Hotel Riu Palace Costa Rica

Myself and husband here, 1st night: i tears!!!! The dirtiest room I have ever encountered, front desk staff with attitude of meh. Offered different room, same filth. My birthday is tomorrow and it has been completely RUINED. There is a distinction between dated vs dirty. Mo help onsite for me- I cannot switch to Riu Guanacaste because its full, no one will assist me here at RIU to finding resolve. Their resolution is to switch me to another dirty room and "hope" housekeeping cleans it well!

When we checked in to the hotel our room had ants everywhere. The fridge did not work and the safe was locked from the previous tenant. The TV was stuck on a Spanish channel at a very large volume (with no remotes in the room) and the phone in our adjoining room did not work. We requested many times for these items to be fixed and it took days to get most of them fixed. The room phone never got fixed which was a problem because the phone didn’t work to call the front desk nor room service and the app didn’t work. It’s not like the app told you it didn’t work, it just sent your requests to nowhere without telling you. So if you order room service, it said it was sent. Then the next morning the kids and adults were expecting breakfast before leaving on an excursion and it never showed up. Then you call room service and they said “oh, the app doesn’t work”. 4 people came to fix the safe. They all said they will fix it and left to never return. The last guy finally drilled out the safe and replaced it. It took three days to get the fridge and safe replaced. The lines for the restaurants are a joke. How can there be no space to eat at an all inclusive resort and no room for reservations. The restaurant may need to be open longer the 2-3 hours to accommodate such a large resort! The main pool has no restrooms near by. When we asked the bartenders where the pool bathrooms were they told us to go into the lobby or pee in the pool. And it was obvious everyone just urinated in the pool as it was clear in the morning and nasty by noon. The ice machines weren’t working and I only found two machines on floor 0 and 3. AND THE KEYCARDS! The keycards reset everyday. I went to the front desk and they told me the room key card can’t be by my cell phone, watch, credit cards or in the high heat. Well where do you expect me to put them? In a refrigerator? Oh wait, even that was broken! Everyday we had to get new room keys. Even multiple times during the day after following all the requirements. This place is an overpriced nightmare!