This is a re-post from the very long thread in the Travel Questions forum.
Following is my review of the Holiday Village Golden Beach resort in Puerto Plata. I'd like to get a few things clear up front. This review is a composite of the experiences of my traveling group. We had six people who traveled from Ottawa for the week Dec 21 - Dec 28, 2006. One couple in their late-50's/early-60's who are experienced world travelers, one couple in their 30's who have traveled to various Caribbean resorts for years, and two men in their 20's who have traveled to the region for the first time.
My wife and I are the second group. The rest are my immediate family. My wife and I do not have unrealistic expectations when it comes to resorts in the area. We've seen enough to develop a personal baseline. Either the resort falls above this baseline or it falls below. HV falls well below our personal baseline. Let me explain.
We arrived at the resort a little after midnight. Our flight had been delayed in it's arrival and we were the last group of the evening. It was raining very heavily. There was one fellow behind the desk, checking the guests in and a second fellow ferrying guests to their rooms on a golf cart through the rain. When we entered the lobby, we were surprised to discover six people had been in the lobby for almost four hours, waiting for their rooms. Some were passive, others were not. Apparently, the desk clerk told them rooms were not ready for them.
So when our bus arrived, and the clerk began handing out room keys, these previous guests were understandably irate. Their questions to the clerk were met with confused looks, as he suddenly was unable to understand a word of English. Then he would turn to the next guests from our bus and spoke semi-fluently.
When it was our turn, we received our keys and headed out to the holding area to wait for the golf cart. My wife, my two brothers and I were in the same complex so we squeezed onto the cart and away we went into the wet night. We arrived at the complex and sprinted through the torrent to our building. My brothers disappeared to one and we went with the porter to the other. Opening the door, we discovered not a hotel room, but a furniture storeroom. Beds, tables, chairs, piled high. The porter simply said, "No good" and closed the door. For what seemed like an eternity, the three of us stood under the eave watching the rain come down. Seems the porter was reluctant to get wet. Meanwhile, back in the lobby a sizable queue of guests was waiting their turn to get to their rooms.
Eventually, we headed back where my parents were next in line and confused to see us return. They went on their way and we went back to the desk where we received keys for another room. Just as we re-joined the golf cart line, my parents returned with sour looks on their faces.
I could go on, but you probably get the point. We were shown seven rooms that were unusable. My parents were shown six. Everyone else had their own number of rooms they were shown, with nothing being suitable. Rooms were storage rooms, garbage rooms, flooded an inch deep, had no door handle/lock, had no glass/screen in window. Clearly, these were rooms that had not yet been renovation subjects. Each trip to a room had us drenched in the rain. By 3am, there was a lobby full of people screaming at the desk clerk to get his manager in. The only response was, "The manager is asleep at home and does not like to be woken up". Imagine yourself in our position. How would you react to that?
At around 5am, group by group, people began to relent. We were now told that we could have rooms that had not received maid service, but could only have them until morning when we would have to return to the lobby and get new rooms when people began to check out. So away we went to a decent room, with a porter who changed the bed sheets in front of us.
The next morning, we marched back to the lobby with all our luggage and were met with the "rooms manager", a woman who had the nerve to pretend that she hadn't heard of last nights problems, even though we standing nearby when another man had it out with her over the same issues only a few minutes earlier. This woman (I have her name, though have chosen to withhold it) made it clear that our problems were not in any significant to her, and brushed groups of guests off with "I'll see what we can do". At this point, guests were pounding fists on the counter in frustration, pacing back and forth with stress and some simply stunned into silence.
It was then that the first Signature rep made her appearance into the lobby. She (again, I have her name) was then slammed with guests' complaints and quickly summoned assistance from other reps. Our group of six sat down and gave our account of our experience, and it was documented by the Signature rep. She visited the counter to speak with the manager and we thought we were in business. We were surprised to discover however that the Signature reps are treated like dirt by the resort managers. A wave of the hand, and our rep was silenced.
Eventually, we were told that we could have a room at 3pm, once other guests left. We found out that the resort has been drastically overbooked as they have not renovated 100% of the rooms, though they have 100% guest occupancy. Apparently, they have similar dramas take place in the lobby every evening. Their usual solution is to place groups in a single room for one night, then move them to individual rooms on day two. Requests to the resort to be moved to another resort is met with "It is too difficult." The same request to our Signature rep was met with, "We can move all 6 of you to another resort for $3400.00 US". I don't use many curse words from day to day, but I used a few right then.
So after spending most of the day waiting for our room to be ready, we finally moved into a decent room. However, our group of six was now spread all over the resort. My brothers remained in their original room, and my parents were upgraded to a 'Royal' Suite. But at least things seemed to be settling down. Or so we thought...
This is the 100% true account of our first 24 hours. I have nothing to gain by spending my time spinning lies about the resort. We have already had American Express agree to reverse the charges on our bill due to significant fraud on the part of Signature Vacations. I will post a more general account of the rest of our week tomorrow (Saturday).
Following is my review of the Holiday Village Golden Beach resort in Puerto Plata. I'd like to get a few things clear up front. This review is a composite of the experiences of my traveling group. We had six people who traveled from Ottawa for the week Dec 21 - Dec 28, 2006. One couple in their late-50's/early-60's who are experienced world travelers, one couple in their 30's who have traveled to various Caribbean resorts for years, and two men in their 20's who have traveled to the region for the first time.
My wife and I are the second group. The rest are my immediate family. My wife and I do not have unrealistic expectations when it comes to resorts in the area. We've seen enough to develop a personal baseline. Either the resort falls above this baseline or it falls below. HV falls well below our personal baseline. Let me explain.
We arrived at the resort a little after midnight. Our flight had been delayed in it's arrival and we were the last group of the evening. It was raining very heavily. There was one fellow behind the desk, checking the guests in and a second fellow ferrying guests to their rooms on a golf cart through the rain. When we entered the lobby, we were surprised to discover six people had been in the lobby for almost four hours, waiting for their rooms. Some were passive, others were not. Apparently, the desk clerk told them rooms were not ready for them.
So when our bus arrived, and the clerk began handing out room keys, these previous guests were understandably irate. Their questions to the clerk were met with confused looks, as he suddenly was unable to understand a word of English. Then he would turn to the next guests from our bus and spoke semi-fluently.
When it was our turn, we received our keys and headed out to the holding area to wait for the golf cart. My wife, my two brothers and I were in the same complex so we squeezed onto the cart and away we went into the wet night. We arrived at the complex and sprinted through the torrent to our building. My brothers disappeared to one and we went with the porter to the other. Opening the door, we discovered not a hotel room, but a furniture storeroom. Beds, tables, chairs, piled high. The porter simply said, "No good" and closed the door. For what seemed like an eternity, the three of us stood under the eave watching the rain come down. Seems the porter was reluctant to get wet. Meanwhile, back in the lobby a sizable queue of guests was waiting their turn to get to their rooms.
Eventually, we headed back where my parents were next in line and confused to see us return. They went on their way and we went back to the desk where we received keys for another room. Just as we re-joined the golf cart line, my parents returned with sour looks on their faces.
I could go on, but you probably get the point. We were shown seven rooms that were unusable. My parents were shown six. Everyone else had their own number of rooms they were shown, with nothing being suitable. Rooms were storage rooms, garbage rooms, flooded an inch deep, had no door handle/lock, had no glass/screen in window. Clearly, these were rooms that had not yet been renovation subjects. Each trip to a room had us drenched in the rain. By 3am, there was a lobby full of people screaming at the desk clerk to get his manager in. The only response was, "The manager is asleep at home and does not like to be woken up". Imagine yourself in our position. How would you react to that?
At around 5am, group by group, people began to relent. We were now told that we could have rooms that had not received maid service, but could only have them until morning when we would have to return to the lobby and get new rooms when people began to check out. So away we went to a decent room, with a porter who changed the bed sheets in front of us.
The next morning, we marched back to the lobby with all our luggage and were met with the "rooms manager", a woman who had the nerve to pretend that she hadn't heard of last nights problems, even though we standing nearby when another man had it out with her over the same issues only a few minutes earlier. This woman (I have her name, though have chosen to withhold it) made it clear that our problems were not in any significant to her, and brushed groups of guests off with "I'll see what we can do". At this point, guests were pounding fists on the counter in frustration, pacing back and forth with stress and some simply stunned into silence.
It was then that the first Signature rep made her appearance into the lobby. She (again, I have her name) was then slammed with guests' complaints and quickly summoned assistance from other reps. Our group of six sat down and gave our account of our experience, and it was documented by the Signature rep. She visited the counter to speak with the manager and we thought we were in business. We were surprised to discover however that the Signature reps are treated like dirt by the resort managers. A wave of the hand, and our rep was silenced.
Eventually, we were told that we could have a room at 3pm, once other guests left. We found out that the resort has been drastically overbooked as they have not renovated 100% of the rooms, though they have 100% guest occupancy. Apparently, they have similar dramas take place in the lobby every evening. Their usual solution is to place groups in a single room for one night, then move them to individual rooms on day two. Requests to the resort to be moved to another resort is met with "It is too difficult." The same request to our Signature rep was met with, "We can move all 6 of you to another resort for $3400.00 US". I don't use many curse words from day to day, but I used a few right then.
So after spending most of the day waiting for our room to be ready, we finally moved into a decent room. However, our group of six was now spread all over the resort. My brothers remained in their original room, and my parents were upgraded to a 'Royal' Suite. But at least things seemed to be settling down. Or so we thought...
This is the 100% true account of our first 24 hours. I have nothing to gain by spending my time spinning lies about the resort. We have already had American Express agree to reverse the charges on our bill due to significant fraud on the part of Signature Vacations. I will post a more general account of the rest of our week tomorrow (Saturday).