Hideaway at Royalton Punta Cana

After speaking with various other guests throughout the hotel I find it hard to believe not one single review on TripAdvisor mentions the food poisoning being experienced by a number of guests at this hotel. We arrived at the Royalton Punta Cana on 5/7/19 to be informed we had been upgraded to The Hideaway... we had already booked the diamond club and swim up room so was extremely happy to find out we had been upgraded complimentary. We were introduced to our butler Victor who we can only speak highly of and is honestly an amazing member of staff who is a credit to the hotel. Nothing throughout the holiday was too much to trouble and he was always there should we have needed him. The rooms were nice but nothing amazing, our air con made various noises keeping us awake at night, the drains smelt foul and caused bathroom area of the room to smell pungant and the corridors were so noisy at night with passing guests it was almost impossible to sleep before 11pm. I would firstly like to address the mannerisms and hospitality of the staff throughout the hotel. Waiters/waitresses are extremely rude when serving you without any basic manners or serving skills. Everything asked of the staff appeared to be too much trouble after countless eye-rolls and huffing upon asking for simple things such as milk with our hot drinks, not to mention it took them around 20 minutes to complete any request. The buffet in the main restaurant was below average. Hygiene is a massive issue in the buffet.... on multiple occasions we witnessed guests handle food and place back onto the buffet, sneeze onto open food and flys were all over food. No food was covered creating massive hygiene issues throughout the restaurant. In a morning omelette and pancake stations weren't available early morning as no staff felt the need to staff the stations meaning if you wanted these options pre-8am this was not available. By 8/7/19 we had only eaten at the buffet restaurant for breakfast, lunch and evening meal, eaten at the Japanese restaurant for one evening (average and very very rushed... whole meal lasted 40 minutes which included live teppanyaki and 3 courses). Around midday on the 8/7/19 I started experiencing horrific stomach cramps and diarrhoea which only got worse throughout the night. My partner had to order room service which arrived cold and inedible due to me being that unwell I could not leave the room. On 9/7/19 I had been up all night poorly, and hadn't managed to leave the room due to the symptoms worsening and around 11am decided to see the onsite doctor. After an $170 consultation which lasted all of 6 minutes I was referred to the local hospital with suspicions of gastroenteritis. Upon arriving at the hospital I underwent multiple tests revealing that I had acute gastroenteritis and needed to stop overnight to receive various medication due to the parasites contracted and dehydration. I will not mention the horror show that are the health services but be grateful should you never have to see the inside of a Dominican Hospital. On the evening of 10/7/19 I was released back to the hotel with various antibiotics and strict diet plan to follow for the upcoming weeks. After speaking with doctors and researching gastroenteritis it is very apparent this is contracted through contaminated water or food and very rarely through human contact (at this point my partner had not left my side in 3 days and was perfectly well hence not being highly contagious through physical contact). Throughout my hotel stay our butler victor continuously messaged us to see how I was and check on my status, no other contact was made from the hotel. We arrived back at the hotel and requested a meeting with the TUI Rep, Hotel Manager and Hideaway Manager to discuss the recent events, this took place 11/7/19. As expected the hotel denied all repsonsibility that my illness could of been caused through hygiene or food/drink at the hotel and repeatedly told me there were over 1000 guests in the hotel and I was the only guest with this issue but contradicted themselves telling me it was an airborne infection that is caused through physical contact... as I explained to them should this of been the case the hospital would have quarantined me and not released until the contagious period had passed, my partner would have caught the infection and I would of had to contract this from persons at the hotel but as per their words 'I was the only case of this in the hotel'. As mentioned we had not left the hotel for excursions and had only eaten in two restaurants within the hotel so clearly had come from the food and not other guests. Following the conclusion of the meeting, the hotel continued to be defensive and deny responsibility and I was left with an allocated chef to cook all my meals directly due to the strict diet plan given. The staff were very close minded and did not show remorse for the trauma I had been put through over the previous 3 days. As you can imagine when vacationing for 10 days being unable to eat and drink as you please for 7 days of the holiday is extremely upsetting and ruined the holiday. We had lost 3 days of the holiday due to being stuck in the room or hospital and then were dubious to eat in the hotel after the incident due to the chance of becoming extremely ill again. After speaking with our next door neighbours we learned that they too had experienced the same stomach problems from the food they had consumed but luckily not ended up in hospital... and from their interactions with other guests had heard of at least 8 other couples with food poisoning like symptoms. There is also a medication form in the hotel shop for guests to disclose over the counter medication issued, I have got photographic evidence of 3 guests signing this after being issued with Immodium with symptoms of stomach cramps, nausea and diarrhoea. I would like to repeat the hotels bold statement that 'out of over 1000 guests I was the only case of illness known, and It must be my stomach adjusting to different cuisines or cooking styles'. My partner then suffered with an upset stomach for 3 days leading up to us checking out and had to survive on Immodium to ensure we could make the flight home. The Immodium in the hotel shop is $24 which is also disgustingly priced. No effort to apologise or offer a good will gesture due to the disruption this caused to our holiday was made from the hotel, if anything they did not address the situation in following days. All in all this was the worst holiday we have ever been on and I think between the rude staff, language barrier issues and hospital stay I will certainly never recommend this hotel or country to any other travellers.

a place to have full happiness, Victor put everything on his part to make this vacation unforgettable, he gave us a tour of the entire hotel, the food was super delicious and the staff were very attentive and helpful, eva always had a smile on his face, every day we were on the beautiful beach there were the waiters always preparing delicious cocktails, Arturo a boy with a lot of energy and always with a beautiful smile we took the activities and the show at night we liked a lot, the rooms very modern and large and always very tidy and clean, the guys at the Sport bar always very attentive, in the bufffete crismaily the hostess always very helpful, excellent work team, highly recommended.

My family spent a week on the Royalton Punta Cana resort. This by far was the best vacation I have ever been on. Victor, the butler, did an amazing job and even got my grandmother a birthday cake. He took care of everything we needed and was hilarious. Juan and Dolores are the best bartenders on the resort, I highly recommend asking Juan to make you a purple rain. The resort was very relaxing and offered a variety of activities. I would definitely return to this resort for another vacation.