Riu Palace Punta Cana All-Inclusive Resort, Punta Cana

The hotel was very clean. Food was very good and huge selection of different foods. Try the Japanese resturant. The beach was very nice and clean. Reserve your resturant reservations early in the morning because the resturants fill up quickly.

DO NOT STAY HERE! BUG INFESTED!!! on the second day staying at the RIU Palace, we noticed bugs in the room, when we asked to switch rooms, the next room on the other side of the hotel was infested with bugs as well, then the manager at the front desk accused us of lying just to get an upgraded room, we have never been so insulted!! We noticed bugs on the sports bar, front desk, and halls. Also this hotel requires a reservation made by latest 10 a.m. and has no exceptions otherwise, we were displeased we had to follow their schedule on our vacation; and only got to dine in their restaurants twice. The food was awful, we were not able to keep anything in our bodies, everything went right through us and we were not able to drink because of this, had to go to the doctors when we got home. Front desk and general managers, and our APPLE representative were horrible examples of customer service. We met other people at the hotel who weren't feeling good from the food as well. This hotel was defiantly not worth the money we spent! Their poor hotel ruined a 7 day vacation for us.

This was my second trip to Punta Cana.The last time I had a great experience at the Sunscape the beach however I decided to try the Riu which came highly recommended.When we arrived at the resort, the resort was breath taking. It looked absolutelly faboulous.The lobby is grand and it has a victorian type flair.We had a dinner reservation at the Japanese Steakhouse because we were lucky because one of the hosts who worked in the buffet restaurants was able to get us into one of the restaurants which need reservations that night.There are approximatelly 3 or 4 restaurants and you must make reservations in advance from 0800 AM until 1100 AM otherwise you cannot get into the restaurant. The food was eatible at the Japanese steakhouse.Don't expect Nobu food.We then hung out in the patio area where they had a band playing Salsa, and Merengue.The ambiance was nice there. You'll have some1 taking orders for watered down drinks.We then went to our room and this is when disaster hit.Our sheets had blood stains.I called the front desk about 3 times or more to get someone to change the sheets ASAP, and finally had a room service rep come after 20 to 25 minutes from incessantly requesting someone right away.I had to go to the front desk because I needed someone from management to express that this was unacceptable. When I went to the front desk, I delt with the WORSE front desk manager RAYMUNDO who took no responsibility for blood stains on our bed linen and mold stains on the couch.The room smelled moldy. So, I talk to this Mr. Raimundo about how unacceptable it is to have blood stains on the sheets, and sitting on a dirty couch and the moldy smell. He responds that he can't do anything for me until the next day at 1 PM. I express to him that this is unacceptable and he needed to change my room.The man raised his voice at me, asking me what did I want from him, did I want him to throw guests out of their room to accomodate my husband and I.I responded to him that #1, I didn't care what he had to do, because when I booked my room in a supposedly 4 stars hotel, I did not request blood stained sheets, and #2 that he needed to be in a kitchen washing dishes (Not to offend anyone), but he was not fit to handle customer issues.I requested to speak to his supervisor and he refuse to give me his supervisor's name.I walked around the lobby and finally found someone who directed me to his direct report by the name of Melky.He was pleasant and offered an upgrade and I told him this was not about getting compensations.I only wanted a clean, nice smelling room.He stated he was going to address the Raymundo issue,all their front desk staff are rude.Needless to say, I kept my room and had them cover the couch with several sheet so I would not have to sit on a moldy couch.I had to call the housekeeper every day to fix my bed because every time the bed was made, the sheets were too short and the mattress was visible; thus if the sheet came off from the bed, I'd be sleeping on a bare mattress. How disgusting is that.The staff in the restaurant are very, very nice and friendly. the alcohol was very low quality and watered down.The pool is super small for the magnitude of the resort.The resort beach towels are super worn out with stains in them.The resort is only 3 years old and its furniture and sheets, and towels are so old, they need to change it and refurbish.The only fun my husband and I had was relaxing on the beach and going horseback riding outside the resort.Otherwise this trip away from work and our kids was not what we had in mind.Do not get fooled by the pictures of the grounds of the hotel. The grounds are beautiful, but that's where it ends. By the way, when you check in, you are given your keys and their staff do not take the time to tell you about anything. You are pretty much on your own to figure things out.

The hotel is wonderful. I went on a 7-day vacation with my husband 5-21-08/5-28-08 for the second time. We had gone two years ago when the hotel first opened in May of 2006. The hotel is gorgeous, the staff is extremely attentive and very friendly. The entertainment is pretty good and the entertainment staff goes out of their way to talk to as may guests as they can. They have something for everyone. ...They all speak at least two languages(they do their best). As for the smell in the room, it could be because of the fact that it is Caribbean(to be expected) and it is not bad at all. The food is quite expansive. They have something for everyone. The restaurants that require reservation are good too, but if you don't make it the buffet is really good. All in all, there is not a whole bunch to complain about. Phone calls should probably be made from cell phones or using a calling card that they sell you at the front desk. As for the the other bad comment, all I have to say is: You are in a pristine local, the water is blue, you have pools to choose from, you have unlimited drinks and food of your choice, you have a choice of 3-4 hotels to choose to do activities in, you have a show every night of a different variety, your room is clean every day - What can possibly be that bad? If you don't have a good time is because you do not want to.

Went here on our honeymoon. It was like living a dream, wonderful service, friendly staff, excellent shows and food. Do some of the rain forest tours it was very informative and a great experiance.