Emotions by Hodelpa Juan Dolio

Personally, I loved the atmosphere at this hotel. The staff were truly amazing — always smiling, kind, and so friendly. Many of them even asked for my name and used it every day when they greeted me, even though it was definitely a tricky name for most of them 😄. They invited me to join various activities and games, and they took such good care of all the guests. It was a really warm and special experience.|The only reason I deducted one point is that the hotel is a bit far from the airport (about +-2hours). I also wasn’t a big fan of the shower and toilet doors in the room — they’re frosted, but still somewhat see-through. This could be a small inconvenience for anyone traveling not just with a partner, but also with friends.|The price we paid for this hotel was very reasonable — we had a wonderful time and came home with lots of great memories and photos. A small tip for anyone planning to stay here: bring a bit of cash for the staff, as they truly deserve a little token of appreciation ☺️.|BTW , you can also take some classes of Spanish language over there, which I find really helpful, the teachers are really nice and Personally, I loved the atmosphere at this hotel. The staff were truly amazing — always smiling, kind, and so friendly. Many of them even asked for my name and used it every day when they greeted me, even though it was definitely a tricky name for most of them 😄. They invited me to join various activities and games, and they took such good care of all the guests. It was a really warm and special experience.|The only reason I deducted one point is that the hotel is a bit far from the airport (about 2–2.5 hours). I also wasn’t a big fan of the shower and toilet doors in the room — they’re frosted, but still somewhat see-through. This could be a small inconvenience for anyone traveling not just with a partner, but also with friends.|The price we paid for this hotel was very reasonable — we had a wonderful time and came home with lots of great memories and photos. A small tip for anyone planning to stay here: bring a bit of cash for the staff, as they truly deserve a little token of appreciation ☺️. ||(Btw , you can also take some classes of Spanish language over there , which I find really helpful, teachers are really nice and patient! ) ||Thanks again for the beautiful work guys ! You made our vacation very special and enjoyable!🫶🏻

Will start with the good. ||The food was good. No complaints|The service was good. Always smiling|The rooms were comfortable. Not 5 star||The not so good:||The “adults only” side was a scam. They put you in a building with its own pool right next door to the stage where they have music blasting all day and night. If you’re looking for a quiet vacation the adults only side couldn't be further from that. |The beach is great but the chairs are packed in like sardines and there is no designated adults only side. |None of the staff seem to know any answers to any questions. One person told us we needed to use the app at 5pm in order to make reservations for the next day for the restaurants, someone else told us the app only opens at 8am the day you want to make a reso and a third person told us to try 7am. The app itself opens at midnight and if you don’t grab a reso before you go to sleep you won’t be able to get one even though most of the tables are empty when you’re in the à la carts. |My last complaint is partially my own doing but I fell for the time share scam. They tell you to meet them at 8:30 am for ten minutes to receive a “welcome gift” but you spend 2.5 hours getting a sales pitch for what’s basically a time share and the “free massage” they bribe you with is only for 15 minutes. It’s an absolute scam and I don’t think they should be allowed to call it a welcome gift when it certainly is not that. ||Aside from paying more money for what they consider “adults only”-not worth it, you basically get what you pay for. ||It was a decent vacation overall but most of the people we spoke to agreed they wouldn’t revisit this resort.

Our stay at Emotions Hodelpa Juan Dolio started off ok. The resort has some charm, and the staff is kind, professional, warm, and genuinely caring. However, there are several important concerns future guests should know. If you do not like cats, this is not the place for you. Cats freely roam the food areas, which by Canadian standards is unsanitary. Staff treat this as normal. My wife is allergic to cats, making this a serious issue. The cats are also aggressive on the beach, constantly swarming guests for food. We also found it strange that for the seafood and steak restaurant (not included with the main dining options) the rep Rudh asked us to prepay for dinner, which felt unprofessional and raised serious red flags. Over the weekend, large numbers of local day-pass guests were allowed in with no crowd control. At the Ola Lola beach bar, the situation became chaotic, no seating, food gone instantly, and hotel guests heavily outnumbered. During this disorder, my wife was pushed by a local guest, which is completely unacceptable. Checkout was another major issue. Despite sending our luggage to reception at 2 PM for a late-night flight, we were suddenly charged $170 USD ($263CAD) for late checkout, something we were never informed of. The front desk manager, Karine, was so rude and dismissive. It felt like an attempt to pressure us into paying quickly, especially since she kept pointing out that our transfer was waiting. Thankfully, Supervisor Cesar Sanchez stepped in and resolved the issue fairly. Lastly, the room showers are poorly designed and cheaply built. The low flat floor and narrow glass panel do not close properly, causing water to leak everywhere after every shower. It’s another example of too many small issues that management seems unable, or unwilling, to fix. The saving grace of this resort is its phenomenal staff: Thalia (hostess), Kevin (front desk), Omar (server), Rosa (server), Juan Antonio (bar), Julio (bar), Yudelki (animation), Diagnora (animation), and baggage handler Edward. They are the reason this place would event get a star. Management policies, sanitation, and guest protection need serious improvement.

Very low-mid place. Food could be a lot better. Bartander does not know how to make basic drink. Room service often missed thing (like removing old tower but not giving back new ones.) Street split resort in two. To reserve restaurants, you need to go on their website after midnight. You could only reserve the same day and they were quick to get fill. The animation team was very good.

Floors are cleaned all the time, good food (great deserts and fruits salads), super beach, lots of animation. Great place to feel immerged by the Dominican culture.|I must declare that I have been verbaly and physicaly assaulted by a German female tourist, which was addressed carefully by the resort Manager. However, be careful.

DO NOT STAY HERE! Check in: We are invited guests from a member, we were escorted to a different area to check in bc we were considered VIP. Unsure how this hotel categorizes VIP, we certainly did not receive VIP services. The Manager at the check in was rude and pushy. I explained we have a reservation and provided her with all the emails and confirmation numbers and still that was not enough, she wanted to do things her way. She ended up finding our reservation but it was under someone else’s name. After 20 mins, we were finally done with check in. But to make sure the reservation was under our name, I asked, and they said no, the reservation will remain under the original owners since they cancelled. I did not approve at all but we were already tired and just wanted to get to our rooms. Rooms: We reserved two rooms bc we have teenagers. While our children’s room was good, our room ac unit was leaking. We noticed after our return from the beach. We called it in and 2 technicians checked unit and it was not repairable. After several hours, around close to 9 pm we were told we needed to change rooms. I advised the lady we were a family and my children were next door. She advised she would change to a room on the same floor near by. I agreed but it was already 10pm and no word on which room I was going to be switched and advised to leave for the morning. Next day we were in communication with staff for the change at 8am and we were advised we needed to wait until 10am. 10 am came and still nothing. I inquired around 10:30am and was told they do not do changes until the afternoon. Meanwhile it’s already been 2.5 hours waiting. I advised the staff that communication is key and that they need to get it together, this is not how to enjoy a vacation. While I was detailing my frustration via a whats app voice note, i received a knock at my door and it was Alejandro and Juan to help me switch rooms. Alejandro was very informative snd helpful. They both helped me move my items to a near by room. Room switched: Bathroom outlet does not work. Food: While they serve dominican food, among other international foods, you can taste if’s refreshed food. Not fresh at all. The mangu has so much vinegar, its intolerable. Read a previous review from another guest, from 2 weeks ago about cats in dining area. Well, to my surprise on the hotel comment back to guest, this will be resolved, they are still here. My daughter and I are allergic to cats, we try to stay away and eat fast. As guests we should enjoy our meals not work around the cats. We ended up eating outside for lunch and dinner on our 2nd day. Pool and Beach: Amendable area for members, which we enjoyed but you get your stranglers that are not members and you have to advise security. We should not be monitoring the resort as guests, the staff should be taking care of these areas to ensure everyone is where are supposed to be. Staff: If staff knocks and you do not answer in time, they will use their key and enter room. This is very disturbing. I reported to front desk and the response received was “if you can at least answer”. I responded back, no if my “DO NOT DISTURB” sign us up, no one should enter. Please educate staff. Guess what the next day it happened again. 9am maintenance staff was doing their daily checks, my kids room had sign and they still knocked and went in. Unacceptable!!! Everyone acts as if they are doing us favors, if the stay was free, I can understand, but it is not. Our vacation is booked months and months in advance for us to enjoy our holiday vacation away from family and this is certainly not the way I envisioned it. I also received a survey via whats app, provided my honest opinion, at the end of survey I was asked “how can they make it better” responded “by receiving a credit to my original payment”. Wonder why I have not received a call or answer, hmmm! My stay has not ended yet, will be checking out early for sure.

We are into day 3 of our 5 days stay, and plan to check out two days early to keep our sanity. Fo context, we came here on November of last year (2024) and enjoyed our stay so much that decided to book it again during the Christmas holiday of this year. For this stay, We booked two rooms (one for the kids and one for ourselves), and between the constant harassment by their sales people and lack of quality food, we feel is just best to check out a few days before so that we can spend quality time elsewhere. Here is a breakdown of our current stay (by the way, I am writing this while I am still in the hotel): Day 1 - The check-in clerks could not find our reservation, so that took a while to be sorted out but it got resolved after an hour or so. Later that evening the Air Conditioner unit was leaking lots of water in our room but the unit was still working….it took more than 2 hours for a technician to get over to the room to get it fixed; well not only did the technician not fix the unit, now he messed up so badly that the unit wouldn’t even turn on! We spoke to a few people in the reception area and they offered to change our room, which we did. Day 2 - We get to the buffet in the morning at say 9:30 am, and the staff is rushing us because they close at 10am!!! Did I say 10am? For breakfast? How do you explain closing your main buffet at 10 am when you have hundreds of people booked into your resort, some of which don’t wake up until 9am…. I get that you have to get that area ready for lunch, but please understand that people are on vacation and don’t need to be rushing out of bed in order to make it to breakfast before 10am! We are also avid Seltzer water drinkers, and were denied a bottle of seltzer at all 3 areas where they serve drinks. Our solution? Walk to the local grocery store and buy our own. Day 3 ( which just started as is currently 8am at the time of my writing of this review).. A maintenance guy was banging so loud in the room beneath us that we had no choice but to wake up and report it to the front desk. And to add insult to injury, we encountered a big fat cockroach outside of the room. I know everyone experience is different, but this was not the one we were expecting when we paid top dollars to stay here during the Christmas break.

Giving a one star is way to much, here is a list of the disastrous events , I understand they were doing road construction but we almost ran over a man hole without a cover. We had to carry our luggage up the stairs 2nd floor. No help from the staff. Our room was facing the back of the resort so we asked for another room facing resort activity’s. This resort was absolutely gross, dirty and food was horrible nothing fresh. Found a cockroach in our room. Staff was not helpful and rude and pushy. The staff was inappropriate towards me and other ladies making it hard to enjoy the beach, I did not feel safe at any point in my stay. My boyfriend and I went to the club at night to at least enjoy music and a drink, nothing but hoodlums and smoking everywhere. There was a guy laying on the couch smoking a blunt at the entrance of our building. Not to mention we got a ride on the golf cart to bring us to our room. The young driver was speeding like a maniac and stopped to give his boys high five. There was cats roaming around were you eat food, my boyfriend ask a worker to remove the cat cause he is allergic and they did nothing, not to mention that’s not sanitary, this place was a nightmare and to top it off. We both left sick with stomach issues among bowel issues. We did not drink the water. It could have been the ice or the food. We only had enough coffee in the room for one person and no condiments, I stirred his coffee with a toothbrush. The end of course, This place is dirty. Just plain filthy . Punta Cana is absolutely amazing if yr looking for great service and clean wonderful food, there is so much more I can say but I hope you get the just of this trip from hell.