ZEL Punta Cana - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

15537 reviews

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  Awesome food, Understaffed, Read the entire review.

  I’m not sure where to begin. I guess with a message to the reader. The following is an accurate account of my experiences and situations that happened at this resort including both positive and negative. On arrival, the check in process took over 1 hour and 20 minutes. There were about 10 people in front of us. On average, check in was taking about 20 minutes per person/group. We were privileged, in room 0412. The safe didn’t lock (dead battery), the fridge didn’t work, air conditioning was not working. We called the front desk immediately. Priority was getting the safe working. We had to wait in our room for about an hour for the security technician. He changed the battery and left – the battery was changed with another dead battery. I immediately called the front desk again and they were understanding. The next day at 5pm we were switched to a different room (#1624). In the new privileged room, the fridge door was broken, the AC did not work properly in my experienced opinion the refrigerant needed to be recharged and the “#” button on the safe had to be pressed extremely hard to lock. Staff quickly replaced the fridge, and we “lived” with the other small issues. It took four days for the AC unit to bring the room down from 28 degrees and maintained 23 degrees. These are all fixable issues and in my opinion the hotel staff acted quickly to resolve – it was just annoying to deal with. I felt the entire first 36 hours at the resort was delegating things to be fixed for the rest of our stay. Food: Food was 10/10. Every restaurant food was awesome. Zero complaints on any of the food. Even the buffet was awesome everyday. The food availability to me fell short a bit. Outside of the Al-la-carts and buffet (buffet is closed between 1030AM-1230PM and closed 330PM-630PM for the dinner change overs), the only other option was pizza until 2AM. We loved the pizza, but I really wished there was another late-night option such has burgers and fries or a BBQ style setup. Past vacations had this in other places, and I missed not having it here. Room service is horrible. It took almost two hours to receive our order. The options are quite limited (burger/fries, chicken and BLT sandwiches, brownie, salad) drink options are not available on the online ordering tool. Overall, the resort is short staffed. The entire week we were there, there was only one bar tender working the pool bar, one or two at the beach bar and one to three working the lobby bar. While sitting pool or beach side, there are either zero or one person taking drink orders. In our entire seven days not one person offered to get us a drink. We had to wait in line at either the pool bar or beach bar. Lines were long because of the lack of bartenders. To add on that, the pool bar and beach bartenders were in a horrible mood. I speak Spanish so it wasn’t a language barrier. They were really in a bad mood, not helpful and in a couple cases confrontational. Jaun who worked at the towel stand, he would stand at the towel stand for 25 seconds and then wonder off. Often leaving until he noticed someone waiting for a towel from across the beach. There were staff cleaning up the drink cups around the beach and they would drink the leftovers right there Infront of anyone. I’ve never seen anything like it. Situation: One early morning around 9am, two younger hotel employees knocked on our door hard, loud and fast. I answered immediately because I thought something was wrong. They were holding a bottle of rum and gave it to me. I told them I did not ask for this. They replied, “Do you have something for me”. I went to the front desk, and they were quite concerned, asking me questions like what color were their uniforms ext... Long story short this was not normal, and they would be investigating. Situation: We called for a cab with the bell boys. $30USD to the airport. Cab arrived, we then had to sit and wait in the cab apparently for another group. The cab driver charged both groups $30. Fun, right? There are several other little things I’m not going to mention. Such as the 5AM towels on ALL the chairs. But overall, understaffed, 75% of the work force is in a bad mood and some seem like their running some kind of scam behind the scenes. The hotel is very responsive to issues, food is great, bar are understaffed. Lobby Bar staff is awesome, Hector saved my trip and overall experience was great because of hector. Lobby Bar music is horrible. Its on a loop of about 10 elevator songs and they refuse to change it. The hotel looks nice in photos, but they need to spend some money on the rooms. Bottom line, I won’t be back to this resort. I’ve been to resorts very close to this one and had very different experiences.

  Feb 28, 2025
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  Worst Holiday Experience - Avoid at All Costs

  I urge anyone considering this hotel to read all reviews carefully — especially the low-rated ones — because they are 100% accurate. My review is long, but I want to share my full experience to help others avoid the disappointment my family and I went through. I stayed at Catalonia Bávaro Resort for 11 nights, and I spent nearly 4-5 days going back and forth to reception trying to change rooms and file complaints. We were moved three times before finally settling in due to dirty rooms, broken furniture, and terrible smells. The process was exhausting, and we were in constant communication with TUI trying to arrange a hotel change — something that should never happen on a holiday. If you don't speak Spanish, be prepared for serious communication issues. Most staff, including many at reception, speak little to no English, making even basic conversations extremely frustrating. The few who did speak English had very limited knowledge. I read previous reviews mentioning this, but I thought people might have been exaggerating — they weren't. The overall atmosphere of the hotel felt unwelcoming, and staff showed no care for guests unless you were tipping them. At the buffet, my fiancé and I had to wait long periods to be served. Several times, I asked different waiters for coffee or water, only to be completely ignored. After asking three or four times, we were finally served — but always with poor attitude. On one occasion, my fiancé asked a staff member a simple question, only to be dismissed with the response "No English" before walking away. It was rude and disrespectful. We experienced two power cuts during our stay. The first happened on my birthday and lasted about 40 minutes — the second lasted almost five hours. The entire resort was in pitch darkness, with no backup generators. There was no water, no electricity, and no communication. We couldn’t even shower and had to rely on our phone flashlights — something completely unacceptable for a resort of this size. Despite asking several times, I was never able to speak to a manager — it felt like they simply didn't care. Towards the end of our holiday, we noticed staff suddenly becoming overly friendly — which felt suspicious considering how we had been treated the whole time. Later, we discovered why. They began handing out QR codes to guests, pressuring them to leave five-star reviews while standing over them. The review form was in Spanish, and they would guide you on how to rate the hotel — not the staff — with full stars. This explains the false positive reviews online and is nothing more than manipulation. If you're thinking of upgrading to Deluxe or Privilege, don't waste your money — it's a scam. We paid extra for Privilege, only to be told by the staff that only Exclusive guests receive the services advertised on the website. The hotel's concierge team is only there to sell upgrades, not to genuinely help guests. This holiday was meant to be a special celebration, but it turned into one of the worst experiences we've ever had. It reached the point where we were seriously considering cutting our holiday short and flying home early due to the constant stress and disappointment. I would never recommend this hotel to anyone. Think twice before booking!

  Feb 27, 2025
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  Mismanaged property. No customer service

  Visited february 2025 Pros All inclusive with lots of options Privileged room interior looks good Property is well kept naturally Bars are ok Food is ok Shows are good Cons Management is worse . Lets start with checkin . They took 1 hour to chdckin. Emoloyees dont care . Looks like there is no hire and fire system Our room smelled like sewer. I called maintainence and they did a bandaid fix. Pools dont have towels Employees dont understand english No customer service skills No choice of beer on bar. Food options lacks proteins and mostly carbs. Even pizza section dont have a chicken topping but they have tuna tipping And last but not least water is not blue . Lots of sea weed .

  Feb 26, 2025
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  NEVER AGAIN!

  I never felt so discriminated against in my life as I did at this hotel. From the moment we arrived, the experience was unsettling. First, they gave us blue wristbands, then changed them to green without any clear explanation. When I asked why, the receptionist (named Holy) told me it was to identify me. When I pressed further she said because I booked through Booking.com which felt bizarre and unnecessary. Why does it matter where I booked? Second, after check-in, we were taken to a room where construction was happening, the toilet didn’t work, and the phone didn’t either. I had to walk all the way back to the reception. This, after a long flight and car ride just to complain, which was exhausting, and eventually, we were moved to a different room where we experienced (amongst other things) water leakage after a rainfall. Third, they exchanged the towels in our room and only replaced it with 1 clean one instead of 2. I had to wait over 1.5 hour, called five times and demanded to speak with the manager for them to bring me an extra towel. Also, the cleaning staff would always knock on the door around 9 am for no urgent reason. Fourth, my mom and I were repeatedly asked if we were "Dominicanas" which was very annoying because we are not, and after learning more, I discovered that they actually discriminate against their own people. Fifth, the staff was unhelpful and unfriendly. We had to wait forever for our drinks at the buffet, and it was clear that they prioritized people with different wristbands over us. I made several comments to the staff about this and all I got was "sorry, it's the colour of your wristband". Sixth, speaking of the food, it was nothing special. Seventh, when we went to the pool, there were no clean towels available twice, and when I ordered a drink, they told me it was unavailable—only for me to watch them serve the exact same drink to someone else just minutes later. Eight, there is a serious language barrier. The staff barely speaks English. Besides the above, the food was oke and the entertainment very good. I would never recommend anyone to book this hotel. My experience was terrible. I regret not checking the reviews on TripAdvisor before booking.

  Feb 25, 2025
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  Don’t go here!

  Don’t go. The food is lukewarm to cold, dinner leftovers show up for breakfast and lunch. Did they sit there lukewarm all night? Who knows. But most of it tastes horrible the first time around. The beach was so-so. Lots of floating seaweeds and sea grass. This I know can come and go, so I understand. Didn’t go to the pool, because the music and games were ear splitting. Shower in our junior suite was so small that every time my husband moved, the water turned off. Service was ok, but we have had much better other places. Had been to Majestic Colonial years ago, and should have paid the extra to go there again.

  Feb 21, 2025