Riu Atoll-All Inclusive

My husband and I stayed here for 7 nights in April 2025. Having stayed at Riu's previously, we were excited to experience the same level of service and experience we'd had previously. Unfortunately, this really fell short of the mark. I would have scored lower, but the location, rooms, and food brought it up. Although, having never been to the Maldives before, I can't comment that all the many other hotels available, that the same can't be said for those. If you are only interested in the positives, I'll start with these! It really is how it looks in the photos! Clear water, white sand, beautiful palm trees, and plenty of tropical fish to see. The food was good, always hot and flavoursome. However, apart from the food, you will experience all the other positives elsewhere. So what's the negatives? Some are personal preferences such as the fact there isn't a pool/snack bar. The sports bar has some sandwiches and biscuits, that's your 'snack' options. If you fancy something to eat, you have to go into the restaurant during their opening times. Drinks. Poor but fairly typical choice of AI cocktails. Now for the negatives and for us, these were worse in two of the top areas customers want. Service. This was bordering on terrible. I don't know where those who rate the service highly went, but it wasn't the same place we went? Drinks were often forgotten if you could even grab the attention of someone to even order. This was worse in the evening at the entrainment area. If you gave up and went to the bar, you were asked to go to a waiter. The wait between drinks was unacceptable, and as mentioned, that's if you even got it. I was spoken to like a second-class citizen on two separate occasions by two separate members of staff. One of these times was when my husband and I decided to go for a walk. We wanted to have a look around the side of the island where the riu palace is located. We had lots of riu points that needed using and were considering trying to use them to spend the last part of the week there. Halfway along the bridge/walkway, we were stopped and, due to wearing blue wristbands, were identified as Riu atoll guests. We were told we were 'not allowed' to be at that side of the island! NOT ALLOWED?! I was close to tears. I am a customer who has spent a small fortune to be there, yet being told I wasn't allowed to be at that side of the island. I wasn't trying to get a drink, eat food, etc. we were walking, and our intention was purely to have a walk around. I was so upset by this that I went straight to reception. Here, I was told that palace guests could go whether they pleased, yet I was not allowed to go to the palace 'unescorted!' Not only that, I had to make an appointment to go. Another time, I was woken by the cleaner. He entered the room and could clearly see I was asleep. He persisted in calling out until he woke me. Who wants to be woken when on holiday? There were other occasions and another similar incident where I was spoken

We travelled to this amazing hotel April 16th for an amazing 10 Night holiday. We had domestic flights and boat transfers but on arrival at Male airport we got upgraded to the seaplane which was an amazing experience so we got to the hotel earlier than expected and WOW the hotel and grounds are spotless we stayed in Villa 10 (perfect) beach access. Food was amazing in buffet restaurants yes it can get repetitive but quality was so good, both restaurants were great we went twice to both. We did the dolphin sightseeing and the sunset cruises which were both fab. Staff were amazing in every area of the hotel. Best holiday ever would I go back yes. The journey home we were dreading but it was seamless albeit an early start to the day again hotel staff totally look after you