Hotel bad and good

hotel ok after complaining about room with mold 30 year old t.v. phone didn't work half comp bar the smell of bleach and mold yellow bed sheets allacart host was impolite the food no appetizer no cocktails no wine with dinner the steak was 3ouches 8th of a inch thick fries cold had to go to other bar to get a drink waitress was good but had follow host direction flight was delay 3 time had to move to three different gates lost whole day traveling suppose to depart 6:20 am departed 1:20 made it [... lire plus] first room 8:00pm made it to second room 8:45pm the question on next line recommending hotel only after I tell them what question ask so they don't try to put them in bad room don't do the allacart almost all staff very nice and polite. question at bottom about food was good the second was good service from most was very good

Resort sold...impacted our vacation!

After learning that Senator bought the Riu and the staff were all losing their jobs it made sense of the lack of service....shame on Riu for allowing this to happen as it impacted many people's stay...they could have made the deal to include the staff would remain after the sale...

Worse than it seems

We read the reviews and we thought it will be ok, but it wasn't. How could it have 5, 4 stars ? really? Here is what we experienced: Service: 1 star: they assigned us to a room with broken toilet!!! then they didn't try to fix it until evening, because I said : Where will I pee at night if need it? BTW, they didn't fix it, they moved us to another room. Food: 1 star. People, who left 5,4,3 stars reviews, you really need to visit other hotels, even for the same price. I believe nothing will [... lire plus] be worse than this one. They have 2 buffets with exactly the same food in both. Very limited variety, I mean it: beef - one type and not everyday, pork- one type of a meal and not everyday, chicken - one type and every day, fish - one type and every day. We had lamb one day. That's it for animal protein. Vegetables: White potatoes, carrots, rice, - 2 different meals of those repeating every day, like fried potatoes/white rice/cooked carrots - every day, every day. other veggies only: eggplants, zuccinis, once we had asparagus, spinach (not every day) and no other vegetables. Fruits were : melon, watermelon, papaia and passion fruit - and nothing else. Desert was: 2 types of cookies and about 4 types of other deserts. all the food was very much the same every day. sorry, forgot about the soups: 1 or 2 soups per day, that soup will be served until we finish it, like all the other meals. For example, nobody liked minestrone, so we had it for 4 days. Still reading? will give you more now. Restaurants: 1 star: who said there are restaurants? what they do is that they convert the snack-bar to two restaurants by dividing it in the middle in the evening, so one side becomes Italian restaurant and another one is a Steak house. How ... it is? Food there is no good. Also, milk served is only the one made from the powder. I will give you a hint: if you want a real milk go to a bar and ask for a COLD milk, it will be real. Beach: 3 stars- would be the best place of that resort , but...I forgot to say it's a smokers resort - most of the people there smoke, therefore sand is full of cigarettes, not cool. Lot's of shade on the beach because of all the palm trees. The area of shallow waters is quite large and water is warm. Room: 2 stars- shabby, no shampoos, no conditioner (just for me when I didn't bring), one universal liquid soap. One day we didn't have hot water. Tours: do not believe anyone. We went to Paradise Island to snorkel, our tour agent said it's 45 min drive, the hotel said it's 15 min drive, when it was 1.5 hours drive. If I knew I would choose another tour. If I knew I would choose another resort.

This is not the resort you were looking for!

The rooms are smaller than most resorts I've been to. Arranged in villas. Eastern part of the resort is unused apart from villas. Example eastern reception area staffed with one person who can't do much but direct you to the main reception. East Theatre never used. Several pool tables are on site but only one is in serviceable condition. The other two are in extremely poor condition.

Needs upgrading

Hotel room and service staff were good. Beach and resort needs upgrading. Food was not at 4star Resort standards. Number of Restaurants was limited. Wine was not good(almost undrinkable) This was my second time at this resort and was disappointed this time.

Alright but not best

Well we enjoyed some things at resort however there my main concern was the staff at reception found them not helpful at all, very rude and when asked to get something would take hours and hours for them to bother, had to keep calling and they still wouldn’t help us. The maid also, we had lizards in our room and she wouldn’t kill them just sprayed and left. To get another room was a lot of effort basically had to camp out at reception to get their attention. We also had cockroaches in sec [... lire plus]ond room we had and hell of a time trying to get anyone to come kill them. The pool was dirty, the food was bland and not a variety of food either, only two al a carte to choice from and hard to book to get one. Beach was pretty and shows were great

Very nice resort

Beautiful grounds, very lush. Lots of food choices. Staff very friendly and accommodating. Grounds, public restrooms and restaurants meticulously cleaned. Beautiful pools. Just two negative points: We did not have hot water most of the time and there was quite a bit of mold on the bathroom ceiling; the bathroom fan did not work. Lots of shelter on the beach but the sea was rough and red flagged every day. There was a noticeable musty smell to the room. But otherwise a very enjoyable trip.

Definitely going back

We had the best time ever..There was always something to eat.The beach was fabulous. The staff was amazing.I loved that we could meander to the bachata resort also.We can't wait to go back.The night shows were amazing the costumes were fantastic.The rooms were immaculate..The balcony was spacious .All in all we had an amazing time.

Amazing resort

I did the mistake of reading the reviews before leaving for my trip. As per what the previous reviews said , I was expecting all bad things. Once I got there everything was wonderful. The staff , the room , the service , the food , the drinks. Everything! By far one of my best trips. One thing I will suggest is to look around for the prices on excursions. There are people working on the beach selling the SAME excursion or even more , for alot less money.

Perfect Vacation

Pros: Food and drink are amazing. Beautiful beach. Live music at night! Awsome houskeeping. Access to riu bachata. Lots of pools. Paddle boarding and kayaking available!! Cons: Hard to get coffee in the morning at the main buffet. Wifi only worked for 3 out of 7 days.

Disappointed this year.

The physical features of the resort were all quite satisfactory. Problems were due to some sort of reorganization ie facilities on our end of the resort were either closed or curtailed for all or part of the week. Our main restaurant was closed all week. Our second but much smaller restaurant was open only for lunch from Monday through Thursday but then on Friday it started to serve all three meals. Besides the beach bar which which always closed early, our only other bar opened at 10 a.m.but  [... lire plus]closed at 5:30 pm until Friday, when hours were extended to midnight. Due to the closures and short hours we were forced to use the facilities in other parts of the resort which meant fairly long walks and crowded restaurants and bars when we got there. Because of overcrowding at these other facilities we encountered long waits, a lack of seating, no dishes or cutlery,etc. We even had to walk to the other area for beach towels/hair dryer. Not a good experience! Last year we attended the same resort and everything was very good overall.

Decent for the price

Very nice beach and pools. Big resort with lots of people. Not recommended for singles, or young partiers. No real nightlife on resort...Disco charges for drinks (was always empty for good reason), and the bar that stays open passed 11pm is just a big hall....no music. Not a bad place for the price.

Don't waste ur money!!

We stayed at Riu Merengue..the worst vacation I have ever had..in 7 days we had 4 rooms....mold in fridge..mold on walls..ac didn't work...when we called to get it fixed...they gave us the run around...people r not friendly..we slept out on the balcony cause the room was so humid and it smelled bad..facuets were broken....no hot water...no one to come fix it..tv well u couldn't even see what was on they were so old...remotes were broken...they don't stock ur fridge everyday...customer service do [... lire plus]es not exist...they have no clue what ur saying...this place should have a rating of minus1...same food everyday for 7 days...food was not good either....no blow dryer no coffee maker...no iron when it said it had all that in the rooms...i have never ever been so disappointed on a vacation like this one...and too boot when I sent emails....nobody bothered with what we were going through..read ur reviews before making ur choices....jammed packed and no place to even go...and locals also stay there...and the noise is insane at night....holiday from hell we r so not impressed....keep ur money in ur pockets....dont throw it away on a resort like this one....oh ya...we were not told this resort has been sold to Bachata...so please go somewhere....where u know u won't have all these problems.... Cristina (from Canada)

Great vacation

Booked last minute. Resort had nice grounds and a Nice beach. Loved how the rooms were set up in little buildings instead of a large resort. But The rooms smelled musky, and left all of our clothes smelling musky, even after 3 washes. Our door was also broken and I had to make a makeshift lock for it. Pools were nice, but the one with the swim up bar is at the Riu Bachata, which is connected. 24hr drinks and food are also at the Bachata. It’s an older crowd. Service was great. All the st [... lire plus]aff were friendly. Food wasn’t good and you 100% need reservations, even though it advertises “reservation free dining at all restaurants”. We arrived 20min early at our reservation, hoping to have some wine first, they wouldn’t even let us sit and have wine, even tho it was empty.

Big Resort

This resort was big therefor a lot of walking.It has beautiful grounds and well maintained. The rooms were good and clean.Touched a gecko first morning on the curtains,rather unexpected ha! ha! Food was really good and plentiful,although the buffet was quite a walk from our room. Staff were fabulous and friendly. We love to snorkel however the ocean was to murky ,it rained every day. Lots of beach chairs every where which was a plus.The shows were ok mostly audience based.

Poor Performance

The hotel was recently sold and will cease operations in May. The staff have not been advised if they will be retained or not. Service people in all areas of the hotel are essentially walking dead. To reduce cost the hotel has closed half the restaurants and there is insufficient space for all the guests in the main dining room. Guests must wait to get a table and have to clean it themselves because there are not sufficient staff. Food lines are over ten minutes. This is a 2 Star hotel. I [... lire plus] recommend that it be dropped from Trip Central and Sunwing sites to preserve your reputations.

Resort has gone down in quality

After going to this resort 4 years (and loved it) we went again in Jan 2018. Huge disappointment. Rooms smelled of mold, food was absolutly horrible, and the a la cartes were worse than the buffet. Lineup for dinner reservations were full by 7am each day. We did find out that the resort was closing in June as it was bought out. Hopefully improvements will be done then. On a positive note, the pools were all clean, great entertainment and beautiful beaches. Staff were all amazing and friendly.

Great resort

Liked everything there other than when sitting at tables aroud the bar as ashtrays, cups etc. would sit there, every once and a while somebody might come around and clean your table for you. Other than that I would say it was EXCELLENT!!! ESPECIALLY THE STAFF!!!

Ok family vacation

Very large resort. We stayed in the Merengue Village. The buffet was not opened in that section (only opened the following week) so we had to walk to the Merengue Garden. We were travelling with our children and my father therefore a lot more walking than we would have liked. The line ups at the buffet where very long since the resort was sold out and one buffet was not opened. Changed rooms after the first night since the AC was not working and the room was a lot further in the Village. We  [... lire plus]got a room closer however the AC was not all that great. For a family resort, I was surprised with all the smoking ANYWHERE on the resort.. Seemed everyone was smoking and it didn't matter if you were at the snack bar, pool, lobby (trying to hide from all the rain we got). The food tasted good and the variety was good.

Value for money

Stayed here for a family trip, had everything we needed and no major issues. Buffet was good with lots of options, plenty of room on the beach, staff are friendly and helpful. Enjoyed the ‘villa’ style room buildings with balconies. Live shows every night, wifi in the lobby, easy and quick check-in.