Emotions by Hodelpa Juan Dolio

Travelled to Juan Dolio, through the Punta Cana airport, for a one week vacation at Emotions by Hodelpa. It had been 12 years since we visited Dominican Republic and it has changed immensely. It is clear that the country and people are flourishing and we were happy to see it! We stayed VIP at Emotions and we were able to call a lovely room our home for the week. We had a swim out room and although the pool was chilly, it was beautiful, always well maintained and refreshing. The room had comfortable beds and pillows, a mini fridge, television and coffee maker at our disposal. The coffee is even better than I remembered. We had an issue with our shower head and although the issue wasn’t resolved, a repair technician was sent to our room right away, but clearly didn’t see what the problem was. The beach is beautiful. The food was delicious. The staff were friendly and accommodating. We met a delightful tour rep, Felipe, who connected us with dive master, Hector. Hector was super kind, offering a free dive refresher at the hotel and helped us secure the Catalina Island adventure. This trip included two dives, and an island lunch and drinks. The diving was spectacular, where we saw seahorses, rays, tubes, and lots of colorful fish. Thank you, Hector, for encouraging me to get back in for a dive. The beach bar and snack bar also earn a special thank you, as they make the best drinks and fried chicken!! Most relaxing vacation we’ve had in years. Thank you to Air Transat, for offering comfortable flights with no delays, Emotions by Hodelpa for a wonderful stay, and to the Dominican Republic for sharing your beautiful country with us for the week! I hope we visit again soon

Mi experiencia con Luisa, la encargada del spa de Hodelpa en Juan Dolio, fue pésima. Su actitud fue grosera, me habló de mala manera y pude observar cómo también trataba irrespetuosamente a otros empleados. Mientras buscaba un espacio de tranquilidad y relajación, ella mantenía conversaciones que no consideré apropiadas para el ambiente del spa. Cuando expresé mi molestia, me miró de manera desagradable en lugar de responder con educación y profesionalismo. Elegí este hotel, en parte, para disfrutar del spa y relajarme, pero la actitud de Luisa hizo que la experiencia fuera tan desagradable que terminé marchándome antes de lo previsto. Es lamentable que alguien encargado de atender a los huéspedes demuestre tan poca cortesía y profesionalismo. La gerencia debería prestar atención a su comportamiento y a la manera en que trata tanto a los clientes como a sus compañeros de trabajo. My experience with Luisa, the person in charge of the spa at HODELPA in Juan Dolio, was terrible. She was rude, spoke to me disrespectfully, and I witnessed her treating other employees poorly as well. I came to the spa looking for peace and relaxation, but she was having conversations that I felt were inappropriate for that environment. When I expressed my concerns, she gave me a nasty look instead of responding with courtesy and professionalism. One of the main reasons I chose this hotel was to enjoy the spa and unwind, but Luisa’s attitude made the experience so unpleasant that I ended up leaving earlier than planned. It is disappointing to encounter such a lack of courtesy and professionalism from someone responsible for serving guests. Management should seriously address her behavior and the way she treats both customers and her coworkers.

10/10 one of the best resorts, all I have to say about hodelpa es a perfect 10

Best Place To Stay Ever !!! 🥰 5 starts for me ***** Great staffs ! 👨🏽‍🦱👨‍🦳👩🏼👩🏻‍🦰🧑‍🦰👩🏼‍🦱🧑🏾‍🦲👩‍🦲🧔👱🏼‍♀️ Great foods ! 🍇🍎🍌🍍☕️🧀🥩🍗🥓🌭🌮🍲🍤🎂🍰🧁 Great smiles all day long ! 😃Perfect Beach !🌴🌴🌴🏵🪷🌸🌻🌺 Solo time for me ! Bloc 1 - Swim out in front of my beautiful room ! I choosed to be in the back room not in front of the sea to have more quiet time. But, the room with sea view are amazing. 2 doubles beds just for me ! Romantique 1120 the BEST ! (the last room in the bloc - very quiet). Thank you to all the wonderfull staff, welcoming by the first one, the Super & Gentleman Captain "Juan Ramos" 🥰 working really hard to make everybody happy, staffs and clients, never seen in my life someone so devoted and caring all time and so nice and humain. Second one, Luis, thank you to take care ok my big suitcase 😆 and for your smile every day, thank you to Celeste and Rachel and others staffs to make my room shin every day, you have all my respect for the work you do, thank you to the most perfect man "Domingo" at the restaurant, smily man, big heart, thank you to "Pacuald" to clean everything around the beach, thank you to Juan Antonio at the bar (the Best), thank you to "Junior" my private danse teacher (joke), Junior will be there for the activities all day long on the resort. Negatif point : 1. Not enought crustaceans. 2. The loud music on the beach from clients. I will be there again in 2027 !

I have no idea how this place is getting 5 star reviews. I wanted to love it and it has many great qualities but definitely falls well short of 5 stars. First the good. A smaller resort where it's easy to walk to every amenity quickly. The beach is fairly nice as well. The snack bar at the beach has great fried chicken. Unfortunately there a pigeons, cars and dogs in the area making it somewhat unsanitary. More than once a stray cat jumped up in a table that guests were then seated at for a meal without having the table wiped down. The pigeons congregate on top of the snack bar above the food service area. Not a great look. The pools were cloudy and dirty especially the main pool. If this was my pool at home I would be working diligently to fix the issue. There is also no umbrellas at the main pool making it difficult to find shade. The main buffet isn't great. We aren't fussy eaters and mostly stuck to bacon, eggs and toast for breakfast. The smoked salmon and cold cuts looked to be left out at room temperature and flies were abundant. Only one area of the buffet is air conditioned as well which is unfortunate for those looking for some respite from the heat. The a la carte restaurants were the highlight and Bianca was fantastic. Unfortunately a couple of these restaurants aren't air conditioned and had a cat jumping on tables were people were then seated for dinner. I'm a cat person but that's not cool. The resort could be absolutely fantastic but it's very dated and the rooms aren't being maintained very well. Our shower drain was extremely slow, the balcony door took all my strength to open and close as the sliders were shot and the balcony door didn't lock. The air conditioning worked very well and the room was clean and adequate. The cleaning lady we had was also fantastic but her name escapes me right now. We were in the adults only section which is quiet and nice except for when there are shows at the main pool in which case you are going to hear the ruckus quite clearly until around 10:30pm. This resort is at least 90 minutes from Punta Cana airport so it is a bit of a journey but traffic was light in both directions and our drivers were great. The resort was in the affordable side as four of us were $6000 CDN for 7 days in August when the DR is like an oven. We have visited all inclusive in DR about 10 times now and this resort was unfortunately the worst of them all. It could be a great boutique resort if it underwent some significant renovations and changes in how things are run. Once again we wanted to love it and it has some good qualities but sadly it fell short and we won't return. There is no way it should have 5 star reviews and it's these reviews that convinced us to try it. Not sure how it is scoring as well as it is across the various platforms as we are experienced visitors and have quite the variety of resorts with which to compare it with.