Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana Reviews

Very responsive! So professional!

My husband and I had an absolutely incredible time celebrating our wedding in Punta Cana. We were a little nervous at first planning a destination wedding all the way from Boston, but the wedding department takes care of everything. Ana was great to work with in the Miami office. We went back and forth via email and set up phone calls to go over everything in detail. They give you guidelines to work off of but you also have tons of flexibility to make it your own too! When everything got transferred to the on site coordinator, we couldn't have been more pleased. Johanny is ABSOLUTELY INCREDIBLE. She treats you like gold and she makes sure every little detail of your wedding is PERFECT. I can't speak highly enough of her. She made the entire process worry free. She sent me a bottle of champagne the morning of the wedding as I was getting ready as a present! I consider her a friend now and our special day would not have been possible without her

Planning was easy completely stress-free. Several “venue” locations available to choose- from poolside, to on the beach, rooftop terrace, and many more. The provided planners are wonderful to work with. The food is outstanding (received tons of compliments), and everything else was above and beyond my expectations.

Our trip starting booking with VIP Vacations my experience with the agency was top notch from the beginning to the end. I dealt a lot with Ryan Doncsecz which he was very knowledgeable and always polite. It was my daughters wedding I believe 26 couples were there, the experience at the resort was very nice from the room service, the pool area and the food. My daughters wedding was one of the most beautiful wedding that I had been to. She did not have a worry in the world the wedding planner took care of everything. We went as a group to eat every night and one particular night stands out my young niece and nephew were there and the gentleman making our food which was habatchi food included the children in this. Let me just say how thrilled they were. So my overall rating of the agency and Hard Rock is five star!

I cannot say enough about Alanna and Yuleisi who assisted me with planning my wedding. From the welcome reception, to my hair and makeup, to the beach ceremony and ballroom reception - this was a first-class experience. If you are planning on a destination wedding, the Hard Rock Punta Cana is a place both you and guests will make memories and enjoy. We had the time of our lives.

My husband and I had our dream wedding all thanks to the Hard rock hotel and staff !! Everything was perfect and amazing ! The hotel is incredible from cleanness to staff being 100% at service to us and our guest !
The wedding department we had such an amazing person we had the pleasure of working with her name is Luiciana Vazquez! She made our experience smooth anything we needed any question we had were answered. We couldn't ask for anything better then to have someone make our dream wedding come true!!!
The next department is photography. Julissa Vargas and team provided an amazing service with our photography sessions, albums and overall experience ! One of our sessions was trash the dress , what an amazing experience to have photos taken on the beach and in the pool !!!
Our guest can't stop talking about how wonderful and beautiful everything came out that day !!!!

We went to Hard Rock back in February 2019 to plan for our destination wedding. The hotel is gorgeous and the wedding department is great! We felt like we had vip service everywhere we went! Food and drinks were amazing!!! Looking forward to going back to HRPC!!! Thank you for the experience

We just had our wedding at the Hard Rock Resort and Casino and we could not have been happier with our experience. I did a ton of research before selecting our venue and the Hard Rock Punta Cana definitely lived up to all the great reviews that I read about their ability to pull of a memorable wedding.

We decided to do a Welcome Party for our guests the night before our wedding. We originally had it scheduled for the Sax Pool but moved it to the Piano Gazebo since there was a 40% chance of rain. I am so glad we moved the location because the Piano Gazebo was absolutely perfect for our party and was so beautiful. The Piano Gazebo is located right by the beach but is still secluded so that your event is private and away from the other resort guests. We opted for a Sushi Bar and hot hor d's. Everyone said the food was amazing and they were extremely impressed with the service.

We also had our ceremony at the Piano Gazebo since we wanted a private ceremony and didn't want random people from the beach wandering and watching our vows. The Piano Gazebo was perfect for this because it sits right on the edge of the beach so we still can see & hear the ocean right next to the sand but still be very private. Everything went very smoothly. Our reception was right after in the Element Terrace located right next to the Piano Gazebo and overlooks the ocean. Everyone said the food and cake was very good and that it was one of the best weddings they have been to.

Our wedding planner was amazing. I will say that planning a wedding abroad is for the more relaxed laid back bride. If you like to have your finger on the pulse of every little detail and are super concerned with getting quick responses months out from your wedding date then this is not the place for you. However, if you are more laid back then I would highly highly recommend this place for anyone looking to do a destination wedding.

I recommend them. My wedding was easy thanks to Moon Palace/Hard Rock Punta Cana

I can't believe what a GORGEOUS wedding I had planned with the Hard Rock Wedding Tem ALL VIA EMAIL. Wow they blew my expectations. Luciana is so amazing at what she does, you can tell that she has done this A LOT and there is nothing she can't make happen even with the hiccups that can come up. The staff working the wedding were so sweet and provided excellent service. I had 132 guests so it was a large wedding for destination wedding. I can't say enough good things.

My husband and I had a wonderful wedding at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Punta Cana. We were very happy with how things turned out. The property is beautiful and our wedding planner (Suha Pressey at Weddings Romantique) worked very closely with the resort to be sure that our vision was executed perfectly. The resort has many benefits for those getting married and they can assist with the simplest or most extravagant weddings. The onsite coordinator was very helpful and the head of the wedding department, Nancy, did everything possible to accommodate every request and make our day perfect. Our welcome party was great and the entertainment we hired was a hit. The Hora Loca was a blast. The wedding day was simply magical. The décor was just as expected, the DJ was great, and the food was amazing. The photo booth and dessert bar were loved by our guests. The videographer captured it all and we can’t wait to see the video. The only difficulty we had was communicating from afar but the resort did a pretty good job email back and forth to answer any questions. I would also recommend that they create more catalogues to show options for those who are more visual. They are able to do any cake designs, flower arrangements, drinks, etc. that one may like but it’s nice to see it all in catalogue form. My guests raved about the entire wedding weekend including the wonderful rooms, fun resort activities, delicious food, and the magical wedding day. I would highly recommend this resort for the perfect destination wedding! Thank you Hard Rock!

10/10 recommend a destination wedding!

Once we arrived it was excellent, however prior to the wedding, we worked with a coordinator out of the Miami office and she was very hard to work with. Took a long time to respond to emails and not flexible.

We were married at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Punta Cana, DR. We booked through Beach Bum Vacation. Jaimi was a gem and assisted us from beginning to end..literally! From choosing our destination, to booking rooms and flights for our 55+ guests, to making sure our transportation was on point to and from the airport and being on call to answer any questions during our trip. So if you're looking for a travel service I highly recommend Jaimi with Beach Bum Vacation!! The resort was beautiful! We initially had issues with our room (bugs, no hot water, then no cold water, tv issues) and had to be moved but our upgrade was phenomenal. The resort is huge which was ok for me, but be mindful of this. There are shuttles that run constantly but you may have to wait a while depending on where you are and time of day. Staff was very friendly. Pools and beach were great. Food was better than I anticipated esp breakfast & dinner. The Market, Isla, Toro and the Mexican restaurant were my favs. The special romantic dinner that was planned for us for beautiful. The spa was the bomb.com! Our wedding, cocktail hour, reception and welcome event were amazing! I was a little nervous at first because communication with the initial wedding specialist, Ana (in the Miami office) was not the best. Her response time was horrible and she told me at the last minute that the venue i requested a year prior for my reception was no longer available which posed a huge issue. The issue was eventually resolved after lots of tears and back and forth. However, The onsite wedding team (especially Marta and her assistant Johanny) were so sweet and professional! Once things were handed over to them, things were 1000 times better! If you are assigned Marta, you'll fall in love! They made sure things ran smoothly and took great care of my family. Few hiccups but Overall, we had a great experience and we have memories that will last a lifetime!

Our wedding/honeymoon review:

-We stayed in bldg 6, very noisy and they would not change our room. Water fountain noise sounded like a rainstorm every night. Heard all the music and noise from people yelling down the hallway/echoes. Not a fun time for our honeymoon.
-secondhand smoke in the main lobby not fun either, shouldn’t be in closed bldg’s, have to pay for mini golf.
-hairsalon horror on our wedding day. Both I and my wife hated our hair and makeup. Mine was supposed to be a simple braid and bun. Hers hair curls to the side. Makeup natural for both. We had SO much makeup on that my wife shirt for reception had to be dry cleaned complimentary as it was ruined with makeup. They did full makeup on our daughter which was supposed to be just to cover 2 pimples. That had to be removed and they had to do hair and makeup twice on my wife and still wasn’t done right. Yet we still had to pay for our hair and makeup, not cheap. If that is one thing I will hate about our pictures is that. Definitely not happy.
-we did not receive complimentary room nights as our coordinator stated it was according to amount of rooms that were in our group but on the website it stated according to rooming nights. Ripoff.
-resort credits, the amount you pay in the difference is the same in states so no deal. We also almost got ripped off on 500 of our resort credits as the rep stated we didn’t spend it in the 1st 3 days which we never received our welcome package until the 3rd day. Had to speak with front desk to get it back. definitely won’t be returning

Hard Rock dropped the ball on several attempts. Not only is communication delayed and 99% through emails, they still found a way to forget items that were paid for, requested or included in my wedding package.
Pros
Beautiful place
Guest will enjoy them self

Cons
Strong beach current noticed in August and November so I’m assuming it’s always like that
Brides communicate 95% of time by email and email responses can take up to a week
They will forget to have or do things for your planed events
They will Nickel and Dime for any tiny detail

Please see full review below

I would like to start by saying that my wedding coordinator did try what she could to fix all the issues I had with this place and my unsuccessful dream wedding. The resort itself is still nice but the vendors that they choose to deal with EPICALLY failed my wedding so bad to the fact the my heart is pounding right now as I write this. The hotel itself did fail some of my guest. As my guest arrived they were checked into rooms after 13 hour flight to find out there was no running water. On top of that my guest who checked in the previous day had no running water all day. To include the room that held my two year old nephew. This was a nightmare for my guest because this was the day of our welcome dinner so my guest would have liked to have been freshly showed to attend such an important event. The hotel tried to remedy the issue to my guest who complained a lot by sending them to a community shower but when they arrived to the community shower they were disappointed at how disgusting the room was and the fact that they were rushed because others needed to shower too.

Now to my events:

Welcome dinner.
I clearly wrote in my email what props I wanted and paid for but somehow the items we paid for were not scheduled to be there and never made it. Some of my guest have not showered all day and the props paid for as a special touch was not added to my welcome dinner. My welcome bag we’re not there either as guest arrived

Wedding day

First, the bottle of champagne and food was never delivered to my room as it was a part of my wedding package. As a bride you have a pretty busy day the morning of. Champagne toast was supposed to be for the pictures and the food was for us to snack on as we prep.

Second a violinist was included in our wedding package! They were a no show at the ceremony as well.

Third we were not given any walk through. So I had no idea what I was supposed to do as a bride walking down the isle to meet my groom. Little tacky in my opinion as I’m clearly asking what I am supposed to do as I get to the end of the isle.

Forth, I felt very rushed as the route they took was stopped by another brides ceremony so I literally had to wait for her bridal party and the bride to enter her event. As I arrived at my ceremony location I was rushed to get off the cart. I can hear my song playing and was really nervous because we edited my song to perfectly highlight the way I felt about my future husband and to shorten the length of the song since my walk was so short. So I dam near running down the isle as my guest are yelling slow down but I nervous to do so because I didn’t want the song to end before I made it to him. What is even worst is I don’t think my photographer knew either because as I reached the isle his back was so me so he literally had to run in the sand, around the guest and behind the alter to catch me but unfortunately I don’t think he made it.

The cocktail hour

As I arrive I felt like my guest were sitting in the dark outside which was a very depressing look as we arrived as a married couple. They decided to use the cost we paid for our over head bistro lights which would have given it more light and a more attractive setting and replaced them with a spotlight. They used the money we paid for our bistro lights and the cost we paid for our MIA props requested for the welcome to pay to upgrade the ceiling decor in the reception hall. #fail

Reception hall

Omg finally! It looked great. Unfortunately as I scanned the area in amazement I noticed one huge piece missing. The most valuable part that was required for my reception was missing. The one thing I wanted, begged, sacrificed other options to have, asked my mother for money to help with was not there. I sent emails to my guest beforehand informing them that it will be there, I wrote in my Welcome note and weekend of events list to make sure they used it, on there name plate I reminded them to make sure they used it and even bought every guest a personalized photo frame as a keepsake to house there special gift. So ladies and gentlemen the one thing that the bride absolutely loves and didn’t have on the one day that meant so much and can never be replaced or recreated was her PHOTO BOOTH. What a freeking nightmare. Once I was notified that it will not be there I wanted nothing to do with my wedding coordinator. Although it was the vendors fault I was devastated. I couldn’t deal with the issue not being resolved.

Now I would like to discuss actual wedding planning with this resort. It’s not easy. Emails are often responded to a week later. Some not at all. The wedding coordinator took a vacation twice while planning my wedding that added up to about a month of being unavailable and came back to work about two weeks before the wedding. So if you are a bride that needs be in constant contact with someone as you plan, I promise you this will absolutely NEVER happen with the hard rock. The state side people always have issues with there phone so you can never speak with someone directly. You are always sending emails. So if you’re someone that can not handle all communication by emails this venue is not for you. To top it off you would think that even by sending email people would have a record of things you request but they still didn’t. Two days before my wedding the state side person informed me that she messed up for the second time and wanted me to pay more money to secure a prop I wanted for my ceremony and If I didn’t pay she would have to cancel it.

There is so much to say about this place. I may write another review after since it’s really long. Anyone considering using this venue or have questions please feel free to reach out to me. I will be as helpful and honest as possible.

Hard Rock. I am here if you need advice or tips to make it a more enjoyable experience for another bride.

I have a very detailed review available if anyone is interested I will be happy to share.

If you want a stressful wedding nightmare this place is for you. Not only do they lock you in to spend money using their vendors that are extremely overpriced and inflexible but they take months to respond to emails in the Florida office. Prices are inconsistent with the Punta Cana catalogs versus those given in Florida. A lot of promises are made and not kept. Contract is very misleading. They have you believe that they want you do you have an amazing experience and they are trying to work with you but you were just a number. I had to redo my whole wedding one week prior to my wedding as well as change locations the weekend before my wedding. I had four different planners none of which stayed through all my events. It was clear that the location was shortstaffed and going back-and-forth between all other weddings happening at the same time. They were very inflexible but expected you to settle for what they want which altered my wedding completely. Horrible horrible horrible experience. I had 200+ guest fly out for my special day Which I plans on my own since planners told me they were attending to other weddings and they would give me the attention I needed a few days prior to mine. All I have to say is don’t do your wedding here you will regret it.

Unprofessional people and food was not good. Would never go back

If you are looking to feel special during your destination wedding, this is NOT the resort for you. I have to say that our ceremony and reception was perfect, BUT I attribute that to the wonderful vendors who worked with the hotel as well as the service staff who assisted us during the reception. I am shocked this hotel can use the Hard Rock name. I have stayed at several other Hard Rock properties, and this resort has made me NEVER want to return to another property. The service at the reception desk was boarder-line insulting. Of our 97 wedding guests, none have stated they would return to this property. We were told to remove our wristbands for the wedding day, they are special for the bride and groom and can be removed for pictures and such. We did and left them in our room. Following the reception, we went to the Moon Lounge, where the bouncer kicked us out for not having wrist bands on. IM IN A WEDDING GOWN. I went to the front desk to get a temporary one, I was refused. Despite staying there, having our wedding there just an hour prior, they would not issue us another wristband to enjoy the night with friends. Because I broke into the Hard Rock in My wedding gown to listen to men sing drunk karaoke in their lobby bar. Right? Next, Rented golf carts. Night 1 of having the golf cart, at 1145pm (because they would not let me check in to my second room without travel agent approval), it ran out of gas! Leaving me with my bridesmaids' gowns, wedding gown, 2 duffle bags. Two employees rode by "Oh no gas!" did not offer to help. Second day, despite locking the golf cart as instructed, it was stolen and moved to another part of the resort. Did not get reimbursed for the rental. In fact, I was told they fixed the problem by giving us another golf car tthe next day and locating our stollen one later in the afternoon. And if you think you'll be important on your wedding day, think again. They forgot to pick me up for my 5pm ceremony, and when they finally picked me up, I had to walk back through the hotel, through the main lobby, to a DIRTY golf cart that my dad had to clean. Instead of picking us up at our room with a clean golf cart. Our ceremony started late because they forgot the bride. Front desk staff was beyond rude. I had one man tell me "You should find who you were talking to before because I have no idea what you're talking about". I've reached out for a corporate contact, and no one will. give it to me. I have been assured by customer service at the hotel that "the department managers are aware of the issues". Right on par with the rest of the customer service at this hotel. I will not return.

Be careful of what you agree with Ana in the Miami office. We were suppose to have a wedding portrait artist for my daughters beach wedding in Punta Cana. The artist showed up at the wrong event and no one would claim responsibility. Ana In the Miami office charged us for a painting we did not receive. Either she didn’t want to get in trouble for her screw up or didn’t have a heart for the significance of major event In a couples life. Who wants to work with someone who doesn’t care?

Spent the last week trying to get a hold of the property - Emails and calls. The responses via email I received were short and not at all helpful. I asked what were the details / availability for an October, November or December wedding for 100 people.
All I continue to get is a no we are booked on this day --- Well I asked about any Saturday over 3 months?

I recently returned from my wedding at the Hard Rock in Punta Cana which was on August 3rd, 2017. Last year, my husband's sister was married at the hard rock in Riviera Maya. The wedding was so amazing and the hotel and people were great. When my husband and I got engaged we knew we wanted to do a destination wedding too but since his sister had done it in Riviera Maya Hard Rock we wanted to do something a little different so we asked our travel agent and she suggested Hard Rock in Punta Cana. We had never been to this location but based on our amazing experience in Riviera Maya's hard rock we figured it would be the same caliber. BIG MISTAKE!
My wedding was scheduled for a private event for 32 people and 1 child. Air conditioning did not work in our 4 of our rooms and it took 3 days for them to move us to different rooms. Then they made us move our outdoor wedding inside because of the chance of rain (and it never rained) and the inside location looked like a run down ugly hotel conference room. Then the AC in the reception room did not work!!! They refused to give us a credit towards the wedding itself and very unaccommodating. I was so embarrassed about our reception. Not only was it so ugly because of the room they stuck us in but it was also 80 degrees. I don't even want to post any pictures of our wedding reception because it is so ugly. I am not a difficult person and happen to usually be very easy going and I do understand that things go wrong and may not be in someone's control but I would have appreciated if the hotel management would have just handled our situation very differently. I wish they would have had a more appropriate in-door venue space (one that was pretty and had functioning AC), I wish they would have allowed me to move the reception back outside once the weather changed, I wish they would have had a backup plan for when the AC broke (they could have moved us all to somewhere else since we were only 32 people!)