My friend and I spent 5 days in bayahibe in early April. We had planned to spend just 2 but quickly realised that we needed to house oursevles for semana santa before all seaside rooms on the island ran out so extended our stay!

The place is not perfect but is definitely very good value for the price and is in an excellent location. Our twin room had 2 large beds and the towels were changed daily. There was also free bottled water in the bedroom and internet in the reception area (if on a very old and slow pc but hey - who is going to argue when it's free!).

We definitely got put on the better side of the hotel in terms of view as we were facing the sea. There is a small balcony off each room so it meant we could sit out in the evenings before dinner and catch the warm evening sun while watching sail boats and tour boats come and go.

Some of the reception staff were friendlier than others. In general they were nice but at times I felt they could have been more generous in sourcing local information for us e.g. we needed to get to las terrenas and knew there was a ferry option from sabana del mar but couldn't find any contact information to find out if it was running on Easter Sunday. Despite lots of google searches we still couldn't find anything and asked at reception if they knew the name of the ferry company so we could call them to check. They didn't offer to help us find the info and I thought they could have done more - especially as the only alternative was to go the long way round (to Santo Domingo and then up via bus to Samana) which was what we eventually decided to do.

I would also suggest you get the room rate only and get breakfast outside of the hotel. There are lots of little hut style restaurants where you can get really tasty breakfast for very little and so would recommend you do that instead.

All in all we were happy with our stay and the hotel is definitely the best located - right by the sea in the middle of everything and you can't beat the price. One thing I feel I must mention though is that you will be woken at around 5am every morning by a cock crowing! If you are a light sleeper - bring ear plugs! I'm not sure how you could avoid this though as there are lots of them about town so you probably hear them wherever you stay! Have fun - you will love Bayahibe if you are an independent traveller and want to hang out with Dominicans, and visit the beautiful isla saona just a boat ride away.

This hotel is very clean and the rooms quite spacious for the price. Friends stayed just down the block for only a few dollars less and had a much lesser quality room. The breakfast option was also nice. There are really not very many places to eat in Bayahibe and it made it comvienient to get our day started early. We had a nice balcony overlooking the ocean, fan and A/C.

Made a three night stop here in early December 2006, while driving around the island, and enjoyed the best value-for-money ratio of the whole trip.

An important thing to mention is that this hotel is NOT a beach resort style hotel unlike most other hotels in the area. It is located right in the middle of the Bayahibe village, about 100 meters from the sea. The hotel does not have its own beach but they would provide you with chaises longues at the public beach about 5 minutes of walk away, which is very good and clean (white sand), and much less crowded than Casa Del Mar Hotel's neighboring beach. The hotel would even offer free transportation to the beach and back, but I cannot imagine who might need that - maybe disabled persons. There are at least two nice fish restaurants right next to the hotel at the sea shore, with incredible sunset views.

For less than 40 dollars a night we've got a very large air-conditioned room with a sea-facing balcony, two queen-size beds and a roomy bathroom with a tub. All furniture and bathroom fixtures looked brand new. Our room and the rest of the hotel were very clean. The rate included breakfast which was also very good.

There was always someone English-speaking at the reception desk.

The hotel's guest parking is located somewhere behind the hotel, but because of very few guests with cars, I was able to park my car right in front of the hotel.