Royalton Punta Cana, An Autograph Collection All-Inclusive Resort & Casino

My friends & I went to the Punta Cana Royalton Resort to celebrate my retirement from teaching. We were part of the Diamond Club, which was to make our stay better. This was a horrible resort. We were not given the personalized check-in. We were rushed in & out without even being offered water! We went to our rooms. My friends room smelled like mold; the shower leaked, the tv didn't work & the curtains gapped due to missing hooks. My room had 1 king bed instead of 2 doubles & was a floor up from my friends. They were unable to move us until the next afternoon, which we refused, not wanting to unpack twice. Neither room had slippers or robes. We were not given the alcohol we asked for until Tuesday night. Our "butler" Melqui was MIA. He was always right on it but it never happened without many messages. One friend almost ripped her toe off after getting it caught in a missing tile in the Diamond Pool. Many tiles were missing. Then, we went to watch a show in the auditorium. Many of the chairs were broken. We sat in a few weeks thought were OK. Half-way through, one of the chairs broke & my friend fell backwards, hurting her back. We complained, but were only offered a lobster or steak dinner, which are part of the Diamond Club. Their hands were tied. The food was mediocre; desserts were horrible. The cleaning staff was exceptional! Most of the workers were also exceptional. There was a daily schedule our butler was to show us, which we never saw. Stay away from this resort. Someone is going to get seriously hurt!

Honestly not sure where to start with this negative review … On arrival 4 adults had been changed from two rooms to one with only two beds (my mother and step dad were to share a bed great, but myself being a 41 year old was expected to share a bed with my 20 year old son NOT HAPPENING. The balcony in the initial room we were given was overlooking a building site the noise was absolutely awful (have taken videos) complained to reception about both issues and was told that to move back to having 2 rooms we would need to pay another £4,660!! We had already paid £10,000 for this holiday for 4 adults, it would have been cheaper to pack our bags, fly back to the Uk and fly back out, this just proves how greedy the hotel is (this is being dealt with through TUI here in the UK). So refused to give us back the 2nd room so instead they came with a single bed and pushed the beds apart to fit it in the middle, to the point you couldn’t walk around any of the beds (again photos taken) we ended up having to take out a sofa and put it on the balcony ourselves in order to give us some space in the room - this should NOT have been our job. Regarding the building site we were moved 2 days after arrival, so we were all living out of our suitcases for 2 days. When the room was changed we had to again chase the single bed several times and each time were told the reception knew nothing about it, yet we had confirmation on text from the TUI rep that she had sorted this out. Both rooms were only set up for two people, two robes, 2 slippers, 1 umbrella, 2 towels etc yet they insisted they were set up for 4 people, again lost count of the amount of times we had to chase towels, and for the mini fridge to be stocked up - but we did get chocolate milk for the kids…. On wait the youngest was 20 years old!. Not forgetting the bedding was not changed in the two weeks we were there either. It also became evident on speaking to others in the resort, that all English were put on the top floor with views of the building site as everyone we spoke to had complained and been moved rooms, and for our family despite requesting first or second floor rooms due to mobility issues, we were still given rooms on the top floor up 4 flights of steps each time we needed to go to the room. Yet Spanish and Americans were all placed on the first floor ground level nearest the pools. Then onto the service - restaurant service was very hit and miss, I lost count of the times we were chasing basic items such as cutlery and WATER, if you dared to ask for a spoon it was like you had asked for the earth on a platter! Food was same thing every day in the buffet except for our last day out of 14 days due to it being the World Cup and on this day the variety was excellent and good quality food but one day in 14 is not good. We only managed to eat at one other restaurant which was the Italian and this was both tasteless and undercooked. When trying to book other restaurants on the app (which I attempted to do daily) there was never space for 4 people yet they were consistently full of big groups of Spanish and Americans, when we asked at reception we were told the only way to book was via the app! Then onto drinks service, so as stated we were a family of 4 and were being treated in every sense as two adults and two children despite the youngest being 20 years old, before we went on holiday we had pooled money together for tips and tipped more than enough daily however, as we moved into the 2nd week the hideaway pool waitress told me and my son that if we didn’t tip separate then we were to fetch our own drinks from the bar and this is exactly what happened, she wouldn’t even speak to us let alone offer us a drink to warrant a tip, yet continued to bring drinks to my parents, if they ordered a glass of sprite for us, the waitress wouldn’t even pass this to us, she would give it to my mother to then pass to us, this is not acceptable and was not the dream holiday that was sold to us, that we paid £10,000 for a special occasion. The hideaway (adult only area of the resort) was not monitored, for example when the main resort activity pool was suddenly closed (no doubt due to vomit or poop in the pool) the children piled into the hideaway pool and nothing was done about this, there were also many Americans smoking cigars whilst in the pool which no doubt led to the disgusting state of the pool, I only saw the pool get cleaned twice in two weeks and the second time it was cleaned was a result of many people complaining (photos again taken). We were not told what paying extra for adult only hideaway consisted of and found out on our last day from another family that there were other areas we could have visited and they had been told this by their butler service however we were not told anything at all, we were told to simply download the app and look at the map however the “map” is not what you would expect and very difficult to work out. The only positive I can think of for this resort is the beach location! We did go on two trips via TUI booking which was the dolphin explorer package which we paid for the top package available and this was excellent. We also went on the sunset buggy tour which again was a fantastic experience away from the hotel. All in all I do not recommend this resort at all, this was our first time visiting a Royalton and did so due to the recommendations for other resorts but we will stick to visiting RIU in future where no matter the country the service is always outstanding.

Room smelled like sewage because of backed up shower drain. Service was horrible. Was harassed by hooligans at night with incompetent security nowhere to be found. They refuse to take any accountability and try to upsell and nickel and dime you for worthless upgrades

This resort was one of the best we have ever stayed at. The food was amazing, the staff were friendly, and best of all, it was never crowded! **The Food:** By far, I believe the best restaurant was Jade. This restaurant was amazing! The staff were incredibly kind and provided plenty of insight into the menu and dishes. **The People:** The people here were amazing! We stayed in the Diamond Club and were fortunate to have Edwin at the lounge, Francisco at the bar, and Reinaldo as our butler. Edwin was by far the kindest person we met during our time on the island. He was always attentive, even while working at the Splash Diamond Club Lounge. To be fair, I believe he should be working at the Punta Cana Diamond Club Lounge because of his exceptional kindness and customer service, which we did not consistently experience with some of the other lounge staff. Francisco always took the time to ask about our day and remembered our orders, which made us feel welcome and appreciated. Last but certainly not least, Reinaldo. He was our butler for 10 days and was always available to help with anything we needed. He regularly checked in to see how our day was going and asked about our plans to ensure we were having a great time. **The Resort:** During our stay, the resort never felt crowded. There was always plenty of space, and although the pools were large, they never felt packed. The restaurants almost always had little to no wait times. The only times we had to wait to be seated were when we arrived very early for dinner and there were temporarily no seats available, which was completely understandable. **Overall:** My family and I loved this resort and will definitely be returning! I would like to give a special shoutout to Edwin. Although he currently works at the Splash Resort, I believe his outstanding customer service would make him a perfect fit for the Punta Cana Resort. While some may not think there is a significant difference between the two properties, there is. In our experience, the Diamond Club staff at Splash were not nearly as welcoming or attentive as Edwin. He consistently went above and beyond to make our stay enjoyable and truly stood out among the staff.

We really appreciated Miguel Toro’s butler service. He made it so easy for us to really enjoy our vacation. Originally my daughter would have to make reservations for dinner each day, but when Miguel became our butler, she didn’t have to. He would ask us where we wanted to eat and then he would make the reservations. He would even send us activities for that day to see what we would be interested in. Thank you Miguel for all your help during our stay!