"Elite Club does not justify the cost and very poor service in the event of an accident"
We stayed at the RIU Palace Riviera Maya to celebrate my husband's birthday. My mother-in-law, my husband, and I were traveling, and we decided to pay for an Elite Club room hoping that the experience and the additional service would justify the price difference.
In general terms, the Elite Club is fine, but it falls short for what it costs. It has some benefits that we did enjoy, such as better quality drinks, the possibility of booking restaurants from the app, early check-in, and late check-out. However, even with the latter, we had an issue: we were supposedly able to use the room until 1:00 p. m., but we returned around 12:10 p. m. for our things and the key cards were already deactivated. We had to walk through practically the entire hotel to get to the front desk and request that they be reactivated.
The biggest problem occurred during the Day of the Dead party at the RIU Tequila. By concentrating guests from several RIU hotels in Playacar, there were a lot of people and, at that moment, the Elite Club benefits simply ceased to exist. There was no area, service, or drinks corresponding to the service we had paid for.
Unfortunately, that night my husband slipped at the Pacha nightclub because the floor was wet. In the area where the fall occurred, we did not see any signage warning of the wet floor, and we did not find any paramedics available either. This worried us especially because my husband had had knee surgery approximately six months earlier and, after the fall, he had quite a bit of swelling.
The next day we went to the manager seeking guidance and support. For us, this was the most disappointing part of the entire stay. The first response we received was not very empathetic, and we were told that any expenses would be at our own cost. Finally, we had to leave Playacar, get an X-ray, and obtain crutches following the instructions of my husband's surgeon.
When we returned and my husband spoke directly with the manager, the attitude changed considerably. This left us with an even more bitter taste, especially because previously my mother-in-law and I had received comments such as that they had no reports from the RIU Tequila and that the hotel did not have insurance to take charge of the situation. Subsequently, some of these comments were denied.
I want to highlight that our experience with the rest of the staff was very good. We received excellent attention from the staff in the restaurants, pools, snack bars, lobby, and bars. They were attentive and kind during our stay, so it is a shame that a situation of this type and the way it was managed ends up overshadowing the good work of so many people.
Regarding the Elite Club, I consider that it still has a lot to improve to really feel like a premium experience. There are no exclusive areas or special lounge chairs on the beach. If you want the drinks included in Elite, you have to travel from the beach to the corresponding pool area, since the waiters who serve the beach cannot bring you those drinks. The parties are held at other hotels, where you also do not have access to the same benefits, drinks, or exclusive spaces.
Furthermore, in the face of an extraordinary situation like the one we experienced, we expected some kind of personalized attention, accompaniment, or support consistent with a superior category service, and unfortunately, we did not feel it.
In summary: the hotel has good facilities and excellent staff, but our experience did not live up to what we expected when paying for the Elite Club category. More than the inconveniences themselves, what ended up negatively marking our stay was the way my husband's accident was handled and the initial lack of empathy regarding a situation that was truly worrying for us.
