Catalonia La Romana

Very disappointing stay at very hight price in a so called 5* hotel. 1) I chose to book La Romana (where we stayed for 16 nights) because I saw on its website that the hotel is "adults only" and, despite the ambiguity of the expression, I imagined that the absence of children would mean a calm and quiet hotel. As soon as I checked in, the television showed that PORTABLE loudspeakers (soundboxes) were forbidden in the hotel, a warning that was all over the walls and everywhere. I couldn't have been more wrong. Impolite guests were using these speakers at an unbelievable rate, some at an incredible height, without the hotel taking any action. I complained to reception three days in a row without anyone doing anything and the other guests continued to be harassed by this. Wouldn't it be the hotel's role to enforce the rules that are visible to everyone and that the hotel uses as advertising to attract a certain type of guest who likes silence? What is worse is that the hotel itself doesn't respect its own rules. The hotel's space is small and there is a central square that leads to the restaurants and a central swimming pool with the rooms around it. Every night at 8pm there are live shows that go on until 10.30pm. The noise is deafening, making dinner in the restaurants that open onto the courtyard a martyrdom. Only one of the hotel's four restaurants is set back and escapes this problem. On a Saturday, my wife couldn't even finish her dinner because she had a massive headache due to the noise. That day the show had started at 7.30pm. Before that, a loudspeaker deafened everyone in the restaurant. What a horrible thing to do. 2) On the first night at Tao Cat, the negative point was a waitress who asked for a review of the restaurant, typing 5 stars into my wife's mobile phone and then asking her to praise 5 names she had on a piece of paper. After that, this same approach happened at Toscana, Thalassa, Bloved, Rodeo, in short, at all the restaurants, in a slightly less aggressive way. This was repeated throughout our stay. This seemed absurd to us, which can only exist with some encouragement from the restaurant management or the hotel itself, which must use this procedure to favour or promote the staff who have the most praise on social media. This is an unmissable absurdity in a hotel of the level of La Romana, as it is too annoying for guests. We were horrified again. 3) In this hotel, as in the rest of the civilized world, there is no place reserved for smokers. It is impossible to find a place, even on the beach, where you don't have to breathe in the smoke of a cigarette or cigar. This includes the pool bar and snack bar and the beach bar and sushi bar, places where you can EAT! Even in the Tao Cat restaurant we had to change seats because someone was smoking an electronic cigarette without being bothered by the staff. I even saw cigarettes floating in the pool in front of my room. Add that to the noise and goodbye to a peaceful holid

Reviews are misleading don’t understand how this hotel is rated so highly wouldn’t come back here again, have to book online dinner reservations which are always fully booked so ending up eating some thing every night, beaches are nice that’s about it, if you don’t speak spanish then get treated like an inconvenience honestly look elsewhere hotel shouldn’t be rated anywhere near what it is.

We have been to many all inclusive resorts and this is the first one we have ever experienced such poor service. First, all the pictures of the adults only side are very deceiving, it looks bright and airy, appears via the pictures to be much bigger than it really is. The check in area is very small and lines back up quickly. We booked a Superior Jr Suite Swim Up and were given room 101. We knew we were in trouble when the bellman laughed when we told him our room number. It is the first room outside the lobby, so the swim up would have guest traffic going by all day and night long - not exactly what we thought we would experience. We asked for a different room and were told they were sold out of that category. We said we would pay for an upgrade if one is available and we upgraded to Duplex Suite & Swimming Pool. This room has two floors and a bedroom/bath and small pool on the 2nd level. Upon dragging suitcases to the second floor, we discovered water pouring out of the ceiling AC vent. Back to the front desk for another room. This time, a room, 134, in our original category was suddenly available with the exception that the AC had just been fixed and it might be a little warm, but if we went and had lunch it would be fine. It was not fine 27.5 C and after numerous calls and visits throughout the evening, they said maybe tomorrow and there were no other rooms available that had working AC. After threatening to leave, we finally got a room with working AC. While the beach is nice, it is a haul to get there and crowded. They have golf carts that run every 15 minutes just to take you to the beach, maybe a 1/4 mile walk. Overall, the majority of the staff seemed annoyed that we were there. At restaurants and bars it was not uncommon to wait 5-10 minutes for their conversations to end before you would be acknowledged for service. Everything is done via QR codes, so plan on taking your phone everywhere you go and all of the restaurants require making reservations on the app, everyday and it is not user friendly. We were under the impression this was a new or newly renovated resort, but you still have landlines in the toilet, signs telling you not to drink the tap water in your room and a maze of switches to turn lights on and off. We have been to other 4-5 star resorts in DR that are so much much better. Lastly, my CC was charged twice for our stay, although my final bill indicates only one charge. To date, the resort has not responded to repeated emails and calls.