Palma de Mallorca, 2 October 2023

RIU introduces its new Riu Staff app

  • This tool designed for use in the daily management of hotel tasks improves guest service thanks to its innovative features and the immediacy it provides
  • It was fully developed in house by RIU’s IT team to meet the specific requirements of the Receptions team and incorporate improvements proposed by hotel staff
  • It involved more than 50 RIU professionals and 40,000 hours of work, as well as a financial investment of 450,000 euros

The IT and corporate Receptions teams of RIU Hotels & Resorts recently presented one of their most ambitious projects in recent years: the development of their own internal app for managing tasks in hotels: Riu Staff. This new tool is the result of two and a half years of hard work, including 40,000 hours of development and the contribution of more than 50 in-house professionals, as well as an investment of 450,000 euros to purchase devices, servers and wireless networks. The new app improves guest service thanks to the speed and agility it provides, as well as the contributions of experienced employees from various hotels who proposed improvements to the tool and extra features to ensure that it perfectly fits hotel management needs. 

The new app represents a considerable improvement due to the immediacy and agility it provides in the day-to-day work of the housekeeping, technical services, minibars and management departments. What’s more, it can also work completely offline in the event of a failure in the hotel's WiFi or the device's data connection, which is an unusual feature in this type of app. The app also makes it possible to considerably improve response times and reduce the amount of paper used.

The first hotel to use Riu Staff was the Riu San Francisco in September 2022 and, after the app had successfully passed all the tests, roll-out began and is currently complete in 27 hotels. The rest of the RIU chain's establishments currently use an external app that will be replaced by Riu Staff in the coming months, and all hotels are expected to be using this in-house tool before the end of 2024.

The app allows different departments to remotely manage their functions using mobile devices. This makes it significantly easier to monitor, assign and perform tasks. The app guarantees task execution and traceability, displaying real-time status information to the different user profiles. The corporate Receptions team and its in-depth knowledge of the hotel's day-to-day operation played a fundamental role in designing the app's features. In fact, the app covers many tasks that went through hotel reception before digitalisation.

The new app is integrated with RUMBO, RIU's Property Management System, an in-house system for hotel management that includes various modules to cover all areas of the company. In turn, the latter is synchronised with the Riu Guest app that is used by guests before, during and after their stay. Therefore, when a customer makes a request on Riu Guest using their mobile, it is first sent to RUMBO and this system then passes it on to Riu Staff. The staff member executes the request and the communication process is repeated in reverse to let the customer know that their request has been carried out. Therefore, this two-way communication streamlines both communication in the hotel and the resolution of incidents and tasks.  

As it is adapted to RIU's management tools and thanks to the involvement of hotel operations staff, the new app is perfectly adapted to the real needs of hotel employees. The improvements include the management of services and the creation of tasks or incidents linked to customers instead of a room, as well as ambitious projects for the future that will also cover health and hygiene, preventive maintenance and construction work management.

Riu Palace Macao hotel inauguration

The common areas are now decorated with the sophistication of the RIU Palace line, with the new style the chain is launching in its renovations and new hotels: brighter, more open spaces, soft, natural colours, high-end materials and prominence given to tropical vegetation both in decor and in interior gardens. Two great examples include the lobby and reception desk, the first spaces welcoming RIU guests with the new and elegant style. New items include the expansion of the bar and lounge, to which a second outdoor stage has been added for smaller performances and a DJ booth, as well as a new RIU Fit area.

In terms of cuisine, the hotel continues to offer a wide variety of restaurants and options for guests. In addition to the international buffet, there is an Italian restaurant, ‘Volare’; a steakhouse; one serving up Asian small plates, ‘Kabuki’; and a fusion restaurant called ‘Krystal’. All of these restaurants have been renovated with a unique style rounding out the culinary experience. With this renovation, Riu Palace Macao has added a new Sports Bar that will serve food and drinks 24 hours a day and a grill area called ‘Pepe’s Food’ with a Burger Bar with top-quality ingredients in the pool area, which continues to have three different swimming spaces, including one with a swim-up bar.

All 476 rooms have also been fully renovated. The new furniture has simple straight lines while the colour palette is in natural wood tones, beige and green. The style is inviting and elegant and the decor features plant patterns both on the main wall and on the glass separating the bathroom from the bedroom. One of the biggest changes is the implementation of swim-up rooms with a private pool. These rooms are exclusively for Elite Club by RIU service guests.

The Elite Club service allows Riu Palace Macao guests to enjoy perks never before seen at this destination. In addition to the 34 rooms with a private pool, there are another 22 rooms for customers using this service. The Elite Club offers its guests a lounge area with a bar reserved just for them, an exclusive restaurant offering an à la carte dinner, an à la carte breakfast at the Italian restaurant, which is adapted to this service every morning, and an exclusive beach with its own bar service serving premium drinks for Elite guests.

Riu Palace Macao is within the RIU Complex in Punta Cano and shares the Splash Water Park, RIU Parties, Casino, which has also been renovated, Caribbean Street with its picturesque shops and Pachá nightclub with the four hotels in the complex. All guests of RIU hotels in Punta Cana will also now be able to use the hotel chain’s largest wellness centre to date. Taking advantage of the renovation of Riu Palace Macao, RIU has built a new space dedicated to its guests’ wellness, beauty and fitness. The new centre has a large gym with all the equipment necessary for guests to have a complete training session, beauty salon and hairdresser, and a spa with two water areas, steam baths and up to nine massage booths. RIU entrusted management of this new space to Renova Spa, its trusted partner specialising in wellness and beauty services.

The Riu Palace Macao renovation is in line with the renovations RIU is carrying out at its destinations around the world, with this one particularly reinforcing the company’s commitment to Punta Cana, RIU’s first international destination, established in 1991. The renovation of Riu Palace Macao is in addition to the renovation of Riu Bambu in 2017, Riu Palace Punta Cana, renovated in 2018 and the upcoming renovation of Riu Palace Bavaro, which will be completed in 2024 and includes an expansion of what up until now was Hotel Naiboa.

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About RIU Hotels & Resorts

The international RIU chain was founded in Mallorca by the Riu family in 1953 as a small holiday firm and is still owned by the family's third generation. The company specialises in holiday resorts and over 78% of its establishments offer its acclaimed All Inclusive by RIU service. With the inauguration of its first city hotel in 2010, RIU is expanding its range of products with its own line of city hotels called Riu Plaza. RIU Hotels & Resorts now has 97 hotels in 21 countries. In 2023, the chain welcomed 6,4 million guests and provided jobs for a total of 35,808  employees. RIU is currently the world's 36th ranked chain, one of the Caribbean's most popular, the largest in Spain in terms of revenue and the fourth largest in number of rooms.