ZEL Punta Cana reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

4.5 Excellent

  • Cleanliness 4.7
  • Location 4.7
  • Rooms 4.7
  • Service 4.6
  • Value 4.3

10356 TripAdvisor reviews

TripAdvisor users rated this property 5 out of 5

People Make the Difference Between Good & Great

scottyonthego (Los Angeles, California) on May 10, 2025

It was a very relaxing and enjoyable stay. Seriously, the staff who work at this hotel are so nice and friendly. They remember your name, your orders, and preferences, etc. It is really special—and must re...flect the senior management, including the property manager, Mr. Miguel Diaz, who came over to say hi when I first arrived—special shout-out to Ericson Mejia, my personal concierge. I never knew how much I needed one until this trip, haha. He took care of literally everything I needed. I moved to a sister property (Paradisus Palma Real) for a few extra nights, but I was missing my people at Zel after I left. It just wasn't the same at Paradisus.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 1 out of 5

Avoid Zel Punta Cana – Beautiful resort hiding a very disappointing experience

Ben C on May 08, 2025

Genuinely, Zel is beautiful. Aesthetically, it ticks all the boxes. The pools are great - if you can afford it, get a ground-floor swim-up room in the 5000–7000 block. These connect to the main pool, which... is where most people gather, and where the swim-up bar is located. However, the bar service is painfully slow. It’s shared with the main bar on the other side, so you're often forgotten entirely. We only used the pool bar twice all week - one time was slow, and the second time we ended up swimming away after being ignored for 15 minutes. Ordering a drink felt like you were inconveniencing the staff. The vibe: Sadly, this did not match the aesthetic. As I’ve already said, visually, Zel Punta Cana is a Mediterranean paradise in the Caribbean. But every day - actually, every hour of the day - you never knew what vibe you’d get, and it was completely dictated by the music in the restaurants and by the pool. Sometimes it was a calming Caribbean soul playlist, and other times it turned into loud dance music with the volume cranked up to 11. When we asked for the volume to be lowered, we got the same response we got for most of our stay: “Sorry sir, we can’t right now.” It was as if the staff had no interest in guest comfort. The food is bland and dull. I think our fries were only warm once the entire week. They claim to have four restaurants, but only one is open for breakfast and lunch. At dinner, it’s either the buffet or one other restaurant available each night. By day two, we were already bored stiff of the limited, repetitive offerings. Ice cream was available once - yes, once - during the whole week. That is not “all-inclusive.” The hotel was so empty that it felt like there were about seven concierges per guest - and you noticed. Every single day, multiple times a day, we were bombarded with staff trying to sell spa treatments or pitch some feature of the resort. We started to dread leaving our room. A simple trip to the pool, which should have been a treat, turned into a tactical mission to avoid certain staff members trying to sell us something or collect our WhatsApp number. We asked for a list of excursions four times (via WhatsApp) from one of our concierges. He insisted he had to give it to us in person. When we finally met him, he handed us off to the Air Canada excursions rep. That guy showed us some options, but when we asked for a written list so we could decide later, he said he’d WhatsApp it to us. It arrived on day five. We only had two days left and already had other plans by then. ?From day one, we knew something was off. Upon check-in, the constant barrage of attention and salesy WhatsApp messages made us want to leave. I reached out to Hotels.com to request a refund, but Zel denied it outright. We tried repeatedly, but got nowhere. As a “consolation,” they offered us a “free welcome gift” the next day: a couple’s massage. But there was a catch - we had to attend a 20-minute presentation to receive it. Reluctantly, we agreed. One of our seven concierges told us it would be a short meeting about other Meliá properties. In reality, we were subjected to a three-and-a-half-hour high-pressure sales pitch trying to force us into joining Meliá’s £25,000 holiday cult, Circle by Meliá. They wouldn’t take no for an answer. The manager (the big boss Lady) pressured us with lines like, “Just put the down payment on a credit card - it’s easy for you.” Except we don’t have that kind of money. ?This was our honeymoon. We had informed them in advance, but they did absolutely nothing to acknowledge it. I wasn’t expecting anything extravagant - just a simple gesture or even decent customer service would’ve meant a lot. Instead, everything was a sales opportunity. We were told we’d get a “special beach dinner” as a gift from the hotel, but it was cancelled due to weather. When I followed up the next day, the concierge said it was a “one-time” thing and offered to rebook it for $150. No thanks. Staff & accountability: From the beginning, it was clear that the staff were very young - like the hotel was being run by college students. No one took responsibility for anything. When we asked to speak with a manager, we were just given the WhatsApp number of someone else. We never managed to have a single face-to-face conversation with anyone actually in charge. We are thankful to Hotels.com for their support in this. They offered us 15% of the trip back in CashKey value which is better than nothing but still doesnt come close to the money we spent on a luxary holiday / honeymoon. And we know what Zel / Melia are all going to say - cue the “sorry you had this experience response below”

TripAdvisor users rated this property 4 out of 5

Facilities are beautiful

Getaway21229265309 on May 05, 2025

They did a really nice job with the remodel and the facility is gorgeous. The beach shuttle thing which I worried about turned out to be no big deal - they brought people back and forth all day with littl...e inconvenice. Staff are all quite friendly but it's not well organized. Information not easily accessible and trip could have been much better if it didn't take us 3-4 days to figure out what was available and how to best use the resort. Spanish speaking guests had much easier time - staff is bi-lingual but many of them barely or not well enough to have a conversation or ask a question.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 5 out of 5

April Friend Trip

Cameron D on May 05, 2025

The resort was clean and spacious, the staff were friendly and accommodating. Raphy specifically was our coordinator and got us several things throughout the trip, most notably a volleyball (as seen in bel...ow photos lol). We didn’t get a chance to try out the Japanese restaurant, but the rest of them had great food options.

TripAdvisor users rated this property 5 out of 5

Amazing and friendly.

Nicolas M on May 05, 2025

Rafelito and Wascar were the best. 10/10 service, anything we needed they helped us with. Food was great. Overall amazing experience. Would go back. Pools were always clean, staff were eager to help out. T...he bar staff were incredible and had great knowledge of any drinks we wanted.

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