RIU Hotels Reviews

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!

- [ ] When arrived at 1pm Monday my room wasn’t ready until 4:45 pm.

- [ ] After finally getting in the room I was extremely hot and the room temperature was 76.1 degrees. I tried to adjust the thermostat but it wouldn’t change. After calling maintenance he stated the thermostat was locked at 22 degrees Cel he adjusted it to 20 degrees Cel =68 degrees F but the temp in the room didn’t change at all after about 3 hours. I called again because still no change in the room and I was constantly sweating and uncomfortable through the night.

- [ ] After five attempts of getting the air fixed in both rooms maintenance confirmed that the entire section we were in had troubles with the A/C (we both had junior suites). So finally in the evening of day two they moved us to new rooms. One was in the same section and one in another building. I asked at the front desk of the room in the same section will have the same issue. I asked if that room temperature had been checked and I was told yes by maintenance and a supervisor. Negative that room was the same temp as my last rooms just two floors above.

- [ ] Also the refrigerator in my room had various beverages that were warm, the refrigerator was not cooling at all.

- [ ] My family member who was just two floors above had to call also for the same issue as her room was 77 degrees. Maintenance was unable to resolve her no A/C issue either.

- [ ] I only received one key to my 1st room therefore my room was dark every time I came back at night. Apparently their rooms are powered by one of the room cards, and the other should be used for entry.

- [ ] During one day I went to the pool and was unable to get a towel because I needed a towel card apparently. I had no clue about a towel care being needed and that I should have been given one at check-in. And they wanted to charge $20 for not returning a towel card that they never gave me upon check-in on my first day

Upon my return, I could not get into my room and the front desk lady called someone up and they explained that Joanna had changed my room anyway. And they asked me where was my belongings…. Being that I was on an excursion, I did not know. I was upset and told them that I did not appreciate this, and I’ve never been through anything like this EVER!!.. Joanna was the front desk clerk

At this time we had dinner planned for my birthday celebration… I missed it because I had to move my items from one side of the resort to the far far back of the other side.... Once we got to the new room, the technician tried 4 room keys and none of them worked, he had to use his master key!!! I said well if I want to leave my room what should I do.. He said you’ll have to go back up front to get a new key. I had to go back 3 times after the move. The new room leaked when I took a shower, and the AC did not work

6/3, 6/4 – same issue, myself and my 10 guests had to go to the front desk constantly.. all day and night!! The shower leaked into the room whenever I took a shower. There were no face towels, when I asked for one, the housekeeper asked me for money. Per the description online, there was supposed to be bathrobes, there were none. We went to a restaurant and a bird was literally sitting on the fruit, and the staff were just standing there!! They did not try to shoo it away until we said something.

Unfortunately, the Riu Republica has turned me against visiting Punta Cana again. I am an ** woman, and I felt like I was being treated differently because of that. I am also a veteran who has traveled all over and I have never felt this way. I spent a lot of money to celebrate my birthday and was treated terrible. When I contacted corporate they said, "Sorry try another riu hotel.."

I also have video of the roach near the buffet and pictures of the cat eating buffet food. Their response was, "We deeply apologize if you felt that your experience was not one hundred percent reflective of a true RIU holiday. Our apology at this time may not undo the inconvenience that you felt, but our regret is sincere and our effort in the future will be guided by your comments." Based on the information provided, the hotel advised us that unfortunately they cannot offer any compensation for the issues they experienced. I was not satisfied by the response.