RIU Hotels

I’m not sure whether to start with the disgusting attitudes with the staff, the fact that they make up rules as they go. No policies being displayed or the fact that after spending hundreds and over a $1000 American dollars to live there for 6 days, I was unable to have a guest in my room to even use the bathroom. Don’t get me wrong, out of the 6-9 front desk check in customer service people 2 of them were helpful, understanding and extremely nice (Alfredo and unfortunately I cannot remember the other young lady's name). They give you wristband and don’t tell you what it’s for then try to charge you $100 for another plastic/paper wristband that I’m sure only cost $.05 to make. They are crooks.

To top it off, as I’m trying to speak with one the managers, she had the nerve to tell me “Well you’re in my country.” Excuse my language but what the hell is me being in your country have to do with your disgusting customer service and how you're allowing your employees to speak to me. Maybe if I was the person who had an issue with them I would be more calm but as I’m there 2 other couples are going back and forth with these people because they are downright unprofessional. When I walked in? Security follows you so uncomfortable close that you can feel them breathing on your neck as if you're stealing or something. ITS CRAZY.

I refused to stay there and found myself leaving that hotel and booking somewhere else but then there is the issue of the manager of the RIU not being able to provide my refund for a room I DID NOT even stay in because of their no refund policy. Travelocity, I can honestly say has been very helpful with this whole situation but as I said before I will never recommend or stay with these people ever again and I don’t care where they are located. Why should I stay in a “5-star” hotel that talks down on you, makes you feel extremely uncomfortable and will try and get me for my money.

OH WAIT! I DID NOT EVEN GET TO THE GOOD PART. The manager decided to leave because she decided she no longer wanted to handle the situation so shortly after the overnight employee decided that he wanted to call the cops because he just wanted me to stop complaining and didn’t want the back in forth in front at the customer service desk. So because they did wrong and I'm telling them to refund my money and asking them for the policy that shows the nonsense they are coming up with you call the police? In which, the officer did nothing because I was doing nothing wrong but pulling their cards. I want the CEO, CFO AND ANYONE else who owns this hotel to see this and understand the kind of people that gets hired in their establishment. I am extremely unhappy. Thank you.

When I complained to the head of the restaurants he was very indifferent, with NO apology. I explained to him that my husband was diabetic and had special needs. He could have cared less. There were many people there that were served and left, but it seemed that they had problems dealing with large parties. Both days we had a party of fifteen. They asked us how we wanted our steak, yet they sent ALL of our steak medium and this was after a two hour wait! I'll repeat we were the first in line both days but were served last and our food was NOT cooked to our specifications! ALL of this AND THEY didn't care that my husband was a diabetic.

These are my major complaints. Although I could go on regarding the lack of staff to engage during activities, and the staff member who tried to PUSH me to the ground during a dance competition so that I could twerk and get down... Her words... Which I was NOT going to do... AND I told her that because I'm NOT that kind of person! She approached me later in the evening and asked me why as if I had to explain myself to her and I politely told her that I take pride in myself AND my husband was there and it would be disrespectful to him to act this way. She was shocked and told me that she hopes to find a husband like that. What a shame that there are people at this resort who should be able to interact appropriately with guests, who THINK that ALL women conduct themselves **!

Needless to say I came back. The mattresses in the room that they gave us had mildew on them & refrigerator was leaking. There was a puddle on the floor. We insisted that they give us another room and we had to fight for that. They finally agreed. Nobody helped us move our luggage from one end of the hotel to the other and then we got a phone call because we left the key in the original room for the maids and they wanted to know why we didn't return that key to the front desk. They actually yelled at us.

There were flies all over the food to the point where you couldn't even eat. If you left your drink at the table to try to find something sealed that you could eat, you came back to flies in your drink! It was that bad! The pool had stuff floating in it. I still don't know what that was! I filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission against Funjet Vacations and P&H Travel as they did not disclose any information about the flies or mildew. Has anyone else complained about the flies on all of the food? Disgusting! I complained to Funjet Vacations and they said "you did get some value of the trip as you were able to use the beaches & the pool and the gym." My response to that was "it's hard to enjoy or get value out of anything when you're always hungry!" This was an all inclusive vacation package! Never ever again!

Excursions were a complete waste of time. We (our party of 24) went out with dune buggies and were told that lunch would be taken care of. They failed to mention we would have to pay 20 bucks minimum for it, which we did not do. We ended up missing lunch altogether that day. Two families in our party had to move, one due to a flooded bathroom and the other due to a lack of working A/C. Another member of our group had five (5) random men enter her room (with valuables inside) to do something with the ceiling. The hotel staff did not inform her that there would be workers (who were NOT in any uniform or gear that would indicate that they were legitimate) entering her room to do work. Nothing was taken, but it was enough for me to seriously question the security at the resort. We also have a crack in our wall.

The wifi doesn't like to work very much either. I have to restart my phone every time I need to access the Internet to get updates from home in regards to my dogs or to hear from friends. Rumor has it that this place is going to be demolished soon and rebuilt. Boy, does it need it. I really hope RIU gets its act together. This was my last vacation with my family before I leave for college and it ended up with me looking forward to flying home.

After a lovely tub together, we discovered we were locked onto the balcony, with the patio door to our room now dead-bolted from the inside! We were fortunate to yell to a maid a few floors below us, who rescued us and let us back in our room. We dressed and then discovered someone had entered the room, searched our bags until the safe and key were found and stole ALL of our cash $1500 USD. We called security and the hotel manager, who offered us $200 cash to tip the staff and for airport transfer and said there would be follow-up. We checked the next day, and there was no follow-up then or since. Southwest Vacations, with whom we booked the vacation, have not followed up, either! The local police were not summoned. It was obviously an inside job, but the one sentence apology from the RIU manager was simply not enough compensation for us.

Rude staff. Towel attendant was short and rude about towel turn in times and card pick up times. One bartender scolded an older woman for not asking when she ordered if he would add chocolate to her drink. I thought they were supposed to say, "No problem man..." I would've asked for the manager. Seemed he didn't like his job and had a resentment for the people who were there making him do work. Restaurants were nothing special and closed many days of the week. The Asian restaurant was nothing to write home about. Buffet for morning and evening with endless cheap liquor. I traveled 12/5/16-12/9/16 with 100 guests in our group. I will not return to RIU Ocho Rios. With having asthma, the mold was the worst part of this trip. Not being able to wash, flush or shower was the icing on the cake!

Two very bad things, we were there with another couple that had her iPhone stolen out of her room and management pretty much shrugged their shoulders and said it was not their problem, even saying the only person in the room was the cleaning person. Supposedly asked the person if they took it and they said no, end of story, sorry about your luck. My wife and I came home with a very serious staph infection on our faces, which obviously we contacted it there and even after our travel agent contacted them about our infection and our friends cell phone we were basically told "SORRY ABOUT YOUR LUCK. IT IS NOT OUR PROBLEM." So needless to say I would not ever go back to a RIU Resort or Jamaica.

Early in our stay we met the general manager Justin, who referred to us as his friends. We reported the flaws to the front desk, asking for Justin but they stated he was out for a few days, and they would send someone up to our room right away. After waiting an hour and a half, no one ever came up to our room to resolve the issues. We reported this to the front desk, and they said someone would be up to fix the problems, and we should go enjoy our day at the beach.

When the general manager Justin came back to work (after having a few days off) he had walked up to our room with us, and had maintenance and a cleaning crew come to our room. If painting the vent, and temporary fixing the plumbing is the best they can do, that is just a sin. We informed Justin that Duke, the guy at the desk said we would have the other manager of the hotel Danny issue us a spa credit because they had a full house of booked rooms. We talked to other couples that had the same issues who were upgraded to different rooms. Justin also acted like he was doing us a favor by giving us a free bottle of champagne. The resort was all inclusive so no favors were done.

The night before we checked out, we were in our room at 8 pm on. We heard someone at the door around 11 pm. They slipped under a check out sheet and with that was to see Duke at the front desk immediately. I called and he was not there. The next morning at check out, they said Duke wanted to give us a spa day that day, KNOWING we were leaving. It overall was bad business. I work in the customer service field and hospitality and I would never let my customers leave without issues being resolved. We spent thousands of dollars to be treated like we didn't matter and left there very unhappy. It is very unfortunate that we left with a bad taste in our mouths.

While I was there I told the manager of the hotel that I need a clean room because I have problems with my lungs and the doctor specifically has told me to make sure that I am not around any mold. When I came back I went to the doctor and he told me to start on the inhaler again and a nasal spray. I have had a sensitivity for a couple of years now and when the room smelled of mold I told them that I need a clean room. Two days before we left I received a call from the manager to move me to a suite with an oceanfront. I told him that all I needed was a clean room, not a large room and I did not care about the view. This vacation cost us with the air fare $500.00 a day. It was the worst possible vacation. And to think we waited a whole year to go on vacation.

She was so annoyed with my request, she assigned me a room which was occupied. I found that out when I had to return to the unfriendly front desk to get my Wi-Fi password, and when she printed it out, she handed it to me, I looked at it and it had a man's name on it. I gave it back to her and she asked me who he was. I told her I have no idea. She then changed my room gave me the Wi-Fi password but forgot my towel card. Trip number 3 to get my towel card. AnnaMarie walked by, I said to her "Can I ask you a question?". If looks could kill, I would be dead. So I never did get a chance to ask my question. I got my towel card, my room wasn't ready.

It's now after 4 pm, check-in is at 3 pm, I've been traveling all day. While waiting for my room on the beach I encounter two young ladies, Elainea and Kim, very nice and courteous. I ended up booking a massage, full body exfoliation and a facial with Elainea for the next day. Sana, I think her name, was did my massage and full body exfoliation. she was a sweet young lady polite friendly and courteous. I had my facial fine by Camille, she was rough around the edges. I felt as though she didn't prefer black American women, but she did a good facial.

In years past there was a great entertainment team who would socialize with the patrons on the beach, come over say hello, see how you're doing, how you're enjoy your vacation, get you involved in the daily beach activities. There was so many activities both on the beach and poolside. In times past I would rate it a 10, during my trip, I would rate it a 1. The food is more for the Europeans, when I travel to Jamaica I want Jamaican food music entertainment and hospitality and the Riu no longer has that for its patrons, the Riu in Ocho Rios Jamaica is more like me going to Germany, Russia the food was disgusting, tasteless geared more for the Europeans. I travel with a Social Club of about 150 members you can best believe we will NEVER patronize the Riu anywhere EVER. My background is customer service, I can teach your staff a thing or two about how to treat your patrons.

To begin, the first day we spent over $600 in excursions at your facilities while we were waiting for our room to be clean. We could not control our excitement. We were lying at the beach starting my vacation and birthday celebration, when all the sudden we got hit by an umbrella that flew from the pool deck. The umbrella hit my partner on her face and consequently, the pole hit me in my right arm leaving a painful and an ugly wound (see attached pictures for reference). Multiple individuals witnessed this incident and approached us to ask if we were ok, but not a single employee from your resort seemed concerned about our well-being. We approached the lobby asking for help and to speak to a manager and were turned down by the receptionist offering us just a band-aid. Per the receptionist, the manager on duty was Annabel **.

Ms. ** stated that these types of incidents had not occurred there before, but her lack of care to avoid any type of liability was incredible. I then asked to speak to her supervisor; Ms. ** stated that her supervisor was Daniela **, a person that we NEVER met. Needless to say, this event ruined our vacation. Few days later I went to see Ms. ** to request an incident report. Instead of providing me with a form, she just referred us to customer service. I asked to speak to the supervisor, Ms. **, and she was unavailable despite my multiple complaints. I requested the name of another supervisor, Ms. ** ignored us and left us in the lobby, she went to an office and did not come out again. Ms. Sara, another assistant manager came for her replacement and apologized, something that no one in your resort had done.

Few days later, I went to an excursion and upon my return, I found clothing from a different guest in my room. The housekeeper had let another individual access my room. I understand mistakes occur but allowing someone to go into my room invaded my privacy. This is completely unacceptable. What kind of control does your hotel have? After this incident, I am very discontent with the treatment I received at your facility, and I wish someone at our company would take full responsibility for such an awful experience.

Check in to the hotel was pleasant and we were placed in a room with a “garden view” which is totally fine since this is what was booked through JetBlue Getaways. Since not much time is spent in the room anyway I don’t mind a garden view. Our room in this case was actually facing a construction site, a noisy one. All this even can be overlooked if everything else was Palace-like. Well, not so much again. We went to the buffet for lunch; not much of a selection, wilted salads, food not being replenished at the height of lunch, fruit platters with basically same fruit I am able to buy in Brooklyn and flies all over it that are not being in any way controlled. This continued into dinner that day and breakfast, unfortunately into the entire 10 day vacation. Also not much of authentic Jamaican food at all. Curry goat and oxtail wasn’t really available and no Jamaican staples such as ackee and salt fish.

Out of curiosity we went to the sister resort next door which is considered to be the cheaper and on a budget one (Montego Bay - Not Palace) and they had a way better presentation at their meals, more of a selection, cleaner and service was much more attentive. We ended spending many of our meals at the budget location. Unfortunate since when we stayed at the Palace in Mexico we had no need or interest to visit the other resorts but when we did they were also pretty great. As for the overall service, most of the employees were nice but nothing spectacular comparing to the stay at the other location.

Bars – We are not much of drinkers of premade frozen mixed drinks, so I ordered a Mojito and Caipirinha both of which are on their bar menus. They were made with a tiny piece of lime, basically a small lime cut into about 18 pieces and fake lime juice from a bottle. I was told that they don’t really have limes for drinks. To me it is baffling since the drinks are on their menu. I didn’t order anything special. Needless to say, I went to the supermarket outside of the resort while being harassed by the locals on the way there and BOUGHT my own limes to be used for drinks.

Room – Was extremely noisy. I slept with earplugs in my ears every night because at about 7:30 the construction at the adjacent resort (RIU Reggae) was in progress. Room cleaning by the staff was done till very late at night as well. Noisy carts being rolled around and staff making lots of noise. Our air conditioning/thermostat did not adjust temperature. On at least 3 occasions maintenance looked at it without resolving the issue. We were actually told by them to use the fan above the bed to keep cool. We set it 10 degrees Celsius which was lowest and it would not adjust down. It only crept up higher (above 22). For the entire stay we could not adjust the temperature since a runaround from maintenance was given until we gave up on complaining.

Entertainment – Less than mediocre, not much during the day at the pool besides a game of darts or horseshoe. A little better at night. We expected a much livelier entertainment crew as compared to the other location. On the 5th night we requested to speak to the manager of the resort. He was on vacation (Perhaps at the Palace in Mexico ��). We sat down with the assistant GM and brought up all the issues that I mentioned before; food and bars being the biggest complaints. He of course said that we are the first to have an issues with such and that he has never seen any flies on food. We asked him to have lunch or breakfast with us so we can show it to him. He didn’t seem interested. He also told us that purchasing limes is difficult because they are expensive and when we asked about mangoes, which were not available at the buffet and being a Caribbean staple he said that they also have trouble getting them.

Mangoes did somehow appear a few days later. In the end not much was accomplished besides him telling us that he cannot do anything for us besides possibly setting up a romantic dinner on the beach, value of which I found out later is $150. He told us to contact RIU directly and the company we booked through. Having spent almost $4,000 on this trip and way more in used up vacation time, this isn’t something you want to hear. That same night we met couples from Belgium that have spoken to him with very similar complaints. Later on we found out they weren’t the only ones. They actually stayed at the same Mexico location as we did numerous times and expected the same from this one.

There was a new area with a pool that is few months old and dried up palm trees on the beach that looked like they were losing branches every day, not something you want to look at.

Having spent 10 days away and almost as many days of mine and my boyfriend’s vacation time, I wish we stayed home. The weather was great and I got a tan but I could have done that at the beach in NY with way better food at home and more of a peaceful feel with properly adjustable air conditioning. Losing over $6,000 in vacation time for both of us, this was definitely not worth it. Not something we signed up for when booking a PALACE location. I am hoping that JetBlue Getaways is able to give us a refund for this vacation in the least so that we can actually book a vacation that we can fully enjoy as we enjoyed the last two booked through JetBlue. For reference and as proof of everything that is aforementioned, we have lots of pictures of the food, the flies, the broken palm trees and videos of the noise we encountered. If there is a need I can forward it all to you.

The hot food at the buffet was cold and congealed, and cold food was warm and nasty. We thought we just came at a bad time of night, and we will book reservations for the rest of the trip. The food from the restaurants was lukewarm. We did not have a hot meal during our entire stay. Nausea started to kick in day 1, and so did upset stomachs. The room temperature food was a breeding ground for bacteria, and our stomachs were telling us something was wrong. For 3 days we suffered from Nausea, causing us to not enjoy any of the amenities at the resort. We did not get to enjoy the beach or the pool, as they were too far from a restroom to take any chances. We avoided all of the seafood after the first night of the trip, since we were disgusted by the poor handling of the shrimp and mussels. Even the restaurants served up room-temp food. You could tell the meals are sitting under warming lamps right before it’s served to guests.

After 3 days of me feeling terrible, and pretty much being tied to the bathroom, we went on 1 excursion when we both felt well enough to leave the resort. After the excursion, we had dinner at Italliano, where they served up a lukewarm dining experience, with a side of food poisoning. Yes, that's right. My girlfriend endured a violent case of food poisoning, ruining the remainder of the trip. At 3:00am Monday morning, she woke me up to help her, and I did the best I could. The day before, the cleaning crew never restocked our fridge, or our toilet paper. NO TOILET PAPER, and she has food poisoning from your poorly maintained kitchens.

I went to the front desk to look for assistance, and nobody would help me. I asked for toilet paper, and their response was "We don't have the key." WHAT?! No key to the toilet paper? No store to buy any type of Gatorade for hydration in the hotel, nowhere to buy tums or **, and not a single person willing to help me out in a situation we clearly needed help with?

I went to the 24 hour bar, and luckily the bartender had spare water bottles and garbage bags that I promptly brought back to the room. Then there was still the toilet paper issue. I had to take rolls out of the bathrooms by the pool to bring upstairs for my girlfriend, since the staff didn't help or react at all to the situation. The woman at the front desk said she will send tea to the room. They called the room, saying it will be there in 3 minutes, but it never came. The following morning, around 7am now, the operator called the room, asking if we still needed toilet paper. I stated yes we do, and it never arrived. The front desk did not pick up the phone any time I called it, and they didn't seem interested in helping me in any way.

At 7:30am, I spoke to the manager, Vernel, about the situation and he assured me that I would be helped, stating he would send Gatorade and soup to the room. The Gatorade arrived an hour and a half later, but no soup. Thanks Vernel. I went back to the front desk around 8am, and I wanted to speak to the General Manager, and Vernel told me he would call the room when she was available. I waited for 11 HOURS to talk to the General Manager, checking back at the front desk every hour. Vernel never called the room, and left for the day at 3pm. The service at this place was pitiful at best.

Finally 7pm rolls around and I am FINALLY speaking to the General Manager, Sandra, who was trying to convince me that this was not a case of food poisoning, but it was because of dehydration. I have never seen anyone this violently sick before, and this was not dehydration. Sandra also tried to blame the nausea and illness on drinking too much liquor. We barely drank the entire trip due to feeling sick the entire time. This wasn't I drank too much kind of sick. This was food poisoning at its worst. Sandra told me that their on-site doctor (who never once showed face) assured her that food poisoning takes 48 hours to settle in, which is absolutely incorrect. Even if it was correct, every meal eaten over the past 72 hours was from the kitchens of the Riu Palace. All of her excuses were salt in the wound of an already botched vacation.

I asked Sandra why none of the chefs are wearing gloves, and not washing their hands while handling all types of raw and cooked food. I witnessed this in BOTH of the buffets. She said that it was easier to not wear gloves and wash your hands than it was to keep changing gloves. This is an awful way to handle food, and a horrible excuse to tell me while my girlfriend is bedridden and in extreme pain due to how the chefs handle the food. Sandra offered no help either, stating that she would move us to a suite, but since it was our last night, there would be no point, so she couldn't help us. She did apologize for the food poisoning, and the horrible service, admitting that the staff did absolutely nothing to help out, saying that it was unacceptable, and that she would look into it.

The chef in Nautilus was cooking burgers with no gloves on, touching both the raw and cooked meat with his bare hands without washing in-between. He put the burgers on the grill, and placed a dirty porcelain tray on top of the patties as they cooked, then flipped them and touched the cooked part with his filthy bacteria-laden hands.

I spoke to her about how the room was never restocked with water or toilet paper, and how we were told that they will be brought to the room, and it never came. The tea they promised never showed up. The water and toilet paper never showed up. The staff wouldn't help with anything. They were absolutely useless. Sandra said she would bring up anything we need herself, and I said we needed toilet paper and water, and it STILL NEVER CAME!

The service and food at this resort were atrocious, sickening even, and our entire vacation was completely ruined by staying here. We spent close to $4,000 on this trip, and we enjoyed 10% of it. The other 90% was spent in agony. I will never recommend anyone stay here. I will never stay here again. I am going to paste this entire note on all of the review sites and social media sites in hopes of warning other guests about this poorly managed establishment. This was, by far, the WORST resort/hotel experience I've ever encountered, yet it was the most expensive. You absolutely do not get what you pay for when staying at the Riu Palace. Most people go to Aruba and don't want to come home, as for us, we could wait to leave.

The walk to the rooms are not covered so when it rained and stormed you have to walk a far distance to get to your room. The smell outside of the rooms smelled like trash everyday. I was there and the smell inside the rooms smelled like mildew. My sheets were dirty and were not changed because sand was in my bed and the same stain was on my sheets. Customer Service was horrible and some staff was rude! I would not recommend ANYONE to stay at this hotel EVER!!!

Food was ok. Nothing great, but you won't starve. We needed our TV hooked up to cable and it took numerous phone calls, going down to front desk, being hung up on twice and manager always occupied, finally got a supervisor and 3 hours later after we showed the tech the problem we were fixed. So it was obvious even though they told us for 2 and a half hours he was on his way was not true.

Skimmers were never cleaned until a guest went to someone to be cleaned in the middle of our first week. They were just filthy. Pool decks had never been washed down until June 15 when the Sunwing reps showed for their grand opening tour, and boy did the resort put on a show for them making service etc. special for them, so they would have gotten the impression this was the norm (well it wasn't). 2 security even popped up lol.

Mind you the resort does look nice but very no frill for room amenities, drinks, etc. Customer service is poor and a lot of the staff did not look happy IMO. Found out on the way home yesterday that some people were getting drinks brought to them all day as they were tipping like crazy. This is not right again IMO. On our last day June 17 they finally made a path through the sand dunes in middle of resort. You still can't see the ocean but better still was no washrooms or permanent bar on beach (beach is beautiful).

No shade for you on the beach unless you get up before 6am. People were even saving them 7pm at night. They don't even give you a pen and paper in the room, no big deal but come on. WIFI was great. That was about the only really good thing. The young and not fussy drinkers all think it was over the top, but from the more mature people we spoke most of them said it was their first and last time at this resort. And also being a RIU Class Member doesn't do anything for you, but we found that was at most of RIU's we have stayed at.

One more last rant, the elevators OMG, small, hot, smelly, dirty, slow and everyday one sometimes 2 would break down, good job they only had 4 floors to climb. Hopefully some of these issues (there are more) will get sorted, but I doubt it. Some of these little things should never have been an issue. They don't even have a cold water dispenser at the bars so you can get your own. I won't even go on about the punta cana airport or Sunwing reps. We got this resort for a very good price and now know why. Bottom line if you just want to drink anything and get drunk you will be fine, or if you know the big wigs we'll be there. Things will be much better.

Then the internet (which is promised on their website) has been down for over 24 hours. We have had to go over to the Atlantis just for internet service, spend over $50 purchasing a fan for our sauna of a room, and been miserable the whole trip. We have talked to the management multiple times, along with many other hotel guests, only to be told there was nothing they could do and to email some email address to voice concerns. We spent over $3000 on the vacation and I regret every second of it. I have always stayed at RIU Palace hotels from Aruba to Mexico... but NEVER EVER again. No one should be treated like this after paying good, hard earned money that took over two years to save up for.

We then settled into our room, after requesting a different room due to it being at the end of a dark hallway. The front desk person, Eva, informed us there were no more rooms as the hotel was sold out. We found out the next day, this was not true. We kept the room and got dressed to go to dinner. We left the hotel to go to dinner around 8:30 and also went to a wine lounge downtown Majorca. After returning to our room we discovered our room had been accessed and the entire safe was CUT, YES I SAID CUT from the cabinet in the wall. All of our items were stolen, two laptops, cellphone, three passports, and cash in Euros.

Apparently the hotel staff broke into our room, stole the safe and used my large duffle like tote bag and my friend's suitcase to roll the items right out of the front door. Yep that's what happened because the suitcase and duffle bag were stolen and they took the identifying ribbon from my friend's suitcase. There wasn't any access to the outside balcony and the screen door was locked to the balcony. We called the hotel security, they came and confirmed the findings and called the Palma Police. We then entered into this long drawn out battle with the hotel management staff!!! We had to make them fly us to Barcelona to get new passports that their staff stole and have been in a constant struggle to receive payment from the stolen items.

Today we received an email after providing them with an insurance list of the items lost and the email stated they were no longer going to fund our lost items. They forged my friend's name on a rental contract we never were shown or signed at the time of receiving the safe. When I spoke with the hotel's director, Annabel, she stated we signed the contract and were given an activation code and the signed contract. But you recall... the bellman told us they didn't have an activation code and we never signed or received a safe deposit box contract. THEY FORGED MY FRIEND'S NAME ON THE CONTRACT.

The next morning after the theft, the hotel's director, Tolo **, attempted to have us sign the contract in arrears... we declined and told him we were NEVER presented with the contract at the time of check in and weren't going to sign it. He asked questions about who checked us in and which bellboy went to our room and agreed with us not signing the contract.

Fast forward to today... May 7, 2016; they now have some contract with a false signature stating only 300 Euros will be paid from the insurance company. LIES!!! If this was the case why did your insurance company have us fill out a losses and damages form that far exceeds the amount of three hundred Euros??? Also, WE NEVER signed the contract! They forged a name then had the audacity to say the police found the contract in our room?? What police, because the Illetas police who took the report on the early morning of March 20 (I have a copy) never took any pictures of the room or wrote down anything. BUT NOW you have a police report with pictures of the contract? Lies!!!

The Riu and the Bonanza Playa people are dishonest. Do not stay at any of their hotels and don't trust them. I've attempted to contact their direct customer service via email and phone and have NEVER received a response. I'm thankful I have my life and they were only material things but it ruined our entire vacation, we lost work items, and these people are flat out dishonest!!!

I said OK. It is one of those deals so since I had a 3 vacation package I figured I would get a refund before going down these roads of bait and switch, shifty sales people. I don't need the headache. Well everyone I spoke to is either quiet or etc... I can't get the same person ever. I am waiting on my refund and as you would figure I am chasing it down. No one ever knows what is going on and I expect this to continue. I do think I will get it. I just have to work for it. This place gives others a bad name. I should have known better. DON'T BUY THE VACATION PACKAGES FROM THE PHONE. It's not worth your time and testing of your patience and a disgrace to my intelligence.

The couple we were vacationing with waited five days for the remote control for the TV in their room. None of the servers, bartenders, maids were at all friendly with the exception of Karen, server in the evening bar area and Farlynn, server in the Mexican restaurant and MamaJuana restaurant. All anyone would have to do in those areas, would be to smile or say hello but that courtesy was very lacking.

As far as Cleanliness/ Sanitation goes: Every restaurant/ buffet we went to, we found dirty dishes, cups and flatware. After a while, you begin to wonder about the cleanliness of the food prep areas. One night when we went to the buffet, they were prepping a table for us and they were not going to change the tablecloth which was stained with the previous diners meal. Another problem in the buffet was the lack of identification of the foods on the buffet. Only a few items were labeled, the rest was a guess. That could really be a serious problem for people with food allergies. Tables in the bar area were not cleaned in between guests. The glasses would be removed but the tables never wiped. It's not pleasant sitting at a dirty table trying to enjoy your evening. Even when the bar was closing, the tables did not get wiped down to start the next day clean. The table tops were left filthy every night.

Room cleanliness was barely acceptable. We wonder how a maid could clean a shower when the handle keeps falling off. There should be a checklist in place for the maid to register maintenance issues for the rooms as well as inventory what each room is missing. For example, our room was missing a blanket and extra pillows. The couple we were vacationing with were missing a remote control for the TV in their room. There is no doubt that everyone works very hard at running the resort. A few details need to be looked at to make it an even better resort. In our opinion, the RIU Bambu is not a five star property, barely a four star.

The follow-up communication to your guests that were affected during the incident is as stellar as the communications during the incident (NON-EXISTENT). I will be relentless in pursuing the RIU. Holding you accountable for your negligence and poor customer service. Tweets, blogs, posts, newspapers, travel agency's, any way, shape or form to advise those folks of the RIU's lack of response, information and/or intent to compensate/reimburse those folks that were impacted by the fire (caused by RIU's WILLFUL negligence). This cannot and will not be swept under the carpet or if time will pass and guests will forget. Too much money spent for services/accommodations not received.

Will promote any OTHER all-inclusive OTHER than the RIU. How about the Ritz-Carlton? Nice 5-star rating. Actually walked up there and it was beautiful. Spoke to some guests and they loved it. Same for the Marriott-Stellaris. I shall expect a timely response as the RIU has had time to decide your course of action on satisfying your agreement/contract with guests (me) that was impacted by the fire and compensate/reimburse accordingly.