"A 5 star rating? Shabby, mould, rot, flies on the food, and 3 days of our holiday wasted"
We've stayed at over a dozen Riu hotels around the world and booked the Funana trusting Riu's standards and TUI's grading. What a mistake. This is not a 4.5T or 5★ hotel, and it's hard to see how it's still sold as one. It is tired, badly maintained, and well overdue for a substantial renovation.
We've since learned the hotel is due to be refurbished, which only confirms what we saw. Until that happens, it shouldn't be sold at this rating.
Room 1: Before we'd even entered the room, water was dripping from the corridor ceiling and the entrance door was worn and damaged, which wasn't a good sign. Inside, patched paintwork and poor finishing set the tone. The mirror was corroded, and the wooden surround was rotten and not safe for children. The door was damaged at the top and bottom, and the gaps let mosquitoes into a room where our toddler was sleeping.
We complained within 30 minutes of arriving mid-afternoon. The hotel's answer was that nothing else was available that day, so we were stuck with it. The TUI 24/7 app team told us to speak to the hotel, and the rep said the same. Neither of the reps we spoke to seemed surprised that we were complaining, and we weren't the only guests doing so at the time.
Room 2: After thinking it over overnight, at 9am on day 2 we asked the TUI rep to move us to the sister hotel, the Riu Palace Santa Maria, which the rep said was recently renovated and of a higher standard. We were told the request could take up to 24 hours to process. While we waited, the hotel offered us another room that looked better on the show-around. It wasn't. It was smaller, had no sofa for my partner to breastfeed on, and had mould on the walls. This was supposedly the better room. The front desk told us we couldn't be moved again until day 3.
The food: The quality was very low. Food at the sports bar and the pool restaurant was left out in the open, covered in flies, with no fly traps, deterrents or covers that we could see. It looked as if it had been sitting out for a long time without being refreshed. Those were the only options during the day, so we chose not to eat at either and waited until the main buffet opened at around 6:30pm. That is not ideal with a hungry toddler.
The "solution": Late on day 2, TUI's first offer was an expensive upgrade that we would have to pay for ourselves, with two hours to decide. So we were expected to pay extra to escape a hotel that doesn't meet the rating we'd already paid for. We replied within 30 minutes and heard nothing back that day. On day 3 a second offer came through, for a room similar to the one we had originally booked at the Palace, but again at extra cost to us. We paid it because we felt we had no choice. The standard was so poor that we weren't enjoying our holiday, and we had to get out. We finally left the Funana at around 2pm on day 3. Between complaining, waiting, chasing, never unpacking our cases and then getting settled again, we lost three days of a seven-day holiday.
TUI were little help. The reps were visible and approachable, but once our complaint was logged (on a form sent by email), they said there was nothing more they could do because all complaints are handled by the call centre. The 24/7 app just sent us back to the hotel and the rep, which we had already tried. It was a pointless loop that went nowhere.
The rest of the hotel is no better. Decoration and upkeep are poor throughout. Broken tiles and flooring in disrepair are everywhere across the grounds. The pool sunbeds were a disgrace: flaking paint, heavy stains, worn through, and some so corroded that the webbing had come away from the frame. None of this is what anyone would expect from a 5★ all-inclusive.
In fairness, the hotel staff were friendly, and linens and surfaces were generally clean. The staff aren't the problem. The problem is a property that Riu has let decay while TUI still sells it at a star rating it doesn't come close to deserving.
The moment we arrived at the Riu Palace Santa Maria, the difference was obvious. Riu clearly knows what its standards should look like. It just isn't delivering them at the Funana.
If you're travelling with children, or you expect anything close to what the a 5★ star rating should deliver, book elsewhere.
