Sivory Punta Cana Boutique Hotel, Punta Cana

(1) Hotel is mismanaged, difficult to book. The one person who handles reservations was constantly in meetings. It took several days to book a reservation. (2) We were overcharged and the hotel will not respond to rectify the problem. Despite confirming with the front desk three times, we were unknowingly charged 26% fees and taxes on top a prepaid meal plan ($150 per person per day). We called and wrote to the hotel several times. One month later, the manager offered to partially refund the amount. Since then, we have not heard from the manager or the hotel. (3) Staff is generally friendly, but the concierge admitted that the masseuse who told us that the extra fees are not used to tip her was lying. (4) Very few people speak English. Regardless, you may still encounter problems since the staff is not familiar with the services and charges at the hotel as indicated above. (5) Service is mixed. The waiter woke us twice in a row at 8 am because he made a mistake delivering breakfast to the wrong room. House cleaning did not adequate clean the rooms, but they usually ring your bell at 9 am while you are trying to sleep. Despite only 3 couples at the resort during our visit, housecleaning never bothered to clean our room until the third day of complaints. A concierge will call every night around 7:30 pm to see if everything is fine. But if you request something, it will not come. There is no service if you sit on the beach. You have to bring your own towels, drinks and food, and sometimes carry your own chair. We did not experience the one-hour wait times or the severe food poisoning reported by others, but the resort was empty during our visit. However, we did experience shortages in the menu as many others had. Also, the restaurant hours are inflexible. Breakfast ends promptly at 10 am. (5) After all the hidden fees and expensive meals, there are much nicer places to stay for less money. The nice write-up in Travel & Leisure is highly inaccurate. We stayed in many resorts throughout the Caribbean and the world. The meals are extremely expensive (note the 26% surcharge) and the hotel rooms also have a large surcharge. Be careful! This turned out to be the most expensive vacation we ever had. The rooms inside are nice but outside they look like cement cell blocks. The patios face each other and there is no foliage so there is no privacy. The beach is pictoresque, but the waves are too strong for swimming (unless you like surfing). The water is not clear. I had to time the waves perfectly in order to swim in the ocean. The fact that there are no restaurants in the vicinity makes you a victim to overpriced meals. The place was infested with mosquitoes and bugs. The swimming pool is shallow at 4.5� and is divided by a cement walkway in the middle of the pool where the water is only ankle deep. The spa and gym are tiny. There is nothing to do, given the resort's remote location. What happens when it rains and there are only 3 DVDs in the entire resort to view? (7) If you spend $5,000, which we have, you'd expect at least a response from the hotel. This is the first time we had a problem with billing. Never before had we encountered a so-called �5-star resort� where management does not even bother to respond to a billing dispute, or worse, after several months offers to partially refund the amount but then disappears again. If their staff knew what the services and charges were, we would not have encountered this problem in the first place.