We exchanged through RCI and were quite nervous after reading the horrible reviews. I have to say that our trip was wonderful. (April 17-24, 2004)It was a rainy week but the accomodations were spectacular. The marble spiral staircase leading to the enormous patio overlooking our own pool.The lush foliage surrounding our villa looked like Jurassic Park. We were waiting for Robin Leach to show up because we felt like we were on Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous.
The RCI rep Cathy was the sweetest and most accomodating, checking daily to see that everything was ok. The daily breakfast prepared in our villa was delicious.The furnishings were not as great as the villa and the view, but still comfortable. And the villa and all of the resort facilities were clean.
A beautiful, relaxing vacation.

Do you want to have a villa with full service, pampering 24 hours a day? If so, this is the place to go.

Staff is great, they call you everyday to make sure you are taken care of.

The villas are private, secluded and not far away from the beach.

Breakfast is served at the time you prefer, the staff even takes care of your restaurant reservations.

It is really worth the price you pay for the trip.

You can relax the whole day with no one bugging you, all the villas have a private pool, Well, we loved it!

My husband, mother in law, three young children, and I stayed at Karisma Villas Del Mar from March 20-27, 2004. Our four bedroom villa was spectacular-definately five star accomodation. However, the food was not even close to the same level. The breakfast prepared and served in the villa was a huge bonus and we loved it. However, lunch and dinner were served in the same restaurant as the hotel guests, many of whom were paying $500/week, including their flight, meals, and accomodation (versus our $10, 000 trip cost). I think the resort needs to recognize the disparity between prices charged to villa guests and hotel guests and offer their services (including meal quality)accordingly. I am sure it is quite difficult to manage both lower end and higher end vacation expectations using the same staff.
Having said that, the hotel recently "hired" Annika, a lovely young German woman as a villa guest relations person. She came around nearly every day to make note of any problems experienced by villa guests.
However, she is on an unpaid six month work term at the hotel. I strongly believe that the hotel needs to make this position a priority in which the staff are fairly compensated for their dedication and long term commitment to a very integral role in their management team.
Otherwise I fear that this lovely vacation spot will not prosper. Just one further caution--We were initially placed in villa 28A which was a small three bedroom, sparsley appointed, villa with 32 very steep stairs (we had a stroller for our baby and a mother in law who needs knee replacement surgery!) It took two days of complaining before we were moved to the spectacular villa (#7). The manager kept putting us off and telling us to come back "the next day at 9am". It took about one day before I got very upset--and that was primarily because of other reviews I had read which suggested that this was the only way to deal with staff. Suddenly, they found a villa that was coming open. The manager told staff not to put young children or old people in that villa (and a few others) again--these villas have been available for years--why don't staff know this already?. There was supposed to be a "special" villa check in, but there was not. We checked in and out at the hotel lobby. Perhaps the hotel should have a seperate set of staff members to manage the villas who are knowlegeable about them.The one thing we learned from this experience is we will never stay in hotel-style accomodations again. We were nervous about renting through caribbean rental agencies and felt we still wanted the connection with a resort. In hindsight, unless it is a resort of villas only, I would not pay the extra money to be associated with a resort. Instead I would go to a "safer" island where you can use the restaurants without fear of illness and freely travel the streets in a rental car.

I had visited Hacienda Resort 2 years ago and decided to try my luck again with the Villas. I made the reservation via our RCI Membership and the place keeps getting better and better.The villas is spacious, my kids didn't want to get out of the pool we had to dragged them to go out for dinner.The have a very good personalized service with you own maid and drinks being refurbished daily.The food quality improved since my last visit and the dominican people are the friendliest you can find.I am already planning my next trip!