I went to the Lifestyle Resort with 6 other friends. The person who booked the vacation booked four two-bedroom penthouse suites and four one-bedroom suites through one of the owners, and we saw gorgeous pictures from her of what our rooms would look like. When we arrived at 11:30pm on Thursday, January 17, we were ushered into Lifestyle Tropical Resort (which is the hotel). The rooms looked nothing like the picture and we didn't want to sleep in them or use the bathroom in them. They were horrendous.

Needless to say, me and my friend who booked the vacation woke up around 8:30am the next morning to go talk with someone about our accommodations. When we did talk to Jackie at the VIP Customer Service, we were told we should have put in a Villa. Thinking the villa would be nicer than what we had previously stayed in the night before, we accepted. When we made it to the three-bedroom villa, we were disappointed. We were told that the villa we were staying in was a guest villa, which is code for not as nice as for our members.

The villa had three and one half bathrooms, but only one toilet flushed properly out of the three full bathrooms and the half bath had water coming from under the floor.

When they did the tour of the properties, showing us the suites and villas to sell us on a membership, we were able to see more pristine accommodations. We even asked if we could move back to our original reservation of four two-bedroom penthouse suites and four one-bedroom suites. We were told that our original suites were damaged because of a leak, but when we visited the suite numbers given, we saw other people were staying in them.

All of said there was no way we would purchase a membership at this resort and given the fact that the half the resort looked horrible (Tropical Resort), we felt that if we should buy one, the value would be diminished because the property was not consistently nice overall.

We spent as little time as possible in our villa, visiting the beach and Puerto Plata city. I will not go here again, and I do not recommend anyone else go here because it's a crapshoot as to if you will get a nice villa or suite especially if you are not a member of the resort.

From the very beginning this resort was a disappointment, the shuttle from the resort pick up 5 of us to bring to the resort and it was in a accident, driver could not speak a word of english, in fact we had to call the resort to get another shuttle to pick us up. You would think the resort would assist because it was there shuttle, zero help, we were hurt with back injuries and spent most of the trip nursing my back. The other family on the shuttle was so upset with how me were treated that they didn't check into the resort. They refused to send resort Doctor upon our arrival and was very rude, promising to deal with the next day, didn't happen, after many requests, I finally met with the manager and again refused to help any way. They put me on the top floor condo which is 3 stories, ask to go to lower floor and again they refused. I told other kind guests about my experience and they were threaten by a sales rep named Nino, that they would be kick off the resort and that the owner was a powerful man. How is that for customer service. When I was approached by VIPsales, they had nothing good to say about RCI which I am member and is how I came to this resort.
This is the worst resort that I have ever stayed at. My condo over looked garbage in the back and there was no gardens in the front. The food was big let down, if you have allegries this is not the place to eat, they put sea food beside other dishes which made it impossible for me to eat. Other restaurants required reservation which were next to impossible to get because you had to get up early and go to another part of the resort to book and only 1 day in advance.
There was the smell of sewer in different areas through out the resort, power went out many times, many days no hot water for shower, other units lost water competely.
The resort has a logo that said "To Tell Your Friends". Well I am telling. From the point you enter this country and have to get to your resort is a threat to your life, they have no laws for the driving and you and your family are at risk. The biggest disappointment was how this resort did nothing, lack of customer service and the food was awful. Stay away from this resort. Sales more important then there guests.

BEWARE!! We have just returned today from spending a week at the Lifestyle Crown Suites in Cofresi, DR. We were booked into VIP services in a 2 bedroom suite overlooking Italian Restaurant. At first glance this resort looks impressive and the gardens are well maintained. However......the staff here really DON"T care about their guests. As VIP's we had real trouble having to book into the specialty restaurants every day....you had to arise early enough to be a the Guest Service desk by 7:30 am to book a table in one of the restaurants....and they REALLY oversold all their packages...too many people and too few services. Guest Services wouldn't answer the the phone and there were many complaints. Food was mediocre at best. Gourmet restaurant meal was delicious. The smell of sewer was awful.....at the beach, in the VIP world, at the VIP beach area and on the streets. Another Canadian couple was on their way to the resort in the resort shuttle from the airport, when the van was hit by a truck. The couple were hurt and the back of the van smashed in.....back injuries and suitcases smashed. Another resort van had to be sent to pick them up. When the arrived at the resort, the staff DID ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to help these people....no offering of hot tea, getting a doctor to their room (they were right in bed), some message therapy or perhaps bring food to the room......we, along with everyone in that area of the resort just couldn't believe it!! The resort did NOTHING OVER A WHOLE WEEK for these folks and all of us were trying to support them to having someone...ie a decision-maker, come and deal with them. It was pathetic.They only want sales....they just don't care about their guests. Nino, one of their sales rep's threatened us to 'stop complaining......you can't talk about complaints...or the 'big owner' who is a 'powerful man' will send you out of the resort!! Now how's that for customer service? We told Nino if he continues to threaten us, we would contact the Canadian Embassy. Nino came into the restaurant while we were eating breakfast to tell us we were 'not allowed' to talk about complaints.....obviously it was affecting his sales. I would never buy somewhere where it's obvious they only care about your money but not your welfare. The pool areas were very nice, but there were many mosquitos and a group of us had multiple bites up our legs. We were without water a few times in the week and the power went out as well.......on Friday, the transformer behind the resort was on fire. In our bathroom, we had sewer water leaking from the ceiling...smell was putrid....it got fixed within 4 hours, but we our bathroom was out of commission.
My advice? Pix look great...but believe you me, they don't tell the story. Pick another resort where they really CARE about people.

I booked 4th of July week for a family reunion through RCI timeshares. There was 8 of us going. I researched the property and was impressed with the website and the photos of the Lifestyles Property. Mainly the Villas. There was also good reviews on Trip Advisor. It didn't turn out this way......the shuttle from the airport was one scary ride. There is very little, if any traffic laws. There is NO WAY I would rent a car or try to drive there. We would not have left the Property without a guide.

Once we arrived at the lifestyle properties we were greeted at the front desk by representatives who couldn't speak English. It took forever to check in..

Our Villa was the highlight of the trip. It was a 4 bedroom, 4 bathroom, villa with our own private pool. It was spacious and had everything we needed. I have no complaint about our accomodations. But, I still wasn't happy because the ocean was a good 1/2 mile away and not in view. I go to the Caribbean to enjoy the Sea. At the Lifestyles it's like you have to pack the car for a trip to the beach

we were all VIP status and had the run of the resort. There's one restaurant called the VIP lounge that requires long pants on the male guests. We didn't bring pants since the low temp was going to be 93. We were promised that we could get in, With shorts , by a timeshare representative. When we Arrived at the restaurant we were rudely turned away. I mean Rudely. He treated us like dirt.

We were badgered to buy one of their timeshares. We went on a tour of the grounds, with the Same guy who promised us he'd get us into the VIP Lounge with Shorts. An hour into the presentation we asked him to give us the price. An Hour and a half after that he finally told us the price was $90,000.00. We told him we were not interested and were told to find our own way back to our Villa. Again RUDE.

We paid $600.00 plus per person for the all inclusive. What a rip off. The bars would serve the local beer, or one of the 6 tropical drinks they had pre-made, but if you asked for something other than those, again they couldn't speak English. The food was SO SO at best. The Buffets were o.k. with very little variety day to day. There is 7 restaurants on site. We tried them all. The restaurants that were not buffet style had no more than 3 choices on the menu for an entree. And the food was very bland. With all 8 of us eating 2-3 meals a day, I can easily say that I only heard 3 to 4 times that someone really enjoyed their meal.

If you want to enjoy the Caribbean, DO NOT go To the Lifestyles Crown Villas