Let me get this out of the way. I booked this hotel through Costco Travel, we had just come back from Secrets Cap Cana in Punta Cana and we decided to take our teenage daughter on a summer vacation. As with many teenagers, she has been cooked up inside our home and she kept wondering what we would do this summer, So Puerto Rico sounded like a real good choice. Now, we have never had a negative experience with the hotels Costco sponsors in their packages. Unfortunately, this changed with this hotel.
When I read all the 5 star reviews here, I genuinely wonder if we stayed in the same hotel as some of this travelers, or perhaps my standards are higher than most, but I think the points I will make here are so ridiculously easy to resolve that as a property manager I cannot justify any of them.
Right upon check in, it took minutes for anyone to acknowledge us. They asked for additional money if we wanted to check in early, so we paid it because we wanted to get our vacation started. Then, comes their new housekeeping policy due to Covid, we would only get 3 services for the 7 days. I found it reasonable, but as the days passed this policy became more and more absurd, I will detail my reasons below.
We went for ice cream and had to endure the unprofessional attitude of someone that looked like a manager, she was venting about the hotel guests. It was so loud that everyone in the shop was part of the conversation. Arrived at our room which was decent, changed clothes and went to the pool and towards the beach deck. The entire grounds and common areas of this facility and in such a state of disrepair and abandonment that given the historic value of this hotel, I would go as far as to call it a landmark.
The pool deck is horrific, anyone could easily conclude it hasn’t been cleaned or pressured washed in God knows how long. The texture of the tile is porous so water is absorbed and dark green mildew accumulates in the cracks and crevices. The bottom of the pool has rust/orange stains all throughout, there are poorly made patches that looked like a the patch had been done by a 2 year old, light fixtures inside the pools out had come out of the hole and was just floating on the water. With as many children in the pool, can you imagine if one of them got his/her hand in there? There are entire rows of the blue mosaic tiles broken inside the pool and outside. The planters located all over the pool do not look like the pictures posted by the hotel here. Every single one is either stained, damaged or cracked. The problem I have with this is that grabbing some paint and a brush is one if the easiest and quickest ways to brighten anything. Cleaning the mildew that builds up on takes a spray bottle with bleach and a sponge. Now the light blue slip covers on the beach loungers they have on the deck by the beach are filthy. Again, how hard is it to take them out, throw them in a washer machine, dry them and put them back? The beach deck has paint peeling all around, again just paint and a brush. Some if the pool loungers were past their life expectancy, why keep something in such bad state? The float you have in the water is severely damaged and will sooner or later cause one of the guests to get hurt. The guests see that and the message it sends is very loud, your employees do not care about your hotel, and the worst part is that this starts at the top. My opinion is that Hilton hotels don’t care either. As you walk down the hallways of the hotel, there is no enthusiasm. No one smiles or even says hello or good morning. This brings me to my our stay in Secrets Cap Cana, each and every time you came across a work they say hello how are you and when the greeting is reciprocated their answer was ALWAYS “excellent”with an enormous smile. You see them hard at work everyday cleaning, polishing, clearing out the pool towels from the chairs, rearranging the furniture, tidying up the area to make it look the best it can, this didn’t require extra money, but it does require it to be engraved in their company culture, It is clear that Hilton hotels doesn’t have that, and it is very sad. I wonder what happened during all the months that tourist couldn’t travel? Why steps did you take to upkeep the hotel? If you are cutting housekeeping hours I am sure other departments have the same challenge, and yet your rates are outrageous. This hotel is in desperate need of some TLC, and yet Hilton is just keeping the profits to pay out dividends to their shareholders. This is shameful.
