, offering an upgrade to our stay if we signed on the spot. Let’s think about this, I’m on a vacation, and you want me to make a snap decision on day 2 of my stay? Needless to say we don’t pursue any buy in, many of the “members” we spoke to said that was the best decision we could have made - it made way more sense to use companies like redweek.com to book vacations with previous owners instead of investing in timeshares where you potentially may get your money back if you ran it like a business. Not for me, thanks...

Stay away from this hotel!! I vacationed here about 3weeks ago and felt compelled to leave a review regarding my experience. I stayed at the Presidential Suites by Lifestyle in Puerto Plata. As soon as my spouse & I walked into the room it was scorching hot. Bell boys informed us they just turned on the AC and the room should cool down soon. After arriving back from dinner around 9pm, the room thermostat was still reading 27 degrees Celsius (meaning 80 degrees Fahrenheit). After notifying the front desk, they explained the maintenance men were gone for the day and will check the room tomorrow. So we were forced to sleep in a room that was hotter than the temperature outside. Next morning, no one came to the room, we had to remind the front desk for assistance with the AC. Maintenance man came around 4 o’clock. He was only in the room for abt 5mins & stated the issue was fixed and to “give it time”. Once again, we arrived back to the room around 9pm & the thermostat still read 27 degrees Celsius. Nothing could be done, yet again, because it was after hours and no maintenance men were on the premises. So this was our second night sleeping in a suite with no AC. Finally on our 3rd day, we were able to change rooms. We had to pack up our luggage’s to move to a different room. After arriving to the new room, it was also very hot. Long story short, the AC was not working in this room either. I asked to speak with a supervisor since now we have had 3 nights and 4 days in a hot room with no AC. After speaking with supervisor Paula R., she informed me we would change rooms for a 2nd time & that the new room would be ready in 1hr. We waited in our room for 2 hrs & the front desk never contacted us. I had to call to follow up. After calling the front desk, the room change took about another 45 mins. At this point, we spent most of the Afternoon waiting to switch rooms for a 2nd time. Paula informed me I would be compensated for the 3 nights and 4 days we spent in a 80 degree room, barely sleeping and very uncomfortable with 2 room changes. She advised me she would let me know within the next hr how much I would be compensated, once she speaks with Carol S, who was the manager. So we finally experienced some form of AC in our 3rd room. Not only were we half way done with our vacation, but we had to pack up our luggage’s twice due to AC issues. So I never heard back from Paula the supervisor. And when I was checking out, I finally asked abt our compensation for the 3 nights and 4 days we dealt with no AC. Paula apparently was off that day. So Julissa the front desk employee, was trying to be very helpful. She called Paula to figure out what my compensation would be. Paula advised her that there would be no compensation m& that our “all inclusive restaurant dinners” were all the compensation. Keep in mind, we paid for a ALL inclusive stay at the resort & made early reservations for dinners. So Paula not only lied about reaching out to me in a hr regarding our compensation, she also did not refund us anything after knowing we were in 3 different rooms due to AC issues. She told the front desk on the phone, there would be no refund. Even the front desk employees stated I should’ve been compensated for having to switch rooms multiple times & losing quality vacation time just to pack our bags numerous times & waiting for maintenance & bell boys to switch out rooms. There was horrible communication with the supervising staff Paula and Carol. So not only was half of my trip compromised due to having to stay in the room, but we also wasted time waiting for maintenance men & packing our luggage’s over and over again to switch rooms. The hotel seems old & runned down. One night we were in the Brazilian restaurant & noticed a roach crawling on the curtains. Honestly, we were very disappointed bw the lack of communication from management to the wasted vacation time we spent moving & switching rooms. While checking out we noticed another couple who was having AC issues. We advised them to be persistent to change rooms. Choose...

Worst resort experience of my life. I typed up lots of bullet points but it exceeds the character limit on Google. Here are some:

Rooms are old and dated. Grounds need renovation Not handicap accessible at all. Tons of hills, potholes, stairs If you are not a member, you cannot use much of the resort. They will try and get you to buy in when you're there and show you all the areas you cannot use The town is run down, it's truly a 3rd world country. You do not want to venture outside the resort. Lots of pollution and worn/run-down streets and buildings The staff overall was incredibly nice and did their best... the issues with the resort fall on management Rooms had TVs 20 years old Many items in the room did not work. Lights, phones, toilets. Maintenance repaired some. Jacuzzi in our room had broken jets that shot water across the room. Soaked one bed and flooded the room. My mother slipped on the wet floor after exiting the jacuzzi and hurt herself. Beach is not nice at all. Rough waters, dirty sand, dilapidated shacks along the water with small shops Wi-Fi is terrible. Constant disconnects. 2mbps with full strength signals. Some areas want you to pay to use it. Many Jacuzzis around the facility do not work. Spa was alright... it was expensive and they tried their best with what they have -Found several cockroaches. -Showers had some black mold and lots of patchwork. -Water damage on walls -Some faucets spouted water at an angle -All of the furniture was old. The couches, chairs, ottomans are all uncomfortable. One closet had dirt on the bottom.

II. Sixto Golf cart driver for Lifestyles. We met him on our second day there. First day we met him, told us he’d be our personal concierge. He said whatever we need, he will get us. I tipped him $20 to take care of us for the week. He said he’d look into getting us a golf cart tomorrow. Second day, he asked to show us around the grounds after taking us to breakfast. Said he would show us what there is to do and all the “fun” spots. We were immediately dropped off at a Lifestyles Vacations building for a timeshare sale and he took off. We proceeded to be sold for ~3 hours. Sixto never returned after. We were later told he works for the timeshare, and never gave us another ride.

III. Food/Drinks The food was awful. We paid over $2000 for the week for all-inclusive drinks/meals. First day we went to Casablanca for dinner. It was the worst food I’ve seen at a hotel. Any hotel. We both had upset stomachs. Rodizio, Brazilian churrascaria was the best “guest” restaurant. Decent sirloin steaks and sausages. Only 4-5 different meats going around, but it was good. Simply Gourmet, was the only “member” restaurant we could go to. Luckily, they got us in twice. Food is much better here than anywhere else. Had the ribeye. It is not an amazing Ribeye, very fatty, but the wine glaze was good, Potato Leek and salad were great, and my mom liked her surf and turf. Well, just the turf, she said the shrimp was awful. WORST DRINKS IMAGINABLE! They use the cheapest liquor one can find, except at “member” bars. They have one beer. Presidente. I was able to get Heineken a few times, but that’s it. Cannot stress enough how bad the drinks are.

During our Sales Meeting, we were told that since we’re members of RCI (they constantly used the term “RCI people”), most of the hotel grounds are for members only. RCI members are considered guests and only have access to certain restaurants, beaches, pools, and other facilities. We were treated basically like second-class citizens. They showed us all the restaurants and areas we could not go to! They did not compensate us at all for staying through the entire hours-long meeting except for a small bottle of cheap rum and mamajuana. They dangled upgrading us to VIP status for the remainder of our trip, but in the end said this would only happen if we paid them a fee to cover it for the remainder of our trip.

Most of the pools were completely empty. Zero shade in...