RIU Hotels & Resorts review: Nightmarish experience at Riu Republica

Good afternoon,

My name is Brent Williams, and I just returned from a 7 day vacation at Riu Republica resort in Punta Cana.

The last 2 days (dec. 24 & Dec. 25) felt like they were out of a horror movie. I would never complain about any business or hotel, but this time gave me severe stress.

Around 4 am on December 24 I began to get very sick. Cough, body aches, sweating, high fever, and after a few hours I could not move out of bed. I am an amateur traveler and forgot to bring 1. Medication, and 2. Physical credit cards, I only had Apple Pay. This was totally my fault.

As my sickness got worse, both of my hands started to go numb. The numbnesss creeped its way up my arms to my shoulders, and my fingers started to curl up. This really worried me, as maybe a month ago I suffered a very bad cut on my hand and wrist (I have attached a picture of the scarring) that became infected shortly after, leaving me in the hospital. Along with the numbness, this cut started to throb and hurt. The cut was healing fine, and I had been given a go ahead to travel, so now I knew I had to go to the doctor.

The room service button on my rooms phone was broken, so I texted a friend to get reception to call me, and when they did I dropped the phone because I couldn't hold it.

Eventually, the doctor showed up and was very rude to me, him and a nurse took me to the doctors office where the doctor started to try and blame me for the illness, saying it's from dehydration. I told him, I've been drinking every day, yes as it's my vacation, but I've also been drinking a glass of water with most drinks, and I also brought liquid iv packs on my trip with me. They put me on an iv and took my temperature, and I told him why I was so worried about the numbness, given my recent cut and infection. The doctor insisted then seemed to change his tone to say it was a flu that caused dehydration, since I was sweating so much. My temperature was 38.8.

After the iv, I started to feel better and went to my room to try and sleep, and drink the pedialyte he gave me. He initially charged me 450 usd, but my credit card had been locked, so I had to wait to pay when I could call my bank. When I got to bed, I couldn't sleep for hours, and around 12:30 am I started feeling very sick again, along with the numbness in my hands and arms. So, I did my best to get out of bed, and went downstairs to ask people for Tylenol or iv. Everybody looked at me sideways, said no and walked away. I was starting to feel like I was in a bad dream.

After this, I went to the lobby to ask them to call the pharmacist to deliver meds, and waited maybe 45 minutes. At this point, I was very unwell. The staff refused to give me Tylenol, and honestly were being very rude and standoffish. Almost like I was inconveniencing them. When the delivery came, I hoped my card would work, but it didn't. I BEGGED the staff and delivery guy to let me e-transfer, pay pal, anything until I could call my bank in the am, it was only 10 pills. But they just stared blankly at each other shaking their heads. After this, a group of girls walked into the lobby and the staffs demeanour completely changed from frowning and glaring like they were at me, to partying , yelling and flirting with the girls. This was Christmas morning, around 1:30 am. The last hour had been very demoralizing for me to say the least.

After this I went back to bed to try and sleep. It was maybe around 3 i started feeling extremely unwell. I knew I needed a hospital, but I wasn't sure they would help me, so my intent was to go try my best to walk to the lobby, lie on the floor and demand an ambulance. They way they treated me so far I was afraid they wouldn't act in haste. So I did, it took me about 10-20 minutes to talk myself into going back to the lobby, when I got there I laid on the ground, I could barely walk at this point and I was dripping sweat. I honestly thought I might faint, so before I left my room I wrote a note to take down, stating I needed a hospital, and I needed help to sleep. I hadn't slept in almost 2 days at this point.

When I got on the ground and yelled for an ambulance, nobody came to my aid. I was in visible pain, and nobody did anything for about 30 seconds. But I did hear the staff laughing, whether that was at me, or something else, I'll never know. Then, one staff strolls over to me slowly and says something, and I got angry and said call me an ambulance right now. So he very slowly walked back to the desk, I heard more laughter, and I was writhing on the floor in discomfort. I should preface this by saying, I'm a boxing coach, and a very tough person. I would never fake something like this, especially knowing how much it would cost me without insurance.

They didn't call an ambulance, they called the doctor, meaning I would have to pay him another $450 usd. He put me on an iv and said my temperature was "almost a fever" at 37.5, but I thought that was odd because I was feeling worse than before. And once I got to the hospital just a half later, it was 39.1.

At the hospital nobody really spoke English and I had to communicate via Google translate. They hooked me up to a sleeping iv, but I was so stressed out knowing I had a flight in a few hours, and I still needed to figure out my credit card or I would be stranded, I stayed wide awake through the medication. Eventually, I was taken to the office to pay the 2500 Canadian they said I owed for the 6 hour stay and iv's and blood test.

To note** I was not given and feedback on what was wrong with me, why my arms went numb and my cut hurt, or even what kind of illness I was experiencing.

I spent maybe 2 hours in the office, with time running out to get back to check out and make my flight, and I was getting more and more stressed out. At this point I hadn't slept in days. They refused to let me leave until I figured out how to pay them. I even offered to sign an affidavit. Eventually I figured it out, and made it back to the hotel with 2 minutes to spare to check out. And the receptionist acted angry toward me when I went to pay my bill, stating it was "my fault" all this happened. I told her the staff there were the rudest people I've ever met. I'm a Newfoundlander and pride myself on being kind to people, but I was treated like an absolute dog the last 2 days of my trip. And I'd never been sicker, not to mention the anxiety I was feeling over why my arms were numb, and my very serious injury was throbbing.

The doctor waived his fee for the 2 visits, I suspect he got his cut from the hospital and wanted to look like a good guy, but I can't really speculate. I barely made my flight, after getting shouted at by airport staff and security, very aggressively. All in all this was unbelievably unacceptable, I can understand why Dominicans might hate foreigners , I empathize with that. But they treated my this way while I was feeling maybe the worst I have in a very long time. And the fact I collapsed in the lobby and nobody came to help, but everybody laughed, made me feel like an animal.

I was very worried I wasn't going to make it home and was going to have to spend thousands more, without sleep, and with my sickness getting worse.

I would like to bring my concerns to a manager or someone in charge before I take this complaint further.

I have never complained about a business in my life, I'm a very laissez-faire person and don't like to involve myself in drama, but this has made an impact on me in a very bad way. I'll never return to this country, and I may never go to a resort again.

Please advise,

Thank you