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Bryan and Sarah Baeumler are the contractor and designer behind HGTV’s wildly popular show “Renovation Island.” On the show, the married couple bought a hotel that had been abandoned for years, renovated not just the hotel but the entire island from top to bottom and opened their brand new resort on a gorgeous beach. An HGTV press release called the resort, “a world-class island oasis complete with 18 luxurious hotel rooms, 22 oceanfront villas and a host of breezy resort amenities.”
It was a massive project and, of course, not without problems, but the couple pulled it off and opened their Caerula Mar Club to guests in August 2019. Then Hurricane Dorian hit, and while Caerula Mar didn’t have much damage, many of the resort’s employees lost everything. Yahoo! reported that the Baeumlers made the decision to pause filming and close the resort so their employees could focus on what they lost in the hurricane.
The resort reopened in February 2020 — right in time for the global COVID-19 pandemic to hit. They closed the resort in March 2020, the outlet reported. The pandemic, it turns out, was good for business for Caerula Mar Club. “Renovation Island” debuted on HGTV in June 2020 — when everyone was stuck at home during the pandemic. Business is booming today, Bryan told The Wrap during an interview.
Caerula Mar Club’s Instagram is swoon-worthy. So where is HGTV’s “Renovation Island” filmed?
Here’s what you need to know:
‘Renovation Island’ Was Filmed in the Bahamas
“Renovation Island” was a hit for HGTV Canada, where it was called “Island of Bryan” long before American audiences got a chance to follow along on Bryan and Sarah Bauemler’s adventure, which Bryan revealed on his Instagram in May 2020, ahead of the series’ American premiere in June 2020.
The island in “Renovation Island” is in the Bahamas. The Bahamas is a chain of 700 islands and 2,400 cays, the official government site of the Bahamas reported. Only 30 of the islands are inhabited. The Bahamas have a population of just over 300,000 people.
Caerula Mar Club is located on San Andros island in the Bahamas, per the resort’s website, and is where “Renovation Island was filmed. San Andros island is just 200 miles from Miami, Florida. It is the largest island in the Bahamas with the world’s third-largest barrier reef. Despite the size of the island, it is relatively unpopulated and offers several unpopulated beaches to explore as well as a mangrove forest.
How Much Does It Cost to Stay at the ‘Renovation Island’ Resort?”
“Renovation Island” premiered in the U.S. during summer 2020 when people were stuck at home as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This turned out to be great for ratings for the HGTV show. Discovery, HGTV’s parent company issued a press release revealing that “Renovation Island” “attracted more than 22 million total viewers during its 11-week run on Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT, with the August 16 finale delivering more than five million total viewers.” It also said the show grew HGTV’s audience by a staggering 60%.
That all means that a lot of people were watching “Renovation Island” and following along on streaming and social media channels. That resulted in bookings at Caerula Mar Club for Bryan and Sarah Baeumler. A week-long stay over Thanksgiving 2021 in a standard room costs $525 per night, or $3,937.50, the resort’s website revealed. Over the rest of 2021, the rates for a standard room run from $385 to $945 per night.
In an interview with The Wrap, Bryan said, “Travel, in general, has changed. People aren’t in a rush to go to a mega-resort and sit shoulder to shoulder with thousands of people they don’t know.” The couple revealed that once travel opened up again during the pandemic business went from zero to fully booked quickly. Bryan said Caerula Mar’s bookings “very quickly went from just empty shutdown to gangbusters. So we turned the jets on and got it done.”