Serenade Punta Cana Beach & Spa

I was not able to go to DR, due to my husband loosing his passport at Atlanta airport. I contacted expedia who we booked the trip with immediately and they in turn contacted the hotel. The stay was supposed to be Wednesday thru Sunday. After two weeks of both Expedia and myself trying to contact the hotel to determine if I could get a partial refund or reschedule the trip, the hotel denied both options stating they were not able to use the room. The hotel was contacted before check-in time on Wednesday and despite me trying to call and no one ever answering the phone and Expedia getting a different story from them every other day, I don't understand how the room could not have been used. The hotel was informed immediately. The one time someone did answer the phone when I called, I was told to call the Serenade and provided the phone number I originally dialed. I still have been emailing the hotel almost every day to see if there's anything they can do. This whole experience has been a nightmare and it was a trip for my 40th birthday. Now I am paying for a hotel stay I never had. If I do ever go to DR, I won't be staying here.

Where do I start: The biggest issue was my partner spending two days in hospital with food poisoning. The hygiene standard in the buffet and particularly the “food shack” on the beach was appalling. In the buffet raw food is left out in the heat faith flies around) and the food shack is unbelievable. He handles raw park, beef and salad all with the same gloves that he wears all day. The other issues are if you face one side of the hotel, you have music of up to 97 decibels being played up to 11pm at night, leaving it impossible to sleep at night. Another quite specific issue was when the “entertainment” and I use the word lightly, set up a dart board for children (with real darts) next to my baby who was in her pram. Which I just could not believe. Parts of the hotel are very tired. There is a noticeable difference in male staff (awful) and female staff (who try hard). All in all, it’s a hotel to avoid at all costs. The food, unless in a pre booked (which are near impossible to book) is either awful, or downright dangerous.

An overall very enjoyable stay at Serenade Punta Cana! Highlights include clean and modern amenities, welcoming and helpful staff (Jirlenny the concierge, Juan Feliz at the beach bar, Herbert at steakhouse, Basilio at the buffet, “Goofy” with the entertainment team), the white-sandy beach, the large array of original cocktails (passion fruit mojitos!) and mocktails, the spacious and clean rooms, the Brazilian-style steakhouse, the entertainment at the piano bar, and the Dominican night (authentic food, music, and dancing). Just a few points to consider improving upon. Firstly, we were told to have breakfast on the family side of the resort only to find out we were mislead and were strongly advised to attend a presentation on their new vacation club. Our issue is not with the vacation club or the presentation but with the dishonesty which brought us there and the director of sales’ (Denver) arrogant attitude. And secondly, the food at the buffet was good but lacked variety, was sometimes cool/cold, an often overcooked.

Hotel is lovely and the staff are very friendly. The animation team are all fantastic yailin Harvey and always get everyone in the mood. The restaurant staff work so hard and are all lovely. The bar staff are also fantastic. Our rooms were always clean everyday and mini fridge stocked up.

All staff was very nice & professional from the first day until the last day.