RIU Reviews

On the 5th, Her Mother returned to her room to find a used condom in her toilet, a condom wrapper by "Prudence" on her ironing board and other evidence of a room invasion.

I don't need to go into further detail on how disturbing this would be to know somebody had entered your room and did such a thing? It's a safety issue, as well as a hygiene issue. S

My wife called downstairs, nobody came upstairs to clean her room or move her to a new room (the preferred option). After an hour of waiting, nobody was coming to address this, they went to the front desk and made the same request. They told her to wait back in her room. I understand they did not want to wait in a room that has been used as a sex stop by a stranger. Two more hours passed before a cleaner came to remove the condom. The cleaner called the front desk to ask what she should do. Next, Victor Castillo responded with, "it depends who's asking". The result was they were handed two fresh towels and left?

This dumbfounds me. To keep this short, at 10:30 pm, 3.5 hours later, they finally gave her a new room after multiple requests. They did a lock interrogation and discovered nobody had entered the room aside from the cleaners during the guest's absence, this event occurred at 2:20 pm.

Victor Castillo informed my wife that there was nothing he could to help? Handed her Niels Alosssery's (Director General) card. Knowing this card did not have his direct contact on it. To this date not one manager or staff member has responded to any of our emails or calls. They absolutely do not care.

I booked an 8 night package (flight + hotel) through Riu from 5/15/21-5/23/21 for Riu Palace Aruba & paid for 2 upgraded ocean front rooms. When I checked in, ocean front rooms were not available and the front desk told me to contact Riu corporate for a refund. Contacted Riu on 5/16 and was told a refund would be processed since everyone agreed I didn't receive the upgraded rooms. No response or refund received, so I called again on 5/26 and spent more than an hour on the phone. Was told I needed to wait for Riu Palace Aruba to confirm the refund and then I could get my refund, even though Riu Palace Aruba confirmed on the phone I didn't receive the rooms I paid for. No response or refund received again, so spent another 1.5 hours on hold on 6/2 and was told the same - must wait for Riu Palace Aruba to process refund to get my money back. I asked for a supervisor to call me back, but so far have not heard back. I also sent a complaint in to Riu Palace Aruba and again, no response thus far. I booked through the Riu (I guess their corporate booking's office?) to stay at Riu Palace Aruba - all the companies seem connected so not sure why they won't refund my money when they agree I did not receive the upgraded room. I have spent almost 4 hours on hold with them and no resolution. Seems like unfair and deceptive business practices to not refund amounts due when I clearly did not receive the upgraded room I paid for and all parties agree I didn't receive it.

Let's start from the beginning. When I made the reservationns they charged my credit card twice. And had to all them for them to say that they didn't see the second transaction and after I called my bank and confirmed they took the money twice they admitted they did but that the second one was declined and that wasn't the case. Had to open a complain with my bank for them to cancel the second one and I waited for a week for my bank to solicited the money back and they returned the money but almost 20 dollars less than what they took. Once we arrived the checked in process was pretty fast. We had to take our luggages ourselves to the room (that is no problem for me) once we entered we started experiencing everything that is wrong with that place. Tried to use the app to solicit missing things in the room ato no avail because they answered after almost 4 hours. And had to everything personally in the lobby. The sheets looked old and stained nothing smelled like they were recently washed. Had to asked for blankets. Pillows extremely small and deformed. Some electrical outlets damaged. Among other plethora of things wrong there was the food mostly bad and repetitive, same desserts, everyday mangu and rice, everyday and in every meal the same meat (pork and chicken prepared the same way) ,and really awful drinks including the juices (canned taste probably due to the machines used to dispense them). Room telephone didn't work and was told that it wouldnt be possible to fix it and for them to do it, it would take several days with an external technician. No entertainment only a screen with music and videos playing. No minibar and asked for it but they brought me sodas instead. No shampoo nor toothpaste in the rooms and they said they only provide bodywash gel and hand soap. On the entrance of the building near our room there was a stink of feces. And when we checked out. Since we weren't on a tour we called an Uber driver and was told they weren't permitted to pick up clients inside the riu hotels and resorts. When asked the lobby why is that since we arrived in an Uber taxi and we were allowed to enter they said that is the policy and that they could asked a taxi inside the resort to take us to the entrance of the resort complex for 6 dollars or to take us to the bus stop for an extra 30 dollars. We asked if there wasn't any hotel vehicle that could take us to the entrance and said no, that in that case we could walk almost 2 miles with our luggages and then call the Uber driver to pick us there outside the resort complex. I read several comments of people with bad experiences in this resort chain and every official response was the same repetitive copy pasted comments blaming covid or saying they will take the comments to improve, but they obviously don't do that and that is a shame since the people that worked there were good, the service of those people is the only positive thing about our experience everything else was awful and there is so much more that happened that I'm not mentioning. Definitely not a 5 star resort, probably a 3 star resort, will never go back and won't recommend it to anyone.
Ps. I wish I had the disposition to take photos or videos of everything wrong I noticed and experienced so that other people take those as evidence of what we went through and reconsider and made their own decisions about going to this place, but that wasn't my mindset, I went there to relax and nothing, else but ended with a bad experience overall.

Avoid food poisoning!

On Nov 15th at 12:15am I was standing in clear view of the cameras that face the end of the bar with two bartenders at the theater bar.
During that time there were only 3 people present. One female server, whose was outside the bar to my left, one head green shirt bartender, as well as one other bartender Ulyses that were standing behind the bar but within 2 feet of me. Ulyses and the other Captain bartender were counting their tips for the evening and placing them in their pockets and placing paperwork in a blue bag and getting ready to leave.
I walked away from the bar with a beer in my hand and inadvertently left my cell phone on the bar top in front of Ulyses. When I got to the lobby I realized I forgot my cell phone and walked back to the bar and it was gone. At this time the bar was closed and the bartenders had left. During this time I was the ONLY guest left in the entire theater and surrounding area.
I immediately reported this to security and the front desk and we went and checked the area but the cell phone was gone.
The cell phone is described as a iPhone 11 color red 256gb at the time it went missing it had a dark privacy screen protector on it along with a Waffle House menu case (pictured below)
Inline image
This is an example the phone was RED in color but the same case
I went back to my room #653 and turned on my IPAD in an attempt to locate the device and mark it lost. I was able to access the phone and it tracked the movements from the back of the bar across the pool stairs to the second bar by the swim up area and then was turned off.
At 11:26 am on Nov 15th the phone was turned back on at the pool bar that Hugo works at as the captain and was then turned off. I went to the pool bar and spoke with Hugo with security and they looked around but were unable to find the phone. At 3:35pm the phone was again turned on at Costco at Super Manzana 21 Mz. 4 Lote 2 No. 251, 77500 CANCUN, QUINTANA ROO.
This means someone possibly from your staff mentioned above took the phone. I called Costco once back after my vacation and spoke with the Warehouse Manager Miguel whom is also investigating who brought the phone in to have it reactivated.
I kindly ask that the RIU investigates this matter and interviews Ulyses and finds out the whereabouts of my phone and have it returned to me.
Pablo from the front desk was very helpful during this period and has been aware of this situation and I would like to have management recognize him for his merit and honesty and commitment to guest relations. I have been a RiIU guest at 8 hotels and nothing like this has ever happened to me. I am hoping this can be resolved and the phone returned to me.
I have all the serial numbers from the phone and it has been reported lost/stolen by my service provider at this point.

My Family and I stayed at the Riu Santa Fe in Los Cabos for 12 nights, and dealt with continuous ongoing issues that we brought to the attention of your staffs (Veronica, Valeria, Alfonzo, Maria, and others) and continued to bring to the attention of your staff, without resolve or reimbursements. We experienced the following issues that made our trip less then enjoyable:
Lack of Dining, Food Poisoning
On your website before we booked our stay it said there were 6 restaurants open daily for a variety of food options. When we got there not only were there only one or 2 restaurants open they were on the opposite end of the resort, and we were forced to walk across the property just to get food (approximately 20 min). This was difficult as I have a disability and it was virtually impossible during the blackouts, when my partner had food poisoning from Baja restaurant (our friends were also sick from the food at this restaurant) or when the flooding on the property made it unsafe to walk. Also, there was no room service or to go boxes or working phone lines or electricity for a number of days.
The hours of the restaurants were not properly displayed on the Riu App, which we could not open because of lack of internet, which caused us to miss meals on days. Due of my disability, walking across the entire property, that was flooded, with no amenities open during the day for medicine and us being locked in and not being able to leave the compound due to the staffs attitude during the hurricane made the experience unsafe.
To to get food was a hassle, there were no to go containers for food so we couldn’t bring anything back to the room to eat when my spouse was too ill to leave the room. The lack of room service, and help from the staff to get food brought to our room when the only option to eat was walk the 20 min to the other side of the resort, made it difficult at times to get food with my disability. There were no ride opportunities, we were not allowed to order food delivery and there were no rain gear or umbrellas provided. The convenience store on the property was closed all day. The shows were canceled. The issues with the food poisoning was for 4 days of our stay. The issues of the hurricane were for an additional 5 days of our stay.
We were unable to sleep in the wet beds. We had to use all of our towels to soak up the water on the floors and to avoid slipping on the wet tiles. The electricity was then down for a few days. The phone lines did not work. When we contacted the hotel about the issues and they said they would send someone up to clean up the water and did this after a couple of days. We had issues with the toilet in our room throughout our stay (as it would not flush properly and would smell of sewer in the room). We notified the hotel about this issue and they promised to fix this problem at the beginning of our stay and promised this daily and never did. They continued to tell us to be patient and would accommodate credits and never did. We waited for these issues to be dealt with daily and it used up quite a lot of our time and our vacation.
This was very disappointing. I brought my family because I stayed at the Riu before and had a wonderful time. I Though it would be a quality trip. I was disappointed at the quality of amenities, service, and accommodations. We were looking forward to our trip to The Riu, and have stayed at different ones around the world, and thought this would be another good experience. The only reason we didn’t switch hotels in the middle of our stay was because we were promised daily by your staff that the issues would be resolved and we would be getting credited for the inconveniences, which never happened.

I’m here just to let people know. Do not try to process anything over Riu.com when you try it will not go through and it will tell you that price change..then you will probably think something fishy is going on and won’t proceed with it. You will be charged guys even so you didn’t authorize it. I got charged 1500$ and it was scary. And I never got no email they can’t help you but ur bank will be charged. Always buy from trusted American sites!! Otherwise you will be going through same thing that I’m dealing with now. Do not trust Riu.com they are Scam!! Hopefully some of you see this when you try to look for reviews for the site..that’s what I was looking at but it was to late!!

I stayed at RIU Lanzarote all inclusive Total nightmare don’t waste your money and time. Customer service is rubish at the reception of RIU PARAISO LANZAROTE. they don’t understand what you saying also the rooms are 2 star hotel rooms also breakfast, lunch , dinner same routine for seven days it was the longest holiday I’ve ever had. No family friendly. Search for other hotels and don’t waste your money and time

I have just returned from the worst ordeal I have ever encountered whilst travelling overseas.
I paid a lot of money to stay at a Riu palace peninsula, a 5 star all inclusive hotel in Cancun, Mexico from October 3 to 9th. Unfortunately on the 6th October we had to be evacuated from the hotel to a shelter due to hurricane Delta heading in our direction.
When leaving the hotel we were given a plastic bag with a banana, a cookie, a sandwich and a tin of tuna and told that was our dinner and breakfast.
We arrived at the shelter which was a disused Riu hotel and it was disgraceful. The room had a filthy toilet and no running water it stank, it had no air conditioning and only had water in the fridge. We had to walk to the shops and buy food and drink.
I rang Riu customer service many times in Spain, but they were unable to help us....I then rang Priceline who I had booked through and they were also unable to help us...so the conclusion was we were dumped in Mexico, in a refugee camp to look and fend for ourselves.
That night we left the camp to buy some food and drink, when we returned to the shelter there were people camped out on the gardens, the trash cans were overflowing, there was garbage everywhere ...this place was a mess and a health hazard and how Riu or Priceline can justify putting guest in a hell hole like this is beyond belief, not only under normal circumstances but during a pandemic.
Eventually after 2 nights in this dump, we were returned back to the peninsula to find out the flights home had been cancelled and had to reschedule, which also meant two more nights at the peninsula had to be paid for, even though we never stayed at the hotel for the allocated time we booked for.
I know the hurricane was not anybody’s fault , but If there were no more rooms available at other Riu hotels you should of put people up elsewhere. This shelter was a disgrace and it would not surprise me if COVID or other disease will now come from here. You are playing with peoples lives and your actions are totally unacceptable.
I am now back in the USA and I have rang Priceline to complain and get a refund of some kind. They were totally unhelpful and said I am not eligible for a refund as Riu have told them no refunds are being issued.
Thanks Priceline and Riu for looking after us during our vacation and after..NOT!
I strongly advise people not to use either of these companies because once they have your money they don’t care !

Not kids friendly
We stayed in Riu Dunamar
Warning stay away with families!!!! First I want to say I'm 38 years old I been going to mexico resorts since I was 18 and I know quality and this hotel is not even close. This is supposed to be Riu Family Resort and it ended up being a huge GARBAGE. Let me get started on the most negative thin about this resort, FOOD. We are not food picky at all but let me tell you. The food in the buffet (lunch, dinner) is so horrible all salty, dry or no flavor was disgusting to eat. Hard to even describe how bad it was. Most likely because hotel was not packed they reused most of the food so that's why a lot of it was so dry and hard to eat. Basically not fresh. Breakfast was ok. All the specialty restaurants food was the same situation so horrible. The worst part off the specialty restaurants is if you come with kids they do not offer kids menu's. No kids food at all! This is supposed to be a family resort? My two kids cryed from hunger and we had to leave to feed them in a nasty buffet. Dont get me started on the kids club. It's a tiny white room that looks like a jail cell. Kids water park and adults water park are cool but absolutely nothing to do there for adults. No drinks or snack service by the waterparks and no pools for adults by the waterparks. Also my daughters ear was bothering her on the last day of our vacation and we asked for a doctor they said 150$ for consultation to look at her ear for 5 seconds and 150$ extra if she needed meds. What kind of family resort does this and treats their vacationers like this? Management is horrible no help at all. Again the food I cant explain how bad it is and the bathtub alcohol is very cheep, few drinks u feel like s--t. The hotel is tiny as hell nothing to see and lobby is none existent. Beach is nice. Also service is great. Rooms are great. Big shutout to Taco the bartender he did a great job by the pool bar.

My husband and I spent our anniversary after covid restrictions were minimized. We spent 4 days at the RIU Plaza and we had the most wonderful holiday ever. The employees at RIU were really friendly and were very hospitable to us. Despite the lack of many guests, the hotel was very clean, people were working and responding to our needs on time. Recommend RIU to everyone out there

Stayed in July 2020 at Riu Guaraná in Algarve, and was a terrible experience regarding Covid 19 measures.
In the elevators People without mask;
Sometimes there was no desifectant;
In the restaurant there was no social distance between people, people without mask and the Staff does not bother at all, all clients serve themeselves and toutch in all the utensils;
The food was always the same and sometimes not well prepared