Riu Palace Peninsula

⭐ 1 Star – Extremely Disappointing Experience

I regret choosing Riu Palace Peninsula for my daughter’s 22nd birthday celebration. We stayed August 21–24, and several issues significantly affected our experience.

Construction continued throughout our stay, with noise from early in the day through the evening. While I understood that renovations were underway, the level of noise made it difficult to sleep and enjoy the resort.

My daughter’s room also developed a leak that affected the restaurant below. The night before checkout, she was required to change rooms while her belongings were still unpacked. We had to pack and relocate everything with only a few hours remaining in our stay, which was highly inconvenient.

The cleanliness was also disappointing. The lobby bathroom had tissue on the floor and visibly dirty toilets. At a resort of this price and reputation, the public facilities should be maintained to a much higher standard.

When I raised these concerns, the staff response lacked empathy; I was essentially told to “file a complaint.” That was particularly disappointing given that we were celebrating an important family occasion.

As an Riu Elite Club member who has stayed at three Riu properties, I expected a better experience. Unfortunately, the construction, maintenance issues, cleanliness concerns, and customer service fell well below expectations.

I will not stay at Riu Palace Peninsula again. I hope Riu addresses these issues so future guests receive the quality of experience associated with the brand.

Reception check-in excellent and was quick and efficient.

Room was spacious and we were on the 15th floor with a great view of the beach and complex. Cleaners come daily and kept the room immaculate.

À la cartes were very good especially the steak house, Sakura Asian ,and Krystal. The Mexican was ok but we found a lot of the food we could get in the buffet. There’s an Italian also that we didn’t visit. You don’t need to book just turn up and if it’s busy they give u a wait time and a buzzer which you can take to the bar until it activates to let you know table is ready

Buffet was ok and had all the staff offered exceptional service and did everything to cater to your needs

Cappuccino bar was good offering selection of coffees and cakes.

They have also introduced an ice cream parlour which was very good.

Pools were good cleaned daily and there were numerous sun loungers so u didn’t have to get up early to grab a spot. I was down there every morning around 8.30 and was able to find a good spot without issue . Bars excellent, especially lobby bar but waiters come around often to take your orders around pool and bring drinks to you from the pool bar.

Towel booth opened every morning between 7am and 7pm.

Sports bar very good and you can order lunch in there which I found better than the buffet lunch.

Beach was a disappointment with lots of seaweed along the coast and on the water but this is something a lot of carribean islands are having to tackle. They had workers trying to clear some of it every morning but were fighting a losing battle .

My wife got ill after 6 days and rather call a doctor to visit the hotel we used Medicare centre cancun that had English speaking doctor and cost of examination over 30 minutes was around £53.00 . Much less expensive than if we had asked hotel to call one. Antibiotics were prescribed that treated various bacterial and parasite infections as they were not sure what type of infection she had and she began to improve after a couple of days so if you suffer any kind of bacterial bug on holiday this clinic was excellent.

It was situated a mile and a half from resort between hotel and RIU los americanos hotel.

Reception was very good when I asked if they good do some chicken broth as she couldn’t eat anything from buffet and they arranged for soup to be brought to her room.

Animation team did lots of activities throughout the day and there was a good kids club for the young ones.

Now for some small negatively about resort.

Buffet not as good as three yeas ago and became repetitive. Last visit there were more food stations serving things like Japanese yakisoba noodles and rice with other Asian dishes but no longer. No pate for breakfast and the buffet for lunch and dinner was certainly not as good as the food three years ago. .

Second moan was the animation team who were far too loud on the microphone and speakers. Music played at time was so loud I though my sun lounger was in the middle of a night club. They need to turn it down and only play music loud enough for the area they are doing the activity rather than blast it all over the pool complex. Bingo was played twice a day around the pool with rep bellowing out numbers on microphone. Would have been better to have held bingo by pool bar on table and chairs as was done in another RIU palace I stayed at in march this year so not to spoil the ambiance of the pool area and use of speakers.

Lastly dress code. I went to get a coffee at 6pm to take to my room to be told I needed to put on a top as I only had a towel on me. I apologised as didn’t know it was a requirement but the next day at the same time , three woman in bikinis were ordering coffees and nothing was said to them. I have no problem with dress code but apply it consistently or don’t bother.

Last tip don’t use atms in hotel or outside as you get ripped of with poor rates and high transaction fees . The hotel has an exchange desk and I found that much more beneficial than atms.

Overall a great two weeks despite the few moans and if your a party goer they have 4 RIU parties a week at the next door RIU Caribe.

I'm currently staying at Riu and whoever said it was a non-stop party is absolutely insane. Everything goes quiet at about 9-10 pm