Iberostar Selection Bavaro Suites - All Inclusive

Customer ratings & reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

13585 reviews

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  They don’t prioritize families with young children

  I am giving one star for the lack of flexibility and professionalism. My wife, our 4-year-old son, and I traveled from Europe and stayed at a 5-star resort in Bavaro. Our cousin from Canada, whom we had not seen in years, was staying with her husband and children at Iberostar. To finally meet after so many years, we took an Uber from our resort to Iberostar’s reception to see our cousin and chat for about 30 minutes. However, when we arrived at the Iberostar gate, the security guard treated us as if we were criminals. He told us to wait while he conducted security checks to decide whether or not we could enter. He kept us waiting under the scorching sun at noon, with our small child, for about 20 minutes, only to then tell us that we were not allowed in and had to leave. Because of this experience, I will never stay at Iberostar again, anywhere in the world, and I will advise everyone else to avoid it as well. In the past, I used to stay at Iberostar, including in Varadero, Cuba, but from now on, I will never do so again.

  Mar 27, 2025
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  Great resort

  This was a very nice resort and I would recommend it. The rooms were a good size and well laid out for 3 people. The rooms were cleaned every day and we never ran out of anything. Our room was between the beach and quiet pool which was a perfect location. The walk to the main building was about 5 minutes. The pools and beach were great and we were able to get chairs every day. The chairs with shade were all taken by 8:00 though so you need to get up early. The ala carte restaurants had good food and we were able to get reservations into all 3 where they were required. The Mediterranean was good as well, but it was very quiet when we were there and no atmosphere. The buffets had a good selection with average quality. The one surprise was the Star Cafe is closed until 8:00am on Sunday mornings for cleaning, but I was able to get coffee in the main buffet that day. We liked the water stations throughout the property, but never found one with ice (the water was cold though). The fitness center was perfect for us and we used it every day.

  Mar 23, 2025
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  Low Standards Sold as Luxury

  - IHG Platinum status not honored - Early check-in request not honored - No upgrade given automatically, and when requested, moved to a suite that was the same category I had reserved - Number of discounts, and free activities were included but we were not told when we checked in, and a concierge told us to get vouchers towards the end of our stay, including the free daily activities that we had available. So, not only did we miss the benefits we were entitled to but to add insult to injury staff was telling us to go one place retrieve vouchers, another to review activities, etc. I am on vacation, not here to do your admin work, you need to have everything ready when I check in. - All-inclusive advertised as an elevated standard with gourmet restaurants. The restaurants ranged from average to really bad, food was average in most (except the Italian restaurant that was particularly bad), service was inattentive at best in all (e.g. needing to ask 4 times to get some water, waiter walking away while we were in the middle of trying to order our dinner), wine was terrible. In an All-inclusive with so-called elevated standards, I am expecting wines to be at least average, not something whose only reasonable use would be to wash windows. The only way to drink passable wine is to pay extra, and order from the wine list, which has a few interesting options but is highly questionable as the list shows wines in regions where the producer listed does not make any wine, or varietals that don’t correspond to the wines listed. When pointing out to the sommeliers, they were clueless => give me wine that is passable, and if you try to sell me $50-$250 bottles, at least do your homework, and have a sommelier that knows what they are doing. - Cabanas are available around the pool but not enough for everybody. Cabanas cannot be reserved but the hotel lets guests come at 7am and put a towel or personal item to “reserve” the cabana. So, you go to the pool at 8am, and all cabanas are reserved, yet there is nobody in or around the pool. People just go put their towel, and come back to their “reserved” cabana in the late morning or early afternoon. That makes me feel that I am in a cheap hotel were guests are left to fend for themselves. I am on vacation, I am not going to get up at 7am just to race other guest to a cabana. This is not the service I pay for, and not an experience I care about. This is all the more irritating that it would be a process so simple to fix (e.g. you can have pool staff taking out towels or items if a cabana is unused for an hour or two, set up a simple reservation system so that guests get what they pay for) - Television not working (you tune a channel, and after 2min. it moves back to a static welcome screen - Restaurants have limited operating hours, so if you want anything other than a burger and fries during the day, you have to eat according to the hotel’s schedule, not yours. In essence, you pay for an all-inclusive service, and get a boarding school experience where if you don’t make it to the refectory in time, you don’t get to eat - 3 nights in a row we came back from dinner to a suite that was stinking of marijuana. Reporting it to the hotel didn’t help as nothing was done to address the issue - Also, with the reception, we had the same problem as with the restaurant, whichever you ask them, you need to ask 4 or 5 times until somebody actually acts on your request - Beach service was not functional either. The hotel would want you to download and use their app. So, if you are not willing to compromise your system security and/or forgo your privacy, the only option you have is to walk all the way back to the hotel to order food and beverage when you are at the beach. Feedback from some brazen guests who downloaded the hotel app: the app is useless anyway as they show, and let you order from a minimal fraction of the menu actually available, that is if you are lucky, and the app connects at all. Again, not on vacation to go walk back-and-forth each time I’d like to eat or drink something. Especially disappointing since this is a pretty basic service in any all-inclusive resort - Drug dealers selling drug on the beach in front of the hotel where guests are trying to enjoy their vacation, peddlers selling all sort of stuff, some very aggressively (e.g. throwing a lizard at you to make you buy pictures with it) - Sending to our room our welcome gift the day before we leave. Not really something that makes us feel welcome at all, more of an afterthought from a staff that doesn’t care much about our experience. - Hotel makes you ask for changing be linen by putting a sign on the bed that you have to remember to put. I am sorry but I am not paying premium price to have to do your admin, just change the bed linen every day without having me to tell you how to do your job. And please stop with the fantasy that you are doing that for the environment, this is another way to provide less service for the same price and fatten your margins. If you are out to squeeze any penny you can, any way you can, at least be honest about it.

  Mar 20, 2025
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  Going back next year!

  The staff at Iberostar were excellent, every one we encountered was happy to help us. The care of the environment with no plastic water bottles, but water filling stations instead was ingenious. We were very pleased with the food at all the restaurants we tried including the main buffet, Steak, Mexican, Italian, International and Japanese. Loved the shade on the beach provided by palapas. The sandy beach was gorgeous!

  Mar 10, 2025
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  Will be back soon!!!

  We always have the best time here because of the staff. Fresita, Looky looky and Pantera are amazing entertainers who always make sure you are having a great time during the day and at the night shows. Pitbull, Browlio the aqua fit instructor, and the DJs also made our experience so much better, always engaging everyone by the pool. All the restaurants are very good. We love the environment and people here!!!

  Mar 10, 2025