Travelled to the Decameron Beach Hotel in November 2004 for the US Thanksgiving holiday. A really amazing all-inclusive with flights deal from New York/JFK for $380.00 pp/return. Optimistic since we love the Dominican Republic. Honestly, we're not fussy travellers, but the Decameron Beach Hotel is one of the few places we wouldn't return to--formerly a Barcelo, and unfortunately it's now independent. Food was edible, but poorly presented, in fact quite unsightly. The swimming pools were in poor condition--we didn't swim. This left only the beach, and it was consistently unkept and a major disappointment.

Although we salvaged our holiday by taking day trips away from the resort, it's unfortunate. Wished we'd payed a bit more and stayed at either the Coral Costa Caribe, or Barcelo Talanquera/Cappella. In March 2005, we returned to Juan Dolio and chose the Barcelo Cappella Beach Resort. It was an excellent value for the money--great food, a decent beach, lovely gardens, and pools. Relaxing, clean, well maintained to an expected standard. Again, not a luxury hotel, but a place where you could really relax and enjoy.

I would not recommend the Decameron. Although we were initially optimistic, the negative reviews on this site, are indeed true. Our next trip is planned for the 2005 Christmas holiday at Coral Hamaca Hotel--which looks good from a previous visit.

*Reviewer is American professional residing/working in London, UK.
Review is based on previous stays at Barcelo Capella/Westin Regina Los Cabos/Westin Our Lucaya/Natura Park Punta Cana/Wyndham Nassau Beach Hotel/Radisson Cable Beach Hotel/Sam Lord's Castle Barbados

We stayed here New Year's 2005. Paid $1300 per person for a week.
EVERYTHING was just awful. WIthout going into too much detail, the room (we changed quite a few), the beds, broken TV (promised to fix it--never happened), no phone, no towels (every single day we had to use our sheets instead of towels), no hot water (almost the whole time here), broken toilet. It is hard to believe that such a hotel is still in business. Just basic things that you would logically expect to be there, were not provided. When we asked them to help us, they made promises that were never delivered. We kept changing rooms, but saw no improvement. Staff unfriendly, rude, unhelpful. Ignored our complaints. I think the rooms in the main building are nicer, but we were in this building that was some distance away from the main property. (Of course, requests to change buildings were denied). I felt as if the hotel is not guest-ready yet, needs more work. For instance, the reason that we had no towels every day is because they took them to wash each morning and didn't replace them woth clean ones. When everyone returned from the beach in the evening, everyone would begin requesting towels, but the towels were still being washed/dried. This was a massive problem for everyone in the hotel, not just us.
I am not a picky tourist, but I just wasn't happy with this hotel. The only good thing is that they have a Casino on property. The weather is beautiful of course, although the beach is not good.
Even if you're on a budget, I really would not recommend coming here. This hotel needs some serious work before it can be acceptable.

Stay away for your own sake.

Oh My goodness. Iam an Optimist...but this place got worse every 12 hours. I went on a short vacation Jan 26 - 30 2005. It was the worst "resort" I have ever been to. They say u get what u paid for but no one deserves this. The beach had a dull feeling, the water had large trees in it, apparently washed ashore from the last hurricaine. The food at the buffet was below budget. I thihk that white sauce was alfredo. The room has absolultely no decor. Not even a clock. Oh yeah..no TV until day 3(saturday). No air conditioning from 9am -3pm. They kept saying it will be fixed by 3pm. They were saving energy until the vacation crowds arrived on Saturday..the TV was on by then too. You better know how to have fun on your own. What Activities?? Our toilet didnt work one afternoon..just after my roomie took a poop. The staff spoke little to NO english (ie water, soda, iron, butter.) Oh yeah bring your own snacks. we paid $5.00 for a bag of Doritos. It was our dinner because after going horse back riding all eateries were closed and the mid-day beach hut ran out of food. The highlight of our trip was getting away from there on day excursions(Sanoa island was the best!) Also take a 1/4 mile walk to the Hilton down the road and pretend you belong there. We took alot our pictures on their property.

Alright, I don't know if you people travel a lot, but i do a little bit, and I have actually been 6 times to Dominican Rep. I was always with my family, but last year I went with my friends, and oh my go what a blast! We were 5 singles girls who just had the times of their life! The beach: very nice, calm water and if u love playing volley-ball, then perfect for you! The food: i was there for 2 weeks, and I never let myself starve. I maybe got tired of the same kinda foos after 2 weeks, like pastas, but really, as long as I can eat something... plus, the à la carte restaurant, especially the mexican is really good! Entertainment: every night was a good show, and we actually participated to almost every one we could! we ended up winning like 4 bottles of rum! who deosn't like that, really? what else... room! we had problems at first: 1 king bed for 3 girls... i don't think so.... but the service manager was so nice and even gave us some sort of a suite! gatta say I had a little something with him on that 2 weeks.... :) but really, the staff was great and helped us as hard as they could, even though they are quite laid back sometimes... you are in domionican rep, you have to learn to lay back dude! anyway, that's pretty much it! I really wanna go back there! We met so many nice people and I miss them!