Hilton La Romana 5*

We have chosen Hilton La Romana Family Resort to stay for 11 nights and celebrate wife’s 30th birthday and our anniversary. We stayed with our kids (4 years old daughter and 5 months old son). We decided to get the largest Family Suite (78 sq.m), which also includes Premium package + Butler service at the total rate ~650 USD per night.

We have already been to Dominicana 5 years ago and stayed at Grand Bavaro Princess Punta Cana. That is what I can compare with. Both hotels are 5*, but Bavaro is considered a less-luxury hotel offering lux-bungalow rooms at 2 times lower rate than Hilton La Romana. Our butler Yrani at the introduction said that Hilton is a higher-class hotel than Bavaro, so we will enjoy our stay for sure!

Unfortunately, our problems started right at check-in. We arrived at the hotel at 1 pm. The hotel check-in time is 2 pm, which was completely OK with us. Our butler assured us that the room will be ready by 1.30 - 2 pm. Our kids were quite tired after the long 12-hour flight, so getting to the room and having some basic hygienic procedures for the smallest member of our family (5 months old baby) was essential to us. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to our room neither at 2 pm, nor 2.30 pm and nor even at 3 pm. Each time we asked the girl at reception when are the going to give us the key from the room, she said that the room is not ready yet and we should wait for another 15 minutes. In the end, we have finally got to our suite only at 3.20 pm!

When we came to the suite, it was too cold there, something close to North Pole, Santa would definitely enjoy. The AC worked at full speed with 18C set in both rooms of the suite. We asked to turn it off completely. We have changed our cloth, did the needed procedures quickly and went out of the suite hoping that it will become warmer there by the time we get after staying at the beach and dinner. We came back at around 9 pm, but the room was still cold. The AC was delivering cold air at low speed even if it was OFF completely. The temperature in both rooms was around 17-18C. The windows outside were covered with condensate. Nothing helped, even if the terrace windows were completely open in both rooms. Our kids were frustrated with unnormal microclimate in the room. My wife had to take the baby outside to the terrace and make him sleep there. She spent half of the night on the terrace with baby and another half – in the room sleeping in the hoodie under the blanket.

The next day, after we told our butler Yrani, that we are not going to stay at the suite another night, if the AC still continues to get the cold air in the room, they finally sent a guy who fixed the AC and it could be completely turned off. Thankfully. By the night, the suite became warm and comfortable to stay.

The suite itself is quite large, offering two separate rooms (one bedroom and living room which can be used as a second bedroom) and a nice ocean view. Advantages of the suite come to the end at this point. Negative:

1. The warm water comes in the shower or bath in 5-7 minutes after you open the tap.

2. The main door has gaps on all sides, so it doesn’t save from outside sounds at all. This results in the fact that you can’t use the living room as a second bedroom, since the noise from outside is pretty high. Someone walks and talks going to his room, evening performances in the hotel and so on – you will hear everything, and your kids will wake up for sure.

3. The soundproofing is absent in the suite. We had the first floor. We heard everything that happened at the second floor in the neighbor’s suite. Especially, when the chairs in the living room on the second floor were moved. Has hotel administration heard about felt pads for furniture?

Other issues, which make your vacation even worse:

1. The concept of Premium doesn’t work. When you come to the beach area dedicated for premium guests, with high chance you won’t find any vacant sunbeds there. Even if you come at 7 am. Why? Because administration doesn’t control that area and the sunbeds reserved for Premium guests are used by all hotel guests.

2. The hotel area can be used for celebrating a wedding. I’m good with that, but not when it is celebrated right next to your suite with loud music and shouting guests till 11 pm. This party took place on Monday, Nov 15. The area when the hotel allows to celebrate such events is right next to two buildings with Premium Family Suites and premium pool between them. So you think this is normal? That is how you treat with your Premium guests? Our kids are going to bed at 9 pm normally. This day, we couldn’t get them sleep till the end of the party.

3. WiFi access code is reset every 2-3 days. When your WiFi is disconnected and the access code doesn’t work, you should call the reception and ask for a new code. Since we stayed for 11 nights, we had to do it 4 times in total.

4. Other small issues are probably don’t even worth mentioning on such background. The waiters have short memory in most cases. They will bring you cold water and juice with ice for your kid even if you say twice “No ice, please!”, forget to bring you the ordered dishes in A-la carte restaurants and you can even meet waiter that don’t know English at all.

Is there anything good about the hotel at all? Yes, sure. The hotel is quite good overall. But poor management ruins all positive aspects of the hotel. I would flag the following points as undeniable advantages:

1. Large and well-groomed territory. The suite was clean and tidy every day. The sea is perfect and the beach is clean. Nice scenery!

2. Premium pool with its own bar is a nice relaxing area. Unlike the premium beach area, the administration of the pool checks your room number when you come to the pool. You can always find free sunbeds there.

3. The food in buffet is diverse and tasty. Also, we didn’t experience any digestive issues during our stay.

4. Butler service is quite good overall. Yrani and Joan tried to be useful. The Birthday dinner was good – Joan booked a nice table on the Grill restaurant terrace, decorated with balloons and in the end they presented a small cake. Yrani always offered fresh fruits and beverages through the day and provided info on the entertainment events.

Summarizing, when we planned the vacation, we decided to go for a higher-class hotel like Hilton. But instead of Premium relaxing vacation, we received a dozen of issues and frustrations. I tend to think, that we could have a much better vacation spending twice less in the hotel, that we stayed in 5 years ago.