Sam Khatra
Our group of nine adults recently stayed at the Hard Rock Resort & Casino in Punta Cana, and unfortunately, the experience fell far below expectations. While the resort boasts a large facility with plenty of amenities, the poor service and logistical challenges overshadowed the positives.
Check-In Experience
Check-in was a disaster, taking over 90 minutes. The lobby staff appeared untrained and unprofessional, constantly disappearing into the back room. Instead of accommodating our group, they scattered us across buildings more than 600 meters apart. I had to step in to coordinate room assignments. Despite pretending to help, staff provided little actual assistance.
Resort Layout and Transportation
The resort is extremely spread out, which was not properly communicated. Guests are expected to rely on golf cart transportation, but it was highly inefficient—wait times were 20–30 minutes, and carts often arrived full. Renting a private golf cart (at an extra cost) seemed to be the only solution, which added to the frustration.
Dining and Food Quality
While the resort offered a variety of restaurants, we couldn’t make reservations for our group of nine. We often ended up eating whatever was available, which typically meant fries and cheeseburgers. Room service, which should have been a backup, was also unreliable—it took over 90 minutes to deliver food late at night, especially as restaurants closed by 10:30 PM.
Rooms and Maintenance
The rooms were clean, but several of us faced maintenance issues, including clogged shower drains and malfunctioning toilets. For a resort of this caliber, such problems were disappointing.
Customer Service
Customer service was inconsistent and frustrating. One of our friends lost their wristband, and the replacement process was unnecessarily complicated. The staff member handling the issue miscalculated the charge for two nights, demanding $300 instead of the correct $150. Thankfully, Nancy at the lobby was a standout and handled things efficiently—she deserves recognition for her professionalism.
Pools and Beach
One of the largest pools was closed for construction during our stay, leaving only smaller pools available. These had limited entertainment and no service at the poolside chairs. The beach was clean but also lacked food or drink service, which dampened the overall experience.
Other Observations
Even though one of our group members couldn’t make the trip, the resort offered no consideration, credit, or refund for the unused reservation. While this wasn’t expected, it added to the overall dissatisfaction.
Conclusion
Despite its large size and potential, the Hard Rock Resort & Casino in Punta Cana fails to deliver on service and guest experience. Poor organization, limited dining options, and inefficient transportation made this stay frustrating for our group. None of us would recommend this resort to others or consider returning in the future.
Rating: 2/5
Maria Fernanda Chirinos
It was a great experience since the people was very nice. However, as soon as we opened the door to our room we found a dead cockroach and the shower head had hairs hanging. We notified this to the front desk and they took care of the roach immediately but not the hairs. The room had a jacuzzi outdoors that didn't work, so we had to report it, so they came to fix it. I think it is not worth all the money you pay. You can eat all you want outside in nice places and go to a cheaper hotel and have the same experience.
boost pros
We visited the Dominican two weeks ago and stayed at the Majestic Colonial (which by the way was an great experience)
Had everything setup from the time we stepped off the airplane, a ride was arranged to take us to the resort.
Note that they have people waiting inside the airport right after security and they will mislead you into thinking they’re taking you to the right place to get to your ride and this is where it all starts: they will triage you to one of their reps and try and sell you on packages and excursions.
Ended up buying two of their excursions (they sounded decent, one of which was nothing like they described) which had to be setup at their location. What we found was that once there they had a rather aggressive almost quilt trip technique to try and sell you on a time share and instead of the “free breakfast and pick your excursion dates” you end up being stuck there at their will for majority of the day. Thanks a lot hard rock for wasting a whole day of our vacation.
Three different people tried to sell us on future stay packages. It’s like they were passing us around from person to person. When we told them we weren’t interested they would try and come up with some sort of guilt trip and pressure us into signing up. They even “offered” to move us from our current resort free of charge and refund us what we paid in hard rock credit. I can only imagine what this would entitle and just what hidden costs and fees we would be faced with based on previously read reviews.
Finally after having spent almost 5 hours sitting and talking finances and plans we were able to pick our excursion dates and head back to our original resort.
The fact that they mislead us and basically tricked us into coming there to check the resort with some “attractive” excursions, the pure pressure and sales tactics have deterred us from ever considering coming to your resort.
Your basic cookie cutter replies to customers reviews says it all.
T Ad
DONT GO UNLESS YOU WANT YOUR THINGS STOLEN
Overall this trip ended up being more disappointing than fun. The amenities are nice, however our rooms toilet kept getting clogged and the shower was almost inoperable - at one point we left the shower on for 5+ hours as we could not shut it off.
Worst of all the staff seems to have sticky fingers as they stole 2 chargers and my running sneakers from my room.
Even after contacting the concierge to look for the sneakers I intended to wear to the airport, the housekeeper stated they could not find it even though they were by the door in the room.
In all, take your bridal parties elsewhere or else you’ll end up coming back with a lighter suitcase and anger.
Shikeya McDonald
I enjoyed myself at the resort. The food was better than I've had in DR before. The rooms were nice. This property is simply too big. There are trolleys, but they don't come frequently enough or were full. My room was a 30-minute walk from the beach. I got in around 10k steps each day. That's not what I want on a relaxing vacation.
4.4
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