My fiancee and I arrived at the Hotel in the early hours of the morning, and we aere met by a very pleasant chap on reception. Although pleasant, he was exceptionally slow. There were only 3 parties being booked in, and it seemed to take an age... and at 4am in the morning patience really is a virtue.

We were given a room in block E, which to our dissapointment backs on to a very busy, very noisy dual carriageway with no view! Having requested a sea view it was a big let down, Fisrt thing when we woke up we asked to be moved, the staff were excellent and we were moved to a much nicer room in block A above the reception area with a sea view. The rooms are a little dated, but very clean and OK. Towels changed daily and bedding changed once or twice a week. Beds are two single's pushed together and not the most comfortable but acceptable. Apart from that there is not much else to say about the rooms, apart from the fact you get a free safe which is a bonus!

The hotel itself is a 3* at the most. Although clean, there are far too many sun loungers crammed in around the pool, not much space at all (most loungers are broken). Pool is a decent size and very clean. The staff work very hard to accomodate everyone, the entertainment team work very long hours and very hard and are a real asset to the hotel.

The hotel has good facilities; tennis court, pool table, table tennis, shop, beauty salon, childrens play area. The food however is fantastic. Breakfast has every possible choice you could imagine breads, pastries, cereals, jams and cooked stuff too. Can't beleive the other reviews on here moaning about a lack of choice at breakfast. Lunch and Dinner were very repetative though. Although very tasty, I did get a little sick of steak and chips and some random fish selections. Salads very good, but without trying to moan everything did feel a bit repetative. The dining lounge is very well presented though, nice table linen and bright. Staff work hard to help you enjoy mealtimes. Only down side was having an allocated time and table for the evening meal.

Don't worry about the Germans, it is the english that cause the most annoyance, shouting and screaming one night at 5am. Generally the Germans go about there business whilst the other English guests have to insist on making their presence heard!

Also if you have a night flight then be careful... we were told because we arrived at night we were not entitled to our evening meal on the night we left. We had to check out at 11am sunday and didn't fly until 2am monday morning. It was quite unfair we thought.

The Resort I have to say is awful. It is simply a beach and a load of hotels. I think if you are on a club 18-30 then you might ejot the resprt but as we were not it was a big disapointment. It is scruffy, messy and people are constantly approaching you to go in to various bars etc... it becomes very annoying after a while. The beach though is very nice and plenty of sunbeds at a reasonable cost.

Overall the hotel is good for a 3* but it is only a 3*. Food I would say is above average having gone AI before but this hotel does not compare to other RIU's. It is the poor relation it seems!

On arrival (+-/ 3pm) our rooms weren't ready yet (which was not a problem) and were invited to have a drink and something to eat at the poolbar. The reception staff were very friendly and smart dressed. After 1 hour we went to reception and our rooms were availalbe. We were in the last tower. The rooms were simple but clean and looked fresh. The only thing missing in the room was a wee fridge.
The first night at the restaurant the manageress of the hotel came over to our table and introduced herself. We were very impressed with the choice and quality of the food. We (my partner and I) travelled with his parents. His father loves potatoes and we thought hmmm, not so sure if we will get them. Well, the amount of choice of potatoes was amazing. Chips, boiled potatoes, potatoes in a creamy sauce, fried in a garlic butter, he couldn't get any luckier.
We were also impressed with the quality of the drinks. The proper strenght and taste.
The entertainment in the hotel was good as well. The entertainers were very friendly and funny. Only for the night entertainment you had to be in good time as it was full. Unfortunately we weren't able to be in time as we were booked every night for dinner at 8pm and the entertainment started at 9pm.
There were 2 things we didn't expect.
1) You have to book your evening mealtime, which is either a 6pm or 8pm sitting and that you can't just come in after your chosen time when you want. (1 night we came in at about 9pm and the waiter wasn't happy with us. He was very stroppy, but we didn't know that we had to be in the restaurant no later than 8.15pm. Even when we asked at reception they weren't to sure. ! receptionist said that we could go till about 9pm, another said no later than 8.30pm.) Somehow the incident was reported to the manageress. The next day at about 5pm we got a phonecall from the receptionist asking whether everything was ok for us and if we were happy with everything and the manageress came to our table the that evening asking if there were any problems. We were very impressed with this service. We didn't see the whole situation as a problem, but were very pleased that they are so on the ball.
2) The second night we were having drinks at the poolbar and stayed quite late. We met some other people and chatted away till at 1am the security guard came telling us we had to leave! I wasn't impressed with that. I mean we were guest in the hotel so I couldn't understand why we had to leave. (I must say though, after this night me and the security guard were best mates, he was just a big cuddly tedybear!).
Overall we had a fantastic time in the Riu Waikiki. This hotel is rated as a 3 star, but we would happily rate it as a 4 star!!!
Well done management of Riu Waikiki and keep up the good work!!
Tineke

I stayed at the Riu Waikiki for a week with my Dad & Sister .... we had a fab time!!!

A week really wasn't long enough ... and we really weren't ready to leave!!

The staff were so friendly & wonderful / food was gorgous / great selection of food&drink / clean & tidy / lots of effort put into the night entertainment / good kids club / room cleaned everyday / rooms basis but 3 star standard / in a good location ~ in the middle of everything & easy walk to the beach / lots of different nationalities staying at the hotel which we liked & chatted to lots of different people!

Booked hotel as part of package deal, I had been a little apprehensive due to the reviews the hotel has received recently.
Arrived in the early hours of the morning and were welcomed by a very friendly member of staff at the reception who showed us to our rooms. We were not happy with the location of the room so in the morning returned to reception and where a member of staff allocated a more suitable room quickly (despite the hotel clearly being very busy).
The rooms could do with a little bit of an up-date regarding the colour scheme but you’re not there to spend all day inside so who cares. The beds were ok although instead of a double bed there were to single pushed together. The TV had a variety of channels in Spanish, German and English. Each room has a free safety deposit box which is useful. There is no air con but the ceiling fan was sufficient.
The facilities are quite good – pool tables, tennis, gym, volleyball, pool etc. The pool was large enough and there were usually enough sun loungers around despite the usual early morning dash to secure seats with towels we never had a problem getting somewhere after lunch.
We didn’t make breakfast while we were there but for lunch and dinner there was always plenty of variety and everything was to a high standard. Everything from Pork, fish, chicken, pasta, salad... There was plenty of fresh fruit and veg available. You couldn’t really complain about getting bored because each night you could have had a variety of meals. The snack bar by the pool was always stocked with burgers, salad, chips, ice cream, cake... so no excuse to be hungry.
All drinks apart from sprits are self service and the spirits were definitely not watered down and the measures were very generous. In some cases people were asking them to mix smaller measures of spirits which is surprising for an all inclusive.
The location of the hotel is great for wandering around the local shops, restaurants and bars. The yumbo centre is 10 mins walks of a few €s taxi, temple bar just round the corner and others scattered between there. The hotel is far enough away though to be out of the noise and mayhem. There always seemed to be public buses stopping outside the hotel so you could venture further out.
Overall the staff were friendly, hotel was ok, food was nice etc. Most of the guests were German. My own complaint was the lack of facilities for customers who had late flights but had to check out at 11 am. We had to join a queue of other guests for a hotel room to use a bathroom to wash before dinner, 20 minutes is not a lot considering we had had a 12 hour wait between checking out and leaving for our flight. This is not so much the hotels fault but the tour operator.