Royalton Bavaro All-Inclusive Resort & Spa

I have over 300 nights at Marriott properties and this was by far the worst….. and it’s not even close. Check in took 4 hours (keep in mind we spent about $5k on our rooms). Sounds like I’m exaggerating but I’m not. Got to the hotel at 1, didn’t get into my room until 5. Gave us the wrong room twice, no upgrades for Platinum members, lied to use about multiple things during check in, no information given about events etc. etc. List goes on but I would never recommend anyone to stay here. Facilities were mostly nice and clean but the whole resort floods and leaks water. It rained most of the trip, not the resorts fault of course, but they handled it horrible. Slippery floors everywhere that were extremely dangerous even for a younger people. Main lobby had at least 5 places where they put buckets to catch rain leaking through the ceiling. The building that are rooms were in had plaster falling from the ceilings due to the rain. No drainage throughout the whole resort so we walked around in 4 inches of rain at times. Food… I never expect good food at all inclusive resorts but at least something edible. Food was GARBAGE. Microwaved everything it seems. Buffet was the only place you can pick and choose to find edible food. Steak house was an absolute joke. If you want to laugh, try the ‘crab cakes’ there. Give me an air fryer and some frozen food from Costco and I’d make much much better food than anything available on the resort. We were also over charged on our reservations when I compared to the emails I received from Marriott. I can keep going on but you should get the point by now to not stay at this hotel. Spend the extra money and go to the Hard Rock.

Service is not good in general , kind people, nothing to say about people at all. However, there are few things they should fix. The room service is not good, they made my room and didn’t change the soap, towels, and the room wasn’t organized, they just made the bed, the mini bar was empty, however the person took the $10 tip we let there. Food is ok, not very good. The cocktails are not well done, the quality is very low. The recreation is average, nothing to do at night unless you visit the casino or the pub. The gym is very good and you can find clean towels and water, also the Spa is cool. This is a very average hotel, don’t expect to visit a 5 start hotel because it’s not one of them.

This trip was absolutely mind-blowing…however, not in the way you may think. I am currently on my third out of fifth day at this Royalton Bavaro and may I say, I’m glad I did 5 days instead of 7 because this is a disgrace. Dead roaches, mice, and lizards all over the resort and in the pools, ceilings and tile floating around after falling into the water. If you aren’t Diamond Club forget coming here and don’t waste your money. Without Diamond club, your first day is already wasted away in a humid lobby being told “one more second” for 3-4 hours. The food is absolutely horrendous, no flavor, hard to keep down, and I’m sorry but how is the worst steak at the whole resort the liquid-smoke cooked steak from the STEAKHOUSE. If you wanna give it a try; plan a day trip, get to the resort at 3am to check-in, book reservation for hibachi at 7 and hope for the best, then leave immediately after dinner….that’s if the door handle in your room isn’t broken.

My family and I just returned from Royalton on 4/5/24. First, I would like to say the positive aspects of the resort. It's very kid-friendly, with multiple pools and a big lazy river with several slides throughout. The buffet provided great food items for picky kid eaters, such as chicken nuggets, pizza, fries, and nachos. We were able to relax and enjoy our stay, feeling completely secure at the resort. However, we did notice that some additional lighting could enhance the safety of the walking path. The biggest negative of this resort was that some staff members preferred to serve Caucasian guests over us. We had several experiences of this and witnessed it happen to other African American guests. The next thing was being asked to participate in a "welcome breakfast" by staff member Carina. She begged our family to attend the breakfast where we would hear a presentation about the new 'Diamond Program." She told us it would be 30 minutes, so we agreed. She hounded us the morning of to make sure we would attend, then, before walking into the office, she said, "The meeting is actually 90 minutes, but please still attend cause I need this to certify my job, and you will receive a $50 voucher afterward." We felt like we couldn't say no and attended the presentation, which was a sales pitch for purchasing a vacation package. we were lied to and wasted 2.5 hours of our morning. Other things to note: I decided to take a bath one night and realized the drain did not open to let the water out. Maintenance had to be called. Also, dinner reservations fill up very quickly. We had to be in line 15 minutes before the restaurant opened to add our name to the list. We found this out after getting dressed and walking down to dinner the day before, only to be told that they were booked for the night. After doing all of that, the food could have been better.

Things were bad here during the pandemic and they are still bad. Unless you want to eat at the buffet, you will starve. The hostess at the restaurants are experts at turning guests away. I tried to make a reservation and they told me it needed to be made the same day at 6 pm. Then when I came at 6 pm the next day I was told that there was no availability. Unacceptable. The amenities of the hotel should be available for all guests.

The housekeeping, waiters and dining staff were friendly and did a great job. People were very friendly. The ice machines were down in our building the entire week even after mentioning it every day. Rooms and buildings need updating. Our family had a great time. 7 people. The food was terrible!!!! Room service food was bad. French fries were the worst I have ever tried to eat. All in all it is a fun place with terrible food..I would rate it a 3.5 star property

Overall: This resort was better than our expectations. Check is in at 4pm- our flight landed us at the resort around 2:30pm so we had to wait about 45 minutes for our room to get ready. This wasn't very difficult as we had enough things to go explore - the resort is huge! We were traveling as a family of 4 (2 children ages 6 and 4). We were not Diamond Club Members - important to note as they get special perks of having their Butler make reservations for the restaurants. Cons: There will be people who ask if you have been given your welcome bag - this is just to get you to listen to their version of a timeshare talk - if you're into that, by all means go for it. We found the team about pushy, especially a man name Mike, who was quite rude when our kids were asking to go to the pool so we were asking to end the presentation. We found the food at most restaurants were mediocre at best - great value for all inclusive however. Pros: We booked a junior swim out room - highly recommend with children our age - they absolutely LOVED it and our room ended up being right beside the kids pool with the slide and by the lazy river (which is where we spent the majority of our days). There are a lot of pools to choose from which is great with children. Meals: We loved eating most of our meals at the main buffet where you have breakfast. Each day they put on a different theme so you're not getting the same food each night. Tuesday was fantasy night which was steak and lobster and that was a nice surprise! There are plenty of options for picky eating kids too. Ours aren't very picky but they have your tried and true chicken nuggets and fries, pizza etc. There can be line ups, from the reviews we read for the restaurants but with our kids, we found that we made it for 6ish and beat the lines for all the restaurants. Our kids usually eat at 5pm. All restaurants open for dinner at 6pm typically. The coffee/gelato bar was a great snack place for the kids to grab a muffin or ice cream in between lunch and dinner. The pizza grill by th lazy river is only good if you go first thing when it opens for lunch. Oceanside's lunch buffet was a great option too! The lazy river - you don't need to bring your own floaty they do have them but if it's busy they get all taken up so it's up to you if you'd like to. We did bring one but ended up leaving it in our room for the most part as we packed life jackets for the kids and they much preferred having those on and going down the lazy river. There are also several slides through the lazy river which the kids loved going on over and over again - it was definitely a bit! Overall, we loved the resort and would highly recommend for those with children.

Check-in process is extremely slow. Took us 1 hour with only 3 people in front of us. No upgrades, said it was fully booked but resort was half empty. Rooms were decent but needs an update Service is terrible unless you're flashing money in their face for tips. Only nice people are trying to sell you things and don't work for the resort Welcome gift is a timeshare presentation. 90 mins but they tried to keep going. We had a timer set to leave at 90 mins. They showed us a diamond club suite and all the butlers were sitting on their phones not working Room service is terrible. Took 2 hours to get grilled cheese from 1 building over. We kept calling but they said it's on the way for 30 mins Hotel has a lazy river but not enough floats. They also don't tell you they have any so you'll buy them. Buffet food is terrible. Restaurant food was decent but they're snobby with wait times even though the resort was barely 60% capacity. Hibachi restaurant needs reservations but they don't tell you that they also have tables that don't require reservations (just not hibachi food but still Japanese, has a different menu). Only way we found out was asking a waitress while eating hibachi. Drinks are literally watered down. They actually pour water from a bottle in them (they did it in front of us)