I've been to Punta Cana twice and loved it both times. We stayed at the Catalonia Bavaro (one week) and the Iberostar Punta Cana (two weeks); both had their good and bad points:
Catalonia
Good: BEACH was beautiful, calm, lots of palapas and umbrellas. Swim-up bar in poool. Very nice staff. Excellent lunch at the pool restaurant with self-serve beer (DH loved that!). Villa layout was great for us.
Bad: Besides lunch at the pool, the rest of the meals were just OK.
Iberostar
Good: Food was significantly better than Catalonia.
Bad: I found the beach to be cramped and rougher than at the Catalonia. We are beach lovers and spent more time at the pool than I ever would have anticipated because the beach wasn't swimmable many of the days we were there. The setup of the Punta Cana and Dominicana side is like a large motel. The Iberostar Bavaro has the villa layout, which I think is a bit nicer.
In any case, I thought both hotels offered great value for what we spent, and we'd gladly go to any of them again.
FWIW, if you're still open to different hotel suggestions, I've heard excellent reviews about the Majestic hotels and the Melia hotels.