Riu Palace Aruba - All Inclusive

My family and I stayed from Aug 19 to Aug 25. You would expect that you will have a very relaxing week, but it turns out to be very stressful. Our keys were not working we were at the lobby till 2 am of Aug 22. The elevators were not working A/C were not working,no hot water. Please stay away at this hotel. If you are already booked please cancel it . It would be the best decision you will make instead of staying at this hotel/

The first two days, our room didn’t get cleaned at all, which wasn’t a great start. I went down to the front desk to talk to them about it. They sent the housekeeping manager up, who personally cleaned the room and said we wouldn’t have any problems going forward. The next 6 days, the room did get cleaned, as promised, but every single day, housekeeping took every single towel we had (including hanging ones) and left us no clean towels. So we would come back in the late afternoon from the beach or pool or excursion, ready to take a shower and have no bath towels, no hand towels, and no washcloths. There is an app (more on that below) that you can request things through, which we did. Some days they would bring the right amount, other days more or less than needed. One day, they delivered twice after requesting, so I started building a secret backlog in the closet. It was by far the most bizarre experience I’ve ever had in any hotel in the world. The room (and hotel) itself is tired and dated. It should have been renovated 10 years ago, but it gives the energy that they are trying to squeeze every last minute they can out of it. It sounds like the main building is being renovated next year, and it’s very needed. The room itself had an unpleasant smell of mildew and strong cleaning product (probably to try and cover up the mildew). Everything in the room shows its age. The towel rack is falling out of the wall. Paint and tiles are chipping and peeling in multiple locations. The shower door doesn’t close all the way because the hinge is falling out of the wall. The first day, we have a TP holder. The 2nd day it disappeared, and we never saw it again. Housekeeping just stacked TP on the back of the toilet instead. The hair dryer only worked in 10-15 second increments. We called the desk about that one, and the next time we returned to the room, they had removed the hair dryer from the wall and left the exposed (and I assume live) wires just hanging out of the wall. The room has one of those things where you have to put your key in to make the power work. One day, the front cover just fell off, leaving that wiring exposed too. Room keys frequently stopped working, and we had to go to the desk to get them recoded. Everywhere on the property is loud. In the room, the AC unit is on it’s last legs and rumbles all night. Earplugs were key here. One of the other buildings was under renovation, so all day by the pool, the construction noise was present. The buffet has bad acoustics, making it hard to hear to begin with, but some nights there was also live music, making conversation impossible. Outdoor live music is played right below the rooms every night until about 11pm. The main building has 2 very small, very slow elevators. Take the stairs when you can, or budget extra time to get up or downstairs. The pool is nice, but it has almost zero shade, both in the pool and on the deck. The pool umbrellas are made of mesh, so they let most of the sun an

We have stayed at this resort in the past and have always enjoyed our stay. This time was not the same. It was brutal! The staff are wonderful but you can tell they are not happy. Clear sign of poor management. The hotel is very run down and they are going through a renovation, but it is obvious the planning of the construction is poorly managed. The quality of the food and offerings are sub par for what you pay for, we ate out 5 nights out of the seven we were there. The animation team is almost non existent and do not engage at all. Overall not what it used to be and management should make themselves more visible especially during renovations and engage a little more with the people that are spending 5 star prices for a 2 star experience. As i mentioned the staff is wonderful, but the management should all be replaced.

Absolutely overrated for the money they charge. Horrible service, subpar food, toxic paint smell, and nonstop construction. We booked a room with two separate beds. They gave us a room with one bed and no reclining sofa. They told us this is the best they can do, and my son, who's twice as tall, should sleep on a non-reclining sofa or share the bed with me. For the $ they are charging, I'm fuming. 2 small elevators take forever in a 9-story building. The beach is decent, but no cocktail servers at the beach. Have I mentioned the food? It's really below average. I've visited Riu Palace in Jamaica, the DR, and Mexico. This is by far the worst. Spend your $ elsewhere.