Dania

Stayed at the Barcelo Bavaro Palace (7/7-7/14/00) and unfortunately had the worst vacation of our lives. Two people entered our room during the first night while I was up feeding my baby. They came in through the balcony. If I hadn't awakened my husband God knows what would've happened. They ran and left our balcony open. That same night, burglars (probably the same since they were next door to us)entered my parents room while they were asleep (thru balcony) and stole their purse, wallets, jewelry, passports. I had to call security three times and they didn't even write a report on site. Wrote nothing down. Management was awful. Had to report it to police (what an awful place to have to go to). Dealings with the hotel management to-date have been terrible. They are definitely not customer focus-driven. Not a five star hotel at all. If you're used to five star hotels, this is not the place to go to. The Melia next door is much better. The hotel ran out of chlorine for the pools for day(or so another guest told us that she'd been told by management---her room was also broken into and she had jewelry stolen). My children contracted herpeangina from the dirty pool water after only one short while during an afternoon. Have been terribly sick for two weeks and have been on all sorts of medication. Other guests' children got sick too. One was hospitalized. My son was almost dehydrated when we landed back at JFK. We had to rush him to the hospital. The entire experience was a nightmare. Wouldn't recommend the resort to anyone. Keep you family safe and healthy--go elsewhere. The resort management has a terrible attitude. Don't deserve our business. WANT TO HEAR FROM ANYONE ELSE WHO WENT TO THE RESORT THE SAME WEEK WE WERE THERE---July 7th to 14th.

lars39

Thanks for the report (sounds like a disaster). We were considering this resort for a trip this year.
Think we will look elsewhere.

Paula

What island was this?

lars39

Dominican Republic

Lisa

Sorry to hear you had such a terrible experience. I stayed ther in Feb. of 1999 and loved it. I thought it was the best resort in terms of food,beach,and accomodations. They had security and employees everywhere. They must have really gone down hill-this is one of the first negative reports I have read.

Nancy

How did they enter through a locked balcony door? This has me a bit concerend.

Lisa

Lisa---The general manager admitted to us that it was an inside job. There were other burglaries that we heard of the week we were there. The policeman at the station told the captain of security of the hotel (who escorted us to file our report) that they know they have a problem, that it's internal and they need to fix it because there are too many robberies. I've even sent a letter to the owners of the Bavaro Hotels and they don't care. Didn't even respond. I've called for two weeks and their response is that this was the only incident and they are "surprised". As for the herpeangina---they insist that it is impossible for my children to have contracted it there. In the meantime, we know of other children who got sick also, including one who was hospitalized there. It was a horrible experience, but management's handling of it has made it so much worse. That's why I decided to post the warning to others---especially families.

Paula

Paula--This was the Dominican Republic, Punta Cana(which is their best beachfront area). The hotel complex was the Barcelo Bavaro Beach Resort, which has five hotels within it. We stayed at their best, the Barcelo Bavaro Palace. The Melia, next door is much better. However, I really don't think the island is worth it. You can't go anywhere. There is such poverty and devastation----other islands have poverty, but not like this one. Also, for those still interested in going there---beware, the balcony locks can be opened from the outside. After the burglary, we were switched to a room that had a busted balcony lock. They said there was nothing they could do about it. I called maintenance every night. Finally they gave us a wooden pole cut to size to stick in the baseboard of the door frame at night. The locks are rusted from the weather and have not been replaced. Very convenient for the burglars. We had locked our balcony doors because we have an 11th month old who crawls and a three year old. My parents had locked theirs too. Other guests told us that their doors didn't lock either.

Dave

1- I have no connection to Fodors, hotels, of the caribbean, and have never been to DR.

2- The robbery and dirty pool were awful.
However, herpangina is a common contagious childhood disease, and it is possible your children may have caught it from the other children. Did your doctor at home say it could be related to the dirty pool water?
Airplane cabins are known to be dehydrating, and we drink a lot of water when flying.

3- Dania - did you write the last 2 posts, even though the authors were listed as Lisa and Paula?

Dania

Dave---
In response to your reply, the doctor at the hospital and my children's pediatrician diagnosed both with herpangina and said it was from the lack of chlorine in the pool--apparently from the bacteria from feces/urine. Without chlorine, all swimmers were exposed to it. Some have better immune systems than others. Children, elderly and the sick are most at risk. My son is only 11 ms so he got hit the worst out of the two. However, another couple's daughter was hospitalized and she was a little older. Other kids got it too and had to be put on antibiotics that week while at the hotel. My son was diagnosed with a "throat infection" by the hotel doctor and put on antibiotics on our last day there. Both my children were fine before they went in the swimming pool.

Also, yes, I did post the two messages you inquired about.

TANYA

That's too bad you had such a terrible time there! Me and a girlfriend stayed there in April of 1998 and we had a wonderful time. We made quite a few friends while we were there. I don't want this to sound bad but not everyone will experience such an awful thing as you did and I think anyone who wants to go somewhere should just go and experinence things themselves. Everyone thinks (and have) different things happen to them.

Paula12345

This post may help the person who just asked about it.

cheryl

I also stayed at the Barcelo Bavaro Palace in the Dominican Republic. My fiance and I loved it. We were there in April of 1999. It was one of the better vacations I had. Dania, I am so sorry you had such a horrible experience. The only complaint I would have is that checking in took a while, but the hotel was very accomidating while we waited.

Jon Clay

I had no security problems, but this hotel has major service problems. I would advise anyone to go elsewhere.

The property is nice, but the staff is either unintersted in solving problems like broken minibars, no hot water etc. or they are not empowered to do it. Even simple requests were not addressed.

If you can avoid problems -- get lucky by getting a room at the rate you were promised and not have anything else go wrong, you will love this resort. But you are taking a big chance based on all of the people I saw lined up to ask about one thing or another.