I have just returned from Lifestyle Resort in Puerto Plata and I am sorry to say that it was the most horrible experience I have ever had in my life. When we arrived at the resort, we were lied to and told that the 4 penthouses and 4 bedroom suites that we had reserved through a VIP member had all sprung a leak in unison and were not available. Huh?? (I know it was a lie as I will explain later) and all put in the Tropical rooms for the night. This is where the horror begins. The Tropical Rooms are basically 2 filthy cots in one tiny room with a tiny bathroom. Along with that, the rooms were filthy, in one of the rooms, there was urine and feces stains on the toilet!!! I have been to various poverty-stricken parts of Africa and stayed in cleaner rooms. The sheets were stained and dirty, the thermostat didn't work; it was like a horrible hostel in Europe. One of my friends said he couldn't handle the filth and left. Yes, left/turned around/caught the next flight out in the morning, because it was so disgusting. We were all so tired from fighting that night that we decided to handle it in the morning when the day manager arrived. We woke up right away in the morning (how can one sleep well in such conditions) and went to the Vacation Club customer service. There we met Jackie who proceeded to continue the lie that all 8 rooms had a leak and thus we could not stay in our reserved rooms. Her solution, let's cram all 8 people in a 3 bedroom villa. I'm sure you're thinking, well a villa's not so bad. WRONG! The villa had bugs everywhere (huge spiders, little roaches in the bathroom, little bugs that I don't know the terms for, etc.), cracks in the ceiling, toilets that didn't flush, one of the bathrooms started leaking, dirty floors, etc. It was later explained to us that the villa we were in was a non-member villa (hence, the disgusting state) and that the nice, clean villas were the members only villas. Again, huh? But wait, I thought, we booked through a VIP member - why don't we have a member villa! I went back to customer service and was basically told by Jackie that if I was dissatisfied, it was something I had to take up with the VIP owner or take a free week in the future as compensation. I'm thinking, are you kidding??? I would never return her again in my life. Then, Jackie was like, "well, what about Sosua; I can see if there is availability at our property in Sosua?" Sosua! I haven't even been anywhere in Puerto Plata b/c I've been fighting to get what I paid for all day. I was thoroughly disgusted. I told her that I wanted what I paid for and that a 3 bedroom villa for 8 people is not an even trade for four 2 bedroom penthouses and four one bedroom suites. She insisted that she was going to call Sosua just in case to see what they had, I'm like whatever at this point. She told me to come back later.
I ran into some other people who were having similar horrible experiences and they were the ones who gave me the idea to go check the rooms that they claimed were "flooded". I knocked on the door to all four 2 bedroom penthouses and guess what...someone answered the door at each one (except for one) and said there was no such leak. At this point, I'm outraged b/c I've been blatantly lied to in my face. A sweet couple from Canada who had a similar experience told me to camp out in the reception area and refuse to leave until I got a resolution to the situation. The issue with that was that we were only there for 4 days and had been fighting for 2 days and had really only one more day to go out and see the city.
I paid for 8 (EIGHT!!!!) separate rooms and got 3 beds instead (in case you're wondering, we fit in there the last night b/c one person slept in a chair and the other on the couch; the rest of us cuddled in the little beds). Maybe if I were back in my college days and had paid $50/night I would figure "hey you get what you pay for"; but considering what we paid the VIP member and the conditions of the property it was completely unacceptable. By the way, the "VIP member" said she would refund part of my money b/c I didn't receive what I paid for and I have yet to see the money and it has been almost a month. After all the stress and arguments I really don't feel like pursuing a legal process with this person (we had a contract, which has clearly been breached) but apparently it's looking like that is where we're headed.
I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, out of my group, 7 of us are attorneys and 1 an engineer. We went to Puerto Plata to get away from the everyday stress of our lives and jobs but instead got more headaches and stress.
I understand that if you get to stay in the villas you will have a much better experience. However, that is a big "if" and the rest of the property is just filthy, unkempt and in need of a complete renovation. I won't gamble again on such a deal b/c it was a waste of precious and rare vacation time.
Also, think twice before "investing" in these properties (they have something similar to a "timeshare" that they try to shove down your throat). Yes, there are some nice parts to the resort, i.e. the rooms that I paid for but didn't get, however, you can only judge a property by the value of averaging the worst aspects with the best and trust me, the bad definitely outweighs the good.

we were in 1 bedroom suite and loved every minute we were there and will go back for sure the staff was great the food was ok we were treated like vip's we had good time at the beach with Pedro the bartender!can't wait to go back ps /dont forget to tip them once in a while and you will be surprised by there reaction and the way they treat you.

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.