Matum Hotel & Casino — Hotel in Santiago de los Caballeros

Wow.... To be treated this way due to the fact we are white. We are local people living in cabarete and needed a hotel close to Cabral hospital as we are helping with the deliveries of new born babies once a month for three days. So we figured we give mature hotel our business as they are down the road. On Tuesday morning my wife called the hotel to make a reservation and confirm pricing and details. When we arrived Elvis the door man was very wonderful, but it went down hill from there. As pre our phone call earlier Tuesday morning we stated there would be three adults in our party and two very small children ages 3 and almost one. Do to this we requested a room over the south side of the Lobby and away from the loud bass of the casino and night club. We were also quoted a price of $70 usd all taxes in including breakfast. During checking we re affirmed the price that was quoted to us, but were charged a much higher amount. Not thinking much of it, Elvis the most wonderful employee here helped us with our bags and showed us around the hotel. After a long days travel from our home in cabarete we needed to feed the children and ourselfs. Elvis was once again very helpful as he spoke very good English regarding the area and where to eat. During this conversation the young very rude lady at the front desk asked we pay more money ( at this time $10usd more per night), as she argued the price charged was not enough, mean while we were charged more then the quoted amount as per our phone conversation. Then during Tuesday night when we returned from dinner the same rude front desk clerk accused us of having a small dog in our babies backpack and check our room and back pack for this dog, mean while it was one of our sons stuffed toys. On to Wednesday morning when my wife tried to leave for here shift at the hospital the same front desk clerk was on duty and argued with the rude lady as now she wanted $50 more then the $30 requested the night before. The same clerk cancelled our room keys so they would not work to return to our room.

We then fast forward to now, when we returned to the hotel from dinner and different front desk clerk stated we most pay $70 more for our room. My wife then started to speak with him and he was very nice, but not the absent manager that would only speak on the phone . We have all ready paid for our room till Friday morning and this woman manger tried to kick was out of our room if we would not pay. In the end my wife paid the nice front desk man on duty a total of 1395 dop or $30 usd. As agreed with the absent manager on the phone.

What is going on at this hotel, we are in room 216 our roof leaks water over the toilet, t.v does not work, window to the outside does not lock, and when requested to be placed in the rooms on the right side of the lobby sure to the night club noise. We were placed directly over the casino.

As being a family that owns hotels and restaurants, this type of service is very Unexpectable in every way.we also were planning on staying at matum once a month for three nights bring others from the north coast with us to rent rooms as much needed help at the Cabral hospital, but we will take our business else where, as they think they can swindle you at of more money once they have received payment from you.

This hotel is currently under going a upgrade, but no upgrade can produce revenue when their staff thinks they can swindle more money out of expats that live on the island. I do wish the investment mangers of this hotel contacts us, as being hotel owners we hate seeing other owners being hold hostage and losing revenue from...

Hicimos una reserva por Booking, pero cuando llegamos al hotel, el recepcionista, desde un sofá del que ni se levantó, nos dijo que no disponían de habitaciones libres, que en internet aparecer habitaciones libres pero que en la realidad no era así. Veníamos de otro alojamiento que nos había dejado en la calle a las 22h porque el vuelo desde España se retrasó y consideraron dar nuestra reserva a otra persona. En el Matum, le explicamos la situación al recepcionista, seria y contundentemente, ya se levantó y nos dijo que iba a buscar una habitación libre... Misteriosamente, apareció en menos de un minuto una habitación de matrimonio disponible a 75$ la noche. Reservamos 2 noches. Subimos las maletas y salimos deprisa a cenar, porque era tarde e iban a cerrar. A nuestro regreso, subimos a la habitación y fue entonces cuando nos dimos cuenta de que había un muy mal olor, a tubería podrida, insoportable, pero como era muy tarde, encendimos el extractor de aire del baño y decidimos no molestar. Para nuestra sorpresa, el agua del lavabo del baño tampoco funcionaba bien, el grifo estaba colapsado de cal y parecía un aspersor... Imposible lavarse bien ahí... Pero, por no molestar, decidimos pasar la noche y solucionar al día siguiente. A las 6 de la madrugada, el olor seguía insoportable y mi marido decidió bajar a recepción, donde nos ofrecieron otra habitación libre, en mejores condiciones, no entendemos por qué no nos dieron esa habitación desde el principio si, evidentemente, se encontraba disponible. Nos informaron de que a las 8h llegaba la gerente, para hablar con ella y pedirle el reembolso de la segunda noche, porque habíamos decidido marcharnos de ese hotel, por la noche horrible y porque el primer recepcionista, aún teniendo habitaciones disponibles aceptables, decidió ubicarnos en una con olor a podrido y con el baño inservible. A las 8h, bajamos a recepción otra vez, donde había una mujer y pensamos que era la gerente, ya que nos habían dicho que llegaba a las 8h. Le relatamos lo sucedido con detalle y le pedimos que nos hiciese el reembolso de la segunda noche, ya que habíamos decidido marcharnos del hotel, a lo que su respuesta fue que no reembolsaban dinero en efectivo, le contestamos que no era necesario, que habíamos pagado con tarjeta y que era suficiente hacer una devolución en la tarjeta, su respuesta volvió a ser una negativa, dijo que su política no aceptaba reembolsos, nos sentimos ultrajados, denigrados y estafados, se lo hicimos ver y ella pretendía silenciarnos, porque nosotros debíamos escucharle, le dijimos que no, que ella debería escucharnos a nosotros, que éramos los clientes, muy insatisfechos. Pedimos una hoja de reclamación para cada uno, a lo que nos dijeron que no disponían de ellas, cosa inadmisible para un hotel de tres estrellas, pedimos, por favor, que imprimiese unos folios con el epígrafe de "hoja de reclamación", lo hizo y escribimos nuestras reclamaciones, cuando terminamos, pedimos un sello del hotel para hacerlo oficial, su respuesta volvió a ser que no, que el sello lo tenía la gerente, que llegaría a lo largo de la mañana. El trato recibido nos pareció irrisorio y denigrante, por lo que fuimos directamente al Ministerio de Turismo de República Dominicana a transmitir nuestras quejas. Hemos perdido el reembolso de la segunda noche de hotel, habiendo pasado una primera noche digna de indigentes hediondos. Espero con ansiedad que el Ministerio de Turismo tome cartas en el asunto y realice una inspección acorde a las necesidades del caso, porque la imagen de RD que se proyecta hacia el extranjero no es...

I don't know where to start so I'll just go with a list: 1) the staff are rude and ill-informed; 2) there was a big pool of water in the breakfast dining room, I slipped, nearly fell, told the staff about it and by the time I had finished breakfast it still hadn't been mopped, I took it upon myself to warn the other guests as the staff apparently couldn't be bothered; 3) if you want to take a shower plan ahead and start running the hot water about 10 minutes prior; 4) the water coming out of the sink was at a trickle; 5) the vent fan in the bathroom was as loud as a Cessna engine. 6) lighting throughout the entire hotel was inadequate, to include the rooms. 7) the complimentary breakfast was ample but had the oddest offerings (e.g. mashed bananas(?)). 8) the casino is non-existent, there used to be one but it's since closed and is completely dilapidated; it looks like something you'd see in a post-apocalyptic Reno, Nevada. 9) there's a pool, it appears to not have been painted since the 1930's and is most peculiarly situated so as to only be able to access it from the second floor even thought it's on the ground floor (?) they couldn't knock out a wall? This place is...