The Reserve at Paradisus Punta Cana

We are here right now and from the start it has been an unmitigated disaster. We work with hotels all over the world and this stay as vacationing guests is nothing short of a disaster. Disorganized front of house staff. Asked for rooms in same building for 4 people over 2 months ago, told upon arrival it wasn’t possible. They are at “full capacity “ Restaurants are available on the days they decide, that’s it that’s all. If you want steak house 3 days of your week, no luck. Want a specific time for your reservation, no luck. They organize the restaurants like they are booked months in advance and you’ll be wait listed. We paid over $12k for this trip and we are being told when and where to eat. Breakfast and lunch? If you want to have soggy French toast, crepes and bacon that was made the night before, you’ll love it. No ala carte options, just processed premade items outside of an omelette station at a buffet. Service on beach- expect to wait 40 mins before someone remembers you are sitting there. This resort is missing one key ingredient. Service. It’s lipstick on a pig. It looks nice from the outside but if you’re used to true 5 star service, this is not the place. We work with 5 star resorts and this resort unfortunately is not even close to that. Service and front of the house staff need to be better organized. We are very disappointed in our first 24 hours here. We have spent a total of 2.5 hours of our first day, dealing with Resturant reservation requests, rooms issues, room being 25 degrees and all while waiting extended periods each time. Was told 2 times by concierge he would text us info on reservations but never did, we also told him it was our sons birthday and we wanted to do something for him ( a candle on a cake or something) when we arrived they didn’t know about reservation or the birthday surprise. Would not recommend this place to others due to lack of care, service or attention to detail. Here you do not feel a sense of welcome, it is quite the opposite. You feel like you are an inconvenience. Everyone here passes the buck, no accountability, no solution just plain old terrible service and mid grade at best food. No bueno. Room 9314 January 2025

The level of service and hospitality is much better at other islands. The beach was full of trash on most days and not one person picked it up. The constant selling of absolutely anything from either workers on the beach or even their own staff is annoying. There was only a handful of employees that we felt were at the level this hotel is suggesting they are. Food choices were not bad, although they became repetitive. The reservation of restaurant reviews is legit, however $20 here and there got us what we wanted and needed so everyone unfortunately not fair, could be bought, which sucks for the people who would never think about doing something like that or its not part of their culture. Activities for kids were far and beyond, but hey take a 2 hour tour to hear about what we could sell you, and they will get us some water park tickets for the day. No thank you- again, $20 to a worker got us in no problem and we didn't need to waste hours out of our day. I must say the grounds are impeccable, hats off to all of the grounds staff. a good brand of alcohol doesn't exist here again unless your privileged ( or in our case we were nice to the workers and gained a relationship which went a long way) So , to sum it all up, i think this hotel has a long way to go to become something special. Right now its just a nice hotel on the water. The lack of hospitality is genuinely missing and you cant just get that. Hire staff that fit your mission, it'll be better for the guests instead of having to deal with staff that doesn't want to be there. Last item- individual restaurants ask if you have a food allergy. However i don't think they understand what the allergies actually are. Lactose is what everyone assumes but dairy allergy is not a lactose allergy, they are quite different. The level of English speaking cooks or servers to get answers to questions is far to come by, and when you did find someone, they didn't know for sure. Knowledge is key. Training is a must. I am a Chef at a resort as well, and man to I feel luckily with how knowledgeable my staff is and the level of training that we have gone through to make sure these situations that I dealt with at palma real doesn't happen. It all starts from above- Above needs to implement change and this hotel will only be average until change takes place. Shout out to Jose from bar in between blue agave and Italian, as well as Ricky from the buffet! They were excellent!

The resort is beautiful and well laid out. The property is very clean and beaches are well kept and nice for walking. The food is average for an all inclusive but overall good. Making reservations for the restaurants was frustrating because you could only book 2 days at a time and to try to get in at 7 was near impossible although when you walked by the restaurants at that time they were basically empty? The adult pool was lovely and quiet which was nice after spending a couple of days at the main pool where all of the activities were happening and very loud music! It’s great to have both options. The adult only buffet was closed the entire time we were there which didn’t make sense as we were told the resort was at 85% capacity? Getting chairs around the pools was no problem at all, there were always plenty of them empty. Entertainment in the evenings was good but they could turn the volume down as you couldn’t hear yourself think while it was on.

We literally felt like we were on the set of a TV show. they made us feel like royalty and family at the same time. I definitely recommend staying in the Reserve. Truly, it was over the top amazing. We highly recommend and we will be back. Thank you, Yeison, for the exquisite experience.

Excellent resort good food and service good value for the money staff very friendly great location and great facilities consigares on top of things keeping you informed