Hotel Riu Palace Las Americas

What started off as a great vacation quickly became frustrating. My husband and I were there to celebrate our anniversary. WE paid for an ocean view and that we did get. We had a beautiful room with a wrap around balcony, just superb. Unfortunately we quickly realized that the room temperature was not very cold, we spoke to the front desk and maintenance came to our room very quickly. We were told that in about an hour our room would be at 21 which is perfect when its almost 40 degrees celcius outside. After dinner our room was at 24 degrees, too hot for me. We put on the fan on, front desk offered to change the room but after being settled in we didnt want to do that. Next day we spoke to front desk again and they sent the maintenance supervisor. Same story, in an hour your room will be at 21 celcius. After the beach room was still at 24. Hotel offered to change us to another Riu. It was a downgrade but we decided to do it since other guests told us their rooms were stuck at 23. As we were getting into the elevator with another couple in front of us, 7 other people, 2 of them very big, squeezed in with us. Within 30 secs the elevator dropped and we were now stuck. One of the guests pressed on the emergency button and we were told someone was on their way. 5 min later they asked us which elevator we were on. Meanwhile there is no AC, the elevator is crammed and we are sweating and starting to panic. We are told to not touch the doors, someone is there and asked our room numbers. 5 minutes pass and nothing is happening. One of the guys that had pushed his way in finally managed to pry the door open and we found ourselves in the basement parking lot. Luckily we were able to get out, luckily no one was physically hurt. At the reception we told them how scary and traumatized we felt by this experience and we were told that the Hotel was not responsible for the elevator getting stuck since it was over capacity. I guess next time we should prevent other guests from entering the elevator. I have wanted to stay at this hotel for years and we finally treated ourselves, unfortunately we wasted our precious anniversary evening changing to another hotel. Hotel needs a serious upgrade on their cooling system and elevators. FYI hotel has sargasm yet if you go to another Riu down the road, the beach is perfect. Noone at the hotel tells you that though, you have to figure it our on your own.

Great time, great hotel. Jonathan from destination services was a huge help and we booked the whale shark tour, which was absolutely amazing!