The Westin Puntacana Resort & Club

*Miguel Reed* ( Front desk) was very awesome. He made us feel very welcomed. Helped us with some information to make our trip so special. The hotel atmosphere was very good.room was clean, quiet and tidy. The swimming pool was lovely. Breakfast was very good. Overall - all staff were very good and helpful. If We go next time to punta Cana -- very sure we will stay at The Westin, Punta Cana.

I am specifically writing to compliment Germania Gutierrez who worked in housekeeping. She went above and beyond to make us feel at home when some of us weren't feeling well. We are grateful for her hard work and kindness. We fully enjoyed our stay in paradise at the Westin Punta Cana and made priceless memories as a family.

Wonderful resort overall The great: Wonderfully beautiful location and relaxing resort. The pool, lounging area was very comfortable, relaxing, and well maintained. The beach and water were gorgeous. We swam and lounged in the ocean for hours and hours, saw a few rays and found beautiful conch—recommend to bring your own goggles and snorkel mask/gear. Great service and very, very good food throughout all the restaurants—Arena, Brassa and Bao, pool bar, lobby bar, and Anani breakfast restaurant. Our thanks to the hotel staff throughout the restaurants, pool, beach, and transportation attendant areas. You took very good care of us. The not great: We subtracted one star because the room thermostat control did not work properly, the ac unit leaked condensation into the safe and damaged our passports, and the WiFi was spotty.

Group of 8 golfers on golf package. Hotel has nice spacious rooms, spotless, conveniently located close to airport. Overall food rating was good. Arena and Brasa restos are good. The Asian resto was average. Our package included restaurant Mare which was of location but is stellar. Hotel is very quiet with no entertainement to speak of at night. The only entertainement we saw one evening was a little band playing inside the cigar bar!!! Service for the week was great with smiling and pleasant staff. Special shout out to Carmen at the main bar. Hotel had 110$ occupancy but there was no need for a mad dash for chairs by the pool or on the beach. Beach area is nice but is not for people who enjoy nice long walks on the beach.

We decided to go to Punta Cana for some relaxation and to do some reconnaisance, and settled on the Westin as a "Five Star" hotel with many reviewers talking about how fabulous the hotel was. It was very quickly apparent that we had very differing opinions on what a 5 star hotel really is. This review may seem overly critical, but we want to make sure that people going to the hotel understand what it is. Its by no means a bad hotel, but its barely pushing 4 stars, and to rank it 5 stars similar to a Fairmont or St Regis is frankly ludicrous. We expected a lot better for close to $400/night. Pros * The shared bar between Bao and Barra was excellent. Two large TVs and the ability to order from either menu, and drinks that actually matched or even exceeded the price (remember, add 18% tax and 10% service charge to everything). * The grounds were immaculate and it was always an impressive sight from the hotel looking down at the pool, palm trees and clean beach * The rooms had excellent blackout curtains and the fan/airconditioning worked very well. They also had mini fridges for storage (helpful for storing happy hour drink ingredients which you can pick up from duty free or the supermarket across from the Blue Mall) and also the maids were very generous with free bottled water daily, which of course was a necessity and appreciated * The music volume and variety around the pool was excellent, mellow in the morning, a bit upbeat in the afternoon, but never overwhelming * Never had a problem finding pool chairs. No stressing of getting up at 7am ahead of the chair savers. There were still some uncouth chair savers leaving their stuff on chairs for hours, but thankfully not too many Cons * They trumpet their free shuttle from the airport, however once you follow the signs exiting the airport there's nothing except a poster on one of the columns to be seen listing a DR (international) number to call and ask for a shuttle. Luckily a local tourist guide was there who lent us his phone, but this was a sour start to the trip. Its really not that hard to list a better way to request the shuttle, or do it via DM. Pretty much any way would be better than what they have. * Mispriced menus: After our first meal at the Arena beach bar we noticed hours later that we had been overcharged for a dish compared to what it was listed for on the menu. Although it was only a $3 difference, it was still the principle of it. What 5 star hotel doesn't even make sure its prices charged match the menus being given? * The pool and the hot tub both shut at 6pm. This seems ridiculous and egregious given its not even close to sunset. At most resorts we've been to, a late night in the hot tub or pool looking up at the stars is one of the most fun things we do. * Bathroom privacy (or lack thereof): I know this is such a modern theme that the Wall Street Journal recently even did an article about it, but it doesn't make it any less annoying and repulsive to have a toilet/shower separated from the rest of the room by merely a glass door with huge gaps above and below, essentially zero privacy. There is no actual door (hinged or pocket) separating the whole bathroom from the bedroom. * Prices. We knew being at a "5 star" hotel would have expensive prices, but when combined with 18% taxes and a 10% mandatory service fee it sure adds up. A regular bottle of Stella was $8, making it around $11 after all the fees. A $14 drink is now pushing $18. So much for being in the carribbean. * Minor but annoying issues in the room. The room design with the wall facing the bed being the glass out to the patio/balcony makes mounting the TV on a side wall the only solution, but cheaping out on the TV mount meant that only one side of the bed could manage to view the TV properly. How it didn't occur to anyone that maybe both people in bed might want to watch TV at the same time is inexplicable. Also, they have an alarm clock which is nice in theory, but clearly nobody had thought through the ramifications. Our first morning, at 4:28am, we were awakened by the blaring alarm, taking awhile to locate the noise. I have no idea why turning off alarms when rooms overturn isn't part of the standard housekeeping checklist. Similarly, the room next to us had an alarm that went off every day for over 30 minutes around 8:45am. There were also a lot of TV channels on the guide, but trying to find any that were actually available took a lot of hunting around. * This wasn't a huge problem, but we did experience some overt extra tip-grasping at the bar which felt unseemly. Sure, we waited for 10 minutes to get a drink and then didn't see you until we asked for the bill, but no need to be all smiley and asking repeatedly about the service just as we're finally paying the bill. We're all for tipping extra when the service and/or fare fits the bill, but laying it on thick without merit was off-putting. * One end of the pool had these hidden mini cement columns along the floor just begging to stub people's toes. I think the pool designer had them installed to sort of "guide" people down the ramp into the pool but they were very ill placed and frankly, seemed odd. * A simple mesh system would help the hotel wifi extend to the beach in front as opposed to the current spotty service. So...there you have it. Not all bad. Not great either. As a seasoned traveler, I have high standards, and appreciate all the little details. Hopefully the ones summarized above give other travelers a clearer sense of what the Westin does and does not offer before booking. Certainly a lot better than reviewing a lot of the numerous generic "5 star" reviews posted in this forum and on other sites like Google.