BookIt.com Verified Traveler Thomas Fidler from Chester, Va

"Excellant trip, beat Sandal's in the Bahama's. The staff was friendly and very efficient, made us feel like we were the only ones there. The rooms were spotless along with the whole resort. The food was beyond our expectations with a wide verity of choices and presentations. Not a single bad meal received on the buffet's. Overall value for the trip could not be matched. Do it......We will come back."

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Barbara from Middle Village, Ny

"Riu Palace was one of the best places I have stayed in. Amazing beaches, pools, great food and friendly stuff. The rooms were very clean. The entertainment crew was so funny, they def made our stay more fun. I would highly recommend it."

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Dave from Ontario

"Spent 10 nights here starting Dec. 24/12. Had water dripping through bathroom ceiling for 10 nights. Spoke to front desk repeatedly about this problem. Every time was told it will be fixed tomorrow. Left on day 11 and water was still dripping through ceiling. Staff at front desk didn't really seem to care. Never checked to see if problem fixed. Also, no hot water first day. Management/Ownership seems to be letting the hotel get run down. On the up side, staff all through the resort, except the front desk, were very friendly and helpful. Beach was wonderful. Would not return to the resort though because what should have been fixed in our room wasn't and it definitely made our vacation less enjoyable than it should have been at a supposedly 5 star resort. Definitely not worth the money."

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Jennifer from Tennessee

"Everything was just perfect for us regarding our travel, flight and airport transfer to the hotel. Upon arriving, we were taken directly to the riu palace punta Cana and so excited to get checked in to this beautiful resort. They were very busy at the time we arrived, so check in was taking a bit longer than expected. It was finally our turn to check in and we noticed things were taking a bit longer than usual for them to give us our room assignment and keys. Finally after waiting 15 more mins, the desk staff informed us 'we had been ' upgraded' to the riu palace bavaro hotel.....a much 'nicer and newer place'. I was rather perturbed at this point bc my husband and I had spent lots of time reviewing all the resorts and purposely chose riu palace punta Cana bc we liked its set up the best. Needless to say, we agreed to go look at the hotel and see what kind of room/ where we would be staying so riu arranged for their taxi to shuttle us over to bavaro.
We arrived at Bavaro and were greeted with a warm welcome. We were told to speak to Nelson when we arrived as our front desk guy at riu palace punta Cana had called and informed him we were on our way there. Nelson was VERY helpful and accomodating. He allowed me and my husband to walk around and view the resort. Initially, we were not very excited about how spread out this resort was compared to punta Cana so we went back to Nelson and told him this was not the atmosphere we were expecting. After 20-30mins, we were finally given a room. Nelson upgraded us to the VIP section and we ended up loving it! If you go the Bavaro, it is def worth the money to upgrade to VIP! We had our own VIP pool area with lounge chairs, beds, and swin up bar for the VIP section only. Never was there an issue getting a chair or a drink. The rooms were amazing, housekeeping staff very attentive to the rooms and food at alllllll the restaurants was soooooo good! We were very pleased with the 'upgrade' and appreciate Nelson making sure we were happy our entire trip! We also enjoyed a 50 mins couple massage at the spa and loved using our 15%off coupon provided by bookit! The gym at bavaro was never busy but not much in it; they have 3 treadmills 2 ellipticals and some mchine weights, no dumbbells though. The only negative thing is that they do allow children in the VIP section so it's unfortunately another upgrade charge to get into the adults only 'sensimar 'area. The shows were great, the bar at the outside main stage was wonderful and the atmosphere was perfect!
We would def go back and recommend bavaro to our friends!"

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BookIt.com Verified Traveler Iryna from Brooklyn, Ny

"Overall impression from Riu Palace Punca Cana is good only because of friendly staff that smile to you every time - even though they work long - long hours and for really small money.
Management is a big problem in this gorgeous place.
Owners of the hotel invested in this place only once - to build it - and now they just let it go with the flow without even tracking how the hotel and customers are doing.
We had few issues during our one week stay and when we talk to manager he said that he can not help us with our problem - real manager does not do this with his customers - he should have done at least small thing to make us feel like we are valued as customers.
Two days in a row we had problems with shower:
day one - no hot water - we took it as a joke ' it can happen in every hotel'.
day tow - no cold water - I almost boiled myself, had to finish cleaning soap from my body in sink.
Called receptions three times no one picked up. Got angry, went down to talk to them, they give me first a 'fake' manager. After I explained what happened, they called for real manager however, he tried to persuade me that this is a normal thing for a hotel. I am traveling a lot and I had been staying in a lot of hotels with different price and service level - but this manager amazed me - he does not think that providing of simple ability to shower in your room (that you paid for in advance) is a part of their service. He said to contact company that we booked vacation with to talk about our issues.
He never offered us to change room, neither he did any effort to make this situation easier turning it in funny situation or anything else. Even more, for next 3 days of our stay he was running away from us - nice way to ged rid of someone who annoys you - just tell him that he is not doing his job good.
Floors in hotel are covered with tiles everywhere, so it is cold,chili even in your room. And it is very slippery when wet.
It was raining on first day of our stay and I felt in hallway in rain water puddle in front of few stuff members - no one offered me help and I could not stand up for few minutes, I hit my hip really hard - staff did not know how to react - they are not ready to give you full, all inclusive service.
There was a lot of small things that could be overlooked better by management.
Management should really appreciate all people that work there - only because of their hard work and smile after 16 h of work, customers trying not to see all poor finishing in hotels and all awkward moments in service.

I give 6 stars to working people and 0 stars to management.
I will never go back to this hotel, even though we had grate time on beach, pool, pool bar, buffet ( not restaurants), and with entertainment team, but we can not enjoy ourself watching how peoples are used by big businessmen.



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