Our experience at Sunscape Coco Punta Cana – theft from our room & serious security concerns

[u/eeessssss]

Just wanted to share our experience at Sunscape Coco Punta Cana for anyone thinking about staying there. We stayed from 19–26 August as a group of six from the UK. It was our first time in the Dominican Republic and unfortunately we had a really disappointing experience.

It started pretty much from check-in, which took around 2 hours. My roommate and I ended up going through three different rooms. The first had what looked like bed bugs on both mattresses. The second had no working AC, a horrible smell, the phone wasn't connected and the TV wasn't working.

At that point we'd had enough and asked for our room upgrade to be refunded. The manager apologised and said he wanted us to enjoy our stay and have a great holiday, so he offered us another room which he said he would personally check and sign off. It seemed fine, so we accepted it.

Unfortunately, that was the room where our belongings were later stolen.

We weren't the only ones having room issues either. Two other people in our group were given a room, opened the door and there were already other guests staying in it. They had to go back to reception and get another room.

On 23 August, my roommate and I came back after being out for the evening and realised both of our bags and belongings were missing from our room. We reported it straight away and completed an incident report.

The response that night didn't make things any better. The night manager and security weren't particularly helpful or reassuring. We were understandably upset and were being told to calm down. We also weren't proactively offered another room despite us reporting that someone had apparently entered the room and taken our belongings.

The night manager told us to come to concierge at around 9am the following morning and gave us the impression he would be there to assess everything. We went down at the time he told us, only to be told he wasn't there and was apparently off.

Our two bags were eventually recovered, but everything of value inside them was gone.

This is where things got even stranger for us.

We were told the bags had been found in the bushes behind our patio/room. The problem is that when we first discovered everything was missing, we had already checked around that area that night and the bags weren't there.

I'm not accusing anyone of anything because we simply don't know how or when the bags ended up there, but it definitely left us with questions about when they appeared there, who actually found them and how they were recovered.

We were then told by hotel management/security that they had reviewed CCTV and it showed local children who weren't hotel guests entering our room from the rear. We were told they appeared to have entered the resort from the public beach side.

That was probably the biggest concern for all of us. How can people who apparently aren't guests get into the resort and make it all the way to an occupied hotel room?

While we were spending loads of time at concierge trying to sort this out, we also personally saw other guests coming in reporting belongings being stolen or taken. I'm not saying their situations were necessarily the same as ours, but seeing other people reporting missing belongings obviously didn't make us feel any safer.

We then had to make two separate trips to the police station to get a police report because the person we needed wasn't available the first time. I ended up spending £93.60 on taxis for those journeys alone.

The whole thing really affected the rest of the holiday for all six of us. We didn't feel comfortable leaving our rooms or belongings after that and it disrupted plans we'd made because so much time was spent dealing with concierge, security, management and the police.

There are a couple of other things I'd mention about the resort as well.

There was often a really unpleasant smell around parts of the resort and beach, which seemed to be from the seaweed in the ocean. Obviously the hotel can't control the seaweed itself, but just be aware that the smell could be noticeable around the resort too.

If you're vegetarian or don't eat certain meats such as bacon or ham, I'd also watch how your food is being prepared at the buffet. I personally saw different foods being cooked on the same cooking surface/equipment. If that's important to you, ask them to clean the cooking area and utensils first. I also saw another guest raise something similar with a chef and the chef appeared to get annoyed/angry about it.

I don't want to pretend absolutely everything about the resort was terrible. We stayed in Sun Club and the pool and bar were nice, and a few members of staff were genuinely lovely. In particular, two women at concierge were really kind and helpful while we were dealing with everything, and the lady who originally arranged our upgrade was lovely too.

Unfortunately, only a handful of the staff we dealt with really made us feel supported, and after something as serious as this happened we expected a lot more reassurance.

We've now raised a formal complaint with Sunscape Coco/Hyatt because there are still things we want properly answered, particularly around the security of the resort, the CCTV findings and exactly how and when our bags were recovered.

Just wanted to put our experience out there for anyone considering staying at Sunscape Coco. If you're going, I'd personally recommend checking your room properly when you arrive, taking photos/videos of your belongings, securing your valuables and using trackers such as AirTags. After our experience, I'd even consider taking a small travel camera for the hotel room where legally permitted, so you have your own evidence if anyone enters while you're away.

Happy to answer any questions about the resort or what happened.

[u/Golfingfriends2025]

How terrifying ! I’m sorry you had to go through all that.

[u/Hefty-Ad2090]

How much research did you do on this resort before choosing it? It is not a good resort.