Let me tell you the good things first, the hotel was very clean. If the staff spent half as much time on customer service and food as they did on cleaning, the trip would not have been so awful. Customer service was not a priority at this hotel.

The staff was rude and unhelpful; when you asked a question or spoke to staff about needs, it was likely never taken care of and you would have to call several more times to get results. When two pieces of clothing blew off our balcony, we called to ask them to get them for us, they returned with only one piece, when we went down to find out why from the front desk, the desk staff actually asked us if we wanted to keep it or not, because the maid had already taken it for herself. She even had the piece in a bag, with her name on it!

The food was terrible! I expect high quality food, I expect variety and I expect to be able to bring my uneaten food up to my room, NONE of this happened. The quality was terrible, I don't know if was the quality was low or if it was because the chef was so awful. Everyone in our group ended up with food poisoning. The food quality was so low, our group lost weight on this trip! We actually ended up going across the street to Domino's and McDonalds because we were so hungry. At one point, we even paid $12.00 for a bag of chips. The variety was so small, there were not very many choices. At the buffet, it was supposed to be a "themed" buffet every night, it was always the same theme! There was not much variety there. There were four restaurants to choose from and make reservations at, we went to the Steakhouse, but the food and service was so bad we actually left there and ran to the buffet before it closed just so we could have something in our stomachs. We also went to a Japanese place, the food here was the only edible food we found at the hotel, but the problem here was that when a member of our group got sick, they refused to send her plate up to her room for her to finish later. They had no boxes, and would not let her take it when she left either. Most unhelpful and unorganized situation I have ever seen! The room service was terrible, there were only 8 choices on the room service menu and all of them were awful, not that you were like to get what you ordered anyway.

In conclusion, I have sent a letter to corporate about how unsatisfied I am and I will continue to speak with them until I have reassurances they are going to fix all of these things, starting with customer service and ending with better quality food. If this is what I can expect from Riu, I will NEVER return.

Just returned from RPLA & what a place, the people on here complaining are either fake or want to nip pic about stupid things, all the great things u read are so true from staff to every thing, I noticed some of the problems brought up, ie the smell in halls, the damp clothes but these are caused as it's a humid country so ur going to have this!!
I did not how ever notice bad food, lack of sunbeds ( there were hundreds) or any other stupid comment made.
The towel guys will put ur towel out ( for a tip), saves you getting up, staff run around like crazy & so nice & polite.
Coco bongo is a must but don't do VIP, we were going to then we went with the hotel team and they put you in a spot with the rest of the gusts from hotel and you get the best time, one of the best nights iv had in years.
Reports have stated it's full of old people while I did see a lot of couples ( young mid & old), there were also a lot of families, though personally I wd not recommend this hotel with kids, there was not a lot here for them.
Try the al le carte, only one I didn't like was Brazilian but that's a personal choice, japanese my fav!!
Very easy to book just get there at 8ish and book for next 2 days, had no problem.
Pools are lovely, sea is crystal clear and sand clean and lovely.
We had the 5th floor, front ocean view ( upgraded in uk before we left), so pleased with room.
Room service came for us at 4 am one night, though not great was fine after a skin full, lol.
Flew from gatwick such a  long flight ( 10hrs 40 min), cancun airport is a bit of a pain wif visa and big lines of ppl, on way bk I recommend you keep some pesos  we brought 3 bags of sweets, 2 little keyrings, in £s & it came to  £21,!! We near died, lol.
I think iv covered most if you have another question pm me & I will try my best to answer.
Overall we had the best time, and recommend here to any one, booking again for next year so carnt be bad, enjoy!!.

We stayed at the Riu from 5/12-5/17 and had a blast! Best Riu by far! Everything was great from the food to the staff!! Never have encountered such a wonderful staff that truly is there to serve your 110%!!! Never waited more than 2 minutes for a new drink and dirty plates never sat in front of us for more than a minute. Just wonderful! Great variety of food, drinks and activities! Wonderul palms trees everywhere if you happen to stay out in the sun too long :)

The only reason this did not get a perfect 5 is that some of the decor is definitely outdated and I am a fan of a soft bed. Some love the beds in Mexico and I understand most beds are like this. For these to be the only reason..... I consider that pretty dang good!

One tip I will give you is that the towel game is in full affect but why let that bother you when the beach is a hop skip and jump away :)

We stayed for 6 days at the Riu Palace Las Americas with another couple. I have stayed at the Riu Palace in Puerto Vallarta and that was amazing. Some friends of ours have stayed at this hotel in Cancun several times and had suggested it. We didn't have any issues checking in, the place is very high class and the decor is really neat. The whole place is constantly being cleaned. You can smell a little mustiness when you first arrive, but i dont' remember smelling it again the entire time. The fresh flowers in the lobby smell amazing, so that must mask it most days.

1. The food is great here. there is always something to satisfy your cravings. We went to the Steak House and the Brazilian and loved both of them, THe Brazilian was AMAZING. We didnt' have any issues getting reservations the day of either. even for Saturday and Sunday night. the drinks here are good enough. we are pretty much beer drinkers so we consumed alot of dos equis, but we did try some other fruity ones once in awhile.

2. The service is really good too. we would tip a $1-2 for each round they brought us, depending on how fast they were, etc. all of the staff was very nice and helpful the entire time.

3. The beach is great. calm waters most of the time so you can wade in or swim all around. They also have snorkeling gear for free to use so we did this a few times and really enjoyed it. The sand is nice and soft and we never had any issues with chairs on the beach.

4. The pool is nice. we never got in the infinity pool because the beds around it were always taken. We like to be more in the lively/entertainment area, so we would have liked to be around the main pool with the music and games, but the chair saving here is a complete joke. we would get up at 6am and the chairs were already taken, there aren't many chairs in the direct sun around the pool because there are so many trees and umbrellas, and other guests would have their towels on all of the pool chairs as early as 430 am. We talked to several people on the beach that had tried to get them as early as 430 and they were already full. I think this is a joke. We went to the pool only 2 days and it was around 4pm and we still coudn't find 4 chairs together, so we would just pile all of our stuff on one chair so we could at least swim in the pool. I prefer the pool and the swim up bar because there is music and entertainment and your drinks are always fresh and cold compared to waiting for them to be delivered on the beach, so this was a BIG disappointment for us.

5. The rooms are nice and big. we never did use the alcohol dispenser in the room. we mostly just drank the beer. the beds in our room were rock hard. i am not a picky person usually, but if i can't get a good night sleep, at least 4-5 hrs a night, i am not happy. The beds were so hard, and there was only a sheet and a super thin, (more like a towel) blanket on them. My husband and I got a king and it was actually two beds pushed together so we didn't even get to share a bed! we did get upgraded to an ocean view upon arrival, however we didn't know we woudln't have a balcony because of it. Our window did open, but a balcony would have been nice too. i was very unhappy about the room situation.

6. The entertainment is ok. the mariachi band was soooo loud, we coudln't handle it sitting inside the bar. the michael jackson show is great and the couples competition was funny. There wasn't really a bar to just sit at and have drinks at night, the entertainment shut down at around 10 and then a lady would sing for awhile. but it was pretty slow at night. We didn't go to any clubs, however, they are within walking distance, so that is really nice. The location of this place is ideal. you can walk just a couple blocks to go shopping and the bus stop is also right there and for $1 you can go anywhere along the hotel zone.

7. one day we did the dancer cruise, it was ok if you like dancing. we expected it to be a little different, but it took us to the mayan ruins and to isla muerjes to shop for a couple hours and we all loved that. it had a big waterslide on teh back so we thought that would be a blast, however they barely put any water down it so you have to push yourself along until the last turn and then you go into the ocean. the food and drinks on it were also great, best food we had all week! the ride back from the isla in the afternoon was very loud music and hard core dancing and we were expecting more entertainment type stuff, and this was just song after song and the crew would dance to the music. last year we rode a catamaran to isla and it was a TON of fun and very entertaining, the boat we were on was the Samba II and we were wishing we would have just done that again instead of the dancer.

Last year we stayed at the Fiesta Condesa Americana and it was amazing. If we go back to Cancun, I would stay there again in a heartbeat compared to this place. We thought this year we would upgrade a little, but it definitely wasn't worth the extra money to me. I felt like we paid extra just for the fancy lobby. Overall, I would say it is a nice place to stay if you dont' mind rock hard beds and laying on the beach instead of the pool. My idea of a good vacation is sleeping in, eating good, and drinks around the pool, and it just wasn't the case here. :(

I would be happy to answer any questions as well.