Iberostar Selection Bavaro Suites

⭐⭐ (2/5) I am an IHG Diamond Elite member and a Marriott Lifetime Platinum member. I have stayed at properties around the world. This stay stood out for all the wrong reasons. We Did Our Homework. The Resort Did Not. On February 25, 2026, more than a month before arrival, I emailed three separate resort teams in both English and Spanish to arrange a birthday celebration for my son Henry, turning seven on March 28. The response I received was an offer for romantic roses and a special dinner on the beach. For a seven year old. That told me everything about how carefully this team reads guest requests. The Birthday That Required a Fight I was quoted $25 for cake and decorations. At check-in it became $100. I paid it. What I did not receive were the room decorations explicitly promised by the guest relations team. No balloons. No banner. My son walked into an undecorated room on his birthday because no one followed through on a written commitment. Getting a specialty restaurant reservation for his birthday dinner required a formal escalation to guest relations the night before. Only then did a reservation at Salt and Soul magically appear. The dinner was lovely. The fight to get there was not acceptable. The Upsell Culture Is Relentless A breakfast billed as a special educational experience was a high pressure sales pitch for their VIP club membership. We had already paid a premium rate. A staff member posing as a concierge promised to secure our Italian restaurant reservation for our final night, insisted I save his WhatsApp, and has not responded in 48 hours. I told him directly: “I can tell a lot by how you treat non members about how you would treat members. This has been enlightening. Lot of talk but no follow through.” That sentence summarizes this entire stay. Loyalty Status Means Nothing Here When I asked about an upgrade consistent with my IHG Diamond Elite status I was told my standard junior suite was already the upgrade. It was not treated that way at any point during our stay. This Is Not a Family Resort This property markets itself as a premier family destination. In practice it is built for VIP club members. There was no onboarding, no orientation, and no effort to help families navigate a complex property. We lost real experiences because of it. Think about what a Disney cruise does. Children are front and center above everything else. This property is the polar opposite of that. The One Bright Spot The food is genuinely excellent. Every meal was well prepared and our boys enjoyed every single one. The grounds are beautiful. That is real and it deserves to be said. Note on the Beach Sargassum seaweed accumulation is significant right now. This is a regional climate issue and not the resort’s fault. If you are traveling in March or April, manage your expectations on beach conditions. The Bottom Line The gap between the marketing and the reality is significant. We will not be returning.

Spent 7 days here with family, returning after 16 years to this resort. Glad to see some changes, and also happy to see that some of the best things stayed exactly the same. Overall, a great experience. Beautiful grounds, great people, and we would return. Good things: * The bracelet with NFC chips that open the door is a great feature. No more worrying about losing keys or remembering to bring them. Once you get used to it, you kind of wish every hotel did this. * The app: great information overall (though some restaurants like Brave are missing menus). You can chat with reception, get notifications when your room is ready, and check activities and shows. The schedule can be a bit off or confusing at times, but overall it’s a very useful feature. * Wi-Fi: good coverage everywhere. No need for roaming or eSIM, which is always a win. * Food: great variety and good quality. It does get a bit repetitive after a few days, but still better than many resorts we’ve been to. Food is subjective, but for us it worked well. * À la carte restaurants: we visited two. Kabuki (the “Japanese” restaurant) is more about the show, which was fun. You get sushi appetizers, then a full meal cooked in front of you (fried rice + chicken, beef, shrimp, salmon), and dessert. The Brave steakhouse was pretty good, we loved the meat and the service. * Pool: just great. Plenty of food, snacks, drinks, and unlimited ice cream, which automatically makes it a top-tier pool. Fun activities by the Star Friends team and a solid splash zone for kids. * Beach: large, well maintained, cleaned every morning. Plenty of seating, even during March Break, which says a lot. Things to improve: * Room cleaning: our first room on the lower level was fine, but we found two very large cockroaches casually exploring the space. Not exactly the welcome committee we were hoping for. Reception handled it very well and moved us to an upper-level room in another building, which was much better. * Restaurant cleaning: on several occasions we were seated at tables that hadn’t been fully cleaned. Crumbs still on the table, napkins reused if they “looked clean,” and at least once I had to point out a dirty knife left from previous guests. The standard should really be a full reset: clean table, new cutlery, new napkins. I understand it gets busy, but this feels like a basic expectation. * Utility vehicles: the constant loud beeping when backing up can get a bit much, especially when you’re trying to relax or sleep. Totally understand the safety need, but maybe lower the volume or adjust routes to reduce how often it happens. Some closing notes: * I read a lot of reviews mentioning time-share pressure, but we didn’t experience any at all. Either we got lucky or they took the hint quickly. * We booked through Costco Travel for the first time. The private transfer to and from the airport was excellent. No waiting, no multiple resort stops, just straight there and back.

Iberostar Selections Punta Cana Star Prestige staff will exceed your expectations! The atmosphere of the lobby, grounds, and suites is what you would expect at the five star Iberostar resort. However, the genuine warmth and “helpfulness” of the staff has no equal. Our assigned ambassador, Gheremy, and his supervisor, Luis, offered incredible support during our stay especially when an accident requiring medical attention happened. We travel internationally a great deal and have never felt as “taken care of” at any other resort or hotel. Cannot recommend Iberostar Selections Star Prestige service enough! The kind of service they provide is rarely available anywhere else.

Well I'll start with the positives: there were plenty of options for food and they weren't terrible. I'd avoid the steak house-its really nothing special. You will have to ask for a lot more of your drink. I was next to one other vacationer and he asked me if I thought there was any even alcohol in our drinks. Tip or suffer. A negative: they try to swindle you into buying a time-share or sorry MEMBERSHIP. It takes up half a day showing you all the things you know you're not going to buy into. OH the topper? BLOOD ON OUR SHEETS. I cannot tell you how disgusted my husband and I were. It took them 3x to change our sheets because everything was stained. To add salt to injury, the next day our cleaning woman LEFT THE BATHROOM SUPPLIES IN OUR BATHROOM. IT WAS DISGUSTING. While trying to keep it positive, I can't. We weren't at the CORAL level which they made very clear. The treatment between coral aka spending more and non-coral was always apparent. Restaurants had sections roped off to differentiate between the have and have-nots. Literally I know I can be picky, but this was next level and I cannot not ignore it. Dirty, A waste of time. Truly a disappointment. Save yourself the time and inflate a palm tree next to your pool.

Do not go to the casino! We were passed two counterfeit 100 dollar bills and the resorts and casino are not trying to rectify the situation. I will never go to another Iberostar ever! They won’t respond at all!