I reviewed this place several years ago. I have now stayed there for a week each of the last 12 years. Still a great [lace. The shower water temp is still hit or miss, but the shower heads are better. We had a new window AC unit that was fantastic. The Wifi was the best across the grounds that it has ever been. The only thing not as good was the food. The buffet is still fantastic, but previously we had the buffet every morning and evening. This year there was no evening buffet. I assume it had to do with time of year or hotel capacity. We have had to eat from menus for one meal a couple of times before, but every night this trip. They don’t have probably half of what is on the menu. But more importantly, even though the menu is reproduced in english and spanish with some pictures, you might not get whet you ordered and it might not be very good. All 5 of us reordered the same 2 or 3 things several nights and ate out for pizza twice that week.

Before I get into the review, I highly advise getting mosquito repellant because there will always be mosquitos in the room.

There are several reasons why I am giving this hotel a low rating. If it were not for the awesome employees, I would have given this hotel 1 star. I will start off with the positive note.

Positive:
As stated in the hotel details, they have a working television with around 120 channels (mostly Spanish), a working air conditioner that operates fine, however some of them are not that effective at keeping the room cold (I know this because I was hanging out in my friends room), their Wifi works, the cleanliness of the bathroom is moderate, the shower works, there is a great view of the hotel if you choose the view on pool side ( but it can be really loud at night time due to parties, I don't mind that). If you paid for breakfast, lunch and dinner, it is included and all you can eat. The food is decent. They left two cards on the table in your room, and you should use it if you want to have your bed sheets change. The pool is decent, nobody uses it until its around the afternoon to night.

Negative:
Even though the bathroom was decently clean, the room itself was not. I wanted to go to sleep so I took the top layer of the blanket off, but upon taking it off, the sheets looked disgusting. There were some dead bugs on it, leg hair left from the last guest, and brown marks all over the white sheets. After seeing this, I started to investigate around the area. I checked the other bed to see if it had the same results, and indeed it did. I checked under the beds for bugs, there were none, just some trash swept under there. I checked the floor, there is a lot of dust and several dead flies, almost as if the room hasn't been checked in days. The phone I have in my room did not work because it was missing a wire. The Wifi works, but it is very choppy. The towels in the bathroom had yellow and brown marks on them, like it was used before and put right back onto the rack. When I gave these complaints to the employees that work there, they quickly resolved the problem giving me new sheets, I was happy. However I blame the person that is in charge. Your suppose to check each room and see if its up to standards before giving it out, not let the customers find out about it when they arrive. You are the last line of defense before complaints are sent. Apparently not in this guest. Also, my friends room smelled like sewage, absolutely disgusting.

Things that I highly disliked:
I came to the Dominican Republic at Barahona to visit my friends and relax, I came here to have fun and explore. I came here to forget about school and work. How can I do that if I always have to worry about security being right behind my back? Im talking about the person wearing the blue T-shirt, cargo shorts, with the identification card hanging around their neck. If I want to have my friends visit me and stay in my room, then let them be there. Why do you have to keep tailing behind my back like a hawk? If you have a problem with it, come say it to my face instead of telling your employees to do it since they are clearly busy. You could have clearly stated what is acceptable or not acceptable on the hotel details before my arrival, or better yet, leave a card in the room telling me what are the rules. If my friends were being belligerent, aggressive and problematic, I would understand, however they were not. I never had this problem when I was staying in hotels at Japan, Hong Kong, or the United States.

IMPORTANT:
TAKE A SCREEN SHOT OF EVERYTHING RELATED TO THE HOTEL. When I was checking out, I was questioned to pay the full balance, even though I paid online. I showed the employee the full payment I made, and he apologized for the problem.

Again, I just want to state that the employees were really nice and friendly, except the guard that was stalking me. I got to learn their names and a little bit about their history. It was great meeting them. Most of them speak Spanish. If it were not for their positive attitude, I would have given a lower rating.

Costa Larimar hotel in Barahona has a great location. The pool has a pool bar and the view is really good. The rooms are average (for the area) and have A/C. The check in line was extremely slow (only one person in the counter) and spent over 30 minutes. Found out that some rats ate the bathroom soap and there were rat droppings throughout the room. After reporting the “issue”, was changed to a different room without extra roommates. Decided to hit the restaurant and after a 30-minute wait received a meatless Cuban sandwich (it had a tiny pice of ham). There were two cats roaming in the restaurant; no idea why. At least the beer was cold and the price was reasonable. Well, the hotel still in a nice location and hopefully they can take care of the extra visitors soon.