- Thread starter gardito
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Hilton Santo Domingo
Just look for the 2 HUGE unfinished towers about a 1.25 miles past Jaragua heading West. Conveniently located around the corner from a certain "Palace"!
rellosk said:
I'm leaning towards checking it out. The idea of a brand new hotel room is somewhat appealing. I'll file a report this weekend.
Edited to add: I just spoke with them... they said everything is open but the pool (which is scheduled to open on the 5th of September). Unfortunately, my buddy is insistent that he needs a pool in lieu of a beach. I will try to get over for a site inspection, however.
Edited to add: I just spoke with them... they said everything is open but the pool (which is scheduled to open on the 5th of September). Unfortunately, my buddy is insistent that he needs a pool in lieu of a beach. I will try to get over for a site inspection, however.
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I stayed there twice during my last trip. They were already open the week of July 25th which was when I traveled down there. The rate for the first week was 99.00 plus taxes (which are a lot). When I went back the second time (a week later) the rates had gone up to 135.00 plus tax and I think they will continue to raise them.
This will be a very nice hotel once is completely done. It was nice to stay in a brand new spanking room with a nice view of the caribbean sea. The atrium is very very nice and I loved the elevator with the glass view of this atrium as you go up. The last day I was there was the opening of the casino and the showgirls were practicing/staying in the same floor (across from us). My kids (specially my oldest) got a big kick out of it.
Cons:
-The staff is still very green...but they tried very hard to please, so I forgave them. Checking out took forever. They tried to charge me about 2000 pesos for a call to a 1-200 number which is supposed to have a flat fee of 60 pesos. (I used it to connect to the web with a prepaid card). They have a guy who just stands by the large revolving doors and wears one of those earpieces that you see the secret services wearing. I couldn't figure out what his job was supposed to be, but it looked pretty funny to me as he was trying to act all serious.
-The concierge and the bellboy did not speak English. While this was not an issue for me specifically, I can see how this can annoy some guests and I guess I expected that they would hire bilingual people throughout. I gave the guy a nice tip and told him that he should learn some English if he wants to make more money with other guests.
-No free internet in the room and no wireless internet (This is somewhat tipical of full service hotels, whereas smaller, business oriented hotels such as the Courtyard offer it for free and wireless.) In this day and age they should have wireless internet.
-They had no irons or board in their rooms. Supposedly they had a shipment coming from the US and it had not arrived. I got this story both times I was there. I couldn't really understand why they needed to bring irons from The US, when they could have just gone to Plaza Lama and bought a bunch of them. On the upside the staff ironed all my clothes for free, which saved me some work.
-They built it too close to the road (why can't people over there leave some space between the road and their building, house, etc?). As a result the little road you come in to get to the front lobby is a one way only road. So once you check in you then have to either go back into GW Avenue and turn around (Annoying with all the traffic) or back up on the one way (which is what I did every time).
-Parking lot was not completed, but it's going to be somewhat confusing when
it is. Part of it is under the "mall" itself and it's kind of hard to find your way back up to The Hilton. They need better signage. Ideally they would have built an elevator that could take you from the basement (parking lot) directly to the hilton, but that's not the case.
-The pool was not opened either.
I didn't try the restaurants over there, so couldn't tell you if they were good at all or not.
I'm sure with time they will iron out all of these issues.
This will be a very nice hotel once is completely done. It was nice to stay in a brand new spanking room with a nice view of the caribbean sea. The atrium is very very nice and I loved the elevator with the glass view of this atrium as you go up. The last day I was there was the opening of the casino and the showgirls were practicing/staying in the same floor (across from us). My kids (specially my oldest) got a big kick out of it.
Cons:
-The staff is still very green...but they tried very hard to please, so I forgave them. Checking out took forever. They tried to charge me about 2000 pesos for a call to a 1-200 number which is supposed to have a flat fee of 60 pesos. (I used it to connect to the web with a prepaid card). They have a guy who just stands by the large revolving doors and wears one of those earpieces that you see the secret services wearing. I couldn't figure out what his job was supposed to be, but it looked pretty funny to me as he was trying to act all serious.
-The concierge and the bellboy did not speak English. While this was not an issue for me specifically, I can see how this can annoy some guests and I guess I expected that they would hire bilingual people throughout. I gave the guy a nice tip and told him that he should learn some English if he wants to make more money with other guests.
-No free internet in the room and no wireless internet (This is somewhat tipical of full service hotels, whereas smaller, business oriented hotels such as the Courtyard offer it for free and wireless.) In this day and age they should have wireless internet.
-They had no irons or board in their rooms. Supposedly they had a shipment coming from the US and it had not arrived. I got this story both times I was there. I couldn't really understand why they needed to bring irons from The US, when they could have just gone to Plaza Lama and bought a bunch of them. On the upside the staff ironed all my clothes for free, which saved me some work.
-They built it too close to the road (why can't people over there leave some space between the road and their building, house, etc?). As a result the little road you come in to get to the front lobby is a one way only road. So once you check in you then have to either go back into GW Avenue and turn around (Annoying with all the traffic) or back up on the one way (which is what I did every time).
-Parking lot was not completed, but it's going to be somewhat confusing when
it is. Part of it is under the "mall" itself and it's kind of hard to find your way back up to The Hilton. They need better signage. Ideally they would have built an elevator that could take you from the basement (parking lot) directly to the hilton, but that's not the case.
-The pool was not opened either.
I didn't try the restaurants over there, so couldn't tell you if they were good at all or not.
I'm sure with time they will iron out all of these issues.
Because we are on an island.suarezn said:
Yes, the island is quite big and we do own two-thirds of this island, but an island is an island.
Go to any island society and you will see the same developmental patterns when it comes to space and construction styles.
Why?
To maximize space. Aside from the Nuovo Mundo project, the Dominican Republic is not squeduled to receive any new land anytime soon...
Nal0whs said:
Do not agree with you here. It's a cultural thing, I believe. If you drive around, you see most houses where they have a lot large enough to leave some space in the front and to the sides, instead they build right next to the road and leave all the space towards the back. I think it was something passed down from the spaniards...
Good point.suarezn said:
But, island societies in general (DR included) have developmental patterns that "clutter". Notice how tiny a typical plot of land is here? Hardly enough to build a decent house... need to buy two or even three lots if you want a nice house with a nice yard.
Also, with the case of Malecon Center, look behind it. Avenida Independencia is practically hugging the site of Malecon Center along with the Malecon itself.
Perhaps its a relic of the spaniards, but then again, the British and the Dutch built their buildings on the edge of roads too. Take a look at St Lucia, Barbados, or Aruba.