RIU Bambu

I waited just over a month to write this review as I did not want to write while emotions were still high. I needed time to collect my thoughts and really absorb everything that had happened at the riu bambu. But even as time has passed, I find I am still extremely shaken up and absolutely terrified to ever go back to this hotel. What was supposed to be my honeymoon & also a family reunion for my husband and his father and step mother turned out to be a horrendous nightmare! We had only just begun our vacation and it was our 2nd day in when my mother in law & I separated from our husbands to take pictures. We had snapped a few shots and took turns posing next to a coconut tree when out of nowhere a machete fell nearly hitting my mother in law. Had I not pushed her out of the way, she surely would have been wounded by the large blade. I was shocked that something so dangerous could have fallen from the tree so I looked up to see if there were any workers up top, I looked around the entire area we had been in and no one was to be found. My only guess is that the machete had been left up there and over time had lost its grip. After taking a few moments to calm down (my mother in law was in tears as it could have been an extremely fatal situation!) we decided that the best thing to do would be to advise the front desk of what happened and bring the machete back to them to avoid anyone else from getting hurt or potentially hurting others. Upon arriving at the front desk we requested to speak with a manager as the front desk agent was unable to assist us as he claims this was out of his hands. We were then introduced to a man who said his name was GUILLERMO DELACRUZ. This man was standoffish, rude, arrogant, and extremely discouraging. He did not even so much as offer a TISSUE for my mother in law's tears. This so called "manager" questioned us about what had happened, suggested that it could have been a LIE and even went as far as BRINGING OUT the GARDENER and berating him in front of us as if it were to make us feel better. I advised this manager that it was NOT NECESSARY for him to bring the poor gardener out as he did not even speak a word of English. I told him that this was extremely UNPROFESSIONAL and he was humiliating this gardener. After he sent the gardener back he then told us that he was sorry about what happened but this was not a riu issue and that he could not help us. He claimed it was an issue with sunwing (our booking agent) and we had to contact sunwing in regards to this situation. We were in disbelief that there was such a lack of care and concern that we asked to have his business card. It was then that things took a turn for the worse! The manager refused to give us his business card so we asked if he could write his name down as we wanted to ensure we had the proper name. The manager again refused to write his name down and proceeded to come closer and tower over us in a menacing manner and shouted "MY NAME IS GUILLERMO DELACRUZ, WRITE IT DOWN YOURSELF!". We quickly backed off and said ok we will talk to sunwing. My mother in law wanted to take one last picture of the machete in hand so she took a pic of the front desk where the manager was with the machete and that is when GUILLERMO DELACRUZ absolutely went ballistic! He ran over to us with his walkie talkie in hand and pointed the antenna towards us barely inches away from making contact with our face. He screamed and said that it was illegal to take pictures of people in the dominican republic and that he was going to call the police and throw us in jail! He proceeded to call for his security on the walkie talkie and I started crying telling him that he was being very aggressive and threatening and that we did not know it was illegal. I showed him the phone and said "look its deleted pls calm down, we didn't know and your face wasn't even in it" but he continued to yell and inch closer to us pushing us back even more. It was then that a sunwing rep had witnessed the aggressive body language and ran over from the other side of the lobby and said something to him in spanish that had made him back off and put the walkie talkie down. Our sunwing rep stood in between us and continued to speak to the manager in spanish and then told us to meet him at the sunwing table and he would take over from here. He said we would not be going to jail and that everything would be ok. We then left the front lobby and spoke to the sunwing rep and he made a report about what had transpired. Unfortunately Sunwing was not able to even get so much as an apology from the riu. We were never contacted by anyone in management from riu. Sunwing offered to move us to another hotel but by the time the offer had come through, we were about to leave. They did offer us a voucher for an excursion which was appreciated but it still didn't take away from the fact we were never contacted by riu. This could have been a SEVERELY FATAL situation. It was DANGEROUS, NEGLECTFUL, and a HUGE LIABILITY!!! What made matters worse was that due to the manager's behavior, it had terrified us to the bone and we were unable to enjoy our stay. We were constantly paranoid thinking that something would happen to us and he would come back for us and do something bad. I saw the same manager a few days later and he stared me down with a menacing look on his face! I seriously could not BELIEVE that anyone in management would act such a way. It TRULY was the WORST experience I have EVER had in a hotel. Not only were we traumatized but asides from eating a meal in the restaurants we did not make use of the facilities as we were too scared to even leave our rooms and see this man again in fear of getting hurt by them or thrown out! I hope that riu reaches out to me after seeing this review as something needs to be done and that MANAGER they have needs to be RETRAINED on customer service. A manager should NEVER threaten, scare, or act aggressive towards a guest especially in such a scary and sensitive situation like we had experienced! He/she should be EMPATHETIC towards the situation and ask him/herself "HOW CAN I MAKE THIS BETTER???" RIU also needs to remind their gardeners to take EXTRA care especially when working with machetes as someone could have been SERIOUSLY hurt or even KILLED!!! THIS SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAD HAPPENED AND I TRULY HOPE THEY LEARN FROM THIS SITUATION AS THIS COULD HAVE BEEN A LAWSUIT WAITING TO HAPPEN! CLEAN UP YOUR EQUIPMENT AFTER USING IT! PUT AWAY YOUR DEADLY TOOLS!!!

We are just finishing our weeklong stay at the RIU BAMBU and we have nothing but positive things to say about this resort. Ignore the complaints - I don’t know what these folks have been talking about! I read some of the negative reviews and was worried after I booked but those worries melted away 15 minutes after arriving. I’ll break this review down to make it easier to write and read. On arrival we were met but our tour agent folks who loaded us (family of three including a young child) into a van. The drive from the airport is around 30-40 minutes along a paved highway that runs to the various resorts. On arrival we were met by waiting porters who grabbed our bags and we were greeted by Kelvin at the reception desk. He was fantastic and within 10 minutes he was walking us to the resort map to show us how to get to our villa. The resort is made up of around 40 small villas connected by walkways. Ours was mid way to the back of the resort which meant a short 5 minute walk to the beach or main pools. The rooms are modern having been re-done in 2017. There’s a nice bar area in each room with a fully stocked fridge that includes beer, water and soft drinks. Toiletries are great and there are plenty of plugs for your chargers etc. Be sure to bring those with you otherwise you’ll be charged a mint at the resort stores which are pricey. There are two main pools near the beach that are fantastic - arrive before 10am and you can find great seating. Towels are handed out near one of the pools. The beach is next to these two main pools. A great spot we learned of 4 days into our holiday is a smaller pool with a kids splash area that is much quieter than the two main pools. There’s a swim up bar and plenty of loungers there too.. very few seem to know about it so it’s far less busy.. check it out - you’ll thank me. Food was excellent. The waiters are all fantastic but we were especially lucky to meet Argenis and Dauris - great people that seemed to know what we wanted before we even ordered. Our son is a picky eater and we were always able to find him something to eat. We never used the a la carte restaurants as it’s hard to keep our little guy still for long enough but we heard they were all excellent. Each room has a large balcony which is so relaxing to sit at during the evenings enjoying a drink and/or cigar. Enjoy your vacation! And bring lots of $1 & $5 bills to tip these hard working staff! (By the way, there’s a cashier located at reception where you can change larger bills for smaller ones for tipping)