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RIU Hotels & Resorts
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RIU Hotels & Resorts Complaints Summary

21 Resolved
459 Unresolved
Our verdict: If considering services from RIU Hotels & Resorts with a critical resolution rate, extra caution is advised. Examine detailed customer feedback to understand the severity and nature of unresolved issues. Be prepared for the possibility of unsatisfactory responses and have contingency plans, including seeking assistance from consumer advocacy groups if necessary.
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RIU Hotels & Resorts reviews & complaints 480

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1:06 am EDT
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RIU Hotels & Resorts Riu class membership

Do not join the riu class membership. We have stayed at the following riu locations - palace in punta cana, palace in mexico x 2, lapita in mexico, panama city, los cobos x 2 & recently had 80 guests in los cobos for a wedding. Joined the membership over a year ago, trying to get a password, over a year has gone by and at least twenty emails to their customer service department, to no avail. We were thinking of riu montego bay this april but I will not book at another vacation at a riu hotel, their head office customer service is very poor and even though I have loved the on site service, if they can afford to treat a customer this way, why give them any more business

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m5m
, US
Dec 26, 2019 12:36 pm EST

My wife and I each had our own Riu Class Gold cards for years. The card is free, but you get what you pay for, i.e., nothing! The last straw was after a week's stay in PV, I was rewarded with zero points and upon inquiry was given dog-chasing-his-tail explanation for the lack of points.

From my perspective the card is simply a gimmick to create in the holder a unreciprocated sense of loyalty to their brand. Waste your time if you wish, but you'll probably be commenting on this site in a couple of years.

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Larry McLeod
, US
Feb 04, 2022 7:03 am EST
Replying to comment of m5m

We have stayed at the Riu Palace Rivera Maya (2), Riu Peninsula (2), Riu Costa Mujeres (returning in March 2022), Riu Palace Americana. Riu Palace Costa Rico, Riu Palace Playa Del Carmen, Riu Palace Aruba (2), Riu Palace Bavero, Riu Palace Punta Cana, Riu Santa Fe in Cobo and now all we get is an estimated $200.00 off our next stay, which is still higher than many other web services. I can exchange some of these points to get a cap or shirt with the RIU logo.

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Ronald Too
, US
Aug 23, 2019 11:07 am EDT

We have been Riu Class GOLD members for 5 years plus staying at least at 2 hotels per year.
Have really received nothing of value.And now they downgraded our card to Riu Class beginner.
That will give you an idea not to waste your time.

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Dina Davis
, US
Apr 05, 2019 10:12 am EDT

I have the RIU Class Red Card. I am trying to book a vacation in August 2019. I have discovered that other booking sites offer a much better deal. This Red Card is useless.

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Larry McLeod
, US
Feb 04, 2022 6:44 am EST
Replying to comment of Dina Davis

Same here...I have over 4600 points and the most offered for a stay is 1800. Even with that, Expedia is cheaper. The "On Line" shopping items are junk.

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Tammy0727
, US
Mar 15, 2019 6:26 pm EDT

Have traveled with RIU for many trips. The card literally does nothing. I fell in the Bahamas and broke my knee and punctured my lip on the dresser in they’re resort and unfortunately they are not responsible. Medical bills added up and my knee still gives me problems. What did they do, gave me points to travel next time. No resolution, no expenses paid, no reimbursement. They suck! Sadly I’m trying to upload pics and it won’t let me.

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Ivy Stewart
, US
Jul 07, 2018 9:29 am EDT

Hi i have been a RIU member for a couple of years now and have a red card i have been to cacun and Jamaica twice and cape verde twice and Tenerife and not had any benefits u get with the card i get mails saying no points had no upgrades so what thw point in having a card ian in cape verde just now in the touareg and i am disappointed as rhis hotel is not the same class as the others i have been to .

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avans123
las vegas, US
Aug 05, 2013 5:15 pm EDT

We Was very disappointed by the customer service as well as the room service. During our stay at Riu we were visiting one of the fine restaurants called Kabuki. At the salad plate that my daughter was served was a big disgusting caterpillar. Crawling out of plate. After i address the issue to waiter he apologizes and just because i was there with my family i didn't want to ruin anyone's appetite and didn't make a huge deal out of it. After dinner was finished we desided to have a cofee. And what do you know, My daughter had an dead fly in it! Disgusting again! After that sheff came to appologies and everything but i didn't feel so good and desided to go in my room. Upstairs i was throwing up the whole nite just from being disgusted of the past dinner experience we had. When my sister-in law came up in my room to check on me, she propose that we would go downstairs and talk to someone about that. We had address the issue to customer relationship lady and explain her what happen. After we had a feeling that no one is cared i have decided to go back upstairs in my room. After a measurable night spended next to my toilet seat i discovered by next morning big rush going on all over my both legs. I have called again the same customer relationship lady downstairs to let her know. She was not there so i had to call a couple more times in a two hours period to get hold of her. After i let her know about my rush she suggested that i would see a doctor. Doctor arrived very quickly and actually was very nice. He said that it might be a scicologilas because of what happened night before. He gave me an antihistamine shot and left. For the next three days i couldn't eat anything nor go downstair to enjoy the pool or beach area as my legs were covered in a ugly rush! Vacation was ruined! out of 6 days that we were suppose to spend at Riu i had a half of it spend in my room! And after all the troubles that i went through we had received a Bottle of champagne and strawberries in my room with and apology note. I'll mention again that i couldn't even think of the food that time nor an alcoholic beverages! Besides, that bottle of champagne is free downstairs. Even if i want it i would get it myself from the buffet!
We were traveling with a six people total and stay in two rooms. As of the result we would not recommend Riu to our friends nor family members as a great vacation to stay kind of place. Very, Very disappointing!
Obviously Riu is just too big now to keep a track or provide a great training for the hotel employee.
As of our room cleaning if you ask- it is terrible as well! I was in the room a couple of times during cleaning perform in there. The guy just simply pick up the used towels that we used from the floor and wipe the sink area counter tops and mirrors. Also no one had touched our Bathtub from day one. I know it for sure just because we used it on the second day of our stay there and after we drain it there was a line of sunscreen oil that i used before i took a bathtub. That line was there till the last day that we check out!
We were looking forward for that vacation for 4 years as we can not afford it as often as we would like to. And now we felt that we shouldn't go and waste our money at The Riu as it was bad vacation! We do understand that unexpected stuff happened, But how it is taken care of in the end is make a huge difference! Especially if the hotel want to be called a "Five Star"
You can feel free to contact us with any questions that you might have at avans23@msn.com or by calling in US([protected]

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Disappointed in RIU standards in Cuba
Toronto, CA
May 12, 2013 8:17 pm EDT

Must say I was very misunderstood by the quality, service and standards of the RIU resort chain in Varadero Cuba. Resort wasn't old but they had major plumbing and water issues. Room beds are very uncomfortable. Service is back...alot of kickback for $$ going on at the site...watch yourself...you may be surprised by the proposition you are approached with.. Tour guides are all in it for kickbacks too with the interim stops along the way to Havana. Expectations of staff for tips was so obvious. Running out of white wine by 8pm every night at the main bar, come on! No wireless internet, only dial up and it costs 5 pesos for 30 minutes which actually takes 25 minutes to access the site you want and only enough time to write one text message...for a 5 Star, have to say it was over rated and only a 3 Star...too expensive for what was offered. Never will go back to RIU Varadero again...Food quality is a 2! Fish that you can't cut with a fork and knife as an example. So happy to be home!

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Hans Stromsnes
, US
Mar 28, 2018 8:44 pm EDT

what do you expect? This is a communist country that has managed to take a country that was #1 in latin america to the poorest! and has destroyed most of its treasured infrastructure. Get real, vacation elsewhere.

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chillijava
Nottingham, GB
Mar 23, 2012 4:36 am EDT
Verified customer This comment was posted by a verified customer. Learn more

i am having a problem with a riu hotel and a scam that is going on in this particular hotel but i cant find an email address for their head office in spain, does anyone have this?

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Coteek
Boca Raton, US
Feb 29, 2012 7:09 pm EST

I gave up on RIU 6 years ago.
We were family of 18, everyone got ripped of by additional charges, front desk had rudest, nastiest &^%$ working there. They forgot to call for our ride to airport. We had to grab a cab. I wrote letters after letters to get refund... useless. As long as I can afford to go on vacation I will never spend a dime at RIU.

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L Kuhn
Strathmore, CA
Feb 29, 2012 6:51 pm EST

totally agree, just got back from a week at RIU TROPICAL BAY and would say.. DO NOT BOOK HERE agreed customer service is lacking severely with RIU hotels on a whole and we will not book them again nor recommend to anyone else.

We travel every year and this was the first and last stay with any RIU hotel! there are so many other chains with actual customer service.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts our stay in jamaica

Our recent stay at RIU Resorts was a dissapointment. The room requested was not given to us. The room smelled terrible and all our luggage and clothing now has that smell. For three nites we tried to get an extra pillow. It was never brought to our room. Requests to front desk and maids both. Also the food was absolutely disgusting. We could only eat french fries and many people in the hotel were voiceing similar complaints. We would not stay at another RIU Resort. Unfortunately this was our first experience with this hotel.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts wallet stolen in locked safe

January 29, 2011 to February 5, 2011 Riu Vallarta room 2029
I am a seasoned traveler and have been all over the world in the last 20 years. This is the 5th all-inclusive resort I have been to, and the second Riu resort in Puerto Vallarta. I consider myself a positive person and always think the best even when reading negative reviews of hotels. I decided to write this review as a warning for fellow travelers to Riu Vallarta.
When you check in you get a lock and key to the room safe. They make a big deal of telling you not to lose the key or they will have to break into the safe since they do not have a master. My sister and I immediately put our stuff in the safe. Since we did not want to lose the key we hid it in a coat pocket in the closet. The safe is in the closet. On the third day we went to get money out of the safe and my wallet and envelope with cash was gone. I had about $150 in cash, my drivers license, one credit card and insurance cards in the wallet. We went down to the front desk to file a report with security. He did not speak great English so we asked to speak to a manager. Security walked us down to the pool where Juan Blanco the General Manager talked with us. Juan said there was nothing he could do since the safe key was in the room and not with us. He told us several times that these safes do not have a master key. We went up to the room with him, where again he stressed this was not the hotels fault. We showed him were we hid the key in a coat pocket in the closet. We did this specifically because no workers should have been in the closet for any reason. We told him we wanted to see a copy of the internal report he filed. We also told him one of our concerns was to make sure he was aware that we were in the room when the worker who filled the mini bar and the worker who brought in an extra pad for the bed were in the room. He gave us the email address of Riu customer service. I also asked to file a police report and he said he would call the police but it wouldn’t do any good since the key was in the room. I want to point out if you stay in this hotel the key does not have a hole in it or any kind of key chain for you to easily take with you outside the room. We never did get an apology. We did see Juan later in the week and he said he did send an email to me, which I have not received.
Musty smell of resort room will stay with you for days when you return home. When we exited the elevator and started walking down the hall of the 2nd floor you could smell a strong musty odor (imagine the smell of a 20 year old hotel in Southern Florida on the ocean). When we got to the room it was even stronger. We tried opening the window, and turning on a ceiling fan which did not help. Room 2029 has a balcony but is over a roof, so you could not keep the window open at night, since it would be very easy for anyone on the second floor to “hop” over the balcony and into your room. When I returned home and emptied my luggage my husband (who was not on the trip with me) said our laundry room smelled like a farmhouse that had been closed up for years. After 3 washings all my clothes still have a faint musty smell. Many people we talked to in the resort said they had the same problem with their room smelling musty.
Heads up that pool is not heated and was freezing. It was in the 50’s at night and 70’s during the day. Some hearty soles were standing at the swim up bar, but very few in the pool for the week.
Last issue at this resort is the noise. I had seen the complaints but figured it wouldn’t be a big deal. If you have a room facing the courtyard, you will hear music blaring until 11:00. They have live musicians every night. Even with a white noise maker we could not block the sound out. Riu halls are always loud and at 7:00 every morning like clockwork you could hear doors slamming and people in the halls.
Positives:
The bartenders, and waiters were extremely friendly and helpful at this resort.
Entertainment staff was great. Excellent shows, and daily activities.
Hotel extremely clean. Many people working to keep halls, public bathrooms looking good.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts horrible service

Sunwing Complaint
My family and I went on vacation to Riu Emerald Bay on our last day, when we were going home we were very disappointed with the service that was provided. We are six of us, there were alot of empty seats, and my husband was not allowed on the same bus as us. I couldn't understand why we were separated into two different buses. I tried to see if my luggages were on the bus but the hotel management told me I couldn't get off the bus, and I was assured that all the luggages were on the bus. The bus that I was on with my kids, made 3 different stops, we were circling around and around. This bus was supposed to go straight to the airport. It took our bus 2 hours to get the airport. My husband left half an hour later then us and he arrived way before us. My husband was very worried because not only was he there before us but he waited 45 minutes, during which he got scared that something had happened to us. This is very unprofessional and upsetting. What kind of service is this, this is supposed to be a 5 star hotel, I should be receiving 5 star treatment, not 2 star treatment. Finally, at the airport we realized that the hotel forgot one of our luggages . The Sunwing respersenative told my daughter that she had placed her luggage in a different room in the hotel which was a lie, all of our luggages were in the same place together. Not only was my daughter hysterical about her missing luggage we do not appreciate being lied to when I saw the bags myself and they were all together. While I was on the bus I specfically asked if I could go check to see if our luggage was on the bus, not they refused to let me or my son off the bus to go check. My daughter had to go buy stuff that she needed because everything was in her luggage, and we were told that it would be 2 week before it would be sent to toronto airport. My daughter had to go back to the doctors to get the medication that was in her luggage, she had to miss work to do so. She also had to go buy some new clothes because the clothes she needed were in her luggage. All in all we were very upset at all the situations that had happened. To top this off my daughter cut her leg on the chair in the airplane Sunwing airplane. Picture will be attached to show you the cut that she got. I strongly suggest that someone call me back or write to me regarding my mishap. I am not happy for what has happened to us.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts all of our wedding gifts were stolen!!

To Whom It May Concern:

My husband and I celebrated our wedding at the Hotel RIU Guanacaste on December 4, 2010. I am writing to tell you how disappointed we are in your staff and how we were treated at your resort. Specifically, the theft of over $3, 000 of our wedding gifts while in your staff’s possession left us devastated and ruined our special day. More disappointing than the financial loss was the attitude of your staff toward the theft, which ranged from a cavalier indifference to annoyed hostility. The final insult came in the form of an “extra charge” which was unauthorized and inexplicably added to our credit card. We have instructed our credit card company to dispute the unauthorized charge. While we contemplate legal action over the theft of our wedding gifts, we want to make you aware of our experience at your resort. Below are more specifics on the theft and other disappointing actions by your staff.

Theft of our Wedding Gifts. We last saw our wedding gifts in the possession of a RIU employee. It was at the end of our reception. As our guests began to leave the reception area, my husband Gian Luca approached Lourdes (the RIU’s wedding coordinator) and asked about the remaining champagne, wedding decorations and our wedding gifts. Lourdes assured Gian Luca they would be put somewhere safe, and that we could collect them in the morning. At that time, he saw a RIU employee (wearing a RIU uniform) wrapping up the cake and clearing the gift table including 12-15 wedding envelopes. In the morning, we went to Lourdes’ office to collect our things. We waited 45 minutes while Lourdes tried to locate our property. She returned with 2 bottles of champagne, our wedding cake and center pieces. However, she could not locate our wedding envelopes. Once Lourdes realized that the envelopes had gone missing, she changed her story and said that one of the bartenders saw our D.J. collect the envelopes. We know this cannot be true because we saw a RIU staff member with the envelopes after the D.J. had left the reception.

From this point on, we were treated as an annoyance and were subjected to a series of half hearted attempts to prove the RIU did not have possession of our gift envelopes. The most embarrassing of which was the delivery of the trash (reportedly from the reception) for us to look through. Indignant by the RIU’s staff’s efforts to locate our wedding gifts, we were sent to speak with Riccardo (the head of Security). Riccardo was the most rude of all and completely unhelpful. After six hours of attempting to retrieve our wedding gifts, we realized that the RIU staff would not help us and, in fact, treated us as an annoyance. Our greatest disappointment was the RIU staff’s attitude. We were never offered an apology or any real help in trying to locate our gifts.

$2, 300 Unauthorized Credit Card Charge. Upon returning home, we learned that the RIU had added a $2, 300 charge to our credit card. This charge was never authorized nor explained. We therefore have disputed the charge with our credit card company.

RIU Recommended Florist. At the recommendation of Lourdes, we contracted with Mauricio Jimenez Masis to provide flowers for the ceremony and to decorate the wedding and reception areas. Despite putting down a 50% deposit, the only flowers we received that were not included in the wedding package were the bouquets for the bridesmaids and corsages for the groomsmen. I never received the materials (for which I paid) to decorate the areas of the ceremony and reception. On top of which, I spent over $500 on paper lanterns, white tull and other decorations which were never returned to me. Furthermore, my mother and family friends had to spend the hours leading up to the ceremony decorating these areas with whatever materials they could obtain at the moment, including fake flowers for the altar which she had to steal from the main buffet! If my mother had not taken matters into her own hands, the wedding and reception would not have been prepared as promised by the RIU. I never received any phone call either before or after the ceremony to explain why the flowers and decoration were not delivered, or even to be offered an apology.

Consideration for Bringing 140 guests to the RIU. Our guests booked over 60 rooms (some for multiple nights) in order to attend our wedding at the RIU, equalling over $45, 000 in revenue for the hotel! We were told we would be upgraded to a suite for choosing the RIU and bringing so many guests to stay in the hotel. At check in, we were told that the hotel was full and the upgrade to the suite was not available. We understand if a suite was not available. However, we were given a room with two single beds with no view. Several of our guests offered us their rooms because they either had a king bed or a view or both. Relative to our other disappointments, this was a minor distraction. However, is it really so difficult to ensure that the bride and groom receive the best room of the 60 block of rooms they reserve for their wedding?

To close, I would not be writing this letter if your staff had been even somewhat sympathetic or helpful in regard to the problems encountered during our stay. On the contrary, they had an attitude of indifference and annoyance. Said more plainly, they made us feel as if they already had our money, and they just wanted us to go away. Maybe this is your business model and you are satisfied with the actions of your employees. However, if you aim higher than simply taking your guests money and leaving them feeling insulted and cheated, we highly recommend you investigate the customer service practices at the Hotel RIU Guanacaste. We would very much appreciate a response to this letter. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Lindsey & Gian Luca Arcieri

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Update by lindseygaston
Dec 29, 2010 3:36 am EST

To Whom It May Concern:

My husband and I celebrated our wedding at the Hotel RIU Guanacaste on December 4, 2010. I am writing to tell you how disappointed we are in your staff and how we were treated at your resort. Specifically, the theft of over $3, 000 of our wedding gifts while in your staff’s possession left us devastated and ruined our special day. More disappointing than the financial loss was the attitude of your staff toward the theft, which ranged from a cavalier indifference to annoyed hostility. The final insult came in the form of an “extra charge” which was unauthorized and inexplicably added to our credit card. We have instructed our credit card company to dispute the unauthorized charge. While we contemplate legal action over the theft of our wedding gifts, we want to make you aware of our experience at your resort. Below are more specifics on the theft and other disappointing actions by your staff.

Theft of our Wedding Gifts. We last saw our wedding gifts in the possession of a RIU employee. It was at the end of our reception. As our guests began to leave the reception area, my husband Gian Luca approached Lourdes (the RIU’s wedding coordinator) and asked about the remaining champagne, wedding decorations and our wedding gifts. Lourdes assured Gian Luca they would be put somewhere safe, and that we could collect them in the morning. At that time, he saw a RIU employee (wearing a RIU uniform) wrapping up the cake and clearing the gift table including 12-15 wedding envelopes. In the morning, we went to Lourdes’ office to collect our things. We waited 45 minutes while Lourdes tried to locate our property. She returned with 2 bottles of champagne, our wedding cake and center pieces. However, she could not locate our wedding envelopes. Once Lourdes realized that the envelopes had gone missing, she changed her story and said that one of the bartenders saw our D.J. collect the envelopes. We know this cannot be true because we saw a RIU staff member with the envelopes after the D.J. had left the reception.

From this point on, we were treated as an annoyance and were subjected to a series of half hearted attempts to prove the RIU did not have possession of our gift envelopes. The most embarrassing of which was the delivery of the trash (reportedly from the reception) for us to look through. Indignant by the RIU’s staff’s efforts to locate our wedding gifts, we were sent to speak with Riccardo (the head of Security). Riccardo was the most rude of all and completely unhelpful. After six hours of attempting to retrieve our wedding gifts, we realized that the RIU staff would not help us and, in fact, treated us as an annoyance. Our greatest disappointment was the RIU staff’s attitude. We were never offered an apology or any real help in trying to locate our gifts.

$2, 300 Unauthorized Credit Card Charge. Upon returning home, we learned that the RIU had added a $2, 300 charge to our credit card. This charge was never authorized nor explained. We therefore have disputed the charge with our credit card company.

RIU Recommended Florist. At the recommendation of Lourdes, we contracted with Mauricio Jimenez Masis to provide flowers for the ceremony and to decorate the wedding and reception areas. Despite putting down a 50% deposit, the only flowers we received that were not included in the wedding package were the bouquets for the bridesmaids and corsages for the groomsmen. I never received the materials (for which I paid) to decorate the areas of the ceremony and reception. On top of which, I spent over $500 on paper lanterns, white tull and other decorations which were never returned to me. Furthermore, my mother and family friends had to spend the hours leading up to the ceremony decorating these areas with whatever materials they could obtain at the moment, including fake flowers for the altar which she had to steal from the main buffet! If my mother had not taken matters into her own hands, the wedding and reception would not have been prepared as promised by the RIU. I never received any phone call either before or after the ceremony to explain why the flowers and decoration were not delivered, or even to be offered an apology.

Consideration for Bringing 140 guests to the RIU. Our guests booked over 60 rooms (some for multiple nights) in order to attend our wedding at the RIU, equalling over $45, 000 in revenue for the hotel! We were told we would be upgraded to a suite for choosing the RIU and bringing so many guests to stay in the hotel. At check in, we were told that the hotel was full and the upgrade to the suite was not available. We understand if a suite was not available. However, we were given a room with two single beds with no view. Several of our guests offered us their rooms because they either had a king bed or a view or both. Relative to our other disappointments, this was a minor distraction. However, is it really so difficult to ensure that the bride and groom receive the best room of the 60 block of rooms they reserve for their wedding?

To close, I would not be writing this letter if your staff had been even somewhat sympathetic or helpful in regard to the problems encountered during our stay. On the contrary, they had an attitude of indifference and annoyance. Said more plainly, they made us feel as if they already had our money, and they just wanted us to go away. Maybe this is your business model and you are satisfied with the actions of your employees. However, if you aim higher than simply taking your guests money and leaving them feeling insulted and cheated, we highly recommend you investigate the customer service practices at the Hotel RIU Guanacaste. We would very much appreciate a response to this letter. We look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Lindsey & Gian Luca Arcieri

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Luke Patterson
, CR
Jun 27, 2012 2:31 pm EDT

Did you ever hear from them again in an attempt to clear up this mess? Please let me know if that happened. I live in Guanacaste and am trying to keep up with all of the shenanigans of the different businesses here. And I blog about it.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts theft

Jan 21st 2010 > 2 weeks

We decided on the riu meringue as, being 5 star hotel looked safe and reliable. (This gave our parents a peace at mind) Taking the last 24 hours out of the equation - it was the best hotel Ive ever been to. The last night of our stay we booked a taxi at around 1 am to go to a different hotel complex to go to the club and say goodbye to friends. we got back around 5 and went straight to sleep not noticing anything different. We awoke to find both our mobiles, both IPOD, my camera, my friends £90 ipod speakers, 100 US dollars, my passport and my drivers license all gone from our bags...

when reported to reception we were told to leave the hotel before 12pm or they would charge us another night, the man was laughing at me when i was trying to reason with him and made me pay him $3 per to call my mum to ask her to find out my passport number so i could actually get an emergency passport. Seeing as something like this had just happened in his hotel and that i only had $200 dollars left to pay for a passport and for me and my friend to leave the country. i thought this was disgraceful.

I had to pay for an emergency passport and for both me and my friend to leave the country as all her money had been stolen.. The hotel staff at the front desk NEW we were traveling along with no parents, the NEW we had to leave the next day or miss our flight, They had access to a room key and they new that all our stuff would have been packed in our bags.. NOT in the safe as we were leaving early the next day. They said it was our liability and we didn't even get a 'were sorry' or an offer for any kind of compensation. And now the insurance company wont even pay up.

I feel like this happened because we were young and vulnerable and too trusting, nothing was done because they know they could get away with doing noting.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts riu!

My husband and i stayed in Riu Aruba, for 10 days which were a nightmare! It started when we got there, we booked and paid for a water front suite, and were told that they overbooked and that room wouldn't be available for 5 days and when available we would be moved, and basically because there is NO management on premises that the refund for that 5 days would have to be submitted by email to head office in Spain in the form of an email and they have up to 15 days to respond!? then we attempted to get something to eat at the only place open at 3pm(when we first arrived) which was the buffet... how it's not shut down by the board of health/sanitation is beyond me! Now starving we attempt to eat at one of the "gourmet" restaurants and now we are told that you have to make a reservation with the concierge, which closes at noon, in order to eat there, so we go to steak house which is the only one we could get into and the food was uneatable! now speaking with other hotel guests, that ALL the restaurants are horrible and rather than take a chance on not eating we ate out everyday! More $$$ lost! The only advantage to that is that we discovered that the locals are the most friendly and kind people and that there are Many Excellent restaurants in Aruba!ie.. Madame Janette! and that the Riu does not reflect the beauty of Aruba! Aruba should be extremely upset! This was our first visit to Aruba and we are anxious to return because of our experience outside of the hotel! The Riu was a nightmare all the way around, service, food, not clean, etc! I hope that this hotel is shut down so that no one experiences this nightmare again!

Thank you,
Rosemarie LoPresti
EHT, NJ

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RIU Hotels & Resorts food

After reading many negative reviews we still decided to take a week's vacation at the Riu in Mazatlan in November 2009.

I have had trouble deciding what was making me feel disenchanted about our vacation - I could not really put my finger on one thing until I started talking about it ---- the food, the food, the food!

Although the hotel is rated 5 star - which it truly is in its artichecture and maintenance - there is ALWAYS someone cleaning somewhere!

But the food is definitely 1 star. EVERYTHING you drink is like liquified plastic...fruit juices...never fresh - only the powered stuff mixed with water. I guarantee that the white wine is powdered too...a glass of wine came to our table with froth and a hazy colouring and it tasted awful. The red wine on the other had was a tad better tasting and a crisper look to it.

Oh my goodness...the coffee! was pure disgust in a cup! After the breakfast coffee was served your only option for the remainder of the day was to get coffee out of the coffee machine...tasted like bird poop! ---milk was powered stuff - dispensed out of the machine too...at times only lightly coloured white water. It really was a sad story - that coffee machine!

The dessert table looked spectacular...cheese cakes...chocolote mousse cakes, creme brule and a host of other wonderful looking stuff...UNTIL YOU ATE IT...it was once again like liquid plastic...fake cheese cake, pudding chocolate, non-descript creme brule (what the heck is this taste!) and oh my goodness the cookies - tasted like a cardboard box that had been left in water and liquified ughhh it was horrible!

What a huge disappointment this vacation was and how the Riu is mass producing food by using powdered instead of real ingredients.

Riu Company - I only wish that you could read this -or at least offer a contact on your website where one could pass on valid concerns and perhaps take note and better the quality of your hotels which might better the value of your hotel chain ...(or not) -- or just choose to operate in such an arrogant manner and not take heed to your visitors feedback...

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RIU Hotels & Resorts rip off

I've experienced a total nightmare with the RIU Santa Fe. I booked my wedding with them. I"ve never been treated so poorly by anyone in the travel business as I did by RIU staff. They just kept telling me they didn't need anything else then would email me a couple weeks later and tell me they continue to request the same information and I don't respond. They constantly threatened to cancel my wedding if I didn't send them the info, regardless of the fact that I sent them their emails telling me they didn't need anything else. The only reason I didn't cancel things sooner was due to family coming who didn't purchase travel insurance. Hurricane Jimena hit and really complicated things. I was told by their wedding coordinator, Nelly, if we can't be there by Wed we can't get married. Well, flights weren't available to get us there on Wed so the trip got cancelled. She told us this was the legal requirement. On Thurs we got an email from her saying if we got there on Friday they would marry us legally. Now, according to her the law was 4 days, not 24 hours. I am not sure if she has the power to change a law or just use them as guidelines. Of the 11 family members going, 7 lost some of their money because they were told we couldn't get married there, so they cancelled. While trying to work things out I was told by Andres and I quote "this is not my problem, it is yours." I asked to speak to his supervisor and he told me he didn't have one. Then he proceeded to hang up on me. I am still in utter shock about how we were treated. And no, the day was ruined and we didn't get married there. We picked that day specifically, in tribute to my father who passed on (it was an important day for him) and were not able to get married. My heart is still broken over this and RIU is not offering any type of resolution. You will get nothing but heartache with this company.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts I will not rest until I get a response

We have stayed at the Riu Palace Riviera Maya from 15 to 29 July 2009. We paid more than 12 000 euro's
for the package which includes the air fares from the Nehterlands to Cancun. We have 3 daughters aged 18, 15 and 13 and
therefore we booked two roos next to each other. Our eldest daughter has epilepsy so we needed to check on her on a regular basis.

We stayed in room 1033 and the girls in room 1034. The problems started fro day 1 when the key to room 1034 just did not work. I went to
the reception and told them and 4 hours later someone came to fix the lock as nothing was wrong with the cards. But the same problem happened
again and again every single day. I spent hours every day walking back and forth to the reception to get help. Calling them
did not help as they did not respond at all.

On Tuesday 21 July our eldest daughter came to our room at midnight because she did not feel well. When we wanted to return with her at 00:30,
we could again not get into th room. I went to the reception again and aksed for their help. The problem was that the person that
could get into the roos when the lock did not work was not there, so we could not get in. We knocked on the door for half an hour and only then
one of the girls that have been in the room woke up and opened the door. The reception told us that they could not fix the door and the only
possibility was that we packed all our stuff immediately and moved to two other rooms that were situated far worse than ours.
I refused that because I did not want to wake the youngest so I slept with the two girls with an open door. Needles to say that I have not
slept at all the entire night.

On 22 July we went on an excursion so they promised that it would be fixed. When we arrved back at 19:00 it was indeed fixed
but that night it broke again. I was furious because everytie I wnet to the front desk, I had to tell the entire story again to the person
at the desk. They could not find anything on the system about the situation at the room.

The next day I met with Anilu who is the manager. She said that she would try and get us better rooms as a compensation for the
problems that we had. She gave us two keys, one to a suite in which there were still people (1066) and one that smelled of smoke
(1065) which was exactly the same as those we were living in. I refused that. This all happened on 25 July. At 16:00 on this day
(a few hours ago) the lock broke again and they came again to fix it.

Apart fro all these problems, the airconditioning did not work on 21 and 22 July in room 1034 and the bath in room 1033 is still broken.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts customer service

I left expensive glasses at reception during check out on June 25th. I immediately contacted the front desk and made arrangements for them to be secured and shipped back to the US via UPS. I've made payment, sent the shipping label, the international paperwork and have been waiting for shipment. I've spoken to Rosemary(Maria) and Julio and still UPS has not picked up the glasses (although I had UPS on the line and scheduled the pick up - I was informed by UPS that the glasses were not available when they came for pick up). I've made numerous international calls at my expense to be placed on hold indefintely, disconnected and finally told by Rosemary that I did not send the paperwork when she in fact was on the phone with me and UPS confirming pick up on 7/8 with all documentation in hand. She then told me she has had enough and hung up on me. This is unacceptable - it will be a month since my trip and I should not be treated in this manner. I would have considered returning until the experience of customer service of these individuals. Please help me get these prescription glassses.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts room

Recently (March 14 to 20th) my girlfriend and I, with recommendations from my sister, chose to holiday at a Riu Resort. March break did not come soon enough.Upon our arrival the staff greeted us with a warm welcome and showed us to our room. The room seemed mediocre and not at all like the photos. As our week passed by, things seem to get progressively worse. The awful stench of sewage and gas was somewhat disturbing.The bed was most uncomfortable and flee ridden .The toilet's tank filled in the middle of the night, disrupting a poor sleep to begin with The shower curtain showed stains of mildew and the beds did not have a protective cover. The resort itself was lovely, the food was very good, the saff wonderful and the beach, what can I say...beautiful...A few nights into our holiday both my girlfriend and I, in room 2206 were sitting on the balcony enjoying a game of backgammon and then we heard loud banging and singing in the room next door.Suddenly glass came crashing down. Apparently the young drunken man put his fist through the washroom window just for the fun of it.My friend reported it to the manager.Apparently we were not the only ones who have complained about the noises that went on nightly in our building. I am an educator and many of my co-workers travel to the the sun during our breaks...This one was disapointing...I am attaching photos of the room..Hoping that others will not have to exoerience what we have .Regards Lola

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RIU Hotels & Resorts wedding

I booked a wedding with the Riu for December 2008. Due to health reasons I was not able to make the trip this year. I contacted the "wedding" department and told them that I would like to reschedule the wedding date to December 2009. I was told this was fine. Then I received an email stating that I needed to book my room. This was a full year in advance. I was not required to book my room when I originaly booked the wedding for 2008 and I also live in an area where we have a charter to Jamaica and when you book the charter and room together you get it for much much cheaper. I explained that I did not have to book my room when I reserved for 2008 and the charter situation. I was sent an email back and was told this was fine and they would contact me in January 2009 to make sure the wedding was still on and see if the charter prices were out yet. Then in December 2008 I got an email being told that the wedding was canceled because I did not book my room. This email from the same person that told me I did not need to do it. I sent her a copy of her email and asked what was going on. She then rudley responded and told me that she "demanded" I book a room if I want my wedding there. I asked for her supervisior to contact me and they did telling me that they "request an apoligie from me for my misunderstanding" I then cancelled my wedding with them and I am now booking with a hotel that cares about their guests.

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ninjagal
Chicago, US
Sep 03, 2009 1:23 pm EDT

I've experienced a total nightmare with the RIU Santa Fe. I booked my wedding with them. I"ve never been treated so poorly by anyone in the travel business as I did by RIU staff. They just kept telling me they didn't need anything else then would email me a couple weeks later and tell me they continue to request the same information and I don't respond. They constantly threatened to cancel my wedding if I didn't send them the info, regardless of the fact that I sent them their emails telling me they didn't need anything else. The only reason I didn't cancel things sooner was due to family coming who didn't purchase travel insurance. Hurricane Jimena hit and really complicated things. While trying to work things out I was told by Andres and I quote "this is not my problem, it is yours." I asked to speak to his supervisor and he told me he didn't have one. Then he proceeded to hang up on me. I am still in utter shock about how we were treated. And no, the day was ruined and we didn't get married there. We picked that day specifically, in tribute to my father who passed on (it was an important day for him) and were not able to get married. My heart is still broken over this and RIU is not offering any type of resolution. You will get nothing but heartache with this company.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts raw sewage odor in hotel room

Dear Sirs,

Attached you will see the string of emails I have sent the RIU Resorts. As you can see RIU is clearly not taking ownership for the horrific service my family received at their resort. Our entire stay was ruined and no one at the resort in Mexico nor through their online customer complaint venue has given us a satisfactory resolution. My original complaints feel upon deaf ears at the resort and then when I returned I had to email RIU on multiple occasions before I received a response. As you can see from my string of emails I have requested the name and contact information for the RIU CEO on three separate occasions and have not been provided with this information as of yet. The resort has offered my family a complimentary two day stay which I must redeem prior to Nov. 2009. Our original vacation was an 8 day 7 night stay and it was an awful experience. A two day complimentary stay does not begin to compensate us for the horrific experience nor the fact that we paid a lot of money for this vacation and did not get our monies worth.
**************************************************************************************************
Dear Sirs,

Please provide me with the information I am requesting. This is my third formal request for this information. I would like the name and contact information for the RIU CEO.

**************************************************************************************************
Dear Madam,

Thank you for providing me your supervisor's information but I would like the information for the RIU CEO.

Sincerely,

**************************************************************************************************
Dear Sirs,

I appreciate your response but I emphatically differ with RIU's assessment of the situation. My family and I have traveled to Mexico and the Caribbean on many occasions and we have never experienced the horrific smell that emanated in our room. My sister and her family were staying in the room next to ours and it did not smell like our room. There was a huge difference between the way my sister's room smelled and the way our room smelled. The smell was DEFINITELY NOT A SLIGHT HUMID SMELL DUE TO HEAT (response received from RIU for the reason for the smell) and putting on the air conditioner did not dissipate the smell. The smell seemed to be that of raw sewage or rotten garbage as I noted in my original email. My family and I have stayed at many resorts in the Caribbean/Caribbean Islands ( Rivera Maya, Playa del Carmen, Cancun, Acapulco, Mexico City, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Bahamas etc.) and we have never experienced a smell like this. I certainly can differentiate between the smell of humidity which is expected in the Caribbean and the horrific smell that we experienced. Your own cleaning women agreed that the smell was foul and attempted to help us by thoroughly cleaning the room and spraying air fresheners but it did not help.

I do not believe that RIU is taking ownership for this situation and two complimentary days is not sufficient to compensate us for a week filled of inconvenience. We paid a lot of money for this vacation and did not get our monies worth! Not only did the resort ignore our repeated requests to assist us but now I have received a generic response which does not address what we experienced. It is inexcusable that we had to tolerate this odor for an entire week. When I tell you that we had to keep the room frigid and the smell was still present does not even begin to explain the extent to which my family and I were inconvenienced. The smell literarily kept my sons up at night because it was unbearable. When we arrived home all of our clothes and luggage came home with that horrible smell. I had to send all of our clothes to the dry cleaners. I am extremely disappointed that none of the comments in my original email were addressed. I find it insulting for RIU to suggest that I don't know the difference between the slight smell of humidity and raw sewage.

If you are not able to address all of my concerns to my satisfaction I would like to be provided with the name and contact information from the RIU CEO.

Sincerely,

******************************************************************************************************************************************
Dear Sirs,

My family and I stayed at your Hotel Riu Palace Riviera Maya in Mexico this past summer. There was a total of eight of us. My sister and her family - a total of four and my husband, children and I another four. My family was assigned a room and my sister and her family were assigned a room right next to our room. Upon our entrance to our room we noticed an unpleasant smell in the room and thought perhaps the room needed to be cleaned so we phoned our concern to the front desk and was told that someone would come to the room to address our concern. No one came to our room. On day two of our stay the odor had gotten progressively worse. It smelled very foul and like sewage or rotten garbage. My sister and her family came into our room and commented on the foul offensive smell. I walked to the front desk and expressed my concern again. The front desk manager was not very receptive and seemed to have an attitude. He told me that he would have to check and see if there was another room available and that an upgrade would cost us an additional $100.00. I was appalled on the lack of customer service he provided us. First, no one ever came to the room on day one when we phoned the front desk, second we had unpacked all of our luggage and belongings and would have to re- pack everything to a new room and the front desk manager had the audacity to tell me that an upgrade would cost us $100 additional a day! We were being inconvenienced by this entire situation and there was no concern expressed by the hotel at all! I explained to the front desk manager that I wanted to know why the room smelled so bad. The front desk manager seemed bothered and told me " What would you like us to do for you? " I couldn't believe he was speaking to me in this way. I asked if he could send someone to the room to investigate the smell and see if the situation could be resolved. He told me that he would send someone but no one was ever sent to the room. My husband stayed in the room for a good portion of that day to see if someone would come and no one came despite the fact that he called the front desk again. My husband mentioned the situation to the woman who was cleaning the room on that day and she also agreed that the odor was offensive and offered to thoroughly clean the room and sprayed an air freshener. The odor never left the room our entire stay! My son could not sleep at night given the terrible odor and we were obligated to keep the room extremely cold because if we did not keep the room freezing good the odor became more strong. My son ended up getting a cold due to the fact that we had to keep the room so cold. It was very difficult to sleep because we where freezing cold in the room each night. On the day of our departure we expressed our concerns to a gentleman who stated he was the Hotel Customer Care Liaison. The gentleman listened to us but offered no feedback. My entire family ended up with an upper respiratory infections when we returned home and we all had to go to the doctor and received antibiotics. I surely hope that the smell was not due to mold or something else that can effect anyone's respiratory system. I must tell you that we spent a lot of money on this vacation and are very dissatisfied with the treatment we received. I strongly suggest that room 2001 is thoroughly inspected and that the vents are inspected as well because the smell seemed to emanate from there. I ask that we are compensated for this inconvenience since our vacation was totally ruined by the lack of customer service at your hotel.

I await your anticipated response.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts - Casino scam

On May 19th my wife and I flew from Philadelphia to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. We were going to a friend’s wedding. The resort was the RIU Palace Punta Cana. This is advertised as a 5 star, all-inclusive resort. I booked the trip through Liberty Travel. After dinner on Wednesday night a group of guests decided to go over to the casino. The Casino wa...

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RIU Hotels & Resorts lost luggage

The following letter has been sent to the riu and we have still heard nothing. no acknowledgment, no apology, no offer of compensation, nothing.

September 10, 2008

Riu corporation

Re:lost luggage at montego bay riu
Air jamaica vacations - booking # q3cg00aj travel dates: 8/22/08 - 8/29/08

To whom it may concern:

We spent seven nights at riu negril and were scheduled to leave jamaica on friday, august 29, 2008; however, do to tropical storm gustov the airport was closed. we were transferred by bus from the riu negril to the riu montego bay. after a lot of confusion at the front desk, we were finally checked into the riu montego bay at rate of $55 per person.

Saturday morning august 30, in attempt to leave jamaica, we met with jamaica tours representative jennifer gayle. after inquiring as to what we should do about getting back to baltimore, maryland, we were told to meet the bus at 2 pm as she arranged for two seats on the air jamaica flight to baltimore, maryland, departing the same as we were scheduled on friday, august 29, 2008 at 4:50 pm. we checked out of the riu and went to the airport. when we finally reached the ticket agent were told we were on “stand by” for this flight. unfortunately, we didn’t obtain seats on this flight.

We returned to the riu montego bay and checked in again for saturday night asking for the same rate we’d received the night before of $55 to be told 40 minutes later that the best rate they could give us was $70. however after checking my credit card I find that we were charged only $57. the front desk was unable to print us a receipt for saturday night.

On sunday, august 31, upon arriving at the airport, we went through the same thing; put on “stand by” and again were not given seats on the plane. after two failed attempts saturday and sunday to return to baltimore, maryland on “stand by” status, in frustration we contacted the us embassy and were instructed by the embassy to purchase new tickets on another airline back to baltimore, maryland. which we did before leaving the airport at the cost of $417 each.

Because our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:55 am september 1, 2008 and we were not allowed to wait at the airport during the night, we went back at the riu montego bay. due to our unexpected extended stay in jamaica and with our cash dwindling quickly with two extra nights hotel costs, taxi rides to and from the airport on saturday and sunday plus the return airline ticket and being two unaccompanied women in jamaica we were concerned for our safety, therefore, we decided to sit in the lobby all night waiting for our taxi at 4:30 am..

We returned to riu montego bay approximately 7 pm, and the bell man retrieved our luggage from the taxi. we explained we were not checking in as we had a very early flight in the morning and we would be waiting for our taxi in the lobby. he offered to put our luggage in the luggage room for safe keeping. we walked to the far end of the lobby to watch the nightly show and after the show we sat up the rest of the night playing cards.

At 4:00 am monday, september 1 we went to retrieve our luggage from the luggage room. it wasn’t there! we went to the front to ask their assistant in locating our luggage. the gentleman at the desk looked all around and could not find our luggage. by now it was 4:30 am and if we stayed any longer to look further for our luggage we ran the risk missing our confirmed flight. please understand that after spending more than eight hours on both saturday and sunday at the airport trying to get back to baltimore, maryland we felt we had no choice but to leave the hotel and go to the airport. we left our contact information as well as a full description of our luggage with the front desk attendant with the understanding the manager would contact us with a status on our luggage. it’s now been 10 days since our return to baltimore, maryland and we have heard nothing from any riu representative.

We entrusted the riu to take reasonable care of our luggage and not only did they not do that, they have not even had the courtesy to contact us regarding its disappearance. we feel this is totally unacceptable, especially given the caliber of a resort such as the riu.

While we realize that tropical storm gustov is considered an “act of god” and things happen such as the airport closing, we’re having a hard time accepting our lost, misplaced or stolen luggage and feel responsibility rests solely with the riu montego bay.

We are not new at travel to the caribbean, having been to jamaica, bahamas, aruba, bermuda, st. thomas, st. martin, punta cana, san juan, cancun and belize and booked reservations for large groups and stayed at a many resorts, but never, ever have we experienced a problem such as this.

We welcome response regarding this matter.

Sincerely,

Beverly houser
2607 conway road, odenton, md usa 21113
[protected]
Sharon walton
6707 lamont drive, lanham, md usa 20706
[protected]

Cc: laura robles
riu partner club
carmen riu güell, co-chief executive
luis riu güell, co-chief executive
libby croston, manager
tradewinds travel
jamaica tourism
us embassy – jamaica
jamaica embassy

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RIU Hotels & Resorts unthinkable conditions

RIU Palace Mexico Fiasco (Riviera Maya). My husband and I booked a 6 Apple (Apple Vacations) Square Deal for Riviera Maya. We were assigned to the RIU Palace Mexico from 7 to 14 June 2008. We had stayed at RIU's previously and know them to be a decent hotel but nowhere near a 6 Apple (Highest category Apple Vacations assigns).

This particular RIU was worse than anything I have ever experienced in a hotel anywhere and we travel a good deal. Giving it a 3 Apple rating would be generous! The staff was in no way up to par. I can only recall running into two employees that made us feel we were on vacation.

The room situation was simply ridiculous. Upon check in we asked for an ocean view and were told they did not have ocean views. We were told we could get either a pool or courtyard view if we waited for an hour or so. We waited and returned to receive our room key. We got to the room (1125) to find we were facing the trees at the back of the resort and the back of the neighboring resort. We also found a well lived in room. When I called the front desk to ask for the room we were told we'd get I was told that rooms with view were $40 extra per person, per night. When I informed the young lady we were told we would get a room with a view if we waited the additional money was reiterated. After going back and forth a while I was told we could get a room with a view in two days, but I had to come to the front desk by 10 am on the day of the move to let them know we wanted to move. I still don't understand that, but we agreed.

Later we find we have a colony of ants parading up a bed side dresser and a ledge where my husband had clothes. We had to track down a housekeeper in the halls to come combat the bugs. We had to stick it out in this room until we could move. The next surprise was the realization that the neighboring hotel's night club was right on the other side of the fence we faced. It was a long and loud night.

Our next morning, Sunday, we found out we had to go to a designated location between 8:30 and 10:30 each morning to make a dinner reservation. This was horrible, what an unwelcome daily vacation activity. When I went to the front desk to complaint to a supervisor, I waited for about 15 minutes to talk to a woman who told me no one had ever complained about their system and, at least 4 times told me I could make the reservation anytime within the 2 hour window. This trip was off to a bad start!

The second day, Monday, I went to the desk early to confirm we want to take the room with a view. I asked more than once that they have some one check the new room for bugs before we moved. It seemed as though I was bother in the young lady, but she finally said she would. We returned to the desk later and receive the new key.

We entered the new room (1063) to find another well lived in room. I headed to the window and opened the darkening drapes to find bugs crawling up the drapes. I immediately called the desk to ask for help. It took 20 minutes or so before someone arrived. The man killed the bugs I pointed out plus some that he found in another place. He cleaned up and left us with the can of Raid. That was certainly not a comforting thing.

I began looking around the room and here is a list of what was found:
- BUGS
- A rusty safe
- Corroding handle on toilet
- Crude/mold at base of toilet lid
- Rusting wall connection/water cut off for toilet
- Broken bar for the handheld shower head
- Crude/mold around and above the shower curtain bar
- Crude abound the tub
- Crude in the bottom of the tub
- Broken bath gel dispenser and bath get sitting to the side
- Silver finish coming off of the assistance bar for the tub.
- Ill fitting cover for the Kleenex receptacle in the sink
- Green crude around facet handles of the sink and bidet
- Stained bed sheets
- Stained pillow cases
- Cushions that were too small for the love seat
- Chipped soap dish on the sink
- Corroding magnifying mirror
- Dirty vent and surround
- Dirty/molding room service menu
- Stains on the walls
- Paint chipping off of the handles to the patio

When the front desk was notified of the problems, I got no assistance.

Having book an Apple Vacation, I decided to see our representative when he returned the next morning. We went out to enjoy the grounds and have dinner. The maid had come while we were out. She left the light on and the bugs were having a great time flying around in the lighted room. I spent the next while chasing bugs with Raid bug spray. I was a basket case. Once I was finally able to wind down, the chase was on again. After not seeing anything move for a while I finally laid down. It was a horrible night of feeling like things were crawling all over us.

The next morning I got up to go see Luis, but first I saw bugs crawling on the 2nd bed and then a couple in the bed we were in. I felt sick!

I saw the Apple Rep, Luis, and told him of the unacceptable conditions in the room and the poor service around the hotel. He just gave me a blank look. I told him how we had bugs in the 1st room and even after asking the desk staff to check the second room we had bugs in it also. Luis told me that maybe this was just a "general" problem like that would make it okay. I explained that for what we paid and for what Apple said we were going to get, this was unacceptable. I had taken pictures with my cell phone and showed them to Luis. This did not cause Luis to be any more helpful.

Luis asked what I wanted him to do about it and I told him to move us to an actual top rated hotel. He acted as if I did not say anything to him. I told him that no one from the hotel management, nor he, had ever even asked to come see the room that housed these horrid conditions. Again there was no response.

I was furious and frustrated. I asked to speak to his supervisor. After a while he got a supervisor on the phone. He spoke with her and then gave the phone to me so I could repeat my plight. She apologized, saying she'd contact the hotel. Luis came back to say we could move back to the first room (1125) we were in. I explained to him that that was not an option, because that room had bugs. Why would we go back to that room?

Luis left and came back again to say he and a housekeeping supervisor would come see the room. Luis and I went to room 1063 and I showed him the laundry list of problems. Minutes later the housekeeping supervisor came. It was the same many who had sprayed the day before. Luis showed him the problems, during which two men appeared with industrial fumigation canisters.

Apple was not going to move us to a decent, top of the line hotel. Our offer was to move to our first bug infested room or let them work on the on new room. Having no recourse, we got things together exited the room and let them work on the room. We returned hours later to find a few things fixed and there were no bugs in plain sight. I tried to tell Luis but he was not around. He did call later.

After we returned from dinner that night, Tuesday, we did not see bugs. You do not know how relieved I was. I wish all of the problems had disappeared. Even so, we still could not enjoy the room and I was tense for the whole vacation. I never got rid of the felling that things were crawling on me. I still shutter when I think of it.

We feel like we were robbed. We paid too much to end up in a place that does not value it's customers and takes no pride in there service or their accommodations. We have yet to hear a response from Apple Vacations or the RIU Hotels.

We are thoroughly disgusted!

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8:16 am EDT

RIU Hotels & Resorts damaged personal items

This is a copy of my complaint that I sent to Apple Vacations. This is their process for submitting complaints however, it has been 3 weeks and I have heard no response other than they are investigating:

I have a serious complaint about my recent trip that needs addressing as soon as possible. My mother and I stayed at the Riu Ocho Rios from 4/2/08 thru 4/7/08. Upon arriving at the resort, we were taken to our room. It did not meet our expectations as we upgraded to a junior suite ocean view and there was no ocean view. We were than taken to another room across the resort and we were put off right away at the overwhelming smell of mildew/musk in the room. Our baggage person said he can take care of the smell and returned with a spray bottle and sprayed down the room. It helped initially and we quickly left the room to have dinner. Upon returning late that night, we were once again overwhelmed with the amount of mildew smell and so slept with the sliding door completely opened which meant no air conditioning. My mother suffers from fairly severe allergies and was very uncomfortable. First thing the next morning, I went to the front desk once again to ask about switching rooms. They stated they were at full occupancy and just wrote my name on a sheet of paper. I did not hear back from them throughout the rest of our vacation. Please note my mother is not very mobile and having to switch rooms once already was a big inconvenience as the resort is very large. We just resorted to keeping the sliding door open at all times and I really believe that by the 3rd night we were somewhat acclimated to the smell. The huge problem is in the damage to all of our clothing (I even have a couple pairs of shoes tainted by the foul smell). We did not realize just how bad the mildew to our clothes was until opening our suitcases when at home. My husband actually made us put everything outside in the garage. I have 2 air filters running in my house because the smell in now in my house. Since returning home, I have washed our clothes 4 times, and have used various techniques in ridding the mildew smell to no avail. Both our suitcases have been airing outside since our return but I believe those are also ruined for future use. I am extremely disappointed and frustrated and angry. Not only is this a considerable amount of work I have to do upon returning from a vacation but these clothes are damaged to the point of being not wearable. I am demanding recourse for all the items ruined.

Unfortunately, this is not my only complaint. I would like to preference that I used to be in the travel industry and worked in Marketing at Orbitz for years. I mention this so that you understand that I have realistic expectations at a resort such as the Riu. I believe it was the 3rd day of our stay that it rained the entire day. This forced us inside. My sister who was also traveling with us decided to catch the rain hitting the ocean on her camera. As she snapped a shot, a bartender named McCain turned around and rudely told her to not take his picture and to ask next time. She quickly explained that the picture was of the view and ocean and not of him. He continued to be extremely rude to the point that she left in tears. I than went to speak to McCain by the bar thinking he misunderstood the whole situation. He then proceeded to tell me that I needed to respect him and that we should go away and that he does not care what we have to say. I honestly don’t remember all that he said as I was completely in shock and upset. The ironic thing is that she wanted to show him the picture to prove she did not take his picture but he just kept telling us to leave and that we are rude and disrespectful. I believe he was also some type of bar manager or head bartender as well, which just makes no sense at all. I have traveled all over the world and have stayed at all types of resorts from low end, middle to high end. I have never EVER been so upset by someone who is suppose to be assisting in the vacationers’ enjoyment. We had to avoid that specific bar for the rest of the trip.

In all my years of travel, I have never regretted a trip, until now.

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CarribeanLover
Columbia, US
Jul 17, 2009 3:02 pm EDT

I mean geez, of all the hundereds of people who have posted a review of the Riu Ocho Rios and the musty smell that accompanies some rooms, this has got to be the worst. I hope too many people don't buy into this nonesense. Just wash your clothes! I came to this site thinking that maybe there would be a complaint about stolen merchandise, an accident, bad food, horrible service; you know those things that really make a vacation. Instead the only complaint you have is about the smell. Suck it up! Please realize that Apple Vacations probably won't do anything for you because by your complaint you sound like one of those customers who is never satisfied and always seeking a reason to complain. Go have a glass of wine and take a chill pill lady.

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12:00 am EST

RIU Hotels & Resorts theft by employees!

Arrived at the RIU Jalisco Resort the night of the 6th of January checked in were told there were no keys to the room safes available until the next morning, went to our rooms (3 rooms 6 family members). Dropped off our luggage and went down to the beach spent about an hour at the beach then returned to or rooms to change while returning to the rooms one of the resorts security men followed us back into the hotel then to our rooms watched us exit our rooms as we went to the sports bar for a night cap , returned 45 minutes later to find someone had entered our rooms and stole all the cash in each room a total of $1300.00 hotel management was to say at the least unsympathetic to what took place and even after spending the next day dealing with the Mexican Police filling out reports that same security man was working the day shift when we left. It looks to me like the hotel is supplementing it's employees wages by allowing these crimes to take place. To this point no one in the RIU organizational has contacted us since our return . P.S. a Canadian family lost over $3500.00 that same night.

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RIU Hotels & Resorts we will now become your 'nightmare'!

Riu hotels & resorts - www.riu.com

Attn: ms. monica serrano

Riu palace resort

Luis riu, president and ceo

Carmen riu and luis riu, jr.

Riu palace resort

Cc: leonel fernandez reyna felicio jimenez jeff, duty officer

President minister of tourism american embassy

Dominican republic dominican republic dominican republic

New york times new york daily news new york post

Travel editor travel editor travel editor

Dear ms. serrano:

We are writing this letter to you with a copy to all of the above regarding the deplorable experience we had at riu palace macao resort, punta cana, dominican republic and the unprofessional behavior of the staff at the resort and the authorities in your country.

My husband, who was born and is a citizen of the dominican republic and whose family still resides there, and I decided to renew our wedding vows for our 25th wedding anniversary at the riu palace macao on october 8th 2007. (we arrived on october 5, 2007.) we reserved rooms for our guests who were traveling with us from the united states and over 60 people were attending the ceremony and reception to help us celebrate our special day. all reservations and plans for our wedding and reception were confirmed many months in advance. before we go into what happened on october 8, 2007, let me tell you what transpired from the first day of our stay.

Our guests, robert dobles, his wife sylvia and their daughter laura were staying in room #3336. their cell phone and ipod were stolen from their room. our niece, priscilla arias was staying in room #3338 and while she was bathing she heard someone trying to open the balcony doors, thinking it was her sister trying to get in she went to look, it was not her sister, it was someone trying to break into her room. she startled him since he probably thought the room was empty and he ran and climbed to the roof. she went to get my husband and our friends who tried to find him but were unable to. both of these instances were reported to sub-director, franklin trinidad when we were finally able to locate him many hours later. he was very nonchalantabout both these incidents and his response was that there was a safe in the rooms for valuables and that he was already working 'two hours over his usual work time'. he did not feel it was necessary to address the incident with our 19-year-old niece who could have been badly hurt or worse if she was attacked. safety of your guests does not seem to be an important matter to your hotel if mr. trinidad is your representative. while we were speaking to mr. trinidad, we met two women who were staying in room #3317 who also had their cell phone stolen. mr. trinidad shrugged his shoulders at their story and did not seem concerned. I guess robberies in your hotel are a normal occurrence. we inquired with the front desk if a police report was issued for the robbery and break-in and we were told that no police report gets issued only a 'resort report' will be issued. the two women in room #3317 reported the incident to their travel agent who contacted the resort and told the resort representative that they were not going to refer vacationers to riu palace macao unless the women's issue was resolved. the women were immediately compensated for their trouble. (priscilla arias had her room changed to #3357 after the attempted break-in)

We met with your so-called wedding planner, magnolia on saturday, october 6, 2007, to confirm all aspects of our ceremony and reception on october 8, 2007, and to discuss alternate plans for our ceremony in case it rained. our 24-year-old daughter, my mother, cousin, our best man and his wife were also present when we discussed plans with magnolia. our main concern was the weather and what alternate plans were in place if it rained. magnolia stated repeatedly that 'it is not going to rain'. each time we asked her to tell us what the alternate plan was if it did rain she said, 'it is not going to rain'. no matter how many times we asked, she would not elaborate on any alternate plans if it rained. she told us that we were not to worry everything would be taken care of. needless to say, it rained, and her alternate plan was to put over 60 people in a small, dingy, moldy smelling room near the kitchen for our wedding ceremony and reception. this was done only after our guests, my husband and myself were allowed to sit in the rain until her alternate plan was in place. october 8, 2007 was supposed to be our special day. we were married 25 years ago by a justice of the peace and we wanted this day, 25 years later, to be special. well it was, it was 'especially horrible'.

We spent the entire morning of our ceremony waiting to speak to mr. trinidad. we went to the reception desk at 9:00 am on october 8th and when the front desk contacted mr. tinidad, he said he would be there in 20 minutes. he did not show up until 11:00 am and was not the least bit concerned or apologetic about keeping us waiting. as a matter of fact, he stated that he is not a 'robot' whatever that is supposed to mean. we have recorded proof of mr. tirnidad's condescending conversation. by this time, we were angry and upset and insisted upon speaking to mr. tinidad's superior. mr. miguel rodriguez who we were told was the 'director' finally spoke to us. we wanted to know what he was going to do about securing the safety of our guests and the guests of your hotel. he stated that 'there would be security on our floor and that we could put our valuables in the safe deposit boxes in the rooms'. this did not comfort us at all. the only time we saw security guards posted on the night of october 8th, and the police were still not contacted about the robberies and break-ins. my mother-in-law, alma arias a dominican citizen and resident, finally had to contact the local police and a report was made.

On friday, october 12, 2007, we 'bumped' into mr. trinidad and asked him how we could get a copy of the police report. he told me we had to go to the police station in person. we asked him to arrange transportation and make arrangements for us to speak to someone once we got to the police station. mr. trinidad made arrangements for us to speak to the person who was 'supposedly' in charge of the robbery. when we arrived at the police station the person we saw refused to give us his name. we explained what transpired at the hotel and that another one of our guests had a pair of $150.00 sneakers stolen from his room. he made a joke of this and told us, 'he had a pair of sneakers he could give him'. everything was a big joke to him. my husband was very angry and this 'person' taunted my husband by getting on his knees and begging my husband to hit him'. we have witnesses to what transpired at the police station and cannot believe the way we were treated. this person then told us we had to go to the 'tourist police station', we had to buy stamps and then come back to him. by this time, we had enough. we went back to the hotel and asked to speak to miguel rodriguez. while my husband was speaking to mr. rodriguez, I called the american embassy to relate what was going on and how threatened we all felt, how we were being 'taunted' by franklin trinidad and that we were all afraid to be alone at any time anywhere in your hotel. the american embassy representative told mr. rodriguez to keep mr. trinidad away from our group.

Also on a side note, on october 11, 2007 one of our guests julio negro room #3341, rented a quad with his son for a sight seeing tour. at 11:45 am on october 11, 2007, he passed the tourist police precinct and saw your director, franklin trinidad standing in front of the precinct with officers in uniform, drinking beer.

Needless to say, our 25th wedding anniversary, renewal of vows and our vacation along with our guest's vacation, were ruined. we were devastated and heartbroken. I needed to seek medical attention upon my return to the united states and now find myself under doctor's care due what we were put through. we spent what should have been one of the happiest times of our lives scared, embarrassed and humiliated. it was a nightmare. what we planned for months, was totally ruined by your unprofessional staff and government officials. we did not receive any satisfaction in any way from anyone associated with your hotel. no one said 'i'm sorry'. no one tried to help us in any way. you should all be ashamed of yourselves and your countrymen.

We promise you, we will not let this rest. we will now become your 'nightmare'.

Yours truly,

Virginia and julio arias

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Mark Flannery
Saugus, US
Apr 11, 2023 11:35 pm EDT

I filed a complaint a month ago and haven’t heard back. We got sick at the real Palace Aruba due to mold in the room. I sent pictures and details. Please advise when a decision will be made.

Mark Flannery

12 Indian Rock Dr

Saugus, Ma 01906

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lanie---allen
dunmore pa, US
Oct 15, 2022 11:33 am EDT
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its been 11 days and still heard no response..riu rebuplica punta cana..sept 17-24th,2022 party of 7///...,, need more?it was awful..i work in the travel industry since 1989.so ive seen the best/and the worst...this [property is in worst lineup.afraid to sell this property to future guests.

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Graeme Evans
, US
Oct 10, 2022 9:32 am EDT

staying at the riu bambu and had my table forcibly moved today 1/10/22 whilst eating to accommodate a large group of guests when I complained to management other guests were verbally abusive and calling the wife a f****** [censored] and staff did not intervene and majority of staff appear anti British from what other guests have experienced

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Phillallen
, GB
Sep 10, 2018 4:51 pm EDT
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A waiter saw me drop my phone and came over to me with a dirty cup trolley deviating my attention asking if I wanted a drink or if I was ok, she bent down like she was picking up a dirty cup and walked off. A minute later I am looking all over for the phone. I go to my room even though I know the waiter took it, the assisting staff are useless.

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Aranda
, GB
Aug 21, 2018 5:48 am EDT

I stayed at the Rui hotel in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 this year it was great this is the secound time I have stayed at a Rui hotel but am still waiting for my membership cards

Mr stuart crook
51 Hart road
Old harlow
Essex
Cm170hl
[protected]
[protected]

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lenny verdica
, US
Oct 28, 2017 12:23 pm EDT

We were almost killed in RIU PALACE MACAO. I was stabbed in my left eye with a champagne fluted glass I'm blind in my left eye today and my friend was slashed across the face and needed 77 stitches in Roy Palace Macao we want 10 million dollars for our permanent disabled conditions.you blackmailed us.you made us pay for hospital bills and for damages in your hotel which we were the ones who were attacked in your hotel and you let two people leave that country that should have been arrested and we should be compensated 10 million dollars is what we want from rui Palace Macao attention Carmen and Louis RIU the owners of the hotel you gave us a claim number 45333 we're waiting for your response we're going to mainstream media we live in NYC I had 2 major surgeries done here in new york, I've lost site due to your negligence &security in your hotel that we stayed at.this vacation was a catastrophe minors were injured in your hotel.this isn't over yet.your gonna pay us, 10 MILLION dollars for our damages.you can find me in N.Y. and my friend to.attention Luis RIU &Carmen RIU the owners of this huge hotel chain.10 MILLION is a fair place too start.my name is Glen VERDAGUER & Michael MANZO from new york.this story is 100% percent true & accurate. We hope to see the owners soon.This story isn't going away.you extorted us under duress situations and blackmailed us.we were guest of the hotel RIU. All your business will suffer until you come to see us here in new york travel and tourism can contact us anytime and all of the world is welcome to questions & answers to this disaster vacation thats left me blind in 1 eye today, and my friend 77 stiches.

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Phillallen
, GB
Oct 02, 2017 9:23 am EDT
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I will be putting riu on blast on all social media. The service, the hospitality, the disrespect these staff have for paying customers is unacceptable furthermore it is diabolical. We do not work hard to be disrespected by third world country peasants. The staff of riu have no manners no hospitality and this all stems from bad pay. There monthly and annual salaries are so disgusting the staff are forced to beg for tips for every little thing, steal customers personal possessions. Until riu staff or any other resort staff in these third world country's recieve a decent/fair pay us as tourist will always be victims of crime as these pheasants are led to believe we as tourist live on a island of gold where money is infinite. I have friends we connected friends who have millions of followers on social media my mission is to make sure riu ocho rios pay for spoiling me and my families first trip to Jamaica and I will not rest until they are exposed for the crI'm in also they really are. I promise you, you will never recieve such a service and lack of respect for human rights in any other country compared to Jamaica. What's more funny is the staff all work together misleading you with this fake positive greeting but they are just calculating what positions they see of yours are worth. NEVER in all my travels NEVER EVER have I witnessed the kind of service that me and my family have had to endure for 10 days in riu ocho rios. I will expose this company fully until these fraudulent members of staff are flushed out of the company and I am refundedicated for this diabolical nightmare called a restful tropical resort. I should of stuck with sandals. Look out on social media is am maKing it my nber one mission to get to the bottom of this.

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Riu palace bed Buggs
Glendale, US
Feb 27, 2014 10:08 pm EST
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Each day me and my husband had bites on different parts of our body and tonight i woke up and was unable to fall back to sleep due to the excessive itching. Bed buggs had crossed our minds but i thought no it might be lying by the pool and something bit you. I started to search and just as we suspected there were bed buggs. I could not believe my eyes i had never seen a bed buggs before. Now here i sit @ 4:45m in a different room unable to fall asleep and don't go home to tuesday. All our belonging are in the old room with the bed buggs. We don't know what happens next, i will keep you posted.

Most important thing there was no written inspection protocol in place and employees had no direction or instructions to give guest.

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Carlos Sierra
, US
Aug 07, 2016 9:42 am EDT

All of these happens because you preffered to go to a **cheap** low quality branded hotel, like RIU. Next time, choose better, cheap comes more expensive at the end, always

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The Fedz
, US
Sep 16, 2015 8:07 pm EDT

Good Morning Madam/Sir,

I am writing to express my concerns at the Riu Montego Bay. I can honestly say, I have nothing but complaints. From the food, to the service, to the rodents in this facility, my trip was just awful.

From the time my friend and I arrived (Friday, September 4, 2015), the service was very bad. We carried heavy bags all the way to the other end of hotel, as our room was across from the beach. Once we got to the room we needed a cold drink, but to our dismay the refrigerator had not been turned on and all the drinks were just as hot as outside. The room itself was decent. But just decent. It was like a step above a motel as far as the comforter and sheets were concerned. For the money we paid, it should have had more features in it including: separate queen size beds, and regular toilet with the handle on the side, better flooring made for sand so sand would not be tracked all over the floor and then in the bed and bathroom, garbage bags in the room lined around the garbage can, and maybe a pamphlet describing what there was to do. We dropped our bags down and tried to figure out how to actually turn on the lights and the refrigerator for over a half hour because one switch turned on one thing but another switch may have turned on two other things and so forth. Once that was all figured out we decided to check out the food. The food was pretty bland. I looked at other people's food plates and saw basic things such as salad, bread, burgers, and fries. Expecting Jamaican food, since we were in Jamaica, we really did not see anything other than a stew beef and rice and peas. The food really had no flavor to it. Even the "American" styled food was gross. The food, I understand, is suppose to be catered to the liking of the majority, but if you go to another country that makes certain types of food, you would think they would have a lot of that type of food the way it should be cooked. Things that are suppose to be spicy, perhaps should just have "caution food may be spicy" signs around it. Why deprive the people that like the spices of the Caribbean from the spices?

The next day was Saturday, and we were trying to figure out what there was to do other than the beach and pool. We were told there were no buses or shuttle buses to go into the city but, if we did chose to go anywhere, the cabs would be $20-$30 per person, which I found absolutely absurd. There should have been a free shuttle bus to take guest to the malls and around town after all they had to pay to get to the hotel and stay there. We chose to stay at the resort that day and had reservations at the Asian styled restaurant Kalu. We checked out the water-sports that the hotel offered. The inconvenience of the waiver signing place was a little bit much, especially when the sand was pretty hot. When we finished signing the waiver, a group of four had gotten there before us. Although there were three paddle boats, they only had one pulled out. One guy told me he was not allowed to pull others out because he was told not to. Another guy told me that it was too much work for such a slow day. So we had to stand there and wait until these people finished, which there was not a time limit so we ended up waiting about 45 minutes. Later that night we had reservations for Kalu. Once there we tried to understand why we had to make reservations for yet another buffet styled dinner. The food there was absolutely gross. The rice for the sushi was overcooked and under-cooked which really confused me and the sushi was not fresh. My friend ate the rice and chicken and took about two bites and asked if we could leave. We went back to regular cafeteria and had "Jamaican styled dinner" and all the oxtails were gone which really was the only thing I looked forward to. Jamaican night consisted of about four things that actually was something "Jamaicans" actually cook. I figured I would just have some pizza. The pizza was so nasty. It had no sauce and should have just been called a mozzarella cheese sandwich. The thing we did enjoy most was the nightly entertainment provided by the hotel. It was very entertaining.

The next morning, Sunday, was excursion booking for us as well as "Jamaican styled" breakfast.
We woke up bright and early hoping that we were just having bad luck with a few things but maybe things would be better. The breakfast was pretty decent that day. There were a lot of Caribbean dishes that I was happy to see. We sat down enjoying the meal for the first time since we arrived at the hotel and to my disgust, I see a mouse crawling under the table in front of me. The couple next to me saw it as well and started recording it. (Be on the lookout for a video because during the video the man was saying the name of the hotel) I told one of the bus boys and he told me it would not harm or hurt me. I was extremely mad, and also disappointed. We left not even halfway through our meal. We went to book our excursion with Vacation Express, but met another guest along the way. She was telling us about her experience with some of the excursions she had went on and told us she did not recommend certain ones. I could tell the Vacation Express lady was getting frustrated because she began rushing us telling us she had other things to do. So we ended up leaving the resort for a few hours to get away. We got a cab to go to the market and sight see a little which cost us $25 per person, which was seriously over priced. I thought Adrian was a great cab driver/tour guide although the price of the cab was a little ridiculous.He was patient and he took us to a few good places. Once we came back to the hotel we booked our excursion with the Vacation Express lady who told us we needed to speed things up because she was hungry and was going to pass out. After that we went to the pool around to the bar side. My friend and I sat enjoying our drinks some other people started coming with their children. I did not mind it until their kids started jumping into the pool and doing canon balls, splashing water into my drink. One kid jumped so hard, my drink fell into the pool. I understand that there is not much you can do to keep the kids out of that area but there should be some guard there preventing splashing and things especially in an area with other adults who are drinking. Later that night we went to the Steakhouse. Their food was pretty good although my friend asked for a medium well steak and it came out extremely red. The manager was extremely creepy he kept staring at us as if we were going to steal the steak (that we clearly had already paid for). He continuously kept coming over to us asking us why we did not eat this and why we did not eat that. (At a regular restaurant a manager would come over maybe once to make sure everything was okay or if there were any concerns), but this guy was really borderline harassing us. He was hanging on the wall behind us just standing over us. Then when he said something, three of the waiters came behind us and started staring at us as well. Seriously, creepy!

The next morning, Monday, we got up and had breakfast. There were two roaches on the cinnamon buns. I really do understand this is an outdoor facility in a hot environment but between the mouse and the two roaches my curiosity about the foods sanitary condition is very unsettling. We bought a piece of JackFruit from a market downtown. The JackFruit ended up being very bad so we left it in the refrigerator. It began to smell. This facility has absolutely no garbage cans anywhere which does not make any sense to me. Something like a fruit should be able to be disposed in a garbage outside somewhere. We saw a cleaning lady's cart in front of someone's room so we placed the JackFruit at the room next to the one she was cleaning so she could throw it out. This was about 1pm and we went to the beach. We came back to our room about 4:30 pm the room had been half way cleaned. What I mean by half way cleaned, was our beds had been made up but had no pillowcases were on the pillows. My bed had black dots all over the top sheet, the floor still had sand all over it, and the sanitary disposable bags had not been replaced. My friend asked one of the cleaning ladies if someone could give us pillowcases, new sheets and the bags. The lady told her with a very nasty attitude that she was not our cleaning lady and once we were out of the bags they would not be replaced. When she came back and told me, I called the front desk. Within 10 mins of the phone call we had pillowcases and a cleaning lady and her supervisor came in to look at the sheet. They whispered something to each other and then the supervisor handed me the bags. The lady took off the sheet and started changing the sheet. She put on the new sheet and again saw some black dots splattered all over that sheet. She got yet another sheet, and that one appeared in better shape. (I could not understand why they were still cleaning our rooms past 5 pm it was such an inconvenience.) We ended up napping and slept through dinner. Around 10 pm we got up and went to the bar. On the way back to our rooms about 1:00 am the bag with the JackFruit had been placed right in front of our door. Instantly, we came in a checked our safe deposit box along with our items. We could not understand how it was that someone new that 1) we had been the ones to place the JackFruit there and 2) someone waited until after 10 pm to then place the JackFruit back at our door. We assumed it was definitely someone who worked for the hotel. There was no one outside when we placed the fruit down and the cleaning people were the only ones who actually knew we had the fruit.

Tuesday, we woke up very early, because we had an excursion, to magically have found garbage cans all over the facility. They were EVERYWHERE, which they should have been from day one. At first, I really thought I was going crazy seeing things, and started thinking “maybe there were garbage cans there the whole time, ” until I saw two of the maintenance men putting a garbage can up on a stand. I could not believe it.

Wednesday, was our last day there and since I had a fairly decent experience at the Steakhouse, although my friend did not, I choose to go back. The food to me was pretty good. We went back and they sat us in a different area his time. Once the waiter brought our food over I cut into my steak, and of course with my luck, my steak was bleeding. I was actually disgusted. The couple in front of us barely touched their steak, there were two women to the left of them that did not eat their food either. The waiter did not ask me or the two other ladies who had not eaten their food, if there was anything wrong with the food, or why the steaks all appeared to have one bite taken out of them and were not eaten. However, he did address the couple sitting in front of us who happened to be Caucasian and we were African American. The lady gave an excuse of being “too tired to chew” her date just said he was full. If I told you the amount of steaks on the “garbage cart” was enough to feed a small village that would be an understatement. All the steaks looked like mine and the meat was very tough.

I think what I was most displeased about was the tipping. This resort was suppose to be a no tip resort, but of course for good service, you could not help but tip. These people would give you terrible service but expect a tip and if you tipped them in the Jamaican $100 bill they looked at you as if that money was no good. I had one person tell me they did not take Jamaican money.

The thing I enjoyed most about this resort was the nightly bar crew, Clive, David, Chris, and Allen. They really were very nice guys and really did their job well. I saw them cutting off people that were overly drunk and just genuinely enjoying what they do. Steve, the maintenance guy was my favorite person on the entire resort. He got my coconuts all the time, as well as many other people, and he was quite popular. He really just had a great personality.

Although, you probably can not tell from this letter, I am really not one to complain. This resort however, gave me so many things to complain about daily. I have honestly never been to a hotel or resort like this, whose staff was not concerned at all about rodents or bugs, a facility that did not have garbage cans, where the cleaning people were still cleaning rooms well past 5:30pm, where the food was more than likely unsanitary because of the bugs and rodents, the food was just really tasteless on a tropical resort, and the service was just horrible. I really did try to be positive while I was at this resort, but I am very sorry I wasted my money here.

Sincerely,
Fedie McKenzie

RIU Hotels & Resorts In-depth Review

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