Hotel Riu Republica - Adults only - All Inclusive in Punta Cana

This is my third stay at Riu. The previous two were incredible; in fact, I recommended it and went with other people. But this time, everything changed. The hotel service was terrible. They wouldn't let us into the restaurants even during the designated hours. Initially, they gave me a room, but when they opened it, there were still people there—in other words, the security was awful. I complained, and they simply told me they were going to escalate the issue. The facilities look like any basic hotel: damaged elevators, exposed electrical wires, and bathrooms that smelled awful and weren't clean. On the beaches, people were exploiting wild animals and even offering *****. In the bars, some waiters got annoyed when I ordered a specific type of liquor, even though they knew it was on the menu. I felt really bad for the people I recommended, but this time, unfortunately, Riu ruined all my expectations and made me not want to be there at all. The food was good, although there was little variety in the buffets.

- Buffets were often messy, plates weren’t clean, and items were rarely labelled properly within the buffet
- Food wasn’t very good at any of the restaurants except the steakhouse.
- Rooms were not well cleaned and are run down
- We saw 4 cockroaches in our room during the 4 night stay
- Checkin was confusing and we were not given towel cards, or provided the log in for the wifi
- After we got to our room another family showed up with keys to our room. We had both been assigned the same room and had to all go back to reception to have things straightened out
- People were smoking inside the resort where there were “no smoking” signs
- Many tiles in the pools had come loose and we sitting detached at the bottom of the pools
- a few of the waterslides were broken and taped off to not be used

The place has good facilities, but don't expect a 4 or 5 star hotel. The rooms don't have moisturizer, for example, coconut water is not included and the drinks are all made with pre-made ingredients (no lemon, just industrialized lemon juice). In short, you can expect a place with good facilities, but the quality of the food and drinks leaves a lot to be desired. Getting around the hotel is quite complicated, with a not very intelligent layout, so depending on where you are staying, you may have to walk 15 to 20 minutes to the beach.