Royalton Bavaro, An Autograph Collection All - Inclusive Resort & Casino

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

12425 reviews

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  A distasteful resort - read below

  I’ll get straight to the point. This resort is terrible. Sure every all inclusive will have its bad moments, or one time events. But no, this resort was the most dysfunctional, unsatisfactory resort my family had EVER been too. Let’s start from the beginning. Firstly, we got to the resort and checked in. We requested a room closer to the pool and main activities. Per a major injury. However , the “accessible” room location was over 12 minutes away from the pool area. A long walk for someone with a acl tear. So we switched rooms. This room was fine, although it was dated and lacked modern features. Later that night we went to the buffet. As we walked through the crowded dining hall. The food was layed out cleanly, but note. There were minimal American food options. As we sat down and started eating, we all unanimously agreed the food was terrible. That’s an understatement. The buffet was a skip for all of us. Throughout the week we went to the pool. It was average. And the swim up bar was crowded and loud, however the workers manning it were exceptional. So yes, the drink service was good. They lack a near universal experience of food service by the pool. And lack options for poolside food. A crowded burger truck - or a a crowded 10 minute wait buffet with small options. The lazy river isn’t so “lazy” considering it’s impossible to not get wet. A checkpoint of water features, some unavoidable will get you and your drink soaked with water. - later through the week, Wednesday and Thursday we moved rooms again. The room had broken AC, and the outlets were broken. Therefore the maintenance crew offered the option of moving rooms. - as the crew put us on hold. It took 15-20 minutes for NO answer. So, we had to call the separate front desk. So we carried our luggage across the building, to building 14. That room was better, however the shower didn’t work fully. The bathroom door didn’t close as well. Moving on - the steakhouse was mediocre at best. The steak charred, and not coming the preferred temperature. The ranch not being ranch, and slow service from overworked employees. The hibachi restaurant I will say was quite delicious, and I would go again. The chefs have a talent. The white rice however tasted funky. Next day - Thursday. We went to a sports bar for lunch, Score. The environment was classy, the pool table was broken with only one working. Onto the food. We ordered the following: salad, grilled cheese, quesadillas. All of the above were the worst food we’ve had in months. The salad was bland, the grilled cheese was dry, and the quesadilla was disgusting. It was a tortilla fried slightly with what seemed to be a kraft Mac and cheese slice slapped onto the tortilla. The worst restaurant out of them all. That wraps up the dining experience. Earlier that day, a pitch for timeshares. In which they offered 2 free spa entry’s. As we wanted our whole family to visit it together. A employee offered us two tickets for $30 dollars in cash. They didn’t mention age, and in fact it was asked if a 14 year old me never could participate and it was considered “okay” so as we walked into the spa and attempted to get hydrotherapy they said the 14 year old member couldn’t participate. Even though the member was promised too. The member was taller than the adult. Eventually with negotiation, the manager kindly helped us. Again, the workers are great here. The hydrotherapy lacked modern technology and was basic. But it was good. Overall a decent spa experience. Onto the checking out. They make you cut your bracelet off. The WiFi was heavily inconsistent and slow. This was common among the trip. With frequent disconnections. That’s a wrap on the trip. Overall 2/10. The only good memories were the pool, getting tan, and the workers being the best. Wouldn’t recommend.

  Jun 14, 2025
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  The Perfect Honeymoon

  We stayed at the Royalton Bavaro for 3 weeks for our Honeymoon. We emailed the hotel before arrival to upgrade to Diamond Club. I am glad we did this as when we arrived, they took us straight to the Diamond Club Reception and gave us a drink whilst they checked the room and checked us in. Our butler was busy when we arrived so Adonis escorted us to the room and gave us a detailed introduction to the hotel. He was very nice and knowledgeable and was also funny. The room was clean and was as exactly as described on the website. We stayed in building 19 which was perfect as it was close to the beach and the diamond club pool. We used the diamond club pool every day as it was quieter. Railin introduced himself on the first morning and would make up our sunbeds and top up our water. He was very helpful and was always checking in to see if we needed anything. Santiago and Miguel at the diamond club swim up pool were so good. They were always positive, full of energy, and really polite. We drank far too many shots of mamajuana, baby Guinness and mini beers. For lunch we would use the beach restaurant where nestor would always be full of energy. Constantly making sure we had a drink and would be at your table with a fresh one before you finished without even needing to ask. The lady who is pregnant (sorry I couldn't remember her name) was also very good. She would look after us there and if we went for breakfast at the oceanside. The omelette was 5 star! A la cartes, we didn't really have a bad meal, enjoyed all the restaurants and even enjoyed the buffet on the nights we used it. The only bad part was having to wait outside the restaurant. At times it seemed very disorganised, and we would be waiting 30 minutes to get seated. The room between Japanese and steakhouse was very warm, so advice, grab a drink from the martini bar before joining the queue. We did find the later we ate, the worse the queue would be and if you are early for your booking, you again dont wait as long. We spoke to the tui rep who organised a free taxi to and from a souvenir shop that's 5 minutes away and a lot cheaper than the shop in the hotel. Definitely worth going for gifts from there. So we had the best butler in our opinion. The legend that is Joel! He really made our holiday the best. He text every morning to see how we were, and would always come and speak to us when he started his shift as well to confirm the restaurant, make sure the room was OK etc. We needed more coffee mate and he would go and check and send us a picture of all the coffee mate he had put in the room for us. When he realised it was our honeymoon, he decorated the room with candles, petals and a sash on the door. It was really nice and appreciated! I burned my shoulders quite bad and they blistered, he went to a local shop before coming in to work to get a fresh aloe leaf for me to use. He would not take any money for this and just did it out of the goodness of his heart! Me and my wife really enjoyed speaking to Joel. Hearing the stories about his family and he was always having a laugh with us. Genuinely one of the nicest people we have met and by far the best example of customer service that either of us have received. He went above and beyond to make our stay perfect and we will be forever grateful for everything Joel did for us. Thank you to all the staff at Royalton for the best 3 weeks! We hope to be back soon with our family.

  Jun 14, 2025
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  Honeymoon

  Kelvin our butler for the five days was very professional. He helped secure our dinner reservations every night and made it possible to obtain chairs by the pool every morning. He checked in with us constantly to see if we were ok and if we needed anything. Kelvin takes his job very seriously and is an asset to the resort. We didn’t partake in a lot of the activities the resort offers. We were there to relax and enjoy the weather, the pool and eat and drink. That was accomplished. Thank you. Doug/Sandi Vanderhoof

  Jun 13, 2025
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  Please read this review

  AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! I know myself I tend to right the off bad review here and there when looking at hotels. But please take this one into account. From the very start is shown signs of how badly this place is run. It took us 2 hours (heard a lot of similar stories) to check in. There were 6 people in the queue!! Then we get to our rooms and at first glance they seemed nice but then you start to see the cracks. Rust everywhere and to top it off a tile from the balcony fell off the wall and nearly hit my 4 year olds foot! (Pics to follow) The pool! For the first 3 days of our trip the pool was so murky you couldn’t see the bottom! And to top it off, it was covered in green Algae (pics to follow) I notified management a couple of times and they didn’t seem to care. Said they will get someone to look at it, I was there for 5 hours and not one person came. Also turned my clothes and skin green!! They offered to clean my clothes for free which I accepted ( still green) and then at checkout they tried to charge me! Staff. There where a handful of staff that where sweet bit as a whole they just didn’t care. Some waiters were insanely rude. Service most of the time was terrible, had to remind servers for drinks constantly. Restaurants . Good luck gettin a table anywhere if you haven’t payed an insane amount extra to be diamond club. We only was able to get a table at the Italian the whole time we was there. Literally could never get a table because diamond get first pic. The food in general was absolutely shockin, I basically ate like a child all week as all the food was soo bad! Beach. I’ve been to a 5 star before literally along the same beach it was insanely good, but this one! So so bad, full of seaweed and hotel did absolutely nothing to clear it like neighbouring hotels where doing. (Pics to follow). Also you get absolutely hounded by sales people on the beach and actually in the resort. We were all signed out of this holiday just a few days in and we just had to stay in a place we didn’t want to be. Far from 5 star, so so disappointing.

  Jun 12, 2025
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  They’re lucky to get 1 star

  Rooms are dated, scratched and dirty. See images. Our 4 year old son’s bed has stains on the sheets, we had to call 3 times for someone to come and change these (they finally did at 9pm). Same applies to my 1 year olds cot - we had to call 3 times before it arrived again at 9pm. The rooms are dated, aren’t looked after with lots of chips and damages in the walls and tiles. The lift is dirty and broken (see images). Same applies for toilets. The service in the buffet restaurants is EXTREMELY slow and we were surrounded by dirty tables and floors. Every day it took several attempts to get a high chair. At breakfast our tea and coffee was served in paper cups and if we were lucky enough to get a mug, it was chipped. You won’t get a booking at Hunter unless your diamond or complain at guest services. Even when you get a booking for 7.30pm, you won’t even be sat at your table until 8pm. The same applies to Zen. Rio is continuously shut. The sports bar got our order wrong on more than one occasion. Went to the spa, steam room was out of service. The worst thing is my 1 YO son has a Soya and Dairy allergy - something we declared at the time of booking. We were given an allergy card which we presented to the restaurant hosts on arrival. On day 3 it transpired my son had been given soya oil filled bread on 3 occasions, soya oil based cereal on 3 occasions and to top it off, milk and soya based chicken nuggets - even after complaining about the bread. This resulted in him being covered in a rash and bad stomach. Something that lasts 2 weeks. The only good thing I can say is Angela (concierge) and Jose Miguel (head chef) are the only people who cared about us and did everything they could (after the above happened) to try and rectify our stay. All other staff don’t care and know nothing about allergies. Shocking.

  Jun 12, 2025