InterContinental Hayman Island Resort

When the weather isn’t the warmest and you’re at a 5 star resort your fallback is great food and excellent service, unfortunately that’s not the case here! Eaten at 2 of the 3 restaurants so far and the only consistent thing is very poor service. There are staff that are excellent but several that aren’t and they’re the ones that stand out, particularly rude and dismissive ones. Waiting forever to order drinks and then to receive them, meals forgotten, staff not returning to tables to check on guests meals. This place isn’t cheap and it’s just not good enough, why would I ever want to come back. We travel a lot and this place a real disappointment, beautiful location but no longer a 5 star resort.

For amenity and ambience 5/5 For service 1/5 We had 5 nights on this beautiful island and were blessed with beautiful weather, lovely rooms, nice food, great walks, cocktails by the pool and great company. The hotel is lovely. Beautiful wellness centre, gym, pool areas and restaurants. The luxury ferry over is wonderful. We had a seafood platter at the Pacific restaurant and it was amazing. It’s 5 stars as a resort. On the negative side, I haven’t seen such bad service for years. I don’t know if the staff don’t want to be there or it’s a cultural issue but it leads to incredibly poor service . I was shocked not to see one person of leadership roaming the resort, guiding the staff to help them. There seemed to often be young backpackers working there, who need support. The breakfasts were chaos - weren’t enough plates, and incorrect orders delivered nearly every day. The staff at the pool bar have no idea of how to even bring you a menu. The main dinner restaurant, whilst delicious food, is closed half the time. The other two restaurants were open and food good. There were also very few scheduled activities running. I was hoping for morning yoga or a gym class. Nothing running. Biggest suggestion to the hotel. Get some of your leadership team out there and experience the service first hand. I think as a luxury resort it should be of a higher level.

We had such an incredible experience with Tyler T on our fishing charter at Hayman Island! His passion for fishing is so evident in everything he does it’s contagious. He was absolutely amazing with my 11-year-old son, taking the time to patiently teach him how to fish and guiding him every step of the way. The highlight was when my son pulled in his fish an unforgettable moment he will cherish forever. We’ve been on many fishing charters before, but none compare to this one. Tyler’s genuine excitement and enthusiasm made the day so special. It wasn’t just a fishing trip, it was an experience filled with learning, fun, and memories that will last a lifetime. I’ll be recommending Tyler and this Hayman Island charter to all my family and friends. If you’re looking for a charter where the crew truly love what they do and go above and beyond, this is the one.

The island is magnificent. The rooms are large and comfortable and appointed with great perks like a massive tub, large walk in closet and wonderful bedding. High tech lighting panels are a nice touch. Pool spaces are vast and have an unusually large array of seating possibilities and unlike most resort pools it never feels crowded or like there isn’t a good spot to spread out. The infinity pool is heated and well designed; the mega pool is freezing cold and no one swims in it. Beach areas are all lovely. Excursion to Whitehaven Beach is A+ though it would have been even better with an extra hour to explore the beach. The two big problems with the place are (in this order) are: 1) Service, which is sort of shocking in how consistently amateur it is across the board; and 2) the exterior of the buildings and the grounds are in desperate need of attention. Starting with the service, we had our first glimpse of what was to come when trying to book our helicopter transfer. It took no less than a dozen emails and several phone calls to nail down the booking. And a request for help to get from airport to helipad was met with a flat out recusal of responsibility. Once we arrived, check in was a joke. Porter didn’t help with bags, check in staff was clueless and couldn’t even answer basic questions about the facilities. This lack of information became a theme through our stay. Breakfast waitress didn’t know what cheese was available for the omelette even though it was the only item at the buffet that needed to be ordered from the wait staff. Coffee order took 20 minutes - there was one barista desperately trying to make lattes and cappuccinos for the entire restaurant and 45 minutes before breakfast ended he refused to take more orders. There are three separate restaurants and food service at the big pool, and overall the food is very good to excellent. The problem, again, is the service—which is charming and sweet and young (many of the kids are here on temporary work visas from Europe) but poorly trained. Hilariously, there is a hospitality school between the marina and the hotel which one can only surmise is a museum from another era. The second issue with the place is that the grounds, plantings and building exteriors are in dire need of updating. The extensive ponds and lagoons that surround the buildings and walkways are clogged with dead vegetation and brown water; there are extensive tropical plantings and trees and nearly all are riddled with dead leaves and wilted fronds and in desperate need of expert care; the concrete buildings need painted and repaired. And fumigated…we saw cockroaches in the. breakfast room. Again: the interiors of the restaurants, public spaces and guest rooms seem to have benefited from some relatively recent attention and are pleasing, but the outside is raggedy. All in all the pros outweigh the cons. The island resort is beautiful inside but its building exteriors and grounds are dated and neglected; the service is well intentioned and friendly but somewhat clueless and poorly trained. The marina and the excursions they organize to the surrounding beaches is very well managed.

I have visited Hayman four times since IHG took over (2020, 2021, 2022, and now Aug 2025). I always described it as magical, but sadly, the essence of Hayman is gone. The lowest point of my stay was when I requested a swim vest. The Hayman app confirmed one for my mother, which I appreciated. But when I later asked reception if I could also borrow one, the receptionist tried to hold back her reaction but couldn’t. She kept laughing constantly to herself about my request, and then looked to the activities staff and laughed with him as well. It was humiliating and discriminatory - completely unacceptable at a five-star resort. I hand-wrote a confidential letter to the General Manager during my stay, but received no response. From this, and from reading past reviews, it’s clear these issues are not taken seriously. Guests have been reporting rude service for over a year, yet nothing has changed. To be fair, one staff member stood out - Alessia, who welcomed us at the airport with warmth and professionalism. She is one of the few who still reflects what Hayman once was. If you are considering visiting, I want to warn you: • If you expect the service to be like before - please don’t. • If you expect it to be better than ordinary hotels - please don’t. • If you expect management to take feedback seriously and make changes - please don’t. I’m not writing this in anger, but to help future guests manage expectations so they are not disappointed. Hayman today is not the Hayman it used to be.