Royalton Luxury Hotels review: Family vacation

My wife and I and 4 adult children stayed at the Royalton Bavaro Feb 18-25 this year (2024). We chose this for a variety of reasons. We were thinking Punta Cana as the weather is more likely good at this time of year than Cancun, in our experience, and the mix of reasonable food alternatives (based upon reviews) and activities seemed appealing. Our experience with all inclusive resorts started with family oriented Club Meds when the kids were young and graduated through Beaches, Dreams, Iberostars, Hyatt Zivas, Moon Palace to now more often Secrets, Hyatt Zilara, etc. Almost all of these stays have been in Mexico or Dominican although there have been a few other destinations in there.

First the Good:

1 - The open air “main square” off the lobby entrance, ringed with comfortable seating, is a fabulous place to hang out, especially in the evening. We were there almost every evening, enjoying a cocktail from Martini’s (highly recommended), taking in a show/entertainment, sometimes while waiting for dinner, sometimes again after dinner.

2 - The resort grounds are generally nice and although it’s big and not close from lobby to beach, most of the shared amenities/services/pools are easily accessible down the middle of the resort.

3 - A Punta Cana beach is typically world class and this was, as expected. Beautiful sand, gentle surf.

4 - Food wasn’t great (see below) but kudos to Zen Restaurant - not for their teppanyaki (which is really not good) but for their a la carte service which is almost a secret. At a resort in which the norm is some line at an early morning hour (for a reservation at Zen Teppanyaki), or some uncertainly long wait for a seat at all the others, this one seemed to always be able to accommodate. Shout out to the staff on restaurant reception who came and got us at Martini’s when they could seat us, and Felix and Pedro for excellent service while at our table. The secret is out now!

Now the Bad:

I took notes along the way of the stay. There were a lot. Some big issues, but also some small that would have otherwise gone unmentioned, but formed a pattern - here are the common themes and specific examples.

1 - The resort is TIRED (except for the open air main square, which looks modern, and is kept nicely). Specifically:

- Furniture in the rooms are falling apart; bedside stands were falling off the wall (most items placed on them would slide onto the floor), anything metallic/chrome was rusted (with permanent rust marks on the tile floor), cabinetry doors were falling off, and the base of the wood cabinets (touching the floor) were delaminating and moulding; just not a very "high end" vibe

- Shower grout was mouldy

- Cockroaches in our room - first time I trapped one under a glass on the bathroom counter so cleaning staff could see; second time I trapped one under a glass in the shower and when we came back, the roach and glass were gone but our room had a distinctly bad bug spray smell - apparently they fumigated without telling us which was a little disconcerting; especially since someone was concerned enough with the fumes that they left the patio door open and the bathroom fan on; The third cockroach was in bed - my wife showed me how she had killed it in the night.

- Some concerns with electrical load issues; breaker for entire room (or perhaps multiple rooms?) gets tripped (you can hear it) then resets; lights that were on come back on, but AC does not - we came back to a very hot room more than once

- Our building elevator was broken for most of our stay; I guess it happens, but is it a sign of poor maintenance? - I only mention this given the volume of other issues that seem to indicate neglect

- The two tennis courts are now one. One has been converted to pickle ball and so is new, but the other has this indoor/outdoor carpeting stuck to it, that has shrunk dramatically in it’s life and now is a collection of seams that provide interesting bounces and corners that are tripping hazards; there are 4 adult racquets to borrow, one of which is broken.

2 - The resort facilities and services are insufficient for the number of guests.

- On our very first day, we could not get towels; at all; all day; tried many times; there weren’t any until available anywhere until at the end of the day (sunset) when we left the pool area and were able to get 4 for the 6 of us to share; this problem persisted for the week, and was made worse by the hoarding of towels by guests; this is a frustrating but I guess understandable response to there being not enough towels; on our last day there was a policy adopted which I assume was an attempt to address the issue - they started taking room numbers and comparing to a printed master list - didn't seem to address the issue, but sure created long lines

- Unfortunately this hoarding mentality was not confined to towels as having too few sun chairs around the pool and beach led to some frustrating behaviours. Unfortunately our experience at some (not all) resorts is that it’s not uncommon to see chairs being claimed at sunrise but not used for most of the day - this became the expectation at the Royalton Bavaro during our stay. But we also experienced our umbrellas stolen from our reserved chairs (and therefore we had no shade at our chairs), we also had our cushions taken from our reserved chairs; worse still, we witnessed an argument between families over sun chairs which was really disconcerting and speaks to the kind of environment and behaviours as a result of the lack of chairs/services available given the population of the resort.

- The stress associated with the scarcity of services ran counter to the objective of rest and relaxation, but wasn’t just about sun chairs.

- There are only 8 putters on-site for the mini-golf course, 2 of which seemed to be checked out always by the entertainment staff. It was frustrating to walk all the way to the kids club (20 minute round trip walk from the beach) to check out clubs, but having none available (all of them checked out), and yet there was nobody using the mini-golf course. I believe, like the towels this was an unfortunate, but in some ways logical response to the expectation that putters would not be available when you wanted them; because guests had not had a good experience getting clubs and when they did get clubs, I guess they held on to them.

- Same for waiting in line to book the Zen teppanyaki - only way to do it is to book with an individual at a desk near the lobby, beginning at 8 am, which means standing in line from 7 am. Same with Hunter steak house - same day only, but unless you start lining up at 5 pm for a place to eat that same night you’re probably not getting in. And neither were worth the wait - steak house was not good - steaks ok, sides ice cold, service took 2 hours, Zen teppanyaki proteins were over cooked and over salted

- Same for the buffet in the morning - 15-20 minute line waits at the egg stations; bacon only placed in one spot that people line up for like it’s rations and because of that, people take full plates of bacon back to their table for everyone at their table; people butting in line - really not the kind of experience you want on holiday.

3 - The service is inconsistent at best, and really quite awful sometimes.

- Started with check-in - took 45 minutes at 2:00 pm but then rooms not available at 2:45 when checkin completed (rooms not officially available until 3:00 pm); so they took us to the sports bar Score to get lunch, which took almost 2 hours for burgers and fries, and then when we went back to complete check-in we were asked to line up again - another 45 minutes so after arriving at 2:00 we finally had our rooms by 6:00 pm

- Almost impossible to get a waiter at the buffet restaurant to give you coffee and water at your table, and yet there is nowhere else to get it yourself.

- We had a particularly poor time at Score one evening - we were looking to have an after dinner drink, perhaps play pool; there was one bartender on hand but he was gone for 15-20 minutes at a time and seemed altered (probably drunk); when I asked him for our drinks, he became belligerent, shoved the gin bottle at me, and told me to pour my own; this made for an uncomfortable and unnecessary confrontation. When there was what looked like a manager around, I asked about the bartender; I was told that serving staff are not allowed to drink so he wasn't, that he was probably at the washroom when not behind the bar, and chalked up the incident to poor communication - english not his first language; I felt dismissed and definately not heard

- Generally speaking the attitude of the service staff seemed neutral at best with some downright not nice individuals in customer facing positions; many staff seemed really not happy to be there; service can be hard but I point the finger at management for this - hiring, training and then coaching and managing staff is hard and doesn't happen in it's own, and when it's not done well, it's obvious."