Senator Puerto Plata Spa Resort

Second visit to the Senator so I knew what to expect. I would return for the right price.

I would pay more if some short comings are addressed. [Details]

To be honest no major complaints. Me and my family of 4 had a great time. From the sports bar to the buffets to booking the restaurants. No issues. The pizza shop and the icecream booth was a big hit with my kids. Staff with nice and polite. We would definitely come back. [Details]

I rarely make neg reviews, as I am ok with clean and decent resorts who promoted themselves reasonable. Being dated isn't bad if you keep it clean and don't make yourselves something you're not. So here goes. **While expecting this resort to be a 4 plus star hotel ,it was greatly disappointing. It is promoted as an upgrade to it's associated resort Playabachata, but for us who also stayed at Playabachata the previous year,we did not find this to be the case. The room service was horrible at Senators, they did not mop our floors daily(and when they did it was left sandy when it wasn't to start with), they rarely gave us face and hand towels(without having to call a few times) , phone hardly worked(and no simple instructions telling you that their front desk is not 0 but 8250), a simple washibg of the shower curtains would have taken care of the mildew smell Shampoo instead of two bath geld in shower could have been appreciated, took 5 days to get that.. If they perhaps had a supervisor that checked rooms after their workers cleaned, it might help (subject to the supervisors not spending all their time on their phones as well). There were cockroaches in one of our parties rooms (not one day but several days , different ones till they moved buildings and they found one in that room too- and that was supposed to be an upgraded room). Their plugs(European outlets) are outdated and you have to pay q deposit of $3 US to get an adapter that still doesn't stay in the wall. They provide you a clock with a US connection in which you can't use unless you pay the deposit , that is cheap and not an upgrade to me. There were no plugs for the sink and tub, the taps and faucets looked outdated ,shower didn't work. Almost fell off the toilet seat . Food was pretty good on the plus side. This hotel should be rated no more than a 3 star. They should focus on fixing their service , unless that is their intention in order to sell you their upgrade (another upgrade) to their premium rooms ? Why would I when the service stinks at the upgrade I already made . After you decline their upgrade, their attitude changes towards you . I am speaking generally , not specifically . *** Almost everything you are entitled to relies on tipping . So you pay for a vacation , to get there to pay for the service . Hmm tipping is supposed to be a choice and for exceptional service , not to do the required job . TIPPING HAS GOTTEN OUT OF CONTROL. You need to be intoxicated all the time to oversee the short comings . [Details]

We had a great stay. Would recommend the resort if you're looking for a decent holiday within a reasonable budget. [Details]

The hotel was beautiful, tasteful and modern.
There was a lot of variety at the buffet, always fish and lots of sides, salads, cold cuts, wheat goods etc. The a la cart was good as well, the Italian restaurant was delicious, very classy and clean atmosphere.
The pools were clean, the beach was beautiful. The beach is shares by Senator's sister resort, it is only about 2km long and very private. It's a beautiful cove. The beach is near a reef and there are a lot of rocks in the water, water shoes are essential, although there are areas with soft sand. [Details]

The rooms themselves were fine, nothing special but definitely good enough. [Details]

I travelled with my daughter and the airport pickup was smooth except for having to wait an hour for one passenger who was delayed at customs. When we arrived at the resort the check in experience was quick and the lobby was beautiful! It's a large resort but everything is walkable. Beautiful landscaping, nice big pools with plenty of space to swim. It was busy during the Easter long weekend so lots of guests. There were several places to eat. Our room was a good size, clean and not exactly modern but not too dated either. The air con worked well in the rooms and there was a small mini fridge stocked with a selection of included drinks. We really enjoyed the beach because it's right in the resort area, so no long walk required. You should bring water shoes though, as there is a lot of coral.
Unfortunately the biggest issue at this resort is a “lounger reserving culture” where guests feel entitled to reserve the pool and beach lounge chairs all day even when they're not using the facilities! So when other guests show up to actually use the pool or swim at the beach; there are no lounge chairs left and there's just a bunch of empty loungers with towels and clips, or bags or sunscreen left on them to reserve them for the day. This should be regulated more by the hotel to stop this annoying behaviour. Just because you put a towel down in the early morning and then walk away from the pool for 3 or more hours, doesn't mean that chair should remain “yours” for the entire day until the pool closes at 6:30pm. I actually saw people bring their own “reserved” banners from home to wrap around the lounger as if it was the hotels sign or something but it wasn't. This is ridiculous and really takes away from the experience of staying here. I really feel if the hotel stepped in to regulate this, it would enhance the experience for all guests.

The food at the main buffet has a lot of options for different types of foods and always had fresh in-season fruits, but in general the food was only ok, it wasn't consistently good. Sometimes the buffet foods had some bland and overcooked items but sometimes it was good and well cooked. The a la carte restaurants offer the best tasting meals, especially the Italian restaurant first and then the steakhouse second, and finally the Japanese one third.
Gym was kept clean and decently equipped with free weights, pin-loaded machines and cardio machines, but some of the equipment is dated and needing repairs.
There are plenty of activities hosted by staff during the day to keep you entertained, plus the nightly concerts on the resort. There's also a mini market lane that has a number of small shops. The lane was cutely decorated and the various shops sold things like souvenirs, sunscreen, jewelry and alcohol. [Details]

We had a nice trip. More for the excursions outside the resort. The room was good. But the service was not very good. I would give service a 4 out of 10 [Details]

Extremely charming and welcoming staff in a beautiful resort inside and out that you won't be able to admire because there's no place to sit. We had a great vacation but probably won't be back and would avoid Senator's other locations. This place is oddly managed. [Details]

Well... the resort itself is good. Small and compact which makes navigating a breeze. The pool is nice, the beach is great. There are not enough loungers to go around either at the pool or beach. The older staff were great. The rooms clean. The buffet was adequate. The a la carte restaurants were good. No hot water for the first 4 days. Warm water the next day and hot water the last two days. The younger staff (90%) were ill mannered and most down right rude. No night life to speak of and the main lounge area held 40 people at most. They had entertainment outside each night at 9:30 pm. It was fun but when it rained it was moved to the lounge, straining the already small space. Overall I would not return. There seemed to be a large differencebetween the regular playing guests and their VIP service. [Details]

I was very disappointed because the entire week I was there I was not able to book into an a la carte. Neither were four other rooms in our party!! Never had that at an all inclusive ever.
Power went off frequently for over 12 hours at a time.
Was charged 547.00 usd for a 35.00 USD shirt.
Most of the staff couldn't understand English, which is needed in a tourism economy.
Not enough pool chairs or beach chairs.
Very dark for walking on the paths at night.
Inconsistent drinks at each of the 3 bars - snack bar was by far the best.
The staff were all very friendly, the resort was super clean. The food was excellent.
I would not return. [Details]

Upon our arrival we were assigned 3rd floor room like we are 18 y.o., not 50 . We gave the tips to change a room and we were assigned the room with a lot of issues that we were trying to resolve during our 21 days stay. With 7 days of rain we had no umbrella in our room and was only provided when our great and kind concierge, Felicia, purchased it herself. We had no warm water for first week. We had no power nor water at all for 3/4 of the day on Jan.1, no flushing the toilet, nor taking the shower. We had bad experience in all 3 restaurants: italian - was waiting for 1hr 40mins and received wrong order, so we left and went to buffet instead; steak house - food was overcooked and resembled the plastic; japanese - my hubby got poisoned and empty his stomach on a same night. Red flag was displayed on a beach even when the weather and the ocean was great. Hiring a life guard was not on hotel agenda, I guess. What else? Visit on your own risk to learn more. [Details]

Everything in the hotel is very good and well kept. Check in and check out are fast and easy. It is easy to reach any place because of compact design of the territory. I like this place more than other three hotels I've been visiting last year. Cruise port gives us nice viewing of coming huge cruise ships. We want to return to Senator again. [Details]

To be honest the hotel environment and views was perfect, nice beach with beautiful view. Restaurants totally are good, I liked the buffet more than Italian and Japanese restaurants. Room was fine, but, but if you are looking for 7 days of relaxation and calm hotel, its not for you. They have establish more than 30 rooms in every building and all building are near each other. For three nights we couldn't sleep until 3:00 am as young boys made lots of noisy for all rooms, they didn't listen to you and said its our nice vacation, finally resort's Police come in and asked them to finish that.
We have technical problems inside room and asked two times receptionist to come resolve it and no one came, bad customer service.
There were lots of Business agents around the resort and all times asked you to buy the VIP membership of their hotel groups, it was really annoying, they took 3h of our time just for a stupid presentation, never accept their offer, never.
Also for Drinks you have to pay the tips if you prefer to have Alcohol drinks, otherwise you will have 2% drinks, its really shame, I was in Punta Cana with excellent choice of drinks in a Resort really cheaper that here.
If you need a towel you will be disappointed, we asked 5 times for towel and they responded we don't have ready, so we walked for 400m for next hotel (Bachata) which is in same resort for towels, also you will not have stable internet there. For entertainment you have to go the other hotel, here was really good for kids. [Details]

There were at least 20 people we were with that got sick from the food there when we were there

Ran out of basic booze constantly (no vodka, red wine, beer etc)

I had a room with room service and the phone was broken so couldn't use this once.. complained the first 4 days and they said they would fix it and never did

Didn't have a fan or a/c the first 2 days [Details]

Overall the hotel was great, rooms were clean and nice and cool. Beach was amazing with plenty of natural shade. Buffet food was ok, breakfast and lunches were best. The specialist Japanese menu was very good. [Details]

My partner and I were let down at the moment of arrival.. We were promised an upgrade for our engagement celebration that the hotel was unaware of, so we did not get one, but that was fine as we were just excited to be on vacation. Our room however quickly shocked us, we arrived just around midnight only to check into a room that has not been renovated in decades, which would've been fine, had our pillows not smelt like sweat and had there been a bedsheet on our bed. The bathroom was also a tiny tub with a shower head that had barely any water pressure, lukewarm water at best which was also sometimes yellow/brown in colour. The shower curtain had also not been changed. For our balcony, we did have 2 chairs & a table, as well as a drying rack, but unfortunately the screws had fallen out of the wall so it did not hold more than 1 bikini top. The resort itself is beautiful, 2 pools, both warm water & chest deep but clean. Beach was sandy & clean. The buffet was mediocre at best, with the same selection every day, sometimes they served left overs from the day prior, (which would have been okay if 200 people had not dug their way through it the day prior), honourable mention to the raw fish we were served on 2 separate occasions. Servers were not attentive, our tables were cleared from our personal belongings multiple times & sent to reception whilst we were grabbing a plate of food. Had to wait to be served water or coffee often times way past halfway through our meals, unfortunately cups & water were not available for grabs, they would have to bring it to the table. We were also only given 1-2 water bottles a day for our room, but for $1 the gentlemen doing the water runs would toss in a few extra bottles in secret. Lastly, the wifi also did not work at night time to watch something on our phones or around the resort. Oh! And we were also invited to a special breakfast by the exclusive membership sales team, which took about 3-4 hours, where they wanted to sell us a premium 25 year membership to their exclusive club & had a hard time understanding that we were not interested. [Details]

Awesome vacation!! Perfect!! . Resort was absolutely beautiful, beach was gorgeous. Staff welcoming and very helpful. [Details]

Overall the hotel is nice. Smaller resort that provides a feel of compfort. Main positive is the overall quality you get for the price. We paid 1100$ for 5 nights single occ. (from YUL) and feel this is a fair price. I would not pay more. Main negative was the customer service espacialy at the Italian restaurant and around the bar service. That the bars, we felt like the staff didn't want to be there. I would not recommand for a familly with kids as there aren't much beside a waiding pool. [Details]

Excellent beach. Excellent close to everything within the resort. Rooms were good for the price. Had to ask to change rooms. AC was on but not blowing cool air. This was a problem for lots of the other guests. Great food also. [Details]

We loved the resort! Good was delicious and always the right temperature. Staff were very friendly and efficient and knew their jobs. They are a very hard-working crew. Grounds were beautiful and rooms comfy. Would return. [Details]

This hotel was really beautiful and the beach was so nice - the palm trees were spectacular and there were a lot of people working there to keep the place nice and attend to people's needs. There was good security and it felt very safe. There were some service things that could have been better like maintenance of the air conditioner - didn't work the entire time we were there even though we mentioned it twice to the resort. Also, we arrived two days late due to weather conditions in Toronto, and they wouldn't extend our stay by a day, unless we paid approximately 600 dollars u.s. to stay - which of course we didn't. The part was the most upsetting part for us as we were able to get our flights changed to one day later, but the resort would not accommodate us another day even though they had availability. [Details]

Senator resort has a variety of activities for every age group (i.e. fitness, challenges, dancing, etc). There is also a variety of food.options on a daily basis including 3 à la cartes ( Steak, Japanese & Italian), sports bar, and barbecues on the beach. The hamburgers and taters are delicious. Staff are very pleasant and funny willing to help with anything you may need.
We stayed in a room that was outdated but all the amenities worked. I don't care about what my room looks like. The rooms are restocked and well cleaned. In general, the staff are always cleaning and is very well maintained.
The only slight downfall is the water is more rocky with some seagrass. I had water shoes so it didn't bother me. [Details]

Our trip was to relax and overcome some depression that my wife and I were experiencing in these winter months, so we booked this vacation at this resort.
we asked for a double bed - accessible room (as my wife has no legs) an ocean view room - we ask for a wheelchair to be available - to be on a higher floor and the resort confirmed all this with our agent
and this is what we got.
DOUBLE BED – we got King size bed
ACCESSIBLE ROOM - we were told at check in N/A
OCEAN VIEW ROOM - We got a room (218) on the second floor overlooking the roof of a restaurant yes you could see the ocean through the trees or if you would put your head out and look to the left you would see the ocean.
WE ASK FOR A WHEELCHAIR - they told us that we would have to rent it, they directed us to the Dr. office they had two chairs available it seems that they came back from a war zone we took the better one it did not have the left brake and it very rusty. We paid $10:00 American a day over and above $100.00 deposit.
HOUSEKEEPING - the sheets were changed twice in the 10 days we were there.
no toiletries were replaced after the second day.
HOT WATER - NO HOT WATER FOR FOUR DAYS - the fifth and ninth day were the only days that we got hot water.
TELEPHONE did not work.
We mostly ate at the buffet we tasted a bit of all meats and found them tough and so we stuck to selected items to eat but on Thursday we got courageous and tried some shrimp and Talipa fish well to this day we are paying the price we both have been sick vomiting and diarrhea to this day (feb. 23).
We brought our concerns to the front desk and customer service they seem concern and apologetic, but nothing was done
My question is – who do we turn to for compensation.
We paid premium for this vacation looking forward to be pampered with service and good food
But we got aggravation and sick from food
ARE WE UPSET? [Details]

Chaotic check -in set the stage for communication over the next 10 days! Seemed like no-one at the front desk attending guests had experience or understood the English language. Too many words needed to describe this. Upgraded to a newer building for a fee after seeing the assigned room: old, dingy, view of "bush", with no lock on safe, and stairs only to upper floors.Upgraded room had a beautiful view of the gardens, pools and beach area, and the bed was very comfortable. Poorly constructed shower stall had water pooling and flooded the floor. Non-functioning coffee machine replaced on our 8th day after many channels of reporting. Room towels were scarce, promised "later" and sometimes never came. Cuisine in buffet and specialty restaurants was below expectation. Tiers of quality and service depend on what you pay for, so check carefully. Our goals of sunshine, warmth, rest and relaxation on a beach were met and the sea was warmer than anticipated, Heed the flags. Dangerous undertow if you swim out. [Details]

I needed a main floor room and was happily accommodated.
I accidentally left 1 item of clothing in first room and staff found it and delivered to new location. I found option for transportation / golf cart throughout resort only available for select clients. Mobility was challenging at times. Not always enough chairs on deck or beach. Often chairs taken by 8am. Walked to adjacent resort as others were also discouraged and looking for a chair. Entertainment dancers incredible. Too loud DJ while waiting for show. Accessible wheelchair only available for rent, then store closed. Was I able to rent. Phone not working in many rooms, my friend got ill banged on wall for help. Safe access took days and friends carried valuables with them. [Details]

Food terrible. Staff awful, rude 90% do not speak English. No WiFi no television 90% of the time. Never get towels. La a Cartes awful cold, staff rude. No activities. Beach not for little ones drops off quick. Rooms falling apart. Not get safe key for 2 days. Never get pool towels. Same food everyday in buffet. [Details]

This was my first resort experience. Overall it was a good experience. The things I enjoyed, the availability of food and drink, as well as the quality of food. The staff are super friendly and work very hard. It was nice to to choose where to hangout, whether at the beach or the poolside. One thing I wasn't a fan of was the constant music that was being played at the pool and you can hear it from the beach. I found that there was a lack of quieter places. There are some regulations as well and I found they were not upkept, such as, many people were able to claim spots prior to the pool opening and this is unfair to the rest of us. I went with my friend but it seemed that mainly couples go to this resort, both young and old. [Details]

Great place for the price and location [Details]

First room we were given had the toilet seat hanging on by one bolt and garbage stuffed in the kleenex box holder. Next room had a toilet that leaked across the floor and a shower head that kept falling off. We reported it but nothing was ever fixed. I'm sure its still like that for next guest. All the rooms with ocean view overlooked the bay where a dredging machine worked all night. In the morning the cruise ships docked. Not a problem other than they had a television screen on deck the size of a basketball court. You could hear every word said it was so loud. But you don't spend much time in the room. Overall though the resort was very clean and safe. Food was very good, service was excellent, beach amazing. [Details]