Be Live Collection in Punta Cana review: Issues we experienced during our vacation from July 27 to August 3

To whom it may concern,

My son and I had the misfortune of staying at the Be Live Collection Punta Cana Hotels located on Carretera Cabeza de toro, Km 7, Punta Cana, La Altagracia, Republica Dominicana. Our stay began on July 27th to August 3rd, 2022. Our reservation was name under the name of Sonia Oliveira.

During our stay we encountered several unacceptable and unsatisfactory situations and service levels that I strongly believe deserve immediate attention and compensation.

Please note that we were also travelling with two other friends who had their own reservations: Patricia Alves and her 2 sons and Carmela Barone.

Our intention is two-fold.

1) Be compensated for the loss of time, given that our vacation was cut short in order to manage the unacceptable and unsatisfactory living conditions that we were subjected to. Especially given that we were sold a property that is identified as a five star on their website www.belivehotels.com and as a 4 star on the selloffvacations.com website

2) To highlight the conditions of this property in order to ascertain that other travelers will not be subjected to the false advertising that we encountered. Hence, our request for immediate attention from all required authorities.

Please note that I usually would not complain, but the gravity and the number of issues we encountered make it so, that remaining quiet is not an option.

As a hotelier myself, working in this industry for the past 26 years; I believe it is necessary to bring up these issues & most importantly that they are taken seriously.

Here are the highlights of our stay:

- Upon arrival the front desk clerk decided to provide an adult bracelet to my 14-year-old child, and when we proceeded to highlight his mistake, he said don’t worry about it, he looks 18. Nonetheless, we came back to Front desk later that evening (after dealing with our first room change) and asked for his bracelet to be changed.

- The hotel name had the five stars assigned to the property are printed on big signage that looks like a foam core and attached to the railing of the staircase.

- We were moved 3 times during our stay. The first hotel room, #10305, then #14101 and finally 17301.

- #10305 – Old, dirty, lacked maintenance, the room smelled bad, and the curtains were falling off the railing. This type of room should not be given to any guest who has purchased a vacation and paid a great amount to stay in a 4–5-star rating resort.

- The overall cleanliness was sub-par, please view pictures provided (curtains, beds were missing linens, hairs bathroom tubs, shower doors, counters, faucet). I was surprised at the general lack of consistency and how simple criteria/standards were not met.

- We were without water for 3 hours on July 30th. The whole hotel was affected, and we were not notified what was happening.

- The phones were not working, we had to walk back and forth from our rooms to the front desk for all matters.

- Simple things such as no sheets between the duvet and the mattress, or beds made with just a sheet but no duvet was encountered in every room switch.

- Poor quality pillows. They were lumpy and clearly not representative of a 4–5-star property and much less the 5-star claimed on their website (see picture).

- The toilet was without the flushing device. They attempted to fix it and it came undone after the first flush and was never repaired, although I proceeded to go to Guest Services to advise them of the situation. The Operation Manager was also notified by me during one of our meetings and no repair was made. In order to flush, I had to remove the lid and put my fingers into the tank and make my way to the lever and activate the flushing system. (see pictures).

- The Japanese restaurant had no AC where we were sitting. We literally had to ask to eat our desert outside in order to benefit from a potential breeze.

- The steak restaurant had meat that we cannot compare to anything that we have encountered in the past, because it had a texture and a taste that was unlike any meat. We have never had that anywhere in the world. And we have traveled quite a bit throughout Europe, United States, Canada and the Americas (north and central).

- Locals took over the resort. I have no problem with this; however, I do not believe that locals paid the same full price as I did and yet received the same accommodations and services.

- We went to see the Sunwing representative twice. At one point, we asked him personally what stars he would give the hotel and he said 2 stars. He said that if he was to talk to us as a human being to another, it was not a 5 star as it claimed on its core foam signage in the lobby.

- Workers that we spoke to also said the hotel was not well maintained and did not represent a 4–5-star property. Essentially even the staff said the hotel was sub-par.

- We encountered other clients and all of them were experiencing situations that were similar to ours in regard to cleanliness, to phone lines that were down, to promises that were made in terms of service that were never met.

- The burger place which was supposed to be opened when all other restaurants were closed in order to provide us with a snack for example, on the beach between 11:00 am and 12:30 was, on two occasions that we know of, unavailable and opened only at 3:30 pm.

- The bathroom in the casino: I went to wash my hands and the water from the faucet fell onto my feet as the bottom drain was broken. We tried to remain positive, but the level of maintenance had us flabbergasted.

- None of the staff spoke English.

- The locals came in on the Friday until Sunday and there was a fight at the main pool.

- Upon arrival they told us we had to pay for a safe ($3 per day) and provided my friend with a key attached to a locking system for her first room #10304 (at this point the idea was to share a safe for our personal documents and cash money). However, we were moved to another room, and we all had safes and they then told us that with Sunwing the safe was included, so they proceeded to tell us that they provide us with a code. The Front Desk Agent told my friend that someone needed to come to her room to give a code. She went to her room to wait, and nobody ever came. She proceeded to go back to Guest Services several times and never was able to get a functioning safe in her room. The fact of the matter is that finally we carried our passports, our kids birth certificates and money with us wherever we went throughout our vacation.

- The beach was sold as private, but we have a picture stating that the beach was in federal jurisdiction. Please see screenshot of publicity for the property taken from website vs. signage on the beach. Please note that this misinformation caused us to be concerned about our safety given that a local family installed themselves in front of us at the beach with blaring music. We called the hotel manager, thinking they were not allowed there because it was a private beach, and we were told by some local vendors that the beach was federal, and the manager of the property told us it was private. They proceeded to call the police and the family was kicked out because they were making too much noise. They were kicked out, on a technicality and we raised an issue that we would have never raised had we known from the get-go that we were on a federal/public beach because we would have never gone to such a property. Also, to be noted that we were on Be Live beach beds and property, so the hotel actually has their furniture on the federal/public beach. I would never have booked with them knowing that any local can have access to my things, especially given that we had to move around the resort with our passports and money because the safe was not working and when we went into the water our stuff was left unattended.

- Please note that all these issues were addressed with the hotel staff on several occasions. We were provided with an upgrade to VIP status bracelet (which basically gave us access to an international bar) to which they asked us to sign a waiver that we proceeded to rescind within 24 hours because we continued to experience inadequate levels of service (none of our simple requests were ever taken care of. I.e.: pillows, linens, bath towels, cleanliness of room, broken toilet, safe and more).

Having in mind that this hotel is sold as a high-class hotel with a 5-star rating on its own website and 4-star rating on Selloffvacations.com and aircanadavacation.com belonging to Globalia Group, I perceive this type of treatment to be unacceptable and not representative of a high-class rating that it was claimed to be. Essentially, I was left disappointed, lied to, and taken for a fool.

Please do not hesitate to contact me at this email address or by phone at [protected].

I look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,

Sonia Oliveira

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