Name: RIU Negril
Price range: from £0pp (7 nights includes flights and transfers)

Select Room & Board Basis | Mercury Holidays

Product Details

General view

Everything as expected for a RIU. It’s great being on the beach, even though it’s not private it does feel that way due to the location. The snorkeling was amazing, so much to see. The staff were really friendly and helpful. Was a bit odd towards the end of the holiday as they were closing for a refurb so as it got quieter parts of the hotel closed down such as a couple of the restaurants, as well as the lunch restaurant which was really convenient to the beach. Even though it was having a refurb the condition of the hotel overall was absolutely fine. Great selection of cocktails. Entertainment was ok but the main evening shows weren’t as good as other Riu’s we’ve stayed at.  The only downside for us was there were a lot of groups of young lads and girls staying that went out each evening, coming home anytime from 3 - 7am and were extremely noisy so disturbed us most nights, this is the only reason for not rating the sleep quality.

Nice hotel, great location

We stayed here as a family of 5 (ages 7-72) from 17 July - 14 August. We have visited Jamaica twice before but this was our first time at this particular resort. What a wonderful place! Yes, the decor was a little dated in areas but the property is now going through a big refurb and the photos we saw of the planned changes looked amazing. 

There is a RiuLand for the kids with a good itinerary of activities however it’s worth noting that some activities didn’t take place because not enough children turned up for them. My son went to take part in one activity and because no one else had turned up for it, we had to leave. Not the staff’s fault, who were lovely and always polite,  but worth being aware of at quieter times. 

The food was good, plenty of options and presented well. We tried the Steakhouse and the Italian. The winning dish at the Steakhouse for us was the ribs and at the Italian, it was the Steak with a very delicious Gorgonzola sauce! I could have eaten that every day if they’d let me! 

The Jerk hut on the beach just by the family pool was always good and very popular. 

Daytime activities on the beach were great and the entertainment staff always made an effort to get people involved and have a good time. We played bean bag toss, balloon toss, volleyball and horse shoe throwing as well as learning how to ‘speak Jamaican’ with Miguel, who the kids absolutely adored. 

In respect of the staff, who were all friendly, polite and helpful, special mentions to make are Miguel, Malik, Toothpick, Scotty, Troyvis, TT and Kevin from the Entertainment team and my boys O’Neal, Mario and Rueben on the bars. 

The beach is lovely, yes there is sea grass but there are plenty of places to enter the water where you can avoid this. We wore water shoes but many didn’t and no one seemed to have any issues. We did some snorkelling from the beach and saw lots of different fish and sea life, it was brilliant! 

We made several visits to the blue huts down the beach and made friends with some of the locals who had stalls there. They are wonderful people just trying to make a living and a polite ‘no thank you’ is all you need if you don’t want to shop with them. We enjoyed our time with them and got some lovely souvenirs which were much cheaper than the hotel shop. 

If you can, please tip the staff for their service. It is always appreciated but I never felt it was expected and on occasions when I didn’t have cash on me, I received the same great service regardless. 

The staff really do make this resort what it is and it concerned me that due to the refurb, many would be out of work for several months with seemingly no certainty that they would have a job when the hotel reopens. I hope Riu note the positive feedback from so many guests and show their appreciation for the value of their hardworking staff by ensuring they are able to return in December. 

We hope to return to beautiful Jamaica and  Riu Negril in the future.

Holiday of a lifetime

We had a family reunion at RIU Palace and couldn't ask for a better hotel and ambience. Everything was 10/10.

Palacial Service, Treatment  & Experience

Oh Lordy, I don’t even know where to begin. While I do keep in mind that Hurricane Beryl “hit” the island on 7/3 and we arrived 7/5, I I think the lack of planning on managements part was horrible

1. Prior to our arrival, we tried to switch our dates to make sure we would have a good experience. Since the hotel was not transparent with the condition of the hotel after the hurricane, we were unable to do so without incurring numerous fees from the hotel and airline. 
2. Due to the lack of planning by management, our vacation was anything but smooth and enjoyable. We had saved to take this vacation with our children to share this beautiful island with them, and to say we are disappointed is an understatement. I’m sure management was sitting high in their houses with air-conditioning and food while their workers were left to deal with the wreckage. If we had an issue with anything, my guess was management had told staff to say the corporate saying of “ well, considering we were just hit with a category five hurricane we are doing the best we can. Locals still do not have power and water, and they are giving it to the hotels before they are giving it to locals”. So on top of already being uncomfortable, we were told this line over and over again.
3. Upon arrival in our private transfer we encountered a man at the entrance gate, who was very rude and made us feel uncomfortable. My husband had given the reservation name to him and he told us that we are not on the list. We were told that nobody was checking out so nobody could check in. He then proceeded to pretend to call the front desk to ask about our reservation, while sitting back in his chair, laughing at us while we wait to enter. After a few times of us, insisting that we do have reservations, he then began to rattle off the names of our three daughters that accompanied us leading to us being way more uncomfortable than we had already began. He finally pretended to confirm that we did have reservations and let us enter. I feel as though he was looking for us to give him money to enter your establishment. Very disgusting behavior.
4.  Once we were allowed in your establishment, it was approximately 2:30 PM.  My husband went to check us in after that process we were told we still had about a half hour until check-in could be complete. So we decided to go and a little something to eat. Well, after a long day of traveling, and with how hot it was, it was a very hard to even eat as sweat was just dripping down our face. We tried our best, then came back to the main lobby around 3:15. We just wanted to get settled in our room so we could be in our vacation. Mind you, we weren’t even even told at this point that there was no air-conditioning in the rooms. We had to hear it from people that were passing by. Well, we get back up to the front desk and they said our rooms(We had 2) We’re not ready yet and to go have a drink and come back in 20 minutes. We definitely did not want to go have a drink or anything yet, so we sat in the lobby waiting patiently. We went back up again around 4 o’clock and we’re told the same thing. We were told to go eat drink be merry because our room is still not ready yet. To make a long story short about getting our rooms we got our first room around 6:00pm And was told to come back about our second room because there was an issue with it but they wouldn’t tell us what the issue was. When we got into the first room, there was an issue with the toilet it would not flush so we had to wait for maintenance to come and fix that. Now mind you we were close to the end of where the hotel rooms are so walking back-and-forth to lobby was quite a haul. I believe we got into our second room around 7:30 PM. Despite the other room being right next-door, my husband had to go back to the lobby two or three times to officially get the key for that other room which we got into around. 

5. We obviously did not have air-conditioning in the rooms until Monday morning, so on the fourth day of our visit. While that did suck because it caused my migraines to act up and my daughter to throw up from being overheated. There was just nowhere to escape the heat. Then, as I am sure, you are aware they did use up the reserved water that the hotel had on hand for about two hours. We woke up the next day to realize two of the three pools had been emptied. Staff lied and said they were emptied to be cleaned when we know it was just two use as back up water. 
6. Mind you throughout the beginning part of our trip we had gone to front desk several times to speak with somebody with our Travel Agent on the phone because they would not answer her phone calls to have us moved to a fully functioning hotel. When we finally got to speak to an assistant of an assistant manager, we were told we were denied the transfer to another view and we’re not giving a reason why. Meanwhile, there was a man who was standing next to my husband at the front check out, who asked an employee if other guests were moved to other Rius and that staff confirmed that other guests have been moved to other fully functioning Rius. When my husband interjected, he was told that the staff said no such thing and that is not true. Despite postings on Facebook to confirm that other parties were definitely moved to other hotels. The management and staff at the front desk were very unprofessional and disgusting in their behavior towards guests. Had management been honest and transparent about the condition of the hotel prior to arrival people could have made different plans. 
7. Tuesday, 7/9, was the first day everything was fully up and functional. Including the two pools that had been down due to “cleaning”. The bartenders were able to use blenders again because we were told we couldn’t have any blended drinks. One thing that never returned,and we have stayed at a couple Rius, was mimosas in the morning for breakfast. This is the first resort we have been to that did not offer mimosas in the morning. It was disappointing as that is what my husband was looking forward to the most. Also, we never received a fleece stocked minibar. The bottles of alcohol were missing out of both rooms. 

All in all, it was a very disappointing trip seeing as how it caused our family a great deal of money to get there and stay there. I know it is due to be renovated soon, but that definitely will not fix the nastiness of some of the staff. We had a few people who were actually nice and I really wish I would’ve gotten names of any of the rude or nice employees but we were just so frustrated with our stay that I did not remember to take them down. But your bartenders in the main lobby were awesome, That your cut was nice and then made we had for three or four days was absolutely awesome. The maid we had on the first night and the last night left a lot to be desired. We did at some point see a man walking around who appeared to be management high up management. We seen him mostly pointing things out to employees telling them how to fix it, but I did not see him interact with guests in anyway. As a matter of fact, we seen one of the managers pull him in another direction when my husband was coming towards them. Like I stated previously, I wish everybody would’ve been more transparent about the conditions so we could have made an informed decision without $5000 of fees. While I know we did book a vacation during hurricane season. You also own a hotel that is in the path during hurricane season so should have been better prepared. I also think people who did I’m still come and spend their harder money at your resort should have been compensated for the days without air-conditioning water, fully functioning pools, full menu. I’m unsure if we will stay at any Riu’s  in the future. 

I’m sure you will give the same old song and dance about “Being sorry the hotel did not meet expectations and we hope you try us again”. How about being real and refunding money to those who had way below sub par experience. For the amount of money we spent to go on vacation maybe you higher ups could find it in your hearts to dig inside your huge pockets to give us the experience we paid for. You could even offer us a free week to make up for it but you choose to just ignore it. It’s very sad and angering to be treated this way. Remember the tourists are the ones lining upper management’s pockets. Make this right, that’s the least you could do.

Disgusted

The hotel needs updating. The decor is very outdated and dark. 

The beach had sooo much seaweed it ruined the beauty of the sea. 

Although there was many options, the food was terrible for Jamaica. It does not give authentic is the slightest. (Please non Jamaicans, do not use RUI’s reputation of food as reference to all Jamaican food. 

The entertainment at night consisted with non stop karaoke which drove us crazy after a few nights. 

I like the fact they had a free shuttle service a few days a week to take you to 7mile beach margaritaville (way nicer beach than bloody bay) 

Also enjoyed the pool parties, and the choice of drinks at the pool bar. 

The staff were friendly, you may have the odd one or two who seemed miserable but bearable.

Could be better

The marvellous Riu Club Negril enjoys a fantastic setting right on the fine white sandy beach and the crystal-clear waters of Bloody Bay. The hotel in neo-colonial style features a wonderful pool landscape, various dining options, sports facilities as well as an excellent spa and wellness area. The airport of Montego Bay is approximately 80 km away.

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RIU Negril