El Embajador, a Royal Hideaway Hotel — Hotel in Santo Domingo

There's nothing wrong with the hotel per se, and the value is definitely there relative to the cost of some other hotels in the city. But we just didn't quite feel as welcome as other stays in Santo Domingo. It didn't get the sense they actually wanted us to be there. I want to preface this review by saying that we are primarily English-speakers with mediocre Duolingo skills but armed with translation apps and a firm willingness to make fools out of ourselves trying to communicate in our bad Spanish first and foremost. We also were hotel-bound due to recovery from a medical procedure, so we leaned more on what the hotel had to offer for food and concierge more than others might. But this hotel felt like it wouldn't have quite worked for us regardless of what language they spoke, and paled in comparison to other places we stayed during this trip at similar price points.||Visitors from other parts of Central and South America here for business or pleasure etc, may get a different experience. Overall, this is a good option to crash for a few nights and you will not be disappointed with the rooms. But we wouldn't choose to come back.||There was a general apathy and blasé about how we were treated by staff and a number of issues that started to pile up, and what felt like a communication breakdown between staff at times where issues were left un-addressed until we asked multiple times. ||The good: |* In general our needs were often (but not always) met|* Fruit was fresh and plentiful|* Very nice modern rooms with excellent tub and shower, sleek finishes, and very comfy beds. The junior suite was quite large and included lots of storage space and was perfect for a couple. Turndown service was also excellent with lots of attention to detail. |* Gorgeous grounds encircling a nice pool, including massive stunning trees |* Large number of staff including doormen and many servers so most spaces were always populated and help was always nearby, despite being quite busy maintaining the grounds.||The not so good:|* There is no app/website/etc for ordering room service or scheduling anything, so we were often either misunderstood via the front desk/concierge/room service staff, or had to wait for transfers up to 3 or 4 times before we got to someone who could take our meal order. Honestly, this alone may have changed our experience, since it wouldn't have resulted in so many awkward exchanges. |* Meals were often mediocre and quality seemed variable based on staff -- most carbs for breakfast felt a bit stale or otherwise unappetizing. There is a plethora of better food elsewhere in the city so this probably won't be a big issue for most visitors. However if you are hotel bound, it might be a challenge. There were lots of fruits, nuts, meats etc, offered but most were mid at best. Certain dishes at the restaurants were excellent (salmon filet) and others were trash (anything chicken, the lasagna). We didn't eat every meal in the hotel, but once we found a dish or two that clicked, that was basically all we ate. |* Communication was challenging at times, but we made it work. We are not fluent Spanish speakers and don't expect to be spoken to (or understood) in English, but even with translation apps, it just felt like the staff operated on a different wavelength than other hospitality we received in Santo Domingo. Was it something we did? It felt like pulling teeth whenever we needed anything, which felt more often than not (see below)|* Some staff just straight up didn't care about our needs, including checking into a room after traveling all day, with no real comforts, compromises, or offers to help us with anything. Just a lack of empathy that you don't really see in many higher-end hotels . Same goes for some (not all) of the wait staff. ||* Fitness center was very poor, with loud HVAC, mosquitoes, a horrible PA system in a boxy room with minimal outdated equipment, which made workouts a challenge.|* The main lobby is awkwardly spacious, with dated carpet and furniture, dim lighting and musty, although well air-conditioned. There are many places to sit on some awkward antique furniture and take tea or coffee. Just feels kind of odd being there.|* We don't expect fluency but it felt like a lot was often lost in translation in terms of things actually getting done such as general maintenance requests: we had a drip in our ceiling that took a number of calls to the front desk to get someone to come check it out, though they eventually fixed the problem. Also, we were locked out of our room due to the key reader failing at one point, and had to wait for half an hour to get back into our room, as well as make three separate trips during that time to the front desk until someone actually came to fix the issue.|* Late checkout is pay-per-hour (lame) ||The bizarre:|* There was a huge fashion event during the week at the hotel which had it swarming with guests and artists. It felt buzzing, safe, and fun, but meant staff was stretched very thin. They chose to play loud latin house music on multiple nights during the event that was positioned outside directly below the windows of our room, so we had to tolerate heavy noise past 11pm, which was difficult to deal with (don't get me wrong, if we weren't exhausted, we would have loved to participate, but it kept going until almost midnight, which was just something we would have appreciated knowing about before we booked -- or confined in one of the many ballrooms. |* As far as I know there is a points system for the holding company but you can't apply points after you book (?) so if you're booking through a third-party you basically just don't get points for your stay. Not a big deal, wouldn't stay at one of their hotels...

I recently stayed at this hotel with my partner from Wednesday to Sunday. Unfortunately, I had a few unpleasant encounters with staff members. Upon my arrival, I stood waiting at the front desk for the only staff member who was present, while he was joking around with what seemed to me like guests. Until one of the guests had to signal him to attend me… this man didn’t even ask me what I was waiting for, he just said to go outside to were the lady was receiving parking tickets. Of course, unknowingly, I went outside to see if this other lady could orient me on what I was supposed to do there. Only to find out he just assumed I was leaving and needed my parking ticket stamped or something. Then I went back to the front desk and had to interrupt his little conversation with the guests to explain I just wanted to do the check in (which he would have known if he would have taken the time to welcome me and ask) then he finally dismissed them and attended me.

Later during the stay, I sent my partner to go get towels at the spa and ask for information about the massages and other services they offered. And they just dismissed him with a digital brochure. Horrible customer service. I had to go back in and ask again, and the blond lady at the front desk immediately responded that they didn’t have availability. I had to press her to get information about their services and the prices. And when we asked to reserve the sauna she kept on repeating it was only for guests that had a room. Which I had told her we we’re, in fact, staying in a room and had to remind her another 3 times. She didn’t even suggest we’d come a different day. I asked if we could reserve for the next day, and she said we’d have to wait and see, and to pass by tomorrow. The next day we went in at 10:00 (which is when they open the spa). Now, I know she probably deals with many guests everyday, but I’m sure she must have remembered us from the previous day, giving that she was the one who said we had to return and ask again. I may be wrong, but she pretended not to know what we were there for and asked us again, and when we told her we wanted to reserve the sauna, she went on again about not having availability. A different staff member was very kind to point out to her the sauna was, in fact, available if we wanted to go in right away, or later that day at 1.

Finally when we went back at 1, she said she’d give us only one locker and to choose whether we wanted it to be from the women’s or the men’s bathroom. Moments later, a different staff member approached us and when we asked about how we’re were supposed to use the sauna, turns out the lockers have a bath robe and shower gel, and somehow she expected me and my partner to share 1 bathrobe and 1 shower gel even though we were is separate bathrooms… so the kind lady called for her, and I had to explain to HER that she only gave us one locker and unless they expected me to strip naked in front of the sauna (a public space) I wouldn't be able to hand over my clothes to my partner to go put in the man’s locker, and I was going to need a robe of my own.

Overall the woman was very disrespectful and made our experience complicated and unpleasant. She did not want to service us at all. She has no customer service skills, and it was so distasteful to see her smile while she kept making the whole thing impossible for us. 0 efficiency.

Me and my partner are young, but we paid good money to be there and it was so disappointing to be treated that way.

I will say the rooms were wonderfully decorated, very clean and the rest of the hotel was beautiful. Other staff members from the bar and the restaurants gave us an excellent service and were very helpful to us. Breakfast was delicious.

Please not that the pool area does not have the capacity for the amount of people in the wouldn't. There were many people standing, waiting to get a chair long at all times of the day except during lunch time, some even had to sit on the floor. Others brought chairs from other areas to simply...

Have you ever wanted to be over charged, in secret, and then feel like you have been robbed... well you have come to the right place! At El Embajador hotel, you’ll get robbed with a smile and then told to come again because your just a stupid foreigner! Yay!

So let me just start off by saying this is a really nice looking place. From the parking lot, to the lobby, the elevators, the hallways and the room was really nice! We loved that portion of it. We went there to spend a night to not have to drive across the country. 3 adults, 2 children. We spoke to them and they offered us a room with 2 beds for $210. I said fine. We go up and theres only one bed which was ok since it was really nice. One of slept on the couch.

This is the part where things get a bit weird. So theres a minibar in the room. On top of it is one big bottle of water with a sign on it that says if you drink this water, you will pay about $360 pesos (About $7 dollars US). Now it clearly just mentions the water. Nothing else! So we look in the bar and they have various snacks. Snickers, kit kat, 2 bags of chips, different types of nuts. In the fridge they have small bottles of water, one can of coca cola, a gatorade, a can of beer, a bottle of liquor and then like 3 small bottles of liquor. We decide to eat some of the snacks. The next morning when leaving, we look at whats left in the snack bar. We left a bunch of stuff cause we didn’t want to carry stuff and didn’t like those snacks anyway. And we left all the liquor.

We go downstairs to pay and leave. When they show us the bill its about 13,650 in pesos (about $270 dollars) for the room and 5,500 ($107 dollars) for snacks from minibar. Now.... all those snacks i could of bought myself for about $20 dollars or less at a supermarket. So right there I’m asking to be shown what was it that racked up all that money. When they give me the paper bill, they had charged me for all the snacks including the liquor. Now just so you know, we have our religious beliefs. We don’t drink and we have 2 children with us. A 1 and a 2 year old. We don’t drink. So now I’m telling them the same. They said the bottles aren’t there. So we say lets all go back up together and go look. The guy seems hesitant but walks towards the elevator. When we get to the elevator he says no, lets handle this down here. He tells the guy to remove those 2 liquors from the bill and let us go. So we still paid a ton for super cheap snacks. Now you can just look at the pictures and convert some of that stuff to your currency and see its insane. I mean just look at the bottle of water. $380. Thats almost $8 dollars.... for a bottle of water..... WATER..... that i never drank.... In the end, i just paid for the rest of the snacks.... which was all of them.... without fighting because i just wanted to get out of there.

Im on vacation. I don’t care what i have to pay to enjoy myself and entertain my family. But when your pretty much going into my pocket to rob me, its a problem.

This is just a warning to all. Im a american dominican. My family live there. So i visit. When i got the the country, someone warned us to always look at your bills while in the country because they like to take advantage and overcharge or charge for things never received. This is an example of that. You have to understand that to these Dominicans, you are a stupid foreigner. You came here to spend. Your getting drunk. You don’t care. Your not going to look at your bill. So they will over charge you and consistently get away with it.

So again, its a really nice hotel. I wish i could say i was going to return (which i actually told my wife we were going to do since we were in the country for another 2 weeks), but we are not. This is just another sign of the corruptness of DR.

BE AWARE!!! THEY WILL DO IT TO YOU TO IF...