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

We booked privilege rooms trip 5 months in advance (3 families with kids). When we arrived, lady on front desk said they have no rooms and we have to go to their other hotel in Punta Cana… after arguing for one hour with two managers and keep hearing the no available rooms, we were given cheap rooms in front of the hotel AC was not working and mosquitoes in the room. Next day they moved us to the rooms we actually booked…. Btw I’ve heard the some guests had same problems with AC Privilege rooms were ok, but in one of the rooms AC wasn’t working as well. Maintenance guy came with one screwdriver and after “working” on it for 2 minutes said it’s fixed… it wasn’t. So overall no one cares there…… Now the good stuff….. Sea is beautiful, clean and warm Pool is 5’8” deep. The deepest pool I’ve seen on the resorts and also very warm. Kids loved it. The food was good/ok. Nothing fancy… Entertainment is good…. Overall if it wasn’t for no AC for a week and poor check in experience I would go back to this hotel.

Absolutely beautiful resort !! My wife and I just returned last week from a week long stay. Check in was smooth, we arrived fairly late so it was quite. Our room was a swim up room, not really a swim up room, more of our own little pool, the room was beautiful, nice and clean when we arrived. Fridge was stocked with a few beers, some pop, water. Lovely king sized bed, the double shower was amazing. The walk to the beach was a fair hike, but only reason I say that is because I had a knee replacement a few months ago so my walking is not quite as good as others lol. They do have a small cart you can get that will take you too the beach and back again. We never had any issues getting somewhere to sit at the beach, and most days we didn’t go until 10-1030 and we still found chairs too sit in, didn’t have to get up early and go put towels on the chairs like others say you have too. The Caribbean Sea is absolutely beautiful here, absolutely no seaweed, and it was so clean. The pool bar up by the main lobby is great also, never had an issue finding somewhere too sit there either, the water was a little cold at first but once in and used too it, it was lovely. Night time entertainment was pretty good. If your looking for a party scene this is not for you. The entertainment is done by 945-1030 ish and by 11 most nights it was just my wife and maybe one or 2 other couples sitting around having a drink. It’s a very quite resort which I really liked and enjoyed. The food … you cannot go hungry here, so much too choose from, we only ate at 2 buffets while there, one was a breakfast buffet, it served its purpose but wasn’t great, other buffet was down at the beach, lots too choose from, we just wanted some salad a few pieces of pizza. The rest of the nights we made reservations at the restaurants, never had an issue making them so I am not sure why some people say it’s impossible to get into places too eat. Room service was interesting to say the least. Not many option and you never know what you will get, they offer hot dogs late at night, says it comes with sauté onions, bacon and cheese… I never had any of that on mine, chicken ceasar salad was different everytime, never had chicken on it, one night it was shredded lettuce, next night it was spring mix and tomato with ranch dressing. I order room service every night just too see what I would get and every night it was different. The staff at the resort are amazing, this place is so clean, everyone is friendly, bar tenders are great. Erizon at the main lobby bar looked after us very well as did the young lady at the pool swim up bar( cannot remover her name), Victor down at the beach bar at night was also awesome and looked after us. All in all it was a great resort and we would definitely return. Pro’s… Nice and clean Beautiful beach Plenty of seating Friendly staff Nice and quite later at night Con’s… Getting USD changed to smaller bills for tipping was hard The boys in blue trying