My husband and I are pretty optimistic people, so when we read the poor reviews on trip advisor, we decided to give the VIK a shot anyhow.

Upon check-in to the hotel we were promised a room in building 4 - renovated rooms - as we had reserved prior to arrival. Needless to say , we were told there was no rooms in building 4. So this was already a bad start. We headed our way to our room in building 5 and were promised this was renovated as well. I suppose mold on the walls, rock hard beds, dust every where, is considered renovated in Dominican????

Staff were not overly friendly at all. We were not greeted when we walked in to the buffet area , the people in the reception were not helpful. Most of the people there were french oriented, about 90 percent. We found they were served much better than Canadians...and of course, if you tip. The more you tip the better the service? They must think money grows on trees. I have never been treated so poorly. The people selling souvenirs and what not were extremely irritating. They don't take no for an answer. Especially walking through the theatre in the evening to get a seat...they swarm you like mosquitoes and leach on to you and don't want to let go. We were polite the first 10 times and then we had enough! We walked around to get to the theatre to avoid them. Also, during dinner, we were rarely served. And if you were served, you were done your meal by then. My husband was the #1 waiter there. He would get me coke the entire time we were there because they were too busy doing NOTHING! Forks, knives, napkins were not placed at the table unless you were sitting there for 15 minutes and then they gave you the time of day. No apologies, no nothing. So we arrived right when breakfast would open, right when dinner would open, so we would be able to get a table right away and be the first ones to actually get a fork and knife.

Everyone reserved the lounge chairs about 6 in the morning everyday. I noticed this on the third day or so since we got up at 8 and there were no beach chairs anywhere to be found. This was crazy, I had never had to get up so early to reserve a chair!!!!!!! We set our alarm everyday from then on at 6:30 to reserve ours. Pathetic.

Beach is beautiful.

Drinks were sugary and not tasty. They were apprehensive when we asked them to pour more alcohol.

I visited my mom who was staying at the Riu Niaboa, only a 15 minute walk from the VIK. She was at a 4 star as well and the rooms, staff - incredible!! Rooms were comfortable, welcoming...the staff was so helpful , polite, caring..... ready to serve you. For only a couple hundred dollars more , she was at what seemed like a 5 plus hotel compared to the VIK!And they made REAL banana mama's ! With real bananas!! VIK gave you slushie stuff that came out of the a machine??? We spent over 2000 for a horrible experience.

Beach was beautiful.

The italian a la carte was nice. I don't like pasta so I had chicken parmigiana with potatoes and veggies. Delicous. The buffets were horrible each and every day. Rice - potatoes - beef. Rice - potatoes - beef. Rice -potatoes - beef. Lunch was horrible. The snack bar by the beach seemed the only place with decent food. Pizza - fries - hot dogs - burgers..

Beach was beautiful.

Our checkout time was at 12:00 but our bus pick up was at 9:00pm. My husband went to speak with the manager how poorly we were treated at his resort. We barely got any service all week....we catered to each other with drinks, and utensils, and napkins. He extended our room stay until 4:30 free of charge....as they wanted 40 dollars in the first place.

The staff was not willing and able...they seemed to serve the french better, who knows why.

Upon checkout the man began to laugh at us?? For what reason, we don't know. We were nothing but polite to these people and treated so horribly at this resort. People say tips go a long way. You shouldn't have to buy people's service at a job their already suppose to be doing. I spent enough money going to this horrible resort , tipping was not even a thought in our head for the way we were treated .

Beach is beautiful.

Good luck if you are going to this resort and you are not french.

Beautiful Beach!

This place is a dump and does not deserve a single star in our opinion. My Fiance and I booked what we thought was a moderate 4 star resort for a quick get away. However, it turned out to be a nightmare and experience we would like to forget. The rooms are dingy, smelly and stuffed with old furniture that is scary to even touch. The bathroom have no soap, and it looks very old and untidy. As for the food, we only had dinner and as soon as I walked into the restaurant I lost my appetite. The place was smelling and I was just afraid of getting sick.

We checked out the second day and didn't care if we get a refund or not, but lucky for us we got almost all our money back. We then checked into the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino where we had a fantastic time. My advice to anyone travelling to DR, is to stay away from this dump...If not, you might get sick!!!!

Where to start, had to wait 5 hours for our rooms,didn't get them until 530pm, had a group of 12 and were suppose to be in the same building, ended up we are all spit up between 4/5 of the buildings. 20 people came hours after us and got rooms before us. 90% or more of the tourists in the hotel are french speaking and mostly from Quebec, which were very rude!! Unless you are french speaking you got treated rudely and poorly, the lobby staff (most but not all) were rude and treated english speaking canadians very bad. The hotels themselves were old and had ripped curtains and the shower was broken. The restaraunt(a la carte) food was horrible, buffet was actually good. One of our party got a room that had no lights, broken balcony that did not lock and was falling apart. I was charged 2 connection fees for the phone as I attempted to check the rates to call home, didn't even get through and was told" You picked up the phone".I have never been treated so poorly and rudely and I am a very easy going, easy to please person. The only good thing about the resort was the gardens, the resort buildings (not Hotel) were nice and the beach was amazing. Bad side was you had to get up before 7 am and put a towel on the beach chair on the beach if you wanted a chair for the day. If you want to get served in the lounge area you better speak french, otherwise you serve yourself and they will take your ash tray and not give you one back.The staff were horrible and rude and no attempts were made by management to try to at least say sorry for the crap. I also got a fumigation notice under my door saying they were going to fumigate my room in the morning with a biodegradable chemical that was not hazardous to my health, what type of chemical was that? We don't even have such a chemical here in canada that you don't need to leave your home for at least 24hrs.I didn't go on vacation to get poisoned. I was told that every room gets fumigated 1x per week and it was that buildings day to get fumigated, but no one else got that notice but me.I asked why they didn't wait until check out and was told, "well it would never get done", so sure poison your guests. This is definately not a 4 star hotel, maybe 3, would be better if they had staff that treated you with respect. Not to mention something happens to left over internet minutes and they say you used them... horrible experience, if your going on vacation to destress, don't go here, it will give you stress, that is unless your from Quebec.

We enjoyed our vacation mostly because of the beach. The resort was small and close to the beach which was great for us. Food was quite good, fresh and various dishes. Drinks were limited and you had to pay if you wanted specific drinks. The pool was big but not as clean as I expect. There are the sales people that approach you constantly expecially to sell packages to the Cayena Beach Club. This was annoying. All in all, very relaxing.