I visited this hotel 5 years ago while attending this convention and I hated it. I had to return for the same reason and I decided to give it another opportunity because in 5 years things might have changed. Wrong! Everything was the same or worse.

First of all, I must say I'm Latinamerican. Therefore, I speak Spanish. So the bad service wasn't just addressed to Americans.

I arrived at the hotel at 1 pm and they told me I had to wait 2 hours because the check-in time is at 3 pm. I understand and I'm fine with that. What I don't understand is that a big hotel like this one (more than 500 rooms) doesn't have a bathroom with a changing room so people can go to the beach while waiting for their room. I mean, it's not that I arrived in a private flight! There were many flights arriving during the day. Besides, even though nobody was checking in at that time, they took 30 minutes to look for my reservation.

The room - it was huge and clean, but it had a musty smell. The air conditioning was really bad. I couldn't sleep well because it was turning off and on (you can control that) and I was feeling hot, even though I'm usually cold everywhere.

The beach is beautiful, but too noisy for me. If you like crowded places, maybe you won't mind. Too many wave runners, families screaming, hotel photographers (who then will sell you the pictures).

The worst part was getting internet service. In the room, there is a card with an extension that you should call to get wi-fi. I called and the person told me I had to go to the lobby to buy a password (first time ever I hear something like this). And since this resort is so big, is even worse because you have to walk a lot.

I got there and I asked the boy how much was the service. He told me $25 for 24 hours. I told him I need the service for 4 days. He answered he only had $60 for a week, and I agreed. I asked him to charge it to my room and he said he couldn't, since his service wasn't part of the hotel. He neither accepts credit cards, only cash. I asked where was the ATM and he told me there wasn't any at the hotel and that I had to take the train's hotel and go to another plaza, 2 stops from there. I took the train (that only passes every 15 minutes and it's veeeeery slow) and went to the plaza. The ATM was out of service.

I asked where could I find another ATM and nobody knew (I needed to check my e-mails, because I was in a convention, not in vacation. I mean there is a convention center over there!). I thought the casino might have one. I asked and everybody told me it didn't. I couldn't believe it, so I went to the casino and there was an ATM. I got the money and went back to my hotel. I left at 5:30 pm and came back at 7 just in time for the boy's dinner break! He was supposed to return at 8.

I decided to complain to the "Public Relations" service. The lady was very unfriendly and she told me it was my fault because when I made the reservation the hotel might have told me how was their internet service. I complained about not having the option to charge the service to the room and that's when she tells me they have another option: they can connect a modem and charge you $8 daily.

I requested that service and it took 30 minutes for them. Finally I got internet!

The following day another person tells me that the 24 hours for the wi-fi doesn't expire after a day so I could use the 24 hours during the 4 days I was going to spend there. And the boy didn't tell me this, so I looked for the ATM without needing it.

The food wasn't good at all. Specially the breads (any kind) were awfull. It's like they left them outside and they became mushy.

We had a party that we host during the convention at La Uva restaurant and that was great. The service over there at that time was very good, good music, beautiful decoration.

At the palace, I agree the only good option to eat was the grill La Pina close to the 6th block.

When leaving the hotel, we decided to have lunch at 12, because our bus was going to pick us up at 1 pm. Well, ALL restaurants are close at that time. They all open at 12:30. There were more than 30 people waiting at the entrance of one of these restaurantes!

There are better options in the Caribbean to visit. For great service, I would recommend to visit Cancun or Aruba. Mexicans really know how to treat tourists.

I read in Trip Advisor some comments that eventually the water on the hotel it finished.... but, I did not believe... what a BIG mistake...

Just on the first day, the water finished on my room.... I had to call the reception... more than a hour...

Later, the air condition stopped... another call to the reception... then, I had to change the room...

Two days later, what a coincidence: the water finished again... so, I had to call again the reception, and wait to the staff come to my room and spent more that two hours to finished the problem...

Never again!!!

My fiance and I stayed 7 nights at the BBP in June of 2006. First, let me start of by saying I'm writing this review now because I only discovered TA 6 months ago and seeing the importance of travelers reviews in helping others plan a great vacation.


The Positive:
I will start off by saying that Punta Cana and the Bavoro beaches are beautiful. One of the best beaches I have seen. Beautiful sugar white sand and clear blue water. Absolutley gorgeous!!


Before I get to the negative I want you to know where we are coming from before hearing my story. Let me just say that I'm not a picky person and am always easy to please on vacation. I don't care about the having the best liquors or if the food isn't all that. I can pretty much always find something to eat at any of the resorts I stay at. I don't sweat the little things like outdated rooms or musty smells. These things are minor and never interfere with having a great vacation. All we really care about is staying somewhere with friendly service and feeling welcomed. We also want to stay somewhere clean and that doesn't mean it has to be a 4 or 5 star resort and have a fantastic beach. We have stayed in 2 - 3 stars before and they were fine. We have stayed at several All Inclusive and Non Inclusive resorts as well as cruises all over the Caribbean, Mexico, North Africia and so on before. I'm definitley not bragging just trying to explain that we have never experienced anything like we did at the BBP at anyplace we have ever been.With all these things bieng said, I wanted everyone know first what kind of person I am before you decide whether my review was helpful to you.



The Negative:
When we arrived at the resort to Check in there was a huge line. Which didn't stress us too much cause this can happen at any hotel. After about a 4 hour wait we finally got to our room. The room was fine and didn't have any problems there. So we went down to get something to eat and the only thing that was opened at that time was the Grill. There was a long line there to but we didn't let that bother us. After waiting 45 min we were finally seated and starved to death by the way. Anyway, we sit at the table and waited for our server who we though was never going to come. We noticed there were several workers standing by talking to each other and ignoring the people waiting to be served. Finally she arrived after a 15min wait and looked like she was mad about taking our order. She couldn't speak English very well and we can only speak very little spanish but that was fine we knew we were in another country so expected to have language barriers. Which I'm ok with. I just pointed at the item I wanted on the menu and smiled. Of course she never smiled back and about 10 min later she brings our food with that same pissed off look on her face. It wasn't what we had ordered but we really didn't mind. We are not picky eaters at all so we ate all of it while dieing of thirst even though we had asked twice for a refill. We pretty much stayed dehydrated our entire stay. The rest of the week only got worse. When we would go to the bar area to get a bottle of water or soda we would get completley ignored. There were other people sitting at the bar getting waited on. Some come up after we had been standing there forever unwaited on and they would wait on them. It's like we were completely invisible. It was like this everytime we were waited on in the Bar or any of the Restuarants and no matter how much you tip didn't change anything. Sometimes we would finally walk off and sometimes we starving or thirsty and waited it out. At one of the Restuarants one night we waited an hour before being seated. Although they were people just walking up and they were seated right away. The only reason why all of these people were getting waited on before us was because they were Non Americans or someone who spoke spanish. It was like this the whole time. The staff at the BBP were by far the ruddest people I have seen in my entire life. I felt unwanted there and that they disliked Americans. One time that I did recieve a bottle of water at the bar it has been opened. The bartender could have cared less and didn't offer to give me another.


Anyway, one our 3rd day I got extremely ill. Now getting sick wouldn't keep me from returning back to a certain place because anytime you travel out of the country and eat food your not use to eating there is always the chance of getting sick. Anyway I ended up having to see the so called Dr. at the resort. I had been throwing up non stop for over 24 hours along with a fever and diarrhea. This Dr.'s office/ hospital clinic didn't have any blankets or pillows or even something I could vomit in. My fiance went and picked up a small garbage can in the waitng room for me to use. After recieving iv fluids and give med. I was finally released. My fiance asked about the bill and whether it was billed to our room liked it normally would have been at any other resort. The Dr. told my fiance to come by tomorrow and pay. Finally went back to the room around 2:00 am and am still very sick so I lay down to try to rest and about 8:00 the phone rings in the room and I had very little sleep from still bieng in the BR all night , my fiance answers it and no one says anything and just hangs up. 5 min later we here a banging on the door and he goes and answers and there standing was the Dr. and nurse who we had seen only 6 hours before. I though maybe just maybe she could have just been checking to see how i was. What a joke, she didn't ask anything about me she wanted her $400 bucks right then. This is the resorts medical center and they had all our creditcard info on file but it didn't matter. Even though the Dr. told us to come by the office the next day to pay she hunted us down like we were thieves and called the room to see if we were in it and hung up and came banging on the door. Only six hours after leaving. We were once again blown away by the way these people had treated us our entire stay.

We meet several American families while we were there and all of them were experiencing the same treatment. Several were very ill. Some of them left the resort after the first couple of days. Everyone was trying to leave early. We were planning on going home after the 2nd day and I got so sick I couldn't travel. So I had to wait it out miserably. It really does shock me that anyone could give this place even a decent review. It's like there not taking about the same place. You can be the judge but I would hope that writing this review would keep other travelers from having a horrible vacation like we did.. I wish I knew about TA before booking that trip..Goodluck and happy vacationing!!!

I'm staying here for a convention in Barcelo Convention Center which is adjacent to the hotel. I would never ever stay her again if not for the same reason.

The hotel staff is not happy at all. They are very rude and never show a smile. They hate their job. At least that is what you get if you don't tip. BTW all-inclusive says "tips included". Do not enforce that provision. You must tip if you want a smile.

Nightly shows are very unprofesional. Not that I'm expecting a broadway performance, but have been to many properties alike and shows are far far better.

There's good food, but the selection is not enough if you are looking for something healty or a kid's meals. Beverages take from 2 minutes to 30 minutes to arrive, you may be lucky... Or not.

My wife also got a stomach-ache (read about this in another review). Got yogurth and veggies. Went to the farmacy for some pills. 10 pills of a basic stomach-ache drug that normally cost 3 USD were sold at 19 USD.

This is not the only case. Forgot your deodorant? 2oz deodorant for 12USD. And the classic "the farmacy is not associated with the hotel". Come on! They rent the space from you. You must enforce fair prices at your premises! Not wal-mart prices but double at most, not 7 to 10 times more expensive.

We got a nice, clean room. Beach is great. Service does not exist. They do not care about guests. There's noone to complain about anything. Noone would listen. They just don't care.

Will never come back.