Royalton Bavaro Resort & Spa

We traveled to this resort at the end of May, as a party of 13, friends and family. We all enjoyed our vacation and thought that the grounds at the resort were beautiful. What made our stay amazing, was having Eduardo Campechano as our butler. He made sure we always had the dining reservations that we needed and requested, which with a party of 13, you would think would be hard, but he always came through! Any room issues, he was always on top of it. And we celebrated two birthdays and he did a great job of helping us celebrate those! Eduardo is the best!!

We have just returned from a fantastic two weeks. We came with 24 guests for our wedding. Our butler Ryan was fantastic he really cares about his families and will go above and beyond for you. Thank you Ryan for making our holiday and wedding so special. The food in the hotel is wonderful there is so much choice and really something for everyone. The pools are fab our fave highlight was the lazy river which is anything but lazy with the water falls and cannons. Hours of fun. The evening shows are great and different every night on a weekly cycle.

This was the first time we ventured to a Royalton compared to the Hyatt brand which we normally stay at. It was a TOTAL disappointment for several reasons. There really were no Pros....only Cons. We travel regularly as a family or just as a couple. We have been to Sandals and generally stay at the Secrets or Dreams brands. Royalton was nowhere near the class of hotel we are accustomed to. First, after booking, we decided we wanted to upgrade to the Diamond to get a butler suite. After doing a chat online and emailing back and forth with a representative, I paid an extra ~$2,500 for the upgrade. Upon arrival, we took a private transport to the hotel. The area leading up to the hotel was a total dump. Trash was EVERYWHERE. This is the first thing you see when you arrive which was a total disappointment and it was literally directly outside the resort. Once we got to the resort, we were taken by golf cart to the Diamond area and checked in. This was totally underwhelming. Old food that was out, no real bar over in that area. There were alcohol bottles out that a waitress would come take and make you a drink in the back. The food laid out look like it had been out there for hours. Our "Butler" was introduced to us. We were given his WhatsApp contact information to communicate and then he brought us over to our room. I immediately noticed we were going to the regular area and not the Diamond section since I had done my research ahead of time. The room was run down. Nothing fantastic at all and just bleh. I asked our Butler and he indicated we paid for just the Butler upgrade and NOT the actual room upgrade. $2,500???? for a Butler? What??? This was a total sham. I immediately emailed the contact with the resort about my upgrade and she indicated the same thing. So I paid that extra immense amount of cash to have a WhatsApp chat with a guy who was being shared with tons of other guests? The ONLY thing the Butler did was get us reservations for dinner. He was nice...don't get me wrong. But we needed things for the room which were not delivered in a timely fashion either. The Diamond pool was nice and we met a great staff member (sorry I don't remember his name) who attempted to help us get chairs for the family. Every morning he greeted us and attempted to help us out. Some of the other wait staff near the Diamond pool were ok. Nothing really fantastic though. An entire group of Cubans on vacation took over the entire pool bar at the Diamond pool. We were told the day before we arrived, they were being extremely inappropriate with their behavior in an intimate fashion and the security did nothing about it. They brought their own large speaker and Hookah which they put up on the bar and were smoking and doing whatever they wanted. It was super frustrating. Enough of us began to complain to our Butlers that they finally told the group to turn off the music and remove the Hookah but it already ruined the atmosphere. We literally had to beg to get food delivered to us. We have been to several resorts where you order food from your waiters/waitresses and they bring it to you at your seat. We were literally only able to do this one time. And unfortunately it happened when a storm rolled in. There is a pizza place at the resort that you can go order pizzas. They were great BUT you had to wait in line....pay....then come back like 30 minutes later to get it....but you had to wait in line again to get your food. The sargassum at the beach was awful when we went. Nothing we or the resort can do about that. They did their best to clean it up but there is only so much they can do. We got a massage on the beach and it was fantastic. The resort is a long rectangle with the beach being at the one end and the entrance to the resort at the other. So, if your room is at one end, all the shops and activities and nightly entertainment is at the complete opposite end along with several of the restaurants. The walk from the beach to the area where they do the nightly entertainment is about a third of a mile if not more. So if you have mobility issues, consider that when booking here if you are close to the ocean. LUCKILY, there is at least one bar along the way so you can stop and grab a drink while you walk. The kids and I did dozens of laps in the Lazy River which was by far one of the better things about the resort. Our Butler did help us get floats from other people who were leaving which was nice rather than spending a bunch more money on floats at the gift shops. There's a bar you can pop by and grab a drink as you float too. The surf simulator thing was also fun for the kids. The view of the room was nothing great. The rooms themselves were just ok. Nothing to write home about. We were given snacks on the first day and then after that we had to beg for them. I would run into the lady with the snack cart in the hallways and ask for extra snacks and she would give me tons but none were just left in the room for us. Since this was our first Royalton trip, I have no other Royalton to compare it to. We are probably going to stay in the Hyatt realm (Dreams and Secrets). If you are looking for a 4-5 star resort.....this is not.

I’m going to make it brief, the food, service and evening entertainment was amazing… rooms were lovely and clean our rep and concierge were both really helpful! Bar staff infact all the stall were really polite some funny 😁 Some days the beach did have seaweed and the next day they’d be none…o and the sunbeds were really comfy 😁

Our room was a swim out and was amazing! The food was good especially the hibachi! We were not diamond club and still treated like royalty! We will be back!