January 29, 2011 to February 5, 2011 Riu Vallarta room 2029
I am a seasoned traveler and have been all over the world in the last 20 years. This is the 5th all-inclusive resort I have been to, and the second Riu resort in Puerto Vallarta. I consider myself a positive person and always think the best even when reading negative reviews of hotels. I decided to write this review as a warning for fellow travelers to Riu Vallarta.
When you check in you get a lock and key to the room safe. They make a big deal of telling you not to lose the key or they will have to break into the safe since they do not have a master. My sister and I immediately put our stuff in the safe. Since we did not want to lose the key we hid it in a coat pocket in the closet. The safe is in the closet. On the third day we went to get money out of the safe and my wallet and envelope with cash was gone. I had about $150 in cash, my drivers license, one credit card and insurance cards in the wallet. We went down to the front desk to file a report with security. He did not speak great English so we asked to speak to a manager. Security walked us down to the pool where Juan Blanco the General Manager talked with us. Juan said there was nothing he could do since the safe key was in the room and not with us. He told us several times that these safes do not have a master key. We went up to the room with him, where again he stressed this was not the hotels fault. We showed him were we hid the key in a coat pocket in the closet. We did this specifically because no workers should have been in the closet for any reason. We told him we wanted to see a copy of the internal report he filed. We also told him one of our concerns was to make sure he was aware that we were in the room when the worker who filled the mini bar and the worker who brought in an extra pad for the bed were in the room. He gave us the email address of Riu customer service. I also asked to file a police report and he said he would call the police but it wouldn’t do any good since the key was in the room. I want to point out if you stay in this hotel the key does not have a hole in it or any kind of key chain for you to easily take with you outside the room. We never did get an apology. We did see Juan later in the week and he said he did send an email to me, which I have not received.
Musty smell of resort room will stay with you for days when you return home. When we exited the elevator and started walking down the hall of the 2nd floor you could smell a strong musty odor (imagine the smell of a 20 year old hotel in Southern Florida on the ocean). When we got to the room it was even stronger. We tried opening the window, and turning on a ceiling fan which did not help. Room 2029 has a balcony but is over a roof, so you could not keep the window open at night, since it would be very easy for anyone on the second floor to “hop” over the balcony and into your room. When I returned home and emptied my luggage my husband (who was not on the trip with me) said our laundry room smelled like a farmhouse that had been closed up for years. After 3 washings all my clothes still have a faint musty smell. Many people we talked to in the resort said they had the same problem with their room smelling musty.
Heads up that pool is not heated and was freezing. It was in the 50’s at night and 70’s during the day. Some hearty soles were standing at the swim up bar, but very few in the pool for the week.
Last issue at this resort is the noise. I had seen the complaints but figured it wouldn’t be a big deal. If you have a room facing the courtyard, you will hear music blaring until 11:00. They have live musicians every night. Even with a white noise maker we could not block the sound out. Riu halls are always loud and at 7:00 every morning like clockwork you could hear doors slamming and people in the halls.
Positives:
The bartenders, and waiters were extremely friendly and helpful at this resort.
Entertainment staff was great. Excellent shows, and daily activities.
Hotel extremely clean. Many people working to keep halls, public bathrooms looking good.