"Children and cockroaches"
Positives first - we had an enjoyable few days at the Riu in December. The staff (not management) make this hotel. Friendly bar staff and waiting servers all across the hotel.
Negatives. It advertises itself as an Adults Only hotel. Funny then, how most days we saw children blatantly parading through the hotel and on the beach. There were families literally sitting next to the ‘Adults only’ sign on the beach, see photos. When I raised this with the ad hoc (I say ad hoc as there were frequently times when no guards were in sight on the open entrance from the public footpath which runs past the back of the hotel – see photo) security guards, they said ‘it’s a public beach, we can’t do anything.’ So why put signs saying Adults Only I wonder? When I said ‘but it’s advertised as an Adults Only hotel’, I was told that the actual hotel is. I beg to differ – see photo. There were children in the hotel grounds most days, using the pool, playing with balls, and one evening sitting in the lobby chairs while their parents (from another hotel looking at their wristbands) were using the casino. My point above – no security – they just wandered in. Which did make me concerned about who else might be just wandering in, with rohypnol in their bags etc….
I asked to speak to management on Day 2 and was told ‘oh yes, another guest has complained about the children, the manager knows and will be addressing it tomorrow.’ Day 3 came and went, nothing was done. I asked again, still nothing was done. For the whole holiday. Management either does not care or is incapable of implementing proper 24 hour security to make sure only paid-up hotel guests enter. Whilst the children was an inconvenience, and not the service we paid for, the security issue is of much greater concern.
We unfortunately had an extended stay owing to the invasion of Venezuela. The hotel initially dealt with it well, and offered all guests a ‘distress rate’ for the next two days. We could not get a flight out for a week, so we were then told we had to go back onto the full rate (fair enough) and move rooms to a standard room and pay for it immediately now. I explained I couldn’t as my credit card was in the room safe and would I just go and get it. They refused to let me do that, and brought out security (who were apparently now available for action) to escort me in the lift to the room and stand over me while I got the card from the safe. It was completely humiliating and unnecessary, and the male receptionist actually referred to me as ‘sweetheart’ whilst he was patronisingly arranging the escort to our room. They really need some lessons in customer care.
To make matters worse, we then found out that other guests had been offered the distress rate for their remaining 5 days. When I raised this with reception and asked why we were being treated differently and discriminated against, I was told this was not true. I said ‘but I’ve just seen the email (they clearly don’t realise guests talk to each other in traumatic circumstances) from Derek to those guests’! The receptionist then got on the phone to Derek and reverted to Spanish. Also not realising I speak Spanish and heard exactly how they were planning to get out of it. By lying. The receptionist told me that I must have imagined the email, and then said they were going to go and make those guests pay full rate or they would kick them out. He asked me ‘not to mention it to them and they would put a letter under their door at 1am so they would find it tomorrow morning’.
I was absolutely astounded at this behaviour and that management’s attitude was to lie about it, then resolve it by threatening other guests with eviction. We then found out that the guests’ travel agent emailed them 10 minutes after the call I had witnessed saying ‘you might not want to mention to other guests that you’ve been given the distress rate.’ !!!! It all felt very sneaky and underhand, and discriminatory towards us to be given different treatment and then lied to about it, whilst already under very stressful circumstances,
On our penultimate day, at breakfast, we found a cockroach in the bread rolls. We quietly mentioned it to the cleaner instead of screeching and yelling, as we could have done, and management thanked us for dealing with it in that way. The attitude from the front desk staff when we were trying to sort out arrangements for our last few days then suddenly and remarkably changed. We then received a courtesy call from staff in our room that evening asking if ‘everything was OK with our stay.’ We did not really know what to say to that, given the way we had been treated in previous days by the management.
Our treatment by management put a real downer on the last few days of what was a stressful and anxious and unwanted, extended stay at the Riu. We could not wait to get out of there and get home. It was a real shame as the other hotel staff were lovely and the island is beautiful, it was the management and their attitude (as well as all the kids and the cockroach) which marred our stay and has resulted in the poor rating.
