Riu Palace Punta Cana - All Inclusive

Customer Ratings & Reviews

TripAdvisor Traveler Rating

3680 reviews

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  Our favourite place to go!!

  The amazing staff is what keeps us coming back!! Thank you for another amazing trip. See you again soon!!

  Dec 11, 2025
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  ★☆☆☆☆ – Three Days Lost to Fixing the Hotel

  Our stay was overwhelmingly disappointing. From the start, Room 1029 had a persistent cigarette odor, clogged sinks, only two towels for three guests, damaged bathroom mirrors, a nonfunctional safe, and a rusted, moldy, unsanitary pull-out couch with unfresh sheets. No one explained the key-card power system, and maintenance left sink debris behind after attempting repairs. The front desk was dismissive, and we waited hours without proper follow-up. We were eventually moved to Room 2067, but the issues continued: another broken safe, a malfunctioning shower head, and a defective door lock. We spent 90 minutes waiting for safe repairs that never occurred, and scheduled maintenance simply didn’t show. By Friday afternoon, none of our keys worked, and it took a manager and technician entering through a neighboring balcony to access the room and replace the entire lock. Only then—three days into our trip—were the safe and towels finally sorted out. Dining reservations were also misrepresented; despite being told they could be made directly at the restaurants, none accepted them unless payment was offered. The only accurate reservation we received was arranged by a single helpful staff member, Josie. Despite the extensive disruption and the amount of vacation time lost dealing with room failures and service delays, the hotel offered no compensation, gesture of goodwill, or acknowledgment of the inconvenience. We left feeling as though our vacation was spent troubleshooting the hotel rather than enjoying our time away. We cannot recommend this property.

  Dec 11, 2025
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  Won’t go back

  The resort was nice however there was hardly anyone who spoke or understood English. They had no designated smoke areas. Food was not that good. We ordered steaks with some pink in it. It was over well do. For this to be the tropics they had hardly any seafood. It is not handicap friendly. Plus I found 2 roaches in my room. The only reason I’m giving this a 3 star is because the staff was friendly and the accommodations were nice. I will not come back to this location.

  Dec 10, 2025
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  Rather go to Mexico

  The food was inconsistent. Good one night, not the next. Meats tough and some over cooked. The bacon badly cooked. Not enough pool activities away from the bar area. I met a young couple who were ripped off badly by some beach vendors on a tour. Beware!

  Dec 09, 2025
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  Not a Palace RIU

  This is not the standard of a RUI Palace. Start with the positives, the rooms are spacious with lots of storage space. You can log on to Netflix on your TV. There is lots going on for all ages so not a dull moment. Requests on the App for maintenance, housekeeping and the in bar refill all completed quickly. The specialised restaurants you don’t have to book and can arrive between 18;00 and 21:00 and get a table. We went to all restaurants and did not have a problem getting a table. It was nice to be waited on and served wine, it felt special. We requested a late check out as Gold Members and that was honoured. As Gold Members you are supposed to get a gift, I had to go to customer service to request this. I was told it’s different in Dominican Republic but to be fair a bottle of wine was sent on two separate days and some little souvenir dolls. It’s just a shame I had to ask! We emailed hotel in advance and also requested on the App to have rooms near our friends, we were on the same floor but a different block, we went straight back to reception and thanks to Michael he put us together. Thank you Michael as the other receptionist was not so helpful. This proves to me being Gold Members is not necessarily advantageous as RUI say you can choose your rooms! The rooms are tired, which also makes them seem not as clean as other RUI Hotels. In general the hotel is definitely not as clean as others we have been to including RUI hotels that are not Palace standard. We have stayed in the Palace in Cape Verde, Sal and Boa Vista and also in Mexico Cancun, Morocco and these hotels are far superior. They have more choice in the buffet restaurant, the fruit was disappointing as serving frozen berries every morning and waiting for them to defrost is not something I would expect! There are a lot of families and where we have been before there is a member of staff as you go into the restaurant giving you sanitiser for your hands, I suggest you start to do this as I lost count of the amount of times children picked up biscuits and bread then put them back in the pile for someone else to take! There are all ages here from families, to young groups to older generation. There is no one going around making sure people stick to the rules, people jumping in the fountains that are display only, going into the lunch buffet with bikini on and a man with just small swimmers. People in the specialised looking as though they have just come off the beach. This was only the Japanese to be fair. Towels hanging over the balconies, although the rules are clearly not to do this. You have a line or chairs you could use. This hotel definitely needs to look at upping its game to be classed as a Palace. I suggest you also come with plenty of money for tipping as this seems standard practice. If this hotel was of the standard of the Palace hotels in Cape Verde we would have definitely been back, but unfortunately until this happens we will not be taking the 9 hour flight back to this one.

  Dec 05, 2025