We booked six nights in a swim-up junior suite at ...

We booked six nights in a swim-up junior suite at the CHIC Punta Cana expecting a luxury experience. Based on what we paid and our expectations, this was the worst holiday stay we ve ever had. We even elevated the our problems to the hotel management which did little to help.

Mildew - When we checked into our first room, we were overpowered by a pungent mildew smell and we immediately were moved into a second room. The mildew smell was still there but not as overpowering as the first room. The air conditioner never cooled the room enough (we were vigilant about keeping the patio door closed to keep the air running) and the sheets were always damp which made for an uncomfortable sticky night (and we are from Florida so we know sticky). The furniture was warped from the dampness and the drawers did not close well and the ceiling was bubbled - but we could overlook all of that. The room literally sweat from the dampness. Every day, we would ask for housekeeping to come in and spray disinfectant. But after a couple of hours the smell was back. On day 2 the toilet backed up. Horribly. It was fixed but made us concerned about using the toilet in our room. On the third afternoon we came into our room and the mildew smell was now mixed with SEWAGE. We thought maybe it was a dry trap and ran water in all drains and opened the doors to air out the room. It helped but returned when we closed the door. Later we that night we asked the hotel for a solution and they moved us one room over. This is now our 3rd room. We were not asking for anything unreasonable. Just a room that we could comfortably breath the air in. Our third room smelled better and the air conditioner worked better and we thought the drama was over. But, it wasn t. We found that the sink had been completely broken from the countertop and water ran on the floor when we used it. So, at midnight a plumber finished fixing the sink and mopping up the floor. Yes, the mildew smell overpowered us again the next day and then now the sewage smell was coming in this room. After bringing the hotel assistant manager into the room to explain the issue, they ended up having housecleaning come in to disinfect and brought in an ozone machine which helped.

We are now home and find that everything we own reeks of mildew odor, including our luggage, will need to be aired out and disinfected the best we can. The smell persists in our clothing even after washing. Very expensive waste of our wardrobe and luggage.

General Condition - The hotel is in need of a complete renovation. There were many things wrong with the three rooms we stayed in: door handle broken, shelf leaning, peeled paint from humidity, stained furniture, telephone not working, etc. It was shocking that the sink was so obviously broken in our third room and nobody cared to fix it before a guest complained.

Service - While we found that the service was generally good, there were many disappointing things. This may be due to the all-inclusive nature of the resort and that the help usually doesn t receive tips but that s not acceptable if CHIC markets itself as a luxury resort. The worst incident was during dinner one night. We ordered a bottle of wine from the menu. When we tasted the wine, it was off and vinegary. We told the sommelier we could not drink it. He tasted it and said it was fine. We then asked for the manager. We then waited around 25 minutes for the manager to show. He promptly looked at the cork, tried the wine and said, Yes, the wine is bad and apologized. Never any additional effort to make our experience better.

My wife and I are frequent travelers and have been to over 75 countries now, so I feel I have a good base of experience staying in hotels. And usually, we choose well. In this case, we were completely fooled by the slick marketing presentation on the website. This was done years ago when the hotel was fresh and not so tired.

Please avoid CHIC and book another luxury hotel in Punta Cana if you want an odor free experience.