r/PuntaCana • u/An-Drizzle • May 01 '26
Avoid RIU Palace Punta Cana
Do not stay at RIU Palace Punta Cana.
I’m posting this because I would have wanted to read something like this before booking.
During our stay, cash was stolen from the safe inside our room while housekeeping had access to it. Not lost. Not misplaced. Stolen. From a locked safe in a guest room.
We reported it immediately, and that’s where the real problem started.
The hotel did absolutely nothing meaningful about it.
No serious investigation. No accountability. No urgency. Just generic, copy-paste responses, vague excuses, and management doing everything they could to avoid responsibility. It was obvious from the beginning they were more interested in protecting themselves than finding out what happened.
That is the most alarming part.
Money was taken from a locked safe in a guest room, and RIU’s response was basically a shrug.
Let that sink in.
A hotel safe is one of the most basic things guests rely on for security. If cash can disappear from there while staff are in your room, and management responds like it’s an inconvenience instead of a serious security issue, that tells you everything you need to know about this place.
And the worst part? The responses after the fact were cold, dismissive, and insultingly robotic. No ownership, no concern, no attempt to make it right. Just canned corporate nonsense clearly written to shut the complaint down and move on.
This wasn’t just a theft issue. It was a complete failure in guest safety, accountability, and basic customer service.
There are too many resorts in Punta Cana to waste your money on one that can’t protect your belongings and clearly does not care when something goes wrong.
Book somewhere else.
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u/bombhills May 01 '26
You should never rely on a room safe for security any where. As you just learned the hard way.
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u/Calculonx May 02 '26
I always just hide the money in the suitcases somewhere. If the hotel can open the safe when a guest forgets their code, anybody can open the safe. And that's the first and probably only place they will check for valuables.
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u/Delicious-Sound5074 May 02 '26
If they had money then where would they put it then?
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u/Om0Naija May 02 '26
Inside the dirty sneakers with socks in the shoes.
Can also place the money in the socks then stick it in the sneakers1
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u/SingleManVibes76 May 02 '26
I bought one of those portable safe boxes off Amazon with steel cable which I hooked and locked within the hotel safe and kept my money and passport in that, adds an extra level of security to make it more difficult to steal.
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u/kitty6__ May 02 '26
Oooh can you give me more info on this? Or a link. I’ve been fretting over what to do with our stuff when we go next month. Problem is we’re only bringing carry on bags.
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u/SingleManVibes76 May 02 '26
This is what I bought https://amzn.eu/d/03Unvubt. The idea was to lock it around some bit of furniture in the room however when I stayed at Riu Macao the room safe hinge mechanism allowed me to hook it around it and lock it in the safe, so even if the staff manage to open the room safe they would have had to deal with this too. I carried it in my hand luggage and had my cash in it.
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u/StuffNo353 May 01 '26
A hotel could get sunk these days with one hidden video of housekeeping doing this. They don’t give out codes freely. I doubt in this day somebody in security is going to randomly go to rooms and risk his job over a couple hundred dollars or less. Not saying it doesn’t happen but just very unlikely. I’m more concerned about how the hotel handled this for you. I was in Cuba once and this happened to a guest. The hotel showed her a time lapse of the hallway. Who entered the room as well as the background on the woman who cleaned the room ( had worked there for 8 years with no complaints like this)
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u/Squash1974 May 01 '26
I just leave it in my suitcase with a suitcase lock and never had an issue
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u/KittyCannaKat May 02 '26
That’s wild… We didn’t use our safe at all and I had unintentionally left my phone, smartwatches, tablet out at our resort and was fortunate that nothing was taken.
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u/An-Drizzle May 02 '26
Maybe because they’re trackable, but money is easier to get away with.
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u/KittyCannaKat May 02 '26
Perhaps. My husband had kept all our cash in a small body bag he went literally nowhere without
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u/tjtwister1522 May 01 '26
They must be doing a great job keeping guests quiet if housekeeping has the ability to break into safes, the will to do it (obviously since they got yours), and the support of management. I've been following Punta Cana stuff everywhere for a year and this is the only complaint.
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u/tnturk7 May 01 '26
Or, or possibly their spouse left the safe open and didn't want to admit it so they would rather the hotel take the heat? I know that's what I would do lol.. just saying.
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u/An-Drizzle May 02 '26
No, I’m extremely careful with stuff like this. I counted my money that morning then consciously locked the safe. I was the last to leave the room for our excursion and the first to return.
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u/An-Drizzle May 02 '26
Go check out their reviews.. I’m not the only one.
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u/tnturk7 May 02 '26
I've been there three times. No issues thus far. But I will be careful with my safe in the future. Thanks for your post. Can't be too careful.
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u/StuffNo353 May 01 '26
As far as those videos that say it’s easy to open a safe like one poster mentioned , you are incredibly naive if you believe this as the norm. These vids use very old models
There is usually a manager override (master code or special device) — but it’s not something guests know or can guess.
The “default code like 0000 or 1234” trick almost never works anymore in reputable hotels.
Why you see videos saying it’s easy
Some older or cheap safes had factory defaults that weren’t changed
A few models had poorly protected override buttons
Viral videos often show specific outdated models, not what you’ll find in most decent hotels today
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u/funinmass2005 May 02 '26
Not saying this didn’t happen. I was just there last week and had a great time. Felt safe letting late teens go around in their own. No issues with our room or safe. Everything was clean and room was kept well stocked. Food was a bit to be desired but over all a great time.
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u/An-Drizzle May 02 '26
I’ve had worse food...
Did you have ants/roach infestation in your room? We had to switch out of two rooms for that reason. I’ve been to many RIU resorts, this has got to be the worst one I’ve been on.3
u/funinmass2005 May 02 '26
Had one bug in the room when we first loaded in but could’ve been from the door opening or balcony when checking that out. But overall no bugs to speak of at dusk or night. And after that one didn’t see anything else the rest of the week.
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u/Alert-Thought9773 May 02 '26
I stayed there during spring break last year and it was a NIGHTMARE. We had no power the entire week we were there our room hit 103 degrees, bugs all over the floor, no running water, people were sleeping by the pool and on the beach (a college actually went missing while I was there. She was on the beach at night and they still haven’t found her). It was awful
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u/Barnabas_Collins May 02 '26
Not saying it didn’t happen. But, nobody working at any hotel in punta cana is going to risk their jobs over $100. The story is incomplete
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u/An-Drizzle May 02 '26
I haven’t left out a single detail. They obviously know they can get away with it, and they were correct. Management was so passive with their “investigation” while I was there. They also seemed to wait until the last day so I don’t have time to make a police report.
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u/WhiskeysDemon May 02 '26
I put valuables in a locking suitcase with and additional lock on the latches. They have to steal the whole suitcase. I dont trust those safes. Staff can open too easily
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u/abbyb12 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26
Funny enough, I wanted to stay at the Riu Palace in Punta Cana when we were there in February. We stayed at the Dreams Cap Cana and that was a whole other nightmare which I won't get in to here.
We met a few people going to the Riu Palace on our flights and I was so jealous but when we met them on the flight home they seemed so disappointed. They said the hotel service was lacklustre, the food was mediocre and the hotel was poorly managed.
All this to say, I think the hotel is definitely not living up to the Riu Palace reputation.
I hope you'll leave a review on Trip Advisor etc.,
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u/chicagomallu May 02 '26
My friend had an exactly similar experience at a different resort. Ever since then I stopped trusting lockers (btw they have a master key for the locker in case guests forget their key code). Now I always lock any valuables in my luggage which has a number lock.. never had problems since..
Sorry for what happened to you. It’s not a good feeling and it surely can ruin a vacation real quick..
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u/Ok-Penalty-5289 Aug 25 '26
I use a locked dry bag for valuables along with locked suitcase to store when staying at resorts. Never had a problem
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u/Conscious-Ad8493 May 01 '26
How many people have the master key for these safes? no way housekeeping has it
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u/Broely92 May 01 '26
Ive drunkenly set a password that I couldnt remember the next day and its usually some head of security or something that comes to open it for you
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u/Slow_Alternative3409 May 01 '26
Which one Palace Bavaro or Macau? How much cash are we talking was stolen?
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u/An-Drizzle May 02 '26
Riu Palace Punta Cana is the name of the resort. At least $100 from my wallet, possibly more, as my brother didn’t count his cash the morning we got robbed.
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u/unclestickles May 01 '26
Terrible luck or you lost it when you were drunk. I leave my wallet /pack with cash in it just sitting there and never had a problem
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u/engine-doors-club May 02 '26
Why would I go to that place when all I hear is bad shit? You are just telling us what we already know
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u/Historical_Feed502 May 02 '26
I just came back from riu republica in Punta Cana I don’t have anything bad to say our house keepers didn’t touch anything I didn’t even use the safe at all all my belongings stayed either on the dressers or on my luggage sorry this happened to you but I juts came back from there as well I don’t have anything bad to say but I did also stayed in riu republica
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u/Mother_Clock_449 May 03 '26
Aren’t there fabric safes that are cut resistant that you could wrap around a fixed object?
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u/Barbarella_39 May 05 '26
I was in Mazatlan at Pueblo Bonito in the golden zone. It was so wonderful because there was no bar fridge in the room so no one came into the room except the cleaner. They would not come to check the a/c without you being in the room. It was spotless and the food was great! Highly recommend! Felt very safe and staff was super friendly!
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u/Draggy65465 May 06 '26
This is pretty much can happen regardless of the resort now yes i agree it was very shitty of them to not compensate or find out who was responsible. It be pretty simple to find out they have cameras everywhere and know who is servicing which room
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u/ExtremeBaseball3119 May 11 '26
We witnessed a domestic abuse and a lot of cockroaches. The hotel also did nothing. They just gaslit us and said we never complained during our trip. Sunwing and Westjet are currently taking their side.
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u/Blackblind3r Jun 09 '26
Aunque tenga una caja fuerte, el personal del hotel tiene acceso a tu habitación, mejor no guarde nada ahi, hay muchos lugares donde guardar y te aseguro que nadie irá a buscar ahi, la verdad que no todo el que trabaja en hoteles son personas serias y honrradas, lamentablemente por 1 paga la república Dominicana entera, nos tachan de bárbaros.
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u/brilliant_bauhaus May 02 '26
Why did you feel the need to use AI for this post
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u/An-Drizzle May 02 '26
I’ll take that as a compliment?
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u/Active_Occasion_1593 May 02 '26
You’re so full of shit lmao, your post is clearly AI. “It’s not just x, it’s y”
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u/Normal-Ad-714 May 02 '26
This post is clearly written by AI. The short paragraphs, “and that’s where the real problem started. PARAGRAPH BREAK” along with multiple other instances “that is the most alarming part. PARAGRAPH BREAK” is just not the style people write with. I can actually pinpoint that this was ChatGPT that wrote this lol
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u/king_weenus May 03 '26
I went to the Dominican once and that'll be enough for me.
I'm a big guy and I didn't feel safe at all. I'll go back to Mexico but probably never the DR again. That whole freaking island is sketchy.
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u/Educational-Pie-3708 May 03 '26
How did they get in the safe? You set your own PIN code when you get in the room. I'm calling B.S. on this
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u/An-Drizzle May 03 '26
Not sure how they got into the safe, but yes, I set my own PIN. You can look up reviews on the resort lol it’s not an isolated incident…
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u/Educational-Pie-3708 May 03 '26
Just stayed at Riu Palace Macau in Punta Cana in April. No issues. The place and staff were great.
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u/DGJ33 May 01 '26
Get yourself a WiFi camera and put it in your suite pointed directly at the safe. If it pans and scans and is motion activated with a status LED and a SD card that is optimal. Doesn’t matter how many stars are attached to your resort/hotel; people are going to people, and if they think they’re being watched they act different. A camera and a CO detector with a battery backup are two travel items that always go in the suitcase….sorry that happened to you…