Dear Sirs:

My reason for writing a review is, I wanted to tell you about the rudeness we endured from the people at the front desk, especially a man named Hugo. I took my wife, my two sons, and my son’s girlfriend on vacation with me, we also traveled with another lady and her son and daughter. My two sons, and her son shared one of my rooms, and my son’s girlfriend stayed with the lady we traveled with. Three (3) people were in two of the rooms, my wife and I shared the third room. All total we spent approximately $10,000.00.

Before we left for Mexico, my 19 year old son told me he wanted to ask his 19 year old girlfriend to marry him while in Cancun. Before we left home, we went to the jewelers and purchased for her an engagement ring. His intentions were to ask her to marry him, and if she accepted, return to the same hotel in the spring for a wedding.

My sons girlfriend accepted my sons proposal and she was the worlds happiest lady. Her name is Kristen, and she is also a very sweet and quiet young lady, and FYI she paid her own way, and her share of the hotel room in at the RIU, which was approx. $1500.00. Monday morning I found her crying and sobbing in the hotel lobby, when I asked her what was wrong, she informed me that Sunday she had accidentally torn her wristband which is given each individual at the RIU. She told me that (4) four times Sunday she had went to the front desk in the hotel lobby and inquired as to what she should do. Each time they would tell her to go do something else, like get her I.D., or go get her room key and show it to them, 4 different times Sunday she did as she was told, and was rudely denied each time. Monday morning she begin trying again, again she was told to go get something else, this was her 5th time trying to get something done, exasperated and dejected is how I found her in the lobby that morning. Upon discovering what happened I went with her to the front desk and explained to them that she needed her wristband replaced, and they started arguing with me, but they finally relented and gave her a new wristband. She was a paying customer and treated terribly over something very easily fixed.

When we checked in, even though we had 3 people in 2 of the rooms, the front desk would only give us 2 keys per room. Monday, we were all going to do some shopping across the street in front of the hotel. Both my sons were going with us shopping, so they left one key behind in the room, on the dresser under a hotel towel. When we returned, the room had been cleaned by the hotel staff and the key was no where to be found. My son went down to the front desk and told them what had happened and that he needed another key, the people at the front desk told him, he could not have another key, and if he wanted in, he would have to come to the front desk, and a bellman would let him in his room. Tuesday morning I went down to the front desk myself and talked to Hugo, ( that is the name on his name plate) and explained to him what had happened and that we would need another key, his reply shocked me. Hugo told me, “ Yes Senior, we have another key, but you must first pay me $20.00 and then I will give you a key to your room”. I knew he was just trying to rip me off, and he just wanted $20.00 to put in his pocket. I told him I wasn’t going to pay him. By this time none of my children, or the ladies children whom we were traveling with would even go to the front desk because they were so rude to them. I went to my room and hand wrote a note to Hugo telling him that I needed another key to the room, that I was a paying customer and deserved to be treated as such, I told him, if he did not give me the key I was desperately in need of, that I would get on the internet when I retuned home and tell everyone I could how I had been treated, and I would make it a personal vendetta to cost RIU much more than the $20.00 he was trying to swindle out of me. You need to know that each time one of my children or the other ladies son needed to go to the room, we would all have to stop what we were doing and go find the one with the one key. Tuesday night while my children were in their room, Hugo called them harassing them telling them they had better bring him the $20.00 for the key. My children neglected the next morning to tell me about the phone as they all knew I was fuming mad at this point. Wednesday, I went to the front desk to ask for change, and Hugo confronted me again, and wanted the $20.00, I lost my temper and told him his attitude was very disrespectful to a paying customer, that we had spent $10,000.00 on this trip and that it was pitiful that I could not get a key to a room which I had paid for.

Hugo ruined my vacation. The rest of the Hotel staff at the RIU are most gracious and could teach the staff at the front desk many things. I had paid for 3 double rooms, and jokingly offered the front desk clerk a one hundred dollar bill to upgrade all 3 rooms to Junior Suites, WHICH TO MY SURPRISE, he did! This was my first encounter with Hugo, Check it out for your self, my reservations were made thru Elite Travel, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, % Courtney, and the rooms I was given are 343A, 341B, and 367B, all are Junior Suites. The food at the hotel looks good, but looks is as far as it goes, the food is bad, and none of us ever got a satisfying meal, the best meal we had was at the Cancun Airport on our way home at Berry Hills Hot Tamales. The Catamarans which are included in the “All inclusive” as well as the wind surfing boat are included in the “All Inclusive” but you are not told that you must have lessons first and these lessons are $82.00 for each. There is no Air Conditioning in the halls, nor the elevators, it is almost impossible to ever get really comfortable. There are only two elevators to the rooms we stayed in, and one of them was not operational most of the time. The swimming pools, or as they are commonly referred to by most of the guest who are there “ The Pee Pools “ are not very refreshing as the water is just too warm. I wish someone else had written the things I am writing before I made my decision to vacation with RIU.

Barry Middleton
bmiddle48@aol.com

We’ve just returned from a week stay at the Riu Cancun—myself and three other friends. We were there from July 6-13 and we loved everything about the resort.

Pros:
- The junior suites are excellent, and no problem whatsoever with the AC
- the staff at the resort are extremely pleasant and hard working
- the food is good, nothing special but there are lots of choices, including a Japanese restaurant
- the pools were awesome, all were heated and well maintained
- the entertainment is very good and very well timed (they put on shows right before people would usually hit the clubs, so you could chill grab some drinks and head out)
- the drinks were well made, the bar tenders are very accommodating
- the room mini bar and alcohol dispenser are refilled regularly, or as soon as you like you can call them to do it
- lots of day and nighttime activities around and in the hotel
- and most importantly, THE LOCATION IS PERFECT—you are steps away from downtown Cancun and all the clubs
- also directly across a shopping mall, with a few others within walking distance
- they have shuttle service everything night at 11pm to the clubs—you board the bus with people from the resort, you get your wristband, they take you to the club where you have a reserved section just for Riu Cancun and bottle service, all included, just remember to tip!
- And finally, the resort is very clean and well kept (I can’t stress this enough, the staff works really hard, don’t forget to tip them!)

Cons:
- this isn’t really the resorts fault, just bad timing on our part, but I found a lot of families with kids, and sometimes they would get on our nerves, then again it’s a hit or miss I’d say with stuff like this. I’d still recommend this resort for singles and groups of friends looking to have fun. Oh and our group was in their early 20s.

My family and I recently took a vacation to the Riu Cancun for my sisters graguation present. This is a all inclusive 5 star resort that I cannot begin to describe fully. We booked through NWA world vacations and were met at the airport with a shuttle that took us directly to our hotel where we were greeted with a welcome drink from the bar,smiles by each an every employee, for our entire stay, from the maids who clean the lobby 24-7, to the security to the ultra helpful and friendly front desk staff. We arrived early so our room wasnt ready, they stowed our bags for us and gave us towel keys and full use of all the facilities while we waited. we used the pool had lunch and by the time we dried off our room was ready. EVERY room has an ocean view fit for a king, and when we opened the door there was a swan made out of towels on the bed! during our stay the towels were also made to look like an elephant and an octoupus and one day our curtians were in a bow! I could not believe how much time and care the staff took in everything to make us feel so welcome! by the second day the wait staff knows just what you want to drink, how many people in your party, and all of our names. We were given anything we wanted, from an upgraded room, to new pillows, to non alcholic pina coladas for my daughter! They also have so many activities there is never a chance to get bored! The kids club was awesome, my 6 year old had a blast making crafts, making sandcastles on the beach, playing with the other kids from all over the world, and the mini disco at night was precious! there was more than enough choices of places to eat, from japanese, to brazilian, to the themed banquet every night! on our last night my daughter was asked to be the greeter for dinner and was ecstatic to carry a walkie talkie and say " come on in, try the guacamole!" (which was out of this world!) When the public relations coordinator found out what we were celebrating she set up a champange dinner for us on the patio at the steakhouse right on the ocean, it was fantastic! After staying at this hotel there is no way I could every stay anywhere else! They really make you feel like family, it was such a wonderful place to be! I will be returning next year, the year after that and have already told all of my friends, family and co workers that this is THE place to be in Cancun!

Last week i returned from the riu cancun and what else can i say but amazing!!!!
The cleaners did not stop cleaning 24/7!!!
You had so much variety with the food, my favourite was la mission restuarant where you have steak cooked in front of you to your liking!also chicken breast and pork chops! thats on the night.
lunch its your typical burgers, pizzas, chips.and breakfast was very international! all very nice!!
Our room was very clean, tidy, spacious and i loved the king size bed! the views are also spectacular from your balconys.
i would advise you to get up early and get yourself a sun lounger because we found it was full by 7:45 in the morning!!
I honestly cant fault this hotal in any way! we liked it so much were going back next year!!!
trips: def do platinum cruise (swim with dolphins). bar crawl, jungle tour, para sailing, captin hook ship!!
reccommended to families,young/old couples, singles!
Alot of people said how bad the americans would be but we never had absolutely no problem with them! we kept ourselves to ourselves and so did they!!