My husband and I both agreed that this was our best hotel experience ever. The staff was amazingly friendly and attentive. They made us feel like royalty. The room, hotel, and grounds were immaculate. This hotel was an all inclusive paradise.

I stayed at Riu Palace las Americas in early June and money was stolen out of our safe. I contacted Riu Palace several times and I did not get any response. The hotel smelled like mold and outdated. I will not return and there are better resorts in Cancun for the same price!!

Overall, great experience here back in 2007. I look forward to going back one day. A very grand experience - all first class. It's too bad such a great hotel is located in Cancun, which is not a very nice place. I would go back just to stay here, though. Only negatives were restaraunts were hard to get into for reservations.

This will be a pretty long review: If you are seriously considering staying at the Riu Palace Las Americas, Please Read Carefully.

I just got back from my honeymoon trip which lasted 8 days at RPLA. This was my 3rd trip to Cancun in 3 years and once I saw the location and facade of the RPLA on my first trip to Cancun I when I had to stay there. I researched the hotel as thoroughly as possible and saw a lot of good reviews and some negative review that caught my attention. Before we went on the trip I have been excited to get back and write a review of the hotel, mainly because the reviews that I have read have been extremely helpful in finding other hotels for my wife and I.

LOCATION:

Probably the best beach in Cancun (IMO), and centrally located near a lot of the hotel zone shops etc. The beach was large and is not battered by large waves, and has extremely clear water. There is a nice rock outcropping for walking and a great little snorkeling area on the hotel property. A+

HOTEL:

The lobby is huge and very nice looking with many of the restaurants also in very clean states. When you get past the first floor and outside, there is visible wear and tear around the hotel property and in the individual rooms. No amount of cleaning will replace the outdated furniture and decor of the rooms or worn carpet in the guest room hallways (nor will it replace the rock hard beds in the rooms). THERE IS ABSOLUTELY a musty / mildew smell in the entire hotel and in the rooms. The smell is not the smell of salt water from the ocean, IT IS A mildew / dampness that permeates everything. When we got home from our trip, every item of clothing and the bags taken had to be cleaned to get the overpowering nasty smell out. The only time I did not smell the mildew was when it was overpowered by cleaning detergent.

FOOD:

Simply put, what a disappointment. I ate at all of the restaurants and all of the buffets for every meal, and the food was simply not on par with all inclusive resorts in the RPLA's price range. The breakfast buffet was sad. There was a very limited selection of food, with horrible orange juice. I should note that the buffet dining facility was in excellent condition and was always clean. The hotel did have the best honey melon I have ever eaten anywhere, which was mostly what I ate for breakfast (that and bacon). The lunch buffet was much the same, a poor showing for a hotel such as the RIU. The dinner buffet was surprisingly good, depending on the evening’s main courses. I did not eat at any of the specialty restaurants that "WOW"ed me, but I thought Krystal was the best. The Japanese restaurant was the worst of all. I think it was the Sushi that made me sick after eating it. (Note: didn't get sick any other time after any meals).

HOTEL ROOM:

I had a Jr. Suite on the 7th floor with a balcony that wrapped around 2 sides of the hotel. It was probably the best located hotel room in the hotel (just being honest). The view was absolutely wonderful. It was a great and extremely large room with a hot tub on the terrace, but all of the furniture was extremely outdated and had definitely seen some heavy use and I would not have put myself in the hot tub if I was on fire. The "white" hot tub had a tan / brown tinge to it with water rings all over...eww.

SERVICE:

I checked in around 2:00pm local time and had to wait 2 hours to get my room, whatever. The room wasn't ready so we just walked around and had a few drinks. The first night, I put the air conditioning to 68 and woke up in the middle of the night sweating. There is nothing worse for me to try to sleep in a hot / damp / musty room. I talked to the receptionist the first thing in the morning and let them know that the air conditioning wasn't working. They seemed to look at me like I should be whispering to them so no-one would hear that I was complaining. I went to the lobby a total of five separate times over the next few days to try to get them to fix my air conditioning. The average room temperature in my room at night was around 78-80 deg. They finally told me that what I wanted was unreasonable and that the air conditioners were working fine. After the fifth time asking and having people in my room flipping switches and looking at window cracks and door cracks, I decided that I was better off not asking anymore. I talked to a few other guests that had problems with their AC units as well, and others that the A/C would freeze them out if they set the temp to low. The air conditioning problem tainted the whole trip for both my wife and I after spending most of the day in 100 degree weather and wanting nothing else but a cool room. My wife and I didn’t go out to the bars in the evenings this trip and we were usually in our room by about 9:30 hanging out. At least 4 of the nights we stayed at the RIU a staff member would start hammering on the door between 9:30 and 10:00 pm bringing more towels. They just open the door without any notice like it is normal to go into people’s rooms late in the evening. It was beyond strange. I almost want to believe that they were delivering the extra towels in the evenings just to keep an eye on the guests and make sure no-one got to rowdy. Maybe…maybe not?

POOL:

The quite pool was reasonably clean and quiet in the morning and only started showing signs of bits of trash and sand (but still quiet) in the afternoon. The pool with the swim up bar was absolutely raunchy on any day after 1pm. Imagine a bar room floor where a hundred people were getting drunk and smoking with not enough ash trays, then add drinking games and as much free alcohol as everyone can handle. The last time I actually got in to the "party pool", I waded through an abundance of straws / limes / trash, and almost ran into what looked like a wad of "snot" the size of a yellow post it note. Don't get me wrong, I’m in my mid 20's and got rather smashed a few times on our trip and drank every day I was there. The hotel party staff seemed pretty good at what they did though... This is a party hotel. Don't bring your kids or yourselves if you don’t mind loud music and people getting hammered on a daily basis.

STAFF:

Front Desk: So long as you didn’t want anything or have any complaints the hotel staff at the front desk were perfectly nice. Other times they seemed to act as if they knew you were at there mercy whatever happened.
Bar, Restaurant, Maids, Etc.: Everyone else was very helpful and nice.

RECOMMENDATION:

I won’t go back to the hotel unless it is remodeled, and wish I would have gone back to the Cancun Palace for my honeymoon. This hotel has an amazing beach and looks really neat from the outside and in the lobby. If you decide to go anyway, remember to post your review here after you get back. I hope this review was helpful and have a great trip.