**DO NOT USE Bayside Bonfires**- they do not show and never respond to communication. My family and I had eagerly anticipated a special Mother's Day bonfire experience, for which I received a clear confirmation email. This occasion was particularly significant as it was intended to be my son's very first bonfire, and we arrived with high hopes of creating cherished family memories. However, upon our arrival at the designated location, we were met with an empty site - absolutely no setup had been made by Bayside Bonfires personnel. Despite repeated attempts to reach your company via email and phone calls, we received no response. Even the hotel's front desk staff, who kindly tried to assist us, were unable to establish any contact with your organization. The profound disappointment my family, especially my son who as Autism Diagnosis experienced was immense. What was meant to be a joyful Mother's Day celebration was instead transformed into an evening of confusion, frustration, and unmet expectations. To compound this unfortunate situation, the complete absence of any proactive communication or apology from Bayside Bonfires following this incident has left us feeling utterly disregarded and has only deepened our distress. They only replied to an email through their special events email 2 months later thinking they were getting a large booking from me. Interesting they can respond to those emails. If you look at other reviews, they have done this to others. read more

We booked 6 weeks ago, they didn't answer our calls after they charged the card. Just for them to call us morning of 4th of july to tell us they "overbooked". Not good business practice. read more

We had an outstanding experience at Bayside Bonfire. Making the appointment was easy. At our assigned time, we arrived to a blazing bonfire complete with the correct number of chairs, kits full of s'more ingredients, and extra wood in a secluded area that felt magical. But the best part was watching our young granddaughters roasting marshmallows for the first time, and seeing the smiles on everyone's faces. Bayside Bonfires offers a well-organized experience that guarantees success. We loved every minute of it. Miles of smiles and s'mores! read more

I found Bayside Bonfires while searching for a bonfire company to help with an event. They're able to accommodate large groups (we had about 60 guests). While the communication in the beginning was sparse, we received our contract & closer to the event Rex was able to be reached and we connected to go over our event details. Rex was very accommodating for our handiaccessible request for the beach as we had a few people needing walkers to access the bonfires. He set up AccessTracks for us to accommodate the handi accessible needs! Additionally, he set the fire pits, seating (chairs & benches), along with the tables & coolers so our guests could relax on the beach. The s'mores were a huge hit with both adults & children. Rex, thank you for helping us create a beautiful evening & one we will never forget! read more

Bayside Bonfires - Bonfire set up - Beach Equipment Rentals Near Me

We booked our Fourth of July bonfire well in advance and were extremely disappointed to receive a cancellation on the day of our reservation AFTER CONFIRMING OUR RESERVATION MULTIPLE TIME. After planning our holiday around this event, inviting family and friends, and turning down other options, we were left scrambling with virtually no time to make other arrangements. Bayside Bonfires explained that their reservation system allowed regular bonfire packages to be booked instead of their holiday packages and, because of that, they canceled our reservation. While mistakes can happen, this was an internal error that should have been identified long before the biggest beach holiday of the year. Customers should not be the ones paying the price for a company's reservation system failure. From what we saw at our hotel, numerous families were affected by this mistake. A full refund does not make up for the lost holiday experience, the time spent planning, or the memories that can't be recreated. If your event is for an important occasion or holiday, I would be very cautious about relying on this company. Reliability matters just as much as the service itself, and unfortunately that was completely lacking in our experience. Also I'd like to addiontally note the "owner" Rex never responded to our email or numerous calls and text. This company is EXTREMLY unprofessional!!!! read more

Hopefully you don't have anything happen and have to cancel your reservation! Our group of 4 planned a trip for end of May, reserved and paid for our bonfire in January. Due to sudden medical circumstances, half of our party wasn't going to be able to attend, therefore we decided to cancel. Their policy, PER THEIR EMAIL states, "Cancellations must be made at least 24 hours prior to your reservation for a full refund" Our reservation was set for May 31st and I canceled the reservation on May 9th. That's 3 WEEKS in advance. Definitely well over the 24 hours required, right? Plenty of time to get a refund, right? NOPE. Not even close. I have spent over a month attempting to get in contact with absolutely anyone. Calling, leaving voicemails, filling out inquiry forms on their website. And have not received a single communication back from anyone at this business. I really wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them some time to fix this, but after almost 6 weeks of getting zero responses, this kind of "customer service" needs to be talked about. I'm out $359.00 and highly doubtful I'll be getting it back at this point. read more

The concept is great, but they need to work on execution. I paid $250 for a basic bonfire with $50 for an added (10 blankets). Did not start off on a great start, 20 mins before reservation they said they were running behind (we were already on our way). They do not allow parking at the hotel so you have to find parking in the public lot and do a bit of walking. The reservation was supposed to come with 10 blankets we originally didn't get any until the attendant heard us and brought a basket with only 3! We paid for 10. An hour into it I noticed no water, the website said it includes water. After reaching out they said they don't give out waters anymore due to environmental impacts but we could walk to the bar and get water in a to go cup? Wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the environmental impact? Overall not worth the $250 spent. Did not have good communication and they did not deliver on everything we purchased. read more

Bayside Bonfires - Beach Equipment Rentals Near Me

See all

We arrived to the public space and found a spot which we thought was open and available. Rex pulled up and started setting up our smores and after setting up, he then asked our name. Apparently he set us up for the wrong party which all of us were unaware of. He became extremely rude and offensive, even calling us freeloaders after we began to stand up and leave which was extremely surprising and uncalled for. So, not only was he late, but he offended 7+ in one party who all live in SD and 3 in another party who were all staying there. Highly recommend the Catamaran Hotel look into his behavior. It seemed entitled, familiar and a common occurrence. Never. Again. Will we ever book with Rex. read more

Booked a package for Fourth of July (today). Got an email and text last night confirming the 24 hour reminder that we are all set. I even called and emailed them and left a message to confirm we are all set. They emailed and texted me 8 hrs before the event cancelling the event since they said they mistakenly booked the event. It derailed our Fourth of July plans and it gave us no notice to plan ahead for alternative plans. It was highly inconsiderate and they didn't offer anything to make up for the inconvenience either. They never called me and their communication is poor just as the other reviews on this mention read more

Wonderful bonfire setup & long lasting fire with the best s'mores!! Those marshmallows alone will have us booking again soon.

Beware, listen to the bad reviews!!! Don't make the same mistake we did by booking with this company. 0/5 stars. Short version- the owner, Rex, was over an hour late setting up our bonfire with no heads up. We showed up at scheduled appointment and spent 30 minutes trying to get ahold of him by hotel staff with no luck. He had 3 parties of people with booked reservations who paid hundreds of dollars and nobody had heard from him. Once he finally showed up an hour later, he was unapologetic, took no accountability or offer any type of refund to fix his mistake. He was rude and made my whole group of 10 (celebrating a milestone birthday) feel uncomfortable! Once he finally came around to set up bonfire (1.5hrs after scheduled reservation) he THREW around the fire pit and wood like he was throwing a tantrum. We didn't get our smores stuff for another hour after set up and only once the catamaran manager called to check on us and we told them we had no s'mores stuff. We never got water bottles that were supposedly included. He set up a huge stack of wood on the fire and never came back to maintain it. At one point, it completely toppled off into the sand. Haven't heard from him since and don't expect that he will do the right thing by taking accountability for his actions but I will update this review if I do hear from him! Catamaran manager, Roman, was amazing and I'm very grateful he understood how poorly this reflects on the hotel for being contracted with this third party vendor. The situation has been escalated to Catamaran general manager and I hope that they can find someone more reliable to provide this service to hotel guests! read more

Rex at Bayside Bonfires gave us a real gift of togetherness in a uniquely beautiful setting for our family reunion. Zero work for us and a wonderful evening fire pit with s'mores, plenty of logs and super comfortable chairs-- we HIGHLY RECOMMEND Bayside Bonfires and they are worth every penny. read more

Bayside Bonfires - Beach Equipment Rentals Near Me

The owner was not very professional on the phone and they tried to charge me 3x as much as originally contracted a year prior the day of our event. Once we sorted that out and got there and the bonfire was lit, it was a wonderful experience sitting on the beach roasting s'mores and relaxing in the chairs. We enjoyed the pits for longer than I expected and it was a memorable experience for all of my wedding guests. Thank you! read more

See all

For starters, once you book your fire online, that is the last and only communication you will have from Bayside Bonfires, except for the "reminder text" to meet at the Catamaran Hotel. They don't communicate WHERE at the Catamaran Hotel you meet them. If you call them, you get a voicemail stating their hours are 4-8, Monday through Friday, and if they don't answer, they are out setting up a fire. We had booked a fire on Sunday, so there was no way to get in touch with anyone. So here's the story. A few years ago, I booked a fire with MR FIRE for 8 friends' who were visiting from San Francisco. As a local San Diegan, it was a lovely experience and a wonderful memory. There was a guy who met you at your designated spot; where he set up the Tiki Torches, the fire, and the REAL Adirondack chairs. When I tried to book with them this time, I found out they were no where to be found, which is why I called Bayside Bonfires. The guy on the phone told me "they were SO much better than Mr Fire, and that we would love them". The same 8 friends of mine, were here from San Francisco, attending Comic Con, and the beachfire was to be a relaxing end to a fun ,but tiring week. We ALL, were looking so foreward to our Beachfire. So we show up at the Catamaran Hotel, and I inquired at the front desk, if they knew where to meet the Bonfire guy. They said to just go out to the Bay, and we would see the Bonfires. There were people at all the bonfires out on the sand, and no one in sight to direct us where to go. After speaking to the front desk again, they contacted Security, who told us they would check the reservations, and be right back. The person never came back. So there we all were, trying to decide what we should do. We asked some people enjoying their fire, who the person was who set up their fire, and eventually we found him. It was now well after 8pm, and the fire was to start at 7pm. Needless to say, it was such a downgrade from MR FIRE, not to mention an embarrassing situation for me with my friends. No tiki torches, no REAL Adirondack chairs, and the location was not where we would have chosen on the beach. I do NOT RECOMMEND BAYSIDE BONFIRES. It was a far cry from what we expected, and for the price, along with a *$50.00* tip, it was not worth the money or the stress. It ruined the evening for me. read more

We booked with them while staying at the Catamaran Resort, and it was great. They set you up with beach chairs on the bay side of the property, either right on the grass or closer to the water in the sand depending on which you reserve. We did beach/sand. They build and start a fire for you and leave you with plenty of extra wood and fixings for S'mores. There were several other groups scattered further down the beach doing the same thing. Bring music, we brought a little Bluetooth player, as did other groups. Staff was friendly and helpful and disappeared after setup which was perfect, leaving you with your people read more

Bayside Bonfires - Bonfire at the Catamaran on their beach - Beach Equipment Rentals Near Me

We planned a bayside bonfire for a family birthday party and we had the best time! The owner was super friendly, attentive and flexible to our needs. It is so nice that everything is set up for you when you arrive and that you don't have to lug home sandy chairs and tables after the bonfire. The only thing they could improve on is getting bigger ice buckets for drinks. Overall we had a phenomenal night! read more

Bayside Bonfires - Beach Equipment Rentals Near Me

See all

Last night we did the bayside bonfire that is offered at the Bahia. I was extremely impressed with the level of service and thoughtful details put into it. Kelly was in charge of all the bonfires that were being put on tonight, and she made sure to get everything set up perfectly on time and let us stay longer than the allotted time. She even said she would clean everything up for us and brought us whatever we needed throughout the night. I would highly recommend the bayside bonfire for anyone looking for a fun group activity and Kelly does an awesome job of making it a fun and memorable activity! read more

See all

Thanks for a great time, we definitely enjoyed the s'mores and bonfire, doggies loved it too, will do it again read more

Bayside Bonfires - Beach Equipment Rentals Near Me

Fortunately, our company managed to have a wonderful time despite the poorly managed event by Bayside Bonfires. The location was beautiful, and the concept is good. The issues our company encountered at our team event with Bayside Bonfires are truly unfortunate as they could be an adequate event planning company but choose to offer sub-par services and poor customer service. The issues started at the planning of the event as our coordinator was difficult to reach. Emails went unanswered for days and calls were rushed, cavalier and lacking information. Many requests had to be made to get answers to basic questions. At that time, we should have known, and it was our mistake to not call upon a more professional organization to coordinate our corporate team event. The day of our event, our point of contact was no where to be found at the agreed upon arrival and set up time of 5:30 pm. Calls were made but no one answered. We could not begin set up as we had rented a table from the company and had to wait. Someone finally arrived at almost 6 pm. The young man who did show up was rushed and stressed. When he arrived, he forgot to bring the table that we rented from them and again we had to wait for it to be delivered and set up before e could set up our food. This led to a huge delay which resulted us not being ready by guest arrival time at 7 pm. The company's response to our concern was that "No early arrival time was requested", even though we have written email confirmation to the contrary. Once we had it set up, our attendant told us that the little side table we brought was not allowed and that we would have to remove it. We told him we had pre-approved this with our original coordinator, so he made us move all our items to another table (provided by them) causing an even further. The company's response to this was that "even though our employee made the exception allowing you to bring the table, the rules are not his to bend". Other items that our coordinator pre-approved were a small speaker and some decorations for the table. The company's response was that they should not have been approved by their employee. When we booked the event, we were told that a water bottle and a smores kit were to be provided for each of our (22) guests but only (10) tiny water bottles were brought out and only after several requests. The company's response was to argue that the error in the amount of the water bottles was the fault of their employee but offered no apology and even went on to claim that they "typically do not provide water bottles" yet on their website, every package listed has water bottles to be provide for each guest. Luckily, we brought our own beverages, or we would have had no beverages of any kind to offer most of our guests for the entire evening. Lastly, our coordinator/fire attendant was in such a hurry he was tossing logs onto the fire causing big sparks to fly directly onto our guests which is very unsafe. Our advice for the owner(s) is to have more oversight into the events and the planning of events by its employees who represent the company. Professional companies planning their events expect professionalism as the outcomes directly reflect them as well. Also, to provide sufficient training in customer service and customer support, to have oversight and take responsibility for their events, and finally, to offer apologies instead of arguments when mistakes are made by their employees. Although we were disappointed and saddened by the responses we received from the company's owner in reply to our concerns after the event, we hope that this will review serve as a learning experience for them and that they will do their best to make the necessary changes toward being a more professional service. read more

Terrible organizers. They shouldn't be cheap with their marshmallows and water. Those two things are the cheapest cost in this country yet they charge a lot and offer little to nothing .. read more

We hosted a company event with Bayside Bonfires and couldn't have been more happy with the service! They were very thorough on the details making sure nothing was missed and that the level of service was maintained to the end of the event. Our team loved the experience! Thank you for making our event perfect. read more

Had so much fun here tonight! This place was amazing and has great vibes. Our attendant Marissa was super helpful and kind! Overall an amazing experience! read more

Terrible customer service . First they cancelled our bonfire event at the very last minute and when we called them to accommodate few more guests on the next day the owner got argumentative . Bahia hotel should think twice before advertising this company on their main channel. Worst customer experience !! read more

First time in San Diego and this was an awesome way to celebrate the summer with my girls. Marcus was awesome! He welcomed us with great conversation, made us laugh, and continued to take care of us through the hours. read more

My family had an awesome time with Bayside Bonfires. Easiest activity we did yet, kids loved it, everything was setup and ready to go when we got there, Kelly did an amazing job taking care of us. We will definitely be using them again when we stay at Bahia. Thanks guys. read more

Bayside Bonfires - Bonfire near Bahia Resort. - Beach Equipment Rentals Near Me

We had the BEST time! Thank you Kelly, Rex and Bayside Bonfires for an AMAZING time! I would highly recommend this! Especially for anybody that want to do something unique and fun! Yay! AWESOME! read more

I was a trip to CA to get away from the Pandemic back in April and found this lovely surprise when i got to San Diego. This was truly an amazing experience. The level of service was top notch-- any request I had was immediately addressed and carried out with the highest level of professionalism. This truly is a great group that wishes for their guests to have a great experience. Thanks to Rex and the team for making the whole experience so seamless and easy. I'd absolutely recommend this to anyone in San Diego who's looking for a relaxing night. Great drinks, great service, great s'mores, and great relaxation! Thanks again! read more

This was such a beautiful experience in San Diego! Loved the experience and Marissa was so sweet and easy to talk to. Definitely would come back. read more

Highlight of the trip! The organizers were so, so communicative and flexible helping me select the best bonfire location based on time, my location, and what i was looking for in the area. they easily moved the time of my slot several times throughout the day when my plans changed, and then when i arrived, there was a representative there to make sure i found my way to the fire put. then, the fire attendant was incredible. grabbed us extra hand wipes, waters, etc, while being respectful and friendly. i felt safe the whole time, and their smore boxes were absolutely precious! read more