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

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

13160 reviews

• 

  See you again in 2026

  We had an amazing holiday and felt very welcome from the moment we arrived. A special mention to Angela, who was fantastic throughout our stay — always arranging and booking our meals and greeting us with a smile on her face. The hotel is absolutely amazing, the staff are all so kind, and nothing was ever too much trouble. We cannot wait to return in December 2026 for another two wonderful weeks.

  Jan 20, 2026
• 

  A disappointment

  First the dealbreaker issue for me at any resort: Never, ever stay at a resort where aggressive chair hogs claim all of the beach seats and most of the pool chairs early in the morning — and then disappear for hours. Never stay at a resort where staff allows (and in fact encourages) that. It makes for an awful vacation. It’s a sign of a lower quality resort and signals a bad vacation experience unless you enjoy “hunger games” for chairs when you should be sleeping. Now, if you want the detail on everything else here, read on: When booking, even with Marriott status and the fact that this hotel is an upscale “Autograph Collection” brand in Marriott, I was a bit worried about what our stay would be like based on many recent (negative) reviews.  So I forked out even more money to upgrade to Diamond Club, the supposedly luxurious hotel-within-a-hotel that would offer unparalleled service and exclusive amenities.  I wanted to ensure a great vacation. My price including Diamond Club for our family of three over New Years week: about $1,100 US a night.  A lot of money.  A big splurge.  A huge and expensive treat for my family.  It was a massive disappointment. First, the good: * The resort is generally nice. Not luxury, but perfectly adequate and fairly well kept. * Our Diamond Club butler was nice, and tried his best to smooth out our many problems during our stay. Thanks to him, we were at least able to get restaurant reservations each night — which others said is nearly impossible for ‘regular’ guests who don’t pay extra for DC. * The lazy river is great. A really nice amenity. * Most (but not all) of our restaurant experiences at dinner were pretty good: Hunter Steakhouse, Grazie and Rio. Friendly servers, and decent food quality. * Most of the staff work hard. Many of the staff are very friendly, and a few are outstanding ambassadors for the property. (Servers in some of the restaurants - except for Oceanside - really stand out as fantastic.) * Drinks are free-flowing. There was never a problem at the bars, and rarely much of a wait. The Bad: * The check-in experience was the worst and the most painful that I’ve ever experienced. An AWFUL way to start a vacation. We were taken to the DC lounge and were seated at a table. They immediately took our passports. And then we were ignored for two hours. We sat and waited and waited. And waited some more. Responses to my questions asked of the stone-faced check-in staff were just curt, uninformative responses like “soon” or “almost” — over and over. Had I known it would take so long and be so painful, I at least would have sent my kids out to explore the resort for a while. But instead we obediently sat and waited in the small lounge room where we were hastily plunked upon arrival. Weeks later, and I’m still furious at how bad it was. * The Diamond Club pool and beach. Hey, one of our exclusive Diamond amenities … that I had paid extra for! Well, there were no seats for us. Staff who I asked for help told me it was up to me to find seats on my own. And to “try earlier tomorrow”. After that first experience, we didn’t bother with the DC pool ever again — it wasn’t worth the stress or hassle or the disappointment. * Lack of help at the pools: I found two un-reserved chairs at the ‘regular’ pool (not near each other). They’re really big, really heavy and quite bulky. I asked for help moving them — and was ignored. I moved them myself, and the half-dozen staff that I struggled to carry them past all avoided eye contact and ignored me. Nobody ever asked if I needed help or offered to assist. It was infuriating. * There are food and beverage servers at the pools. How you get service from them, though, remains a mystery. In our week, we were offered served once. Just one … single … time. But that was only after I chased someone down and asked them for service. (FWIW, I tipped everyone well, so that wasn’t the issue.) Instead, we just fetched our own drinks and food all week. No, not the end of the world, but it was so very frustrating when other families received frequent attention and were treated to great service — and we were ignored and had to self-serve. * Arrival at Zen Tepanyaki was as a gong show, and hugely stressful. There was absolute chaos at check-in, and the line of people with reservations stretched out of sight. We stood, waiting, for a full hour — in the middle of all of the chaos and noise — until we were finally seated. (Your turn to enter is announced when the hostess screams your room number at the top of her lungs.) Once taken inside, the table hadn’t been cleaned — so I found napkins to clean it myself. (In fairness, afterwards, the ‘show’ by the chef and the dinner were great.) * Oceanside is the exclusive, enhanced breakfast restaurant — just for Diamond Club guests. Another special perk of our paid upgrade, hooray! It was beyond frustrating. I was only able to get a full cup of coffee on *one* of three days that we attempted to dine here. Day 1: a half cup of coffee was all that was available, and the buffet had lots of empty serving platters … where food used to be. Day 2: good service, good selection, and we ate well! Then on Day 3: We were given a water, but the. nobody served us at all. After sitting, and waiting, and then waiting some more, I tried to find a clean cup and some coffee myself at a servers’ station. A waiter then screamed at me: “¡Hay que esperar!” I was done. We walked out immediately. We never went back. For the rest of our stay, we skipped breakfast. So much for all-inclusive luxury. * Finally, the standard excuse: When I asked for help or expressed my concerns, I was told “oh it’s high season” or “well we’re really busy”. I paid massively-inflated high season prices, and apparently was just expected to accept their problems, lengthy waits and the lack of service. All for $1,100 US a night. They happily took my ‘high season’ money, but what we received was totally unacceptable. Our room type was an optimistically-branded “Presidential Suite”.  It was good enough, but it would simply be called a regular one-bedroom suite in any other Marriott branded property.  I couldn’t tell what extra amenities in the room - if any - were upgraded thanks to having paid extra for Diamond Club. The room itself was in need of a bit of TLC and maintenance. I won’t be back.  I won’t stay at a Royalton again, and really can’t recommend it. And it’s best to be wary of the “Autograph Collection” brand in the future — I’m not sure that it represents any assurance of quality or luxury from Marriott.   If you still choose to come, pack your patience. Also, note that they have staff members contact guests post-stay asking for a positive review to be posted here — and suggesting they’ll be personally recognized and rewarded if you submit a positive one. Take the glowing reviews with a grain of salt.

  Jan 20, 2026
• 

  We'll be back!

  GREAT way to start the year with my girlfriend, and it truly felt like visiting paradise. The facilities, restaurants, and overall services were exceptional. Every member of the Diamond club staff treated us wonderfully—always smiling, attentive, and genuinely committed to providing the best service possible. Espescially Rossi at the check in, Freylin our butler, OMG Rueben + Willy our favorite bartentenders and our entertainer Charlene ! We will definitely be coming back with the whole family next time.

  Jan 20, 2026
• 

  Very disappointing

  Last day today at hotel ! Well last year we stayed in the royalton in Jamaica and it was definitely five star so we thought we would book again and come to the Royalton in Punta Cana well it was very disappointing ,one night our shower was leaking through the ceiling through electrics and it took so long for someone to come out, it was ridiculous even then they didn’t sort it properly. The food was okay. I ended up having diarrhoea and sickness so I was very sceptical about eating the food, the trips we booked were ok , .if u do book a trip please book the horse riding and the waterfall. It was the most amazing day. We found some staff very rude. We ordered drinks and often we were forgotten about entertainment was very poor. We saw on the website that there was lots of entertainment but didn’t get that the white party was very good so I would definitely recommend that. But we were in bed by 9pm most nights as nothing to do with!would I stay here again no would have to be the answer to that

  Jan 19, 2026
• 

  pleasantly surprised

  Was not one that we were planning on returning to because of the size and the problems with getting reservations for a group of 20. The latter turned out to not be an issue as we found Adoni the first day who made all our reservations for us. Definitely money well spent. The resort was very clean, food was excellent for the resort food that it was. Everybody loved the Mexican place by the lazy river. Renting the Flowrider was reasonable and very worth the money Beach was beautiful and clean and service was great. Downside: check-in was terrible and no room reservations and requests were honored. Took three hours just to get us in three building buildings. Resort is very big and there is a lot of walking. Especially for breakfast where there’s only one choice if you’re not DC.

  Jan 19, 2026