I visited Bahia Grand Bavaro for my first ever experience to the Dominican Republic. My girlfriend is originally from DR, but I had never been myself. We chose to take a couples trip here after reviewing the reviews and photographs. We had an absolutely PHENOMENAL time. The staff was very friendly and attentive, we loved the live performances, and there was always some type of activity going on to keep us entertained throughout the day. We loved Daniel's energy!! He was an amazing host and kept the energy so high! OH MY CHICKENN is my new favorite phrase! The grounds were well kept and our room was well kept as well. The absolute only complaint I could make is the food, as it seemed to get less great as the days went on; however, there was always something we could eat and we made the best of it, the food overall wasn't terrible just nothing too fancy. Overall, we had a 9/10 experience and would absolutely return. Even as an openly gay couple, we were treated with such kindness, respect and entertainment. It was an amazing first experience to DR for me, and an amazing first baecation for me and my baby!…
I nearly gave this hotel a one-star rating but decided to give it the benefit of the doubt since it did have a few redeeming qualities. However that being said, the problems with this hotel began from the very first moment we arrived and continued throughout our stay. We arrived to find long lines at the check-in counter and rather rude and not very helpful staff. We were not given our rooms until 8 PM, which was bad enough, but the room keys for two of the people in our group did not work so they had to return to the check-in counter to get that resolved. When they went back to check-in, instead of taking care of the problem, they were told that they had to stand in the long line of people again. Not a good policy. Then one couple from our group went to their room only to find it occupied, so they too had to go back to check-in. Another couple found that their room had not been made up and that the sheets were covered in blood. How awful. At breakfast the next day we asked for juice and coffee and were curtly told by the waiter that the only thing they brought to the table was coffee. They pointed at the juice machines and told us to get the juice ourselves. That was our experience during nearly our entire stay. The staff was apathetic and not very customer service oriented, even when tipped well. The food at the restaurants was mediocre at best as were the drinks. Service in the pool area and on the beach was far too slow, and again, the staff was not very friendly. And you can't say that it was all due to the language barrier because everyone in our group was a native speaker of Spanish. And another thing, we were charged for the COVID testing. We were recently in Mexico and this was a service that our hotel provided free of charge. We would not recommend this hotel to anyone.…
This all inclusive hotel has been the WORST experience in all our years of traveling! Do not go to this hotel!! 1. Their customer service is TERRIBLE! It took them 3 hours to get us a room when we arrived! 2. The room was dirty, specifically the toilet! 3. Our TV was broken and no matter how many times we asked to get it fixed, no one came to fix or replace it in our 10 days staying there! 4. The ceiling in our bathroom was leaking! 5. We tried to get our room changed and that also was impossible! 6. Our room was never cleaned in 10 days! We had to ask to get our trash thrown out! 7. We tried to speak to the manager but he/she was always too busy! 8. On rainy days we have requested an umbrella and got it on third day when it wasn’t needed anymore! We couldn’t get out of the room because it was pouring rain on some of the days! You will not find anyone at customer service to help you resolve your issues!!…
the hotel is part of a big resort (you'll find several hotels in it). absolutely gorgeous, clean alleys, nice people and lots of pool. beach is absolutely beautiful. BUT, the rooms are not clean, the food is very discusting (there are a lot of choices since there are differents restaurants). I would not recommand it if you are looking for a place to eat good. I ate mostly ice creams and m&ms from the expensive shops. People and staff are nice. good entertainment shows. beautiful beach. beautifuls pools. food and rooms not good
Here’s an extensive review. It will be respectful and no names will be mentioned. It will be going up in multiple places and management will get a copy. We stayed at Bahia Principe Bavaro April 23-30 2022. Staff: hit or miss. Mostly miss with some superstars sprinkled in. our maid was amazing. Some servers as well. guest services had 1 helpful person. The rest proved they shouldn’t be in guest services. Room: had its issues. Lamps and coffee machine weren’t working. Was resolved a day later. requested more beer and water instead of soda and we got it. Sadly we Didn’t have enough supplies to make a coffee all week. The rooms, furniture, bathroom, very dated. Sloppy work where repair/painting/caulking is concerned. Door had to be slammed shut everytime. Beach: nice beach. Not enough loungers or Palapas. I suspect the beach was fine before multiple other resorts were built. They eat up a good chunk of the beach. Sea weed was an issue. Didn’t get cleaned for the first 3 days. We stared at piles while they cleaned luxury resorts first.had multiple issues with people reserving chairs. Resulting in 2 arguments and in one case, intervention by security and guest services. Management has a policy. Reserving loungers is NOT allowed. There are signs that make this quite clear and they indicate towels will be removed and can be claimed at the front desk. They do not enforce this policy. They want to avoid confrontation. Essentially they pass the confrontation onto the guest. One morning I asked 4 people for help. I received NO help. Food: A-la-cartes were good. The other 4 nights at the buffet were absolutely pi$$ poor. That goes for Quality, Presentation and selection. Found bacon once at breakfast. The remainder of the week they used what looked like recycled bacon as garnish for recycled dinner dishes from the night before. (For breakfast?). 3 out of 4 of us had stomach issues for part of the week. We’ve never experienced this at any other Bahia resort. We had family staying at The Punta Cana resort, we snuck into their buffet one night and it was noticeably better. They reported the same thing to us every other night of the week. Airline rep: (BD experience, so not really Bahia related but maybe they shouldn’t be dealing with them if this is how they treat guests. We met with her on the 6th day to get our shuttle time. We missed the initial meeting because we don’t usually attend them and we were not doing excursions. She refused to give me my shuttle time without sitting through her excursion spiel. We left and called the company to obtain it. It seems A lot of effort is being put into the luxury resorts as well as the other grand resort. Bavaro is seriously lacking in all departments. Punta Cana isn’t far behind. Our family didn’t have their room cleaned all week because the maid could not get in. Nothing was done about it. We have been to both luxury and grand resorts in Mexico, Jamaica and here in the DR, this was our 9th time at Bahia. We have never left disappointed until now. All previous experiences were great. That’s what attracted us. We kept coming back. I don’t think there will be a 10th. Every visit had small issues. Nothing that couldn’t be resolved. This one had many, some resolved, some unresolved. Too many. They added up and resulted in a 2 star experience. Our airline held our credit from a cancelled pre-pandemic trip for 2 years. We just wasted that credit. $5300 gone. Unclear when we can travel again. We feel ripped off.…
We embarked on a second visit to The Dominican Republic, having visited in March 2020 and staying in a different resort at that time which we enjoyed. For this visit were stayed at the Bahia Principe Grand Bavaro which we seemed to realize to be at the bottom level of service at the 5 Bahia Principe resorts located on this property. Upon our arrival and upon entering our room we and the Bellman noticed quite a few items were missing. Our room had no toiletries at all, no shampoo, conditioner, body wash, or soap. Also no coffee, coffee creamer, there was a coffee pot in the room. We barely had linens in the bathroom, no washcloths at all and only one bath towel. After several calls to guest services with no one answering the telephone, I made an in person visit to them advising them of the missing items. On our first night there we did have a partial delivery of what we requested of coffee, 2 bath towels, and hand soap, still no other toiletries, no shampoo even to wash our hair. The next morning we met with the representative, we discussed our concerns, he suggested downloading the resort app on our phone to communicate with guest services and we should get a better response. On Wednesday morning we were able to obtain some of these bathroom items ourselves from the maid for our room who as most of the hotel staff did not speak English. We actually had to download an translation app to our cell phone to translate to the employees of this resort because most of them did not speak or understand English. We stayed in Punta Cana and Mexico before and have never had such language issues with employees, and guest services staff. We tried to make reservations at several restaurants as soon as we arrived but they were already fully booked. We only could make 1 reservation, at the ala-cart restaurants, when we asked guest services they responded that we were staying at the Bavaro and other resorts had priority seating. There was no mention of this when we booked our trip. The Greek restaurant was supposed to be more of a fine dining experience and we were told to dress accordingly, when we arrived men were wearing shorts and sandals. At many of our meals especially at the buffets we had to repeatedly ask for water, coffee and silverware several times before we received it. Several times we just got up and refilled our coffee ourselves when no server checked on us. On our 4th day there was a plumbing issue in our bathroom from the room above us, we heard water running in the bathroom coming from the ceiling above, pooling in the ceiling and bowing the tile and it was dripping onto the floor. We video-taped this and had to go to the lobby and talk to guest services because no one would answer the telephone. They sent a hotel employee to fix/investigate the severe problem. They left a mess of water and debris in our bathroom, did not clean up and told the front desk they could not fix the issue and we had to move our room at 8:30 pm that night. We did work with Guest services to obtain a new room which took time and we asked for help to move all our luggage from the bellmen. We were much happier in our new room it was better stocked. Many supply issues during our stay, we could not get any coffee creamer the entire week for our room. They did not have washcloths or blankets in our second room, we did send another request using the resort app. and items were delivered. The pool bar did not have Coke or Pepsi to mix drinks, when we requested specific types of drinks the bartender advised us these were not available in our area. Once again we realized that the color of our wristbands seemed to put us in a lower level for service. We asked employees for directions to areas of the resort, and they did not speak English and told us they did not understand. The resort bellmen were the most helpful during our visit. We definitely will not ever stay in this resort again and will not recommend to our family and friends.…
Terrible, terrible, Terrible. Staff are unbelievably negligent and couldn't care less about their guests. They appear to be asleep while standing. Put it this way, the lights are on but nobody is home. They just can't be bothered to assist a guest, no matter how small or large the issue. Upon arrival, our safe, television and air conditioning did not work. We were given a new room but the right room could not be found as the number given to the baggage person was incorrect. After going to the wrong building, then directed to a room which was dirty or being used, we finally found the right room. It took 3 days of waiting for an a la carte restaurant we wanted to book, we didn't get the reservation. No paper slip was found with the reservation, under our door, as promised. We were told we had to go to a different guest services desk to see if there was a table available and when we got there, we were told to go back to the first guest services desk. Avoid the guest service "supervisor" who's name starts with "V." She will make you run all over the place to book a meal. The avoidance in doing their job was frustrating and maddening. We shuffled back and forth like idiots, doing the staff's job. We discussed this with a manager, Christian something or other, and he gave us the run around as well when we asked him simple questions. He gave us VIP bracelets to get us off his back. Big deal - we got to go to the other resort's buffets. Same as the Bavaro buffet. No body there seems to know anything. We asked if children who stay at Esmeralda can swim in the Fantasia pool. We asked different staff and got 1. "yes," 1. "No," and 1. " I don't know," then back to "No." I was ready to go home after 4 days. Never have my husband and I seen such lack of desire to work and apathy from staff. We would stand at the bar and be ignored while staff chatted, danced or talked. We heard many complaints from others such as - one man booked 3 rooms and was only given two rooms. One woman had a lung disease and needed to use an electrical outlet for her medical machine. She was provided with an extension cord that sparked. One man had booked a special dinner for his wife's 50th birthday and the dinner never took place. This is not a resort, it is a circus. Worse vacation ever. I will never return to the Dominican. Save your money. Don't waste it on returning home more stressed than when you left. Disgrace.…
I have nothing but positive things to say about our stay at Bahia Principe Grand Bávaro. Firstly, the rooms are immaculate. The mini bar is restocked each day, the beds are made, and the bathroom is cleaned and restocked with essentials. Secondly, the buffet has many choices of cuisine with charming wait staff. The food is always fresh, delicious, and prepared with great presentation. But the most delightful part of our stay was the service, especially with the help of Marisol and Louicilien in reception of Bahia Principe Grand Bávaro. They were very respectful, and quick to assist us with our needs, including with extending our stay for an additional evening. We are more than happy and we'll definitely stay here again in the future :)
Location of the hotel, food selection, cleanliness absolutely 5 star; Unfortunately staff working in the hotel have no respect to guests and completely ignoring guests who don’t speak Spanish; that’s from frontline staff - reception, restaurant, bar. …for the 5 star hotel I would expect more.
The complex is very big and there are different hotels in the same area. There is nothing else but hotels on this part of the island. Sure the beach is beautiful but it’s a gated area and it feels you are in the Truman show. When you want to leave the hotel it’s almost impossible - it takes time to get a ride to the gate and they won’t let anyone inside the area that is not part of the hotel (for example no Uber). The a la carte restaurants were hard to book. During our stay there was 3 dinners included for a la carte but everything was full. At least we got a place on the Asian restaurant one night but there was not so much Asian about it. And the acoustic was horrible in that restaurant. The buffet is not so very good. It’s a lot of food but very noisy and quite tasteless. If you like cheap charter and just to stay inside the hotel area-this is your place to stay. Otherwise not.…
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