Baha Mar Opening Pushed Back Again

The Baha Mar mega-resort pushed back its opening for at least another four months, indicating continuing challenges in building out what is said to be the most expensive development in Bahamas history.

The 1,000-room Baha Mar Casino & Hotel, the 300-room SLS Lux at Baha Mar and the 200-room Rosewood at Baha Mar have all pushed back reservations to the public until at least Sept. 8, the day after Labor Day, according to their websites.

And while the 707-room Grand Hyatt at Baha Mar notes that it is “accepting reservations from June 16,” a search on its online calendar shows availability beginning Oct. 1.

The project’s fifth hotel and lone pre-existing property, the Melia Nassau Beach, remains open as it completes its renovations. The 694-property is scheduled to reopen as the Melia at Baha Mar early next year and will be the only all-inclusive resort within the complex.

The developers of the $3.5 billion complex haven’t specified what’s behind the most recent delay, which scuttled Baha Mar’s previous plans for a May 1 grand opening event.

“The hotel is not delayed indefinitely. We are just still in discussions with our contractor, so we have not announced an exact grand opening date,” said a Baha Mar spokeswoman, who declined to comment further.

Representatives with Hyatt, Rosewood and SLS parent SBE Entertainment didn’t respond to Travel Weekly’s requests for comment.

The most recent delay is at least the fourth for a project that broke ground in Nassau’s Cable Beach area in February 2011. The resort, backed by China’s state-run Export-Import Bank and constructed by thousands of Chinese workers employed by China State Construction Engineering Corp., had originally been scheduled to open to the public by the end of 2014. By last summer, Baha Mar pushed the opening back to this spring.

Subsequent to developers missing a March 27 deadline for opening some of the rooms at Baha Mar Casino & Hotel and a portion of its public spaces, the developers blamed construction issues, noting in a late March statement that “the contractor has not completed the work with an attention to detail consistent with Baha Mar standards of excellence.”

Meanwhile, some travelers have voiced their frustrations on TripAdvisor. The hotel review site on Wednesday showed 11 posts from people who said they had booked stays at the resort. While two of the reviewers praised the resort operator for arranging stays at nearby Atlantis Paradise Island, the other nine blasted Baha Mar’s customer-service efforts for not informing them that the reservations couldn’t be honored and not compensating them for airline change fees.

Source: Travel Weekly