RIU Hotels & Resorts
reviews and complaints

Firstly, one of the reasons w e booked the hotel was due to the variety of restaurants offered. When we arrived on Weds 24th August, we were informed that we needed to see the head waiter at 5.30pm to book our restaurant choice. On doing so, I was informed that the bookable restaurants (Italian, Oriental, Fish) were booked until the following Thurs. 1st September. I immediately went to reception and spoke to Hachem, who told me that he would “see what he could do”. Each day I returned and he said that he was “still trying”. We became increasingly disappointed with the repetition of food in the main restaurant which had a detrimental effect on the enjoyment of our holiday. When I returned on out sixth day to ask if Hachem had managed to book us in, he called over the head waiter. The head waiter was very abrupt and informed me that i ought to have gone to see him in the restaurant to book other restaurants. I explained that on the first day, I had gone at 5.30 to book and was informed that it would not be possible for the duration of my stay. The head waiter told me that under no circumstances would someone have told me this and proceeded to raise his voice and tell me that I ought to have been to see him sooner rather than wait until our penultimate day. I once again explained what I had been told and he told me that I had misunderstood. Unfortunately the three other travellers in my party were present and they heard the exact same information. He told me to turn up at 9 and he would try to sort a table.
Secondly, on day five of the holiday, I returned to the room to ready myself for the evening, and when I went to charge my phone, it became apparent that my charger for my IPhone had been broken. I had left the charger in the wall and the cleaner had obviously pulled it out of the wall and broken the USB lead. I went to reception who said that they would “try to find someone with another charger”. I explained how upset I was that nobody had told me or apologised and Hachem said that he would try to have someone fix it. He took my room number and the charger and asked me to come back to check!
I returned every few hours to find out if it had been fixed or if an IPhone charger had been found and those who I spoke to had no idea as to what I was referring, despite the fact that my room number been given several times and the information written down. I have now returned to the UK with no phone charger and am therefore unable to use my phone. I have ordered a replacement at a cost to myself, which I find unacceptable.

Since we were leaving at 7.15am on our departure day, I went to book a breakfast box to take with us. I was unformed that the Italian restaurant would be open for a contintental breakfast so we could eat there. On arrival to the Italian restaurant at 6.45am, the only food was ham and cheese. There was no bread, pastries or even a drink. We therefore got on the bus feeling tired and quite ill from not having eaten.

In terms of cleaning, we also lost jewellery by the maid pushing things into the drawers and nose studs went missing as they obviously went onto the floor and were swept away.

My apologies for having to report this information to you. RIU is always my first choice of hotel – I have stayed in Portugal, Dominican Republic and Lanzarote and always seek your hotels over all others. However, on this occasion, I do not feel as though the holiday was up to the usual RIU standard.

I look forward to hearing from you.

Carys Summons

[protected]
[protected]@hotmail.com

we have just received a text from our 17 year old daughter who is away with friends for the first time without us and we are really concerned, she was approached by a member of staff a waiter on her second night there asking for SEX and that they should go to another hotel because his job was at this hotel our daughter feels very uncomfortable and we as parents feel helpless, we have told her to text us every day so we know she is safe .As a family we have always stayed in riu hotels.going away two or three times a year especially in the Dominican Republic but had noticed a decline in hygiene, entertainment and staff as of today we will NEVER book a riu again

On Saturday May 7 2011, My wife, my inlaws and I Jorge Mora where at the Riu Jalisco -Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, About 6 pm after comming from the beach we noticed that our money was not in my wifes purse, 500.00 US dollars and 10.000.00 Mexican pesos.So we called security and made the compliant and also talked to the sub-director of the Hotel-Javier Huertas Mateos and they said they would investigate but really unprofesional .They seemed like they did not care and the next morning they said they could not get in contact with the people that entered the room that day to do service, I asked the other maids and Olga was the maid and Ema was the supervisor that day of the 7 th.on Saturday, I have never had this happen to us and intend to go as far as I need to so the person or persons that did this can pay for first the bad vacation and bad memories they made us go through, my money and bring to justice if there is any in that Hotel Riu Jalisco-Puerto Vallarta Mex. this is my first of many letters that I am going to write to the company and other people, I really home you do something about this bad experiance we all had, thank you ! Jorge Manzo Mora

I just returned from the most disgusting vacation in negril. The hotel rooms (Lower levels) are infested with roaches. The roaches were in my bed. After many complaints and many promises, I requested a refund to leave. Warning!

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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...

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.
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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.

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Dear Madam,

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

Sincerely,

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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,

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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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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