Holiday World Riwo Hotel

“Great October Break!”

The RIWO hotel was excellent! Also having the opportunity to visit its sister hotels was fabulous. The food was delicious and the staff were so friendly, especially Manuel who cheerily served us each night in the Chic Bar. What a wonderful break away from home.

“Obviously don't like giving guests back deposit”

Have been trying to contact hotel did not give back deposit money. Think am being ignored. Guests have to pay 25euro deposit for arm band which is supposedly refunded to the card you paid with. My deposit was not refunded have tried to contact hotel but am getting no response. If your happy to lose… more

Have been trying to contact hotel did not give back deposit money. Think am being ignored. Guests have to pay 25euro deposit for arm band which is supposedly refunded to the card you paid with. My deposit was not refunded have tried to contact hotel but am getting no response. If your happy to lose money then go to this hotel.

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“Deposit not returned”

Have just returned from Riwo had to pay 25 Euro per person deposit for armbands have tried to make contact several times with hotel as I didn't receive my deposit back. Think am being ignored. Will try and contact holiday company I booked with to see if they can help.

“OK for a relatively cheap break, but don't go expecting the Ritz.”

We stayed as a family of 4 with two children aged 5 and 8 on an all-inclusive basis. In summary this hotel is OK and I’m sure many families will have a great time here, unfortunately for us however it isn’t quite at the standard of some other similar hotels we have stayed at. Firstly, it is confusi… more

We stayed as a family of 4 with two children aged 5 and 8 on an all-inclusive basis. In summary this hotel is OK and I’m sure many families will have a great time here, unfortunately for us however it isn’t quite at the standard of some other similar hotels we have stayed at. Firstly, it is confusing what hotel you are actually staying at when booking and we thought we had initially booked the Polynesia. To be fair this was probably a mistake on our part, but some website’s photos are confusing as they show images from all three hotels and the shared beach club. We had purchased an upgraded Junior Suite (although again images of the bedroom online looked nothing like ours) which unbeknown to us included “VIP” status wrist bands. This was a bonus and allowed access to a private part of the dining room without having to queue, access to a separate private lounge area as well as access to the use the indoor pool area each day. The food in the hotel is fine and I’m sure even the fussiest of eaters can get by, although as others have mentioned keeping the food warm does seem to be an issue as plenty stuff was only luke warm, including the soup that’s contained in one of the large containers.. Some of the food is repetitive but the hotel does try and vary this by having various themed nights throughout the week. The food selection isn’t huge however. The hotel’s location was probably the biggest drawback for us. As it is right in the middle of the two main resorts and perched up the top of a hill, there is really nowhere to walk to or certainly not with young children. The regular shuttle bus is great but only takes you to the bottom of the hill to the beach club or to the service bus stops. We used the service bus a few times but they are quite busy and don’t expect anyone to move for you even if travelling with young children! We therefore mostly used taxis which were around 15 Euros in either direction to the centre’s of Benalmadena and Fuengirola. We ended up heading to one of these most days as didn’t feel the hotel had enough going on to be based there all week. While you do have the option of using one of the sister hotels we unfortunately had a poor experience of trying to do this one evening when we went to watch a live music show. While booking this in advance and on the same day prior to 5 o’clock as we had been advised to do, we were refused the all-inclusive drinks when in the Polynesia Hotel. Despite me trying to explain to the bar staff and then to the incredibly rude bar manager of the Polynesia (who eventually just walked away) we had no luck and had to return to our hotel. When we raised this with our rep in the morning, they spoke with the hotel director and we were told this was an issue with them not recognising our “VIP” wristbands! This was clearly poor on the hotels part and a breakdown in communication. Anyhow, that really was the only poor interaction we had with any members of staff who were all pleasant throughout our stay. Last point on the all inclusive is to be aware that this really doesn’t allow a large selection of branded drinks. While this includes the usual juices, coffee, local beer and wine etc. only really Bacardi, Beefeater gin and some whisky’s are recognisable. Anything else must be paid for unless you are satisfied with the cheap alternatives. While this is of course fairly common in some places, we never really appreciated how limited the all inclusive drinks would be. Overall this hotel was relatively fine, but I would probably look to stay somewhere else within the resort centre’s were we to return to the area.

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