Hotel Riu Latino — Hotel in Quintana Roo

This was one of the worst experiences I've ever had. My fiance and I go to Cancun every year to Secrets Playa Mujeres and we have an amazing time. I decided to try a new resort for my bachelorette. BIG MISTAKE! I should have stuck with what I knew. I wish I could give this place a 0. The service and food was horrible. I don't know how this is considered a 5 star hotel more like 3 star at best. There were issues from the get go, the minute we got there to check in it was a disaster. They messed up our rooms, we booked 3 rooms one was two double beds with sofa bed, and 2 double bed rooms. We only got the one double bed room the other was a queen bed as well as who was in each room. And when we mentioned that all the double bed rooms were booked so we couldn't change. The room with the sofa bed had ants all over it. We had to put in a request to have someone spray on the first day. Not only that the front desk staff were incredible unhelpful and incredibly rude. And the annoying thing about this resort is they don't have resort wifi you get one login per person for the room they have you in on this envelope. The check in took forever, and they did not fill us in how the checkout process would go which would be a nightmare leaving the hotel. By the time we were done we weren't waiting on them to take our bags upstairs because no one was there to do it so we did it ourselves because we were starving from a long day of travel. So one hour in I already felt stressed and was not enjoying my bachelorette. The food here is all buffet and sub par at best. There are few options and don't even try to go to the steakhouse we tried our last day and it was completely booked for the night. And you can't make reservations here. Housekeeping did an awful job. I don't think they changed our sheets once and apparently it's something you have to request which I've never heard of. I tipped every day and I think they just took the money and left. We were missing shampoo and body wash, they put hand soap in the shower. I had to put in a request twice for them to fix it. The first time they marked it solved and the handwash was still there. The second time they came at night and the house keeper wouldn't give us the bottle, she said she had to go in and switch it out but my friend was in the shower. Finally I just asked her if she could leave the bottle and change it out tomorrow and she said yes. They never put the bottle in the holder on the wall so we had the shampoo and body wash and conditioner now as well as hand wash in the shower. We also had to request more towels, and asked for an extra pillow and they didn't even bring us that. The bedding is just a sheet with a blanket that looks like a hospital blanket from the 1800's. The beach service is awful. One you have to ask for an umbrella and they will only give you one if you pay them. I tried to ask for one the first day and the man held up his hand to ignore me and walked away. SO RUDE! They also don't take your drink order, it's just a guy that comes once with a tray of random prepared drinks that you can choose from. There's no water bottles or water served at any of the pool bars or at the beach. So we had to lug our giant water bottles from the hotel down to the beach every day or else we were screwed. The only positives of this place were the water slides, pool bartenders, activity coordinators and friends I had with me. The check out process was a nightmare. We had our shuttle booked for 7:35 pick up so before we grabbed breakfast I asked the front desk if we need to do anything and the man very rudely just shook his head. Well our shuttle arrived on time so we were getting ready to go and the manager very rudely yelled at us asking where our check out slips were. I told them the staff didn't give us any of that. So we had to go back and check out while our poor transport driver waited on us. He watched us go to the desk and when we were done they STILL didn't give us the slips. So he yelled at us again! I was just ready to get out of there by the end of it....

We just concluded our stay at the Riu Latino yesterday (Nov. 9):

1. Honeymoon Experience - 1/10 - nearly non-existent. I noted on our reservation and called/emailed them to make sure they knew it was our Honeymoon. At check-in, the only Ocean View rooms they had were 2 double beds. We were supposed to get "Honeymoon Resort Credits," but the only thing they offered was access to the sauna (no other discounts/offers). We were also supposed to receive a "Honeymoon Welcome Gift" - didn't happen (I think the gift was supposed to be champagne). Lastly, I requested to restock the mini-fridge one time - also didn't happen. Literally the only thing they did was offer to take $200 off an upgrade to a swim-up room (not a free upgrade, only $200 off and I had to ask about it before they looked into it)

2. Service - 10/10 - every single employee (bartenders, waiters, cleaners) was outstanding! Never had to wait for drinks, staff constantly cleaning up, etc. which leads to #3...

3. Cleanliness - 10/10 - it's a new resort, and it felt like it - the place was spotless!

4. Food - 4/10 - below average - breakdown by restaurants: Kulinarium - 9/10 - get there early or spots will fill up Milan - 8/10 - entree is a la carte, but appetizers and desserts are not (they should be, and it would be 9/10 if they were) The Steak House - N/A - did not try, but we walked by, and I saw 2 steaks that didn't look great and 1 was nearly untouched Asian Buffet - 1/10 - not good... we left and went to the other buffet our 1st night, which leads to the next point... American Buffet (Dinner) - 1/10 - not good... only edible thing is the fruit (which is fresh and great all over the resort) American Buffet (Breakfast) - 6/10 - stick to the omelets, fruit, bacon, bagels, waffles, and pancakes - most all else is not edible Pepe's Dockside (open by the pool until 3pm) - 5/10 - serves burgers (3/10), hot dogs (2/10), fruit (10/10), and fries (8/10) - good stomach-coater for drinking, but that's about it Sports Bar (open 24/7) - 1/10 - not good... the only food here is leftover food from Pepe's Dockside. You have to heat it up in a microwave (only 1 microwave), and this is literally the only food available in the entire resort after 11pm

5. Drinks - 6/10 - Smirnoff is their top shelf vodka, and Jim Beam for bourbon. They only have 1 beer in the entire resort (Dos Equis) - stocked in cans in your mini-fridge and on tap elsewhere. Drinks were enjoyable despite that, and bartenders were exceptional! Velvet Bar was great for drinks, and the Sports Bar was solid (although you have to pay to play pool for some reason). Coffee machines were also great!

6. Pools - 8/10 - plenty of space and chairs - need to get there early but not stupid early (probably fine if you get there by 10). 4 different pools - 2 with swim-up bars/built-in tables throughout the pool, 1 laid back and relaxed, and the 4th was activity-driven and also relaxed. Swim-up bars are a MUST and are AWESOME! Wish they had TVs. Adult water park was a cool twist, but we only visited it once (slides were better than I thought they would be)

7. Beach - 8/10 - a little seaweed, but they do a good job cleaning up. Plenty of chairs, lots of beach. Sand outstanding, water not clear.

8. Location - 8/10 - Costa Mujeres is solid - more secluded and less populated/built up than other areas (Cancun, etc.), and we did an excursion to Isla Mujeres which was spectacular!

9. Nightly Entertainment - 8/10 - not sure why, but they did Karaoke on Fridays and Saturdays (boring and people picked boring songs). Then, on Monday night, they did a Silent Disco which was phenomenal! Tuesday night had a live band and a beach party/fire show which was also awesome! Hit the club 1 night, and that was surprisingly great!

10. Overall - 3/5 or 6/10 - enjoyed our stay, but without improving their food, we would never return to this specific resort (but we would be open to other resorts in Costa Mujeres). We will also unfortunately not visit another Riu, mainly because of the food and...

Stayed for 4 nights. You get what you pay for with this hotel. Good for a budget all inclusive stay, but would not return to this or probably any other Riu property based on my experience.

Pros: Beach is not crowded and there are very few vendors, so it's peaceful and relaxing The hammocks on the beach are amazing. Easily the best part of the entire trip. Rooms are clean and new Servers at restaurants and bars are great

Cons: Based on my experience the transportation company Riu uses when booking through their site lacks professionalism and coordination. Which are two extremely important attributes when you work in the customer service field and a significant part of your job is coordinating travel. I followed the stated instructions to contact the stated email address at least 3 days in advance with flight details and never received a response despite sending another follow up email the day before arrival. The airline details I provided included flight times and numbers so they could easily see what airlines we were both flying. They failed to inform me that they don't offer pick ups at different terminals. I had no clue we were even flying into different terminals! The on-site transportation team demanded a "big tip" before they would arrange travel to a different terminal to pick her up. Why should I have to tip you when I clearly informed you of our flight schedules 3 days in advance and should have been informed that they would be unable to stop at different terminals. I would have walked to a different terminal to avoid this mess and frustration had I known! When the driver arrived to pick me up he began yelling at the on-site attendant. It was a bit unnerving to watch the person driving your bus for an hour to your hotel aggressively scream at someone and act that completely unprofessional for absolutely no reason. The Riu finally responded to my email 2 days AFTER I arrived at the hotel. They let me know they actually require 8 days advance notice which is not what the voucher states. The original voucher clearly states 3 days advance notice of any changes, which is what I provided.

The transportation back to the airport was also challenging. For some reason you have to meet with a member of the transportation team (assuming so they can try to upsell you on an excursion because that's what he attempted to do) to confirm your shuttle 3 days in advance. This is something that can easily be done via email and should not require a sit down meeting, especially when you're trying to enjoy your vacation. After waiting almost 20 minutes to meet with him because everyone was trying to confirm their transportation back to the airport and there's only one person there, he insisted that we needed to leave the hotel 5 hours prior to our flights which is absolutely ridiculous. The person who picked us up had us write and say our names multiple times, show him our passports and sign a sheet twice indicating we were on the bus and which terminal we were being dropped off at. There were only 4 of us in the van and we were all giving each other looks and trying to figure out why something this simple was being made so unnecessarily difficult. Arrived at the airport and made it through security and as predicted still had ~3.5 hours to sit and wait for our flight. Even with encountering multiple traffic delays due to accidents along the way.

The food and drinks are not great. Most restaurants are just the same old buffets everyday and the food and drinks are mediocre. The servers are awesome and help make up for this with great customer service, but this is not the place you go for good food and quality drinks. This seems to be a common theme with a number of other reviews yet nothing seems to change.

Our room was clean for the most part. The floor was a bit dirty. My feet would be discolored from walking around the room after taking off my shoes. The pillows are flat and the bed has a strange springy feeling when you sit on it. Otherwise relatively quiet and...