Hotel Rio Puerto Vallarta

We had a very nice stay while we were here. The staff is very friendly and the rooms are very clean. This place has a good character and there are regulars who come here to stay. It is in the old part of town and the seashore is just block away. Downstairs, the CoExist Bistro has a great staff and chef. The food is wonderful.

If you’re not into Americanized resorts (of which PV has plenty) and want a more Mexican/​ex-​pat experience in the heart of Centro, this is the place. The theme is ‘60s protester; the food and décor are classic and authentically Mex. The place has a cool urban feel. Yes there is street noise and noise from parties in the interior patio. If you want sanitary silence go elsewhere. If you want fun, come to the Rio!

As you read through this review please keep in mind that I booked my hotel rooms 5 months in advance because of the busy upcoming Thanksgiving holiday weekend. My initial request was to have two rooms adjacent to each other but even with advanced notice, I was told that it was not possible although when I did arrive to the hotel there were rooms that were available and that were adjacent to each other, but not available to me. Both of the rooms were in opposite condition. One room was very nice while the other room was small and cramped but I was still paying the same rate for both. How does this make sense? When I walk into my room I was greeted by two cockroaches on the floor that I immediately had to kill and put out into the main walkway for the staff to see. I then later realized that the hotel had been sanctioned and fined for health code violations. The key access cards failed several times during our 4 day stay. We had to walk up and down the stairs to have them reactivated and although it seemed funny to the staff it wasn’t funny to us. Only one key card per quadroople occupancy room, restrooms were poorly lit and poorly ventilated and even though I hung my swim trunks and towel to dry, they did not dry over a period of three days. Can you say musty? It was almost impossible to find a working television remote. The toilet drain was connected to an adjacent floor drain that produced a wonderful smell every time you flushed the toilet. But the icing on the cake was the fact that you had to leave your key access card in an electronic slot so that the electricity would actually work while you were in the room. So going back to the fact that they only give you one key access card if you left your friend in the room sleeping or you had to leave for whatever reason and you pulled the key access card out of the electronic monitor, all the lights would turn off in the room leaving your companion in the dark … Lol. I laugh about it now but while we were there this was a nightmare. There is no laundry or room service available. I must say that the cleaning lady was very good and always left us some fresh towels but this does not make for make up for the lack of attention to basic hotel functions. So now the big question is why do they stay there even though I was living in these conditions for 4 days? Because of the Thanksgiving holiday we had no other options available to us. It was either this nightmare or sleeping out in the car rental. Avoid at all costs.

The reason i booked this hotel was first and most importantly because of it’s location. And quite frankly that’s one of the few things it has going for it. It dose not have parking u have to walk about 6 blocks away and pay 150 pesos every 24 hrs. Once that’s taking care of you really have no place to park even to take out your luggage to check in or out the buses and traffic pass in front on Main Street which is great once your settled in but no one bothered to help us take our luggage in at check in or out. I made the best of my vacation and I’m not trying to nitpick at the hotel just want to give you guys a heads up. The pool is cute and usable but strangely has dinner tables around it so I was weary about my daughter splashing the nicely dressed dinner guest. A/​c worked great and As usual because of the concrete walls the internet only worked on the first half of the room closest to the door wich was not a big deal to me. The beds however were extremely hard and very uncomfortable I had a two bed balcony view of the steet face ing the beach. You are however one street behind the famous malecon of puerto Vallarta and recommend you walk to the left of hotel for that’s the heart of old puerto Vallarta. The hotel seemed very safe as did the rest of the town.

This was supposed to be my rating. ONE star.
Update: after staying the night and not sleeping because the street is so noisy, the bed was lousy and had a pee pad on it, so every time you moved it crunched under you.
Also the pool is in a central courtyard, which has 2 sides of the café looking in on it. Not something I would enjoy for either the swimmer or café patron.

THis Hotel impressed us.
It was a great deal for a comfy, clean and nice Hotel.
Great location! the staffing was polite and helpful.
Our experience was great, we were loud and nodoby bothered us during our 1 week stay back in November. The hotel’s pool area is very nice (super close to the restaurants tables) so they will ask you not to splash in the water, which was a bit annoying but understandable. I really liked the food in the restaurant, it was good and not expensive (except the eggs bennedict, stay away from those)
The cleaning ladies were so sweet and great with us.
I had a really nice time for a very low amount of money!
WIfi was hard to get a hold of, we had 1 small spot in the room where it would work sometimes.
Overall a positive experience, I would go back.

Hotel Rio was the favorite hotel for Hollywood film makers back in day. The hotel has been tastefully remodeled with all the amenities you’d expect from 5-​Star properties including organic bath products and high level service. Although located close to the center of town it is remarkably quiet and steps from the beach. The restaurant CoExiste serves up a wonderful mix of healthy dishes and is great for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Pricing is affordable and the staff is friendly.