Bahia El Portillo

Rats and other Room Mates

yotee said:

... the resort was just built (or is still being built). Other postings (on tripadvisor and Yahoo travel) go back for years.

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The El Portillo hotel is one of the oldest hotels of Las Terrenas; it was, however, taken over by the Spanish Bahia Pricipe Group and renovated in order to become a 4-5 * hotel.
Obviously the work could not be completed in time...

yotee said:

...others talked of rats and construction workers in their rooms.

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Hmm, if it's both something has gone wrong.

But mind you, some of the workers could be sankies in disguise... and then certain guests shall not complain...

m'frog

BTW, welcome to the board.

Right now many people in Las Terrenas, including myself, are very upset with the Spanish Bahia Principe Group. They renovated the El Portillo hotel but during the course of the renovation caused all kinds of damage to the environment.

Piles of plastic containers, bottles, styrofoam, etc. were scattered all over the place and then burried. This type of trash is not bio-degradable and will remain in our soil for hundreds of years.

Additionally, huge amounts of debris were improperly dumped in open fields that were private property.

We have an ecological park that was directly affected by floods that came as a result of the debris.

Hundreds of undocumented Hatians were brought in to do the labor and were not provided decent shelter. No toilets facilities were provided either. The men had to go to a nearby creek to bathe and do all their physiological necessities. Needless to say, the creek was contaminated and the children from a nearby village could not go swimming or play in the area any more.

And that's all I have to say about El portillo hotel.

The Investors

Juniper said:

.... the Spanish Bahia Principe Group....And that's all I have to say about El portillo hotel.

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All you said can be done in this country...
Nobody stops them.
And that's why they came here ...

m'frog

Mountainfrog, you are absolutely right. So sad.

Portillo Hotel

The situation that Juniper made reference to has been documented at terreneros.blogspot.com. Partly as a result of the situation a "green" initiative is now in place which can be found at samanaverde.blogspot.com. Anyone that reads the information may also become a signataire of La Declaraci?n de Las Terrenas which pursues a greener future for the province.

I wish i would have read this prior to booking but it's too late now. So I guess the question is, how is the resort now. Are these issue's dealt with or are we going to see what your describing?

It certainly doesn't look like they are going to be ready in February or any time soon. I just went by the hotel and it looks to me like they have a long way to go. It's a mess in there.

I suggest you contact them and find out what is going on.

Good luck.