home page | capeverdeinfo.org.uk forum »

Riu Funana Garopa trip Advisor the Truth about Riu

Comparison between the advertising on the Web and actual experience

H from London has some specific examples of Misrepresentation under the 1967 Act

Situated on the beachfront.

“ You give the impression that the Garopa is on the beach both by this comment and by your picture illustrating the hotel. The image you show is blatantly misleading and has been altered and is a false aspect of the hotel in relation to the beach, this view does not appear anywhere in the resort. The only reason for this is to give people the illusion that the hotel has instant access to the beach which it does not. You do not warn people that the beach is a long walk away from the room.“

Sea View

” This also gives the impression you can have sea views from your room which you cannot. I had requested this through the agent and they said we could request one but it wasn't guaranteed, at no time was it mentioned that there aren't any sea views from the Garopa.“

5 Star

“ You have graded the hotel as 5 star. I am a seasoned traveller and have stayed at countless 5 star resorts around the world including a Riu in Dominican Republic. The Garopa is clearly not a 5 star hotel by the quality of the build work and the food is poor. “

5* Food and beverages

” From long life milk to machine produced coffee/tea with next to no service in the restaurants including those booked, the quality of the food is appalling. Even when booking one of the restaurants the food options were no different from what we could choose in the main buffet area, the only difference being some cold prawns.
The wine is disgusting and there is no need to use long life milk as fresh is available to import. Why is a 5 star hotel using long life milk? We could only book one restaurant during our stay because it was too busy, there are clearly not enough places in the restaurants for the capacity of the hotel. At the time we stayed the hotel was not full. There isn't any service in any of the restaurants, all are self service. On most occasions we weren't even served our drinks.“

5* Room quality and service

”The quality of the rooms for the prices charged is extremely bad. We stayed in a Senior Suite Riu Funana. The room smelled of sewage for the first 3 days. The bathroom door didn't close properly. The wardrobe doesn't have a door. There are no bath robes. The Mini Bar has nothing in it and isn't even replenished with bottled water. There's no room information at all, no information from the spa and no TV channels information. There's no room service. Water bottles have to be requested from reception .There is no room service account available for almost any service. The Riu Funana beach bar is severely limited in what it offers.“

5* Response to requests

” I complained because I could not dial out an international call from my room phone, this was never fixed (although they tried to charge me the cost of two calls that I was never able to make). Call charges from the hotel are completely unreasonable. Beach towels are not available till 9am, long after the beach access gate and pool areas are available. On one day punch was being served. It was 11.50 am . I went to take one and the server would not let me until ten more minutes had passed and it was 12 midday. This is ridiculous as they were melting anyway.The beach parasols are thin and do not have continuous cover and allow sun to come through. This doesn't provide adequate protection from the sun. The available sports equipment to hire is low rate compared to that available with payment."

Book directly with the hotel at a discount