Rosewood Baha Mar

This is a lengthy review, which I want to be accurate and detailed, since I am planning to share it with the US Association of Travel Agents and Forbes Magazine. As a female traveling alone with a teen daughter, I was looking forward to a fun, drama-free vacation. My daughter attends a boarding school, hence the time we get to spend together is something we really look forward to. Being familiar with other Rosewood hotels, I thought naively that the Rosewood brand was a stamp of high quality across the hospitality industry. I was therefore accepting of the high cost, and booked at the Baha Mar Rosewood without additional research. What a disappointment. I sensed from the early stages that something was amiss. As an example, I processed the booking online and did not receive a confirmation email. Which ended up being annoying because I did not want to purchase plane tickets without being sure we had a reservation. I did email and call the resort, and eventually someone called me back to verbally confirm that we were good. Then the payment via their platform got stuck. I called again. Someone was supposed to send me a new link. Never came. It took a certain amount of chasing and several days to get situated. Finally, reservation got sorted out and we arrived at the resort a few weeks later. We weren’t even out of the cab that our luggage got whisked away by the attendant. I objected, but was told that the luggage was being brought directly to our room. I thought, “nice”. It was 2PM. Then, upon check-in, we were told that the room was not quite ready yet. No one said “check-in is at 4PM and we intend to fully enforce it”. Just “your room is not quite ready yet” and we were told that we would receive a phone call as soon as the room would be ready. We were given a wristband acting as a key, a map of the resort was shoved in my hand and we were promptly brushed out of the way. The lady who took “care” of us at the front desk was vaguely dismissive and would not give any eye contact. We were in our NYC-weather January clothing, wearing winter boots and sweaters, and our luggage had been “taken to our room”. The cellular signal being a bit wobbly on the hotel grounds, we didn’t dare to venture throughout and explore the resort for fear of missing “the call”. We sat on a bench in the shade for two hours. No one checked on us. As you can already guess, we never got a phone call. At 4:05 I ended up calling and was told that the room had been ready. Seriously? But wait, there is more: we were asked to report to the front desk “in order to get escorted to the room”. I thanked the receptionist but told her it was not necessary, we would go straight to the room, since we had already checked in and gotten our wristbands. By then we were tired and anxious to unwind. And vaguely annoyed. Receptionist insisted, so we went and got in a line at the front desk. There were four people staffing the front desk - FOUR - but yet there was a line. You could tell the receptionists were fumbling. Someone eventually came to check on us and “went to find out”. Then a second person asked us if our wristbands were activated for our room and proceeded to take the wristbands with them “to go and check”. In the interim a bell attendant showed up with our suitcases (which we had been told were waiting for us in the room) and said he was taking us to our room. On the way, we realized we never got the wristbands back, so we had to turn around and wait in line - again - to get them. The whole episode was pure chaos and the communication, piss poor. Finally at 4:25 we got to get into the room, which was dark and underwhelming. There was no tub, the room did NOT look like the pictures at all. I had bought bath salts as a birthday present for my daughter and we felt really puzzled with the absence of a tub. We changed to summer attire and headed to the pool. It was 4:45PM and the staff was already stripping the pool chairs from their terry covers. I inquired and was told that the pool shuts down at 5PM. Even retirement communities have better hours. We thought about taking a super quick dip but since towels were no longer available and the staff looked eager to wrap up, we gave up. About the room: we were given room # 136, which is the lousiest room in the complex. It should NOT be offered to the public. The management is fully aware that the room is an embarrassment to their brand and yet they have no qualms charging full price for it. You have to be a special kind of managerial dirtb*g to throw two full-paying unsuspecting travelers in there. Let me specify that I booked directly with the hotel, and not via a third party (not that people booking through third parties should be subjected to that room anyway). To female travelers concerned about safety, please note that room # 136 has three entry points (the main door, a door connecting to another room, and the patio entrance) and therefore is probably one of the least safe rooms in the whole complex. The next morning, I went back to the front desk to voice my disappointment. An attendant promised she would do her best to get us a different room, and to report to the front desk in an hour (like I worked for her?) to hear the result. I found the process to be disrespectful and cavalier, but RW Baha Mar having proven not to be trusted with calling about important information, we just sat for an hour, not knowing if we should pack up our belongings or not. An hour later, good news, they found another room for us. We went back to the room and packed up and switched. All in all, I calculated that 19% of our stay was spent waiting after the staff to sort things out. What bugs me is that the issues I met are consistently re-appearing across reviews, and for long spans of time. So, to the lady Ivanna Capron who assures us via canned AI-generated paragraphs that “we are sorry your experience did not reflect etc”, how about you let go of the keyboard and roll up your sleeves to truly address the problems internally? This hotel is marketed as a five star establishment and thus should be staffed with attentive and detail-oriented professionals. It was NOT our experience. Management seems to think that beautiful, well-kept grounds and high prices magically make a hotel a five star experience. Work harder, Rosewood Bahar Mar. Now Ivanna, here's the mic:

I had extremely high expectations for Rosewood Baha Mar, but unfortunately, this stay fell far below what you would expect from a property carrying the Rosewood name. First, the room was marketed as an “ocean view,” which was misleading at best. In reality, it was a partial ocean view where the majority of what you see is another building—not the ocean. That alone set the tone for the stay. Service was essentially nonexistent from the moment we arrived. There was no greeting, no direction, and we were left wandering around trying to figure out where to check in. For a supposed luxury property, this was shocking. Dining was another major disappointment. Breakfast service was painfully slow—taking close to three hours—and most of that time was spent waiting for staff to correct mistakes with our order. It felt completely disorganized and far from the level of service you expect at this price point. To make matters worse, the hotel threw away our laundry bag after we had sent items out to be cleaned. This kind of carelessness is unacceptable anywhere, let alone at a hotel positioning itself as luxury. Overall, this experience was nowhere near luxury and certainly not worthy of the Rosewood name. I would not return and would not recommend it to anyone expecting a true high-end experience.

Another incredible vacation at Rosewood! We have been coming here for several years and it keeps getting better. The service is truly impeccable. Our phenomenal butler team is like family after all of our visits. Jarvis is the BEST! He is always so welcoming and accommodating, Rosewood wouldn’t be Rosewood without him. His team members, Laurentino and Forjee, were amazing as well. Really catering to all of our requests with a wonderful smile! Also, want to specifically call out, Ricarra, who has the biggest smile on the island and is such a gem. Her positivity just radiates from her. We had amazing meals at Marcus, Shuang Ba and Katsuya. Highly recommend! The team also organized a very special private dinner for us that was delicious and we had the best evening! We had 5 kids with us and the Rosewood Explorers club was a great escape. There were great activities and the kids loved going there! We had such a blast and can’t wait to come back!!

“Life Continues to be Better at the Rosewood, Baha Mar” My daughter and I spent our fifth vacation in the Bahamas at the renown Rosewood Baha Mar in November 2025. Well, the amazing and world class staff, service, wining and dining at the Rosewood simply made us return in March 2026. Shanecquar, Ricara and Torrell along with their professional, friendly and hard-working staffs made everything better for us at the Rosewood Baha Mar. For eight days, we enjoyed paradise from sunset to sunrise. We did not have to lift a finger or even think with the knowledgeable, prompt and friendly planning and guidance of our Butler team, including Zia, Aaron and Corey. Our days full of sunshine, ocean breezes, relaxation, H2O and delicious cocktails at the pools and beach were always arranged during the early morning hours and enhanced throughout the days by the most trained, polite, hardworking and friendly attendants and servers including Scottie, George, Kenny, Charles, Dominic, Manny, Stacy, Kewan, Anton and Clive. Each morning started with the most delicious, and well prepared breakfast at Rosewood’s Breakfast Cafe hosted by the best hostesses and well serviced by the best servers including Felicia, Ty and Ashley. Our evenings would start at the Manor Bar where Fluffy and his skillful talented Bartenders made magic with the most incredible cocktails. In closing please remember that life is always better at the Rosewood Baha Mar!

Our second and last stay at the Rosewood. We were a small group (5 rooms, 9 people, staying anywhere from 5 to 7 nights). Our total group bill was in the neighborhood of $150,000. The staff of the hotel is great. The rooms were nice. The housekeeping was excellent. But that's where it ends. Everything was crowded, overpriced and nothing special. It was nearly impossible to get reservations in the restaurants. When you could get in you, were confronted with obscene prices, super slow service from the kitchens, and with a few exceptions, mediocre food. The common areas were filled with underaged, overserved kids (never once saw anyone carded) and an assortment of other rowdies. If you are looking for a high-end, luxury experience, this is not it. It's more like a Carnival cruise.