RIU Hotels Reviews

And, unfortunately, the list of negatives… This what was advertised as a ‘connecting’ balcony. As we were on the first floor there was really no ‘balcony’ per se and it did not connect with the other room. In addition, the mosquitoes in the small hallway space between the rooms as well as in the rooms themselves and throughout the internal hotel area of the resort were everywhere.

*On the first day upon arriving, the outside suite door became stuck, and we were stuck within our 2 rooms. After calling the front desk and waiting 45 minutes I had to call again and was told maintenance was handling something else, but I explained that to trapped inside of your room with no exit and wanting to leave was a big deal and we needed someone to get us out of these rooms. They said they would send someone yet again. Another 30 minutes passed before maintenance came. They spent a full 5 minutes trying to use brute strength before they were able to get the door pushed open and we were never able to shut it fully again as they agreed that it completely stuck.

The steakhouse is open air so it has no air conditioning, there were large moths and flying bugs everywhere, and there were 2 raccoons walking around looking for scraps. Pool chairs were not clean, even after telling the attendant and saying he would come back over because whatever pink stuff was stuck on the outside of the chair was attracting the bees. He did not come over with anything to clean it - and the bees were everywhere - you could not put a drink down without a bee crawling into it. We went to the sister resort next-door to use the pool and even though it was lively we left because of how filthy the water was. It had lots dead bugs, live bugs (had to pull one from my sister’s ponytail), and much floating debris.

The main complaint I do have, however, is one that I made several times a day beginning with the first day of the trip. I even asked to speak with a manager or supervisor, but apparently there is none, which doesn’t make sense to me. This would be that when placed in a room with a separate small toilet room and open sink area in the room itself, the glassed-in shower should have the door installed and not left with the holes in the wall where it had previously been screwed in place.

I was told on the first day that maintenance would be on it. When I returned to my room that evening after dinner was still no door and when I called the front desk, they had no maintenance request written down and had to put it in-after telling me they already done so earlier that day. They then told me that some of the showers just don’t have doors. But I told them that there were screws for the doors and this one should have a door just like I told them the day before. I called again the next day and stop by the front desk and they said maintenance was on it but again no door that night.

I continued to go unshowered because I was not showering in front of my brother. And the next day I had to miss the night time show in order to shower because there was still no door even though I was continued to be told that maintenance was on it and getting the door from storage. This happened each day and still no door. The day before I was leaving, someone at the front desk offered to switch my room – I explained that with us leaving the morning, we were not going to move all of our stuff to a new room and it just told me that they never were actually going to give us a bathroom door during our stay and I told them as well that I do not like being pulled along like that and appreciate the truth upfront.

I have never been at a hotel where they have taken the door off of a private shower area, not replaced it, and put paying guests in there and then misrepresented to them the entire stay that it was going to be fixed when it was never going to be at all. I told them the entire time that I was with my brother and we were not showering in front of each other. I have traveled all over the world, and I have never been in such a situation. And for those with door keys not working, One of the times I was at the front desk complaining about the bathroom situation there was someone there who was checking out complaining that they had to come to the desk at least three times every day of their stay because of their door keys not working.

At that point I tried to change my flight home to next day, but could not get a transfer to airport. The entire property is filthy, broken lights in the path, cig butts everywhere, trash, leftover food and booze left all over property and the staff does not care. Everyone I spoke to was disappointed. When you try to file complaint w/ RIU, they insist you complete this form, but after trying to hit enter 5 separate occasions, the form will not send. So no complaint can be filed.

Room cleanliness was subpar, with pillows lacking inner covers and a lingering sweat odor. While the food was acceptable, the restaurant service was lacking unless tipped generously. The beach, although beautiful, was frequently marked with a red flag, making swimming challenging for half the year. Regrettably, I don't foresee returning to any RIU hotel based on this experience.

The next day I complained about a very bad experience and was met with a poor attitude and indifference. They just didn't seem to care. Upon arriving back home, I wrote to their complaints department. After some back and forth, the Riu agreed to process a refund for €110, half my nightly cost. Per their request I sent them my bank info so they could process a wire transfer. That was over two weeks ago. To date, they have not processed the refund. The excuses so far have been, it will happen this Sunday. Our system is broken and can't wire money to the United States. We don't issue credit card refunds. Talk about gaslighting. Things happen like alarms and construction, I understand that, although not open electrical closets. It's what's done about it that matters. With the Riu, what was done about it has been nothing but lies and excuses. Excuses so offensive to one's intelligence, they're laughable. Where is this company's integrity?

At 7:50 am on the morning after the second night (Saturday, September 9) the Fire Alarm went off for the third time. We called reception asking what was going on and did not receive much of an answer other than they were supposedly checking on it. The next two nights we encountered the same exact thing. But on the fifth morning (Tuesday, September 12) when the fire alarm went off for the third time at 6:00 am, I tried to call reception and got a busy signal. I put on my clothes and walked to reception in the front lobby. There were two Riu staff members at the reception desk and one customer talking with them. The staff told the other customer that they thought the problem was someone smoking in their room. They told me they thought it was smoke in the kitchen being generated when they started cooking.

One of the staff even said they were going to go to the kitchen to disconnect the alarm so it wouldn’t go off!!! I explained to the two staff employees that not finding out what was causing the problem with the fire alarm system was conditioning people to ignore the alarms. That if there were a real fire at the resort, many people might not even attempt to leave their rooms. Later that morning after breakfast, I went back to the lobby to speak to the hotel/resort manager. I stood outside the Manager’s office several minutes before a man asked if he could help me. I asked to speak to the manager and apparently, he was the manager (Jose **). I explained to him that we were tired of being woken up several times during the last five nights by the Fire Alarm and asked why the problem had not been resolved.

I also explained that this was no vacation and that we were going to have to go home to get some rest. He said something about the fact that he had just learned about the problem from other customers. Apparently, his staff had not made him aware of the problem (no chain of command process). He mentioned that he was going to call the engineer that morning. I asked why the engineer had not been called after the first night to resolve this problem. At about 10:00 am that morning, the electricity went off in the resort for about four minutes. Then the Fire Alarm went off for three short intervals.

I called reception later that day and asked if the problem had been resolved. During the phone conversation, I found out that the Hotel Manager had been off on the previous Saturday and Sunday. Which could explain why nothing had been done to resolve this situation. I thought this manager was very young and inexperienced to run a large resort such as the Hotel Riu Palace Punta Cana. Frankly, I was appalled that no one who works for Riu took this seriously enough to act on this major annoying and inconvenient problem that caused us to suffer this kind of treatment for five nights. We also encountered the following other problems during our stay:

6. One night at about 10:20 pm, housekeeping woke us up by pounding (not knocking) very loudly on our room door to deliver towels, which we did not request.

2. We had other guests move our towels and personal belongings that were on our chase lounges around the adult pool one day while we were at lunch. We have experienced this same problem at other resorts because the resort sold Day Passes to locals or cruise ship passengers. I enquired at the front desk if Riu does the same thing. I found out that the Riu Palace Punta Cana offers a one-night stay to citizens of the Dominican Republic for $121.00. I understand why you do this to increase your room occupancy rate, but maybe they should be told to have some respect for other people’s things.

I filed a complaint with Riu Hotels as soon as we returned home to the USA and was extremely disappointed in the reply I received from Riu. Their explanation regarding the fire alarm system being “regularly” maintained was not true during our stay. I feel that the maintenance contractor should have been called the day after the first time the alarm went off during the night. I don’t think Riu took this situation very seriously and feel that they were almost saying I lied about the fire alarm system problem. Trust me, I did not exaggerate the issue. We asked for a refund of our lodging and only received 500 points added to our Riu Class account (500 points=$50 USD). This was not even sufficient for the inconvenience(s) we endured during our stay. I would not recommend Riu hotels to anyone again!