Zel Punta Cana

In short, this is a nice property set on beautiful grounds that needs to tighten the screws / pay attention to the details significantly. I don’t believe in hyperbole or only stating the bad, so here’s a detailed review of both good and bad: Good: • The grounds. Lush, green and beautiful. The grounds team prunes and trims everyday. 10/10. • Spa and fitness center. Extremely well maintained, clean with all new equipment. 9/10. • Access. Even though our stay was specifically with Zel, we had access the Melia Caribe, The Plaza and Paradissus – including waterparks. 10/10. • Waterparks. Large, innovative with a baby pool, toddler pool and larger slides for bigger kids. The two were basically laid out the same. Starting to see some wear and tear but overall great. 8/10. • Beach. Beautiful, deep, white powdery sand. Unfortunately Punta Cana is also suffering from warming oceans and sargassum. Not as bad as other places but a couple of days the water was unswimmable. 8/10. • Beach restaurant. Best of all of the restaurants. Table and chairs are literally on the sand. Full bar, decent menu, good quality food. 8/10. • Golf carts. Every once in a while there would be a wait, but for the most part you were able to get a cart fairly easily and get to where you needed to go. 8/10. Not so good: • Room cleanliness. We killed eight mosquitos on our first day – which is not a big deal (tropical climate) except there were another 10 mosquitos smeared on walls and ceilings from previous guests. There was also a dead beetle looking bug in the corner that the cleaning staff never found or cleaned. 2/10. • Personal concierge / butler. Ours was Ricky. Very nice at first. However, once it became clear we weren’t going to buy a Melia timeshare, he stopped checking in or caring. Last interaction: Asked for help getting luggage to the front for check out, never heard back at all. 3/10. • Food. More miss than hit. Steakhouse was quite bad – almost inedible. Same with Japanese a la cart (the hibachi was pretty good). Buffet was quite average. Mexican restaurant wasn’t bad – but overall the food was somewhere between forgetful to bad. 2/10. • Drinks. As the case with most all-inclusives, they use the lowest cost spirits, beer, wine and champagne – and then try to upsell you to higher quality options. This alone is no big deal – but the low quality stuff is objectively bad. The mimosa is undrinkable. 2/10. • Entertainment. First, there’s little effort to spread awareness of what’s planned on the property – pool yoga, live band, etc. Further, the entertainment – compared to other all-inclusives – was pretty underwhelming. One night there was a dancer who got the crowd at the buffet involved. Another time there was a three person band but they were stationed by the pool with very little room to sit and enjoy them. Overall it felt like they were trying to save money. 4/10. • Staff. Probably the most surprising – 80% of the staff was generally unfriendly – like we were bothering them by asking for water or more coffee. Lots of servers on their phones or joking amongst themselves, but cold to the actual guests. It wasn’t everyone – and no one was hostile - just not welcoming. 2/10. Would I recommend it? For the right price, yes. The access across three properties is a great advantage. But if the finer details are important, may be worth looking elsewhere.

This is not the hotel we originally booked, we had booked our Holiday through Love Holidays. We were supposed to be at Melia Caribe. On arrival we were offered what was sold as an upgrade to Zel. Having researched this holiday a lot prior to booking we were uneasy but it looked like Melia Caribe was possibly full or there was an issue so accepted the move. So glad we did!!!!! I have read recent reviews for Zel, left by people who have stayed at the same time as we did. Comments that the beach was unusable, staff not helpful and poor food. Were we staying in the same hotel????? Zel is designed to be quieter and more laid back than Caribe, the facilities in the hotel are great, over all in good condition except the pool cues, which need tips please. The staff have been amazing, friendly and helpful, yes tipping helps but not expected all the time. Room - we had no issues, clean, comfortable and well maintained each day. Food - has been great all week, a smaller buffet than some hotels but food has been good and the other restaurants and snack bars add extra variety and food quality has been overall good. Drinks - plentiful, good quality and plenty of places to grab a drink. Beach - yes it is seaweed season!!! Yes there is seaweed, it won’t kill you!!! The beach was certainly useable and nature is nature. The beach area and facilities were great. Fun Republic - an amazing place servicing the Melia hotels, open Weds to Sun each week. Shows, mini golf and much more. Zel, Thankyou, we had a great time and only 2 things that we would want in the future. 1 - decent pool cues please. 2 - French fries in the main buffet. Highly recommend and we will be back

Just a list of cons. Hot AC. The AC does not work, the room is hot all the time Water pressure low, Long wait for hot water Room service phone doesn't work, need to walk to lobby for everything Waited for 5 hours for them to deliver extra bed, they sent it around 11:30PM and the bed fall apart like 4 times during the night. Wednesday night buffet serve only pizza, hamburger and hotdog. buffet is always the same all the time, its one of the saddest buffet I ever seen in a resort The restaurant booking machine rarely works Staff try to helpful, but their SOP reply is they are going to talk to their manager about it. Coffee machine never works, the only one that work is the one in the lobby Resort is extremely understaff the electricity goes out at night, so you don't have AC, internet, or water. THIS IS THE 4TH TIME I BEEN AT THIS RESORT, I HAD MY HONEYMOON THERE, NEVER HAD I BEEN SO DISAPPOINTED, I DOUBT I WOULD EVER GO BACK EVER AGAIN.

This place is fabulous. Staff are exceptional. Facilities are great. Good and drinks are lovely. Very very clean. All staff are so friendly and cannot do enough to help you enjoy your stay. The free access to the Fun Republic entertainment centre on an evening - absolutely brilliant for the kids all inclusive food drinks, mini golf and much more and staff happy to transfer you in golf carts - just amazing! We have loved every second here. Short term all to the beach although you can get a golf carts doorstep to doorstep! Just perfect.

Overall ok not the best for family’s. Food choices and process to get food like reservations for restaurants) was less than desirable. Language barriers half of the time. Staff was friendly and worked hard.