Iberostar Grand, Jamaica: A Review

If you lower your expectations and can take advantage of sale rates, then you might want to consider a vacation at the luxury all-inclusive Iberostar Grand resort in the Montego Bay area of Jamaica . Someday this place might even become a five star resort, but only if the Spanish management wakes up and listens a lot more to its guests.

There are two five star aspects worth emphasis. The overall architecture, exterior and interior design of this relatively new resort are absolutely spectacular, far better than anywhere else I have stayed in my 30 years of vacationing in Jamaica . Everywhere you go there is incredibly beautiful and creative design and furnishings, including large guest rooms with terrific bathrooms and large balconies, as well as ocean views. The interiors of the four specialty restaurants are world class. Even all the public rest rooms are far beyond what you have ever seen before. The outside pool area and adjacent bar and restaurant are just magnificent and all the landscaping is superior. There are many areas where shade is available. The only flaw is that the outside Jacuzzi is not heated. No surprise that in my week there I never saw anyone use it.

The second five star attraction is the very long beach , easily half a mile, that is kept very clean. I have never seen so many people walking throughout the day. And the beach lounges are enhanced by a very large number of shade areas. The long beach results from the presence of two other lower priced Iberostar hotels to the east of the Grand, the Iberostar Beach and Iberostar Suites.

Now for the bad news. The much touted butler service is a complete failure, based not only on my experience but also what everyone else I spoke to experienced. Each butler apparently has at least 25 rooms to service, which explains why there really is no effective or useful personal service provided. The Grand suffers from what other newer hotels in Jamaica also suffer from, namely a very young and inexperience staff, as well as too few supervisors and managers. The service in restaurants and at bars also was often second rate. The service for the room minibar and the 24 hour room service menu were also inferior. The wines and liquors offered in the minibar were second rate, though the offerings at the bars were premium labels and the wines in the restaurants were generally far better than usually found in Jamaican hotels.

The other big complaint from nearly all guests was that the food in the specialty restaurants often failed to impress and was not consistent with a five star hotel. The two best restaurants were the Japanese and Italian ones. Though I have never had so much choice of lobster, shrimp and fresh fish dishes in the buffets and restaurants, I did not have a really first rate steak. To its credit, there was a large amount of quality Jamaican specialty foods at the buffets and a most unusual array of healthy vegetables for those of us trying to eat healthy. The design and layout of the breakfast, lunch and dinner buffets was exceptional, but often the table service was poor and after a few days the buffets get repetitive and boring. There was no smoked salmon at the breakfast buffet which surprised me, but when asked for I did get it.

What drove me crazy and everyone else I spoke to was a ridiculous system of requiring reservations for the four specialty restaurants which was used to greatly limit the times and places you could access. Every night in one of these we saw a large number of tables that were not used. But it was often impossible to get a reservation when and where you wanted to eat. The only explanation I can fathom is that the hotel was intent on limiting its staffing, most likely because the occupancy rate was low. This hotel policy was very irritating. Grand guests have the right to use restaurants at the two lower priced Iberostar hotels, but they do not offer premium food. Maybe the reservation game was also being used to drive Grand guests to these other hotel restaurants. If the management was smart they would do away with all reservations, which works at other similar all-inclusive resorts.

It was disappointing that the nightly shows in the theater were at 10 pm, which I think is too late for most people. A large majority of guests get up early to enjoy the sunshine outside and do not stay up late for the entertainment. But at least there was a nightly musician in the lobby bar starting at around 8 pm which was nice to enjoy after dinner. At other luxury Jamaican hotels there is often some roving musicians in the specialty restaurants and this should be provided at the Grand.

Another negative, which sadly holds for many other Jamaican resorts is that the free airport transfers are provided by a company vehicle that can make many stops at other hotels, turning a 20 to 30 minute ride into a much longer one. I heard that some guests spent two hours getting to the hotel. Some of the better Jamaican hotels have their own vehicles with better service.

The fitness center was small and not attractive.

If a beautiful hotel and a terrific long beach ideal for walking are more important than service and consistently terrific food, then seriously consider the Iberostar Grand. The hotel lacks "personality" however, largely because the young staff does not know how to interact with guests. I found it interesting that other guests who had stayed at a different Iberostar Grand hotel found the one in Jamaica inferior. Maybe management will get the message and work harder to it make it better, but even now this is one of the best choices in Jamaica, but if better service and food are important I would recommend considering the Royal Plantation in Ocho Rios. It certainly is better than the Secrets resort, also new and in the Montego Bay area.