Iberostar Waves Dominicana

johnmB779TY wrote a review September 2025

Horrible experience!!

I recently stayed at Iberostar Dominicana in Punta Cana, and I regret to say it was one of the worst hotel experiences I’ve ever had.
From day one, our room was infested with cockroaches and bed bugs. I woke up covered in bites all over my legs and couldn’t sleep properly for the rest of our 7-day vacation. When we reported it to the front desk, they insisted it was mosquito or ant bites—without ever inspecting the bed. They claimed they did an "inspection," but all that happened was housekeeping came to change the sheets and do a quick sweep. It was a clear cover-up, and nothing was actually resolved.
On top of that, the concierge and front desk were completely disorganized. They invited us for a tour of another location and promised to pick us up from our room—but never showed up, wasting an entire day of our vacation. There was no apology, no follow-up—just silence.
The food was another letdown. While the buffet was tolerable and had some variety, the à la carte restaurants were terrible. We waited 30–40 minutes to be served, and when the food finally arrived, the meats were completely dry and overcooked. Honestly, it’s better to stick to the buffet, at least you can choose what you want and avoid the wait.
The only positive part of this resort was the entertainment team. They were energetic, professional, and put on great shows every day. It’s clear they’re doing their best despite the resort’s many other shortcomings.
Unfortunately, this resort is highly not recommended. We met other guests who also had visible red bug bites and similar stories—so this is not an isolated incident. Iberostar Dominicana needs to address their pest control seriously instead of masking the problem with fresh sheets. Until that happens, this place is not worth your money or your health.

They have done nothing, only compensation we got was a $50 gift card to spend at one of their store in the resort like it’s gonna heal my wife’s legs full of bed bugs bite.

Rating: 1/5

Date of Stay: September 2025

TrailBlazer606383 wrote a review October 2025

Not up to par

Really long review but very complete. Iberostar Waves Dominica: supposedly the luxury version of IHG. Nothing luxurious about this. Inclusive yes. But not luxurious. But not bad. Just not what I expected when I think of luxurious.

Check in was smooth although we had to wait a bit over an hour for our room but we were able to wait at beach and have drinks. When we did finally go check in, it became apparent they were going to try and upsell us or ask us to sit through member spiel. They didn’t push too hard but enough that it was mildly irritating especially since it didn’t stop after we got to our room.

Room is nice. Nothing spectacular. We had a king room with partial pool view. Small fridge with mini bar. Mini bar is stretching it. 2 cokes. 2 Fanta. 2 presidente beers and 2 cans water. Weirdly there was no toilet paper holder in the bathroom. When we got here there were 2 washcloths in the bathroom. After I used them, they were never replaced. I had to chase down housekeeping to get more. See later note about towels and housekeeping.

2 large pools. Great area. Lots of chaise lounges and umbrellas. Limited drink service. But is available. Pools need cleaning. Lots of leaves, sand, etc. Pool towel attendant is very unfriendly. One of the pools was shut down on our 3rd day here. Luckily the resort is not very busy so it’s not impacting space etc.

Good size beach area with plenty of chaise lounges and umbrellas. Vendors trying to sell all kinds of things out on beach but not too pushy once you tell them no. No bar staff or any service out on the beach which is a bit disappointing. But beach area was super nice.

First night dinner at La Pagoda - Asian. Appetizers (sushi) was buffet and this was quite nice. Good selection of sushi and Asian type appetizers and deserts. Our main entrees were pad Thai and shrimp noodle wok and they were institutional food at best. Taste and texture appeared out of some package and were mediocre at best.

Breakfast buffet. Name it they have it. Anything you could want for breakfast was available. And I do mean anything. Good overall.

Lunch - we did snack buffet at La Maribe. Decent enough food. Several salads. Sandwiches. Pastas. Etc.

Ice cream cones available.

The app and website are not always correct. Supposedly your concierge should send a schedule everyday that should be correct with regards to what is open and when. Our concierge basically abandoned us when I refused to do the membership meeting. She was basically forced to send me a schedule on my 2nd full day here but didn’t send again. When I did ask her about getting some towels to take on excursion (and beach towel hut wasn’t open yet). She basically said find a housekeeper to get one. Really? A Motel 6 would have delivered a towel to my room. Couldn’t find a housekeeper either. When I finally did, she couldn’t help me because she was only a sweeper. And another concierge also wasn’t helpful. How can you be a concierge and not know where to turn for a customer request? This lack of help or answers from concierge permeated our entire visit. And we aren’t even very needed.

Star Rock Cafe. Decent burgers but frozen patties. Frozen fries. They were out of the only appetizer we wanted which was the plantains. Language barrier caused some issues initially with our order. We walked through the buffet after dinner to get desserts. The buffet dinner looked really good and more homemade than anything we’ve seen thus far. Different meats and sides and pastas.

Maria Bonita. Has been closed since we got there. Yet they are out of guacamole. How do you run out of guacamole after being closed for several days? Avocados have been readily available in other restaurants which tells me they do not make it homemade. We ordered chicken enchiladas and seafood casserole. The casserole was ok. Not much flavor and the shrimp was overcooked. But still best meal we’ve had so far.

Finally ate dinner buffet. It looked way better than it tasted. We went Mexican night. Things tasted different than we were used to. Or had no flavor at all. Several things were mislabeled. We also believe that things were cooked so early in the day so that it could come out looking great on buffet. So they sacrifice flavor for a good looking buffet. Huge disappointment. Maybe other nights tasted different. Didn’t notice the theme of the other nights.

Lunch buffet was decent. Good selection. Flavor was ok.

Last dinner. La Sibila. French. Reservations required but never busy. Caesar salad listed all the traditional ingredients but instead of anchovies I had what appeared to be leftover cut up fried chicken. No kidding. Hubby says the shrimp and avocado cocktail was really good. We ordered the green pepper steak and flat iron steak. They were decent. Flat iron steak doesn’t appear to come with a side but waiter told me fries. It didn’t. But they brought me some. Again language barrier seemed to be part of the issue.

We did not do any shows but we generally don’t go out that late. Lolol. 2130 is the start time for most shows. They do appear to have a good variety. I have no idea what other activities they had since I never got a schedule from my concierge and the app never appeared to be right.

Even with all the resort issues, I had a relaxing vacation laying on the beach and reading.

The one thing I will give them 5 stars on are the drinks. The menu is limited and possibly all they can make - not because of liquor selection but because of language barriers and ability. That being said, the didn’t skimp on adding liquor to the drinks and they were very much unlimited.

Purchased 2 excursions from beach vendors.

Parasailing. Fabulous.

Scuba scooter. Also fabulous but likely cheaper from a different vendor such as Viator

Purchased 1 excursion from Viatar pre-trip. Absolute 5 star. Catamaran ride with only 5 other couples. So much room. So much rum punch. Snorkeling. Fish eating out of our hands. Then more ride. Stopped for “Jason” to cut some coconuts and serve us sugar rum in the coconut. More ride. Stopped in a really nice swimming area. More rum punch and mommajuana. Then rode to a food boat to get the lunch we ordered. So yummy. Then back for some shopping. Double triple check what you are buying and getting charged for. We’re pretty sure we were charged more than what we were told. But we didn’t check until we got back.

Date of Stay: September 2025