Disappointing

Contrary to all other reviews this is going to be rather negative. We stayed for 10 days in a Junior Suite at the beginning of August 2017 and were consistently disappointed with the quality of this hotel. In our opinion this is a struggling 4 star hotel at best. What this hotel fails with is attention to detail which I will highlight below. On the plus side most of their staff are friendly and helpful, with a few notable exceptions. So here are the cons in no particular order: 1) Third world internet. Yes, it is free, but we never got more than 5mbs so you could not do any streaming, downloading or work effectively (some of us still do despite being on holiday!). This is just not acceptable in this day and age. The hotel admitted they had a problem but, for the 10 days we stayed, they tried and failed to rectify this crucial issue. 2) The buffet breakfast was extensive but the hot food was always lukewarm and it was often a struggle to find clean plates. 3) The sunbeds in the (adult only) spa area were very uncomfortable. This meant we often went to the main family pool instead, where the beds had mattresses to lie on. 4) The pool staff were unhelpful and disinterested. We had to move the heavy sun umbrellas ourselves while the pool attendant just stood and watched. In fact all he ever did was trudge to and fro getting clean towels, a painful study in time and motion. The pool area was often left unattended and old cups and glasses etc were not frequently cleaned up. 5) The gardens are divine but we had assumed we could lounge in them under trees etc. However this was most definitely not the case. When we mentioned this to Suzanna, the customer services manger, she said this was not the case and to just ask the pool attendant to move some loungers for us. We tried this exercise once to absolutely no avail - imagine Manuel from Fawlty Towers going 'que?' and just shrugging, that is as far as we got. Such a shame and such a waste. And it wasn't just us, at no time in our stay did any sun loungers appear the gardens. This meant you had to endure either the main pool with all the kids, or be uncomfortable around the spa pool. 6) To use the spa they insisted you wore the dressing gowns and slippers they provided as they didn't want any outside shoes being worn. All well and good except everyone who arrived was shown around the complex in their outside shoes and clothes. There was a long list of what you could not do in the spa area but this was not generally enforced. They asked for no mobiles, but we often saw people talking on them thus defeating the object to enforced tranquillity. 7) Our Junior Suite was a good space and comfortable with good hanging space but lacked enough shelf space. However we had to request them to put a mattress topper on the bed as the bed was very hard. The topper made it softer but it was cheap and therefore hot and noisy at night. The balcony was large but only had a small table and two chairs on it. We therefore requested a couple of (comfortable) sun loungers to be installed. We got one and settled for that but again it is a shame they do not think to provide such facilities. 8) Because the breakfast in the hotel was so poor we decided to have it delivered to our room instead. Imagine our disappointment when the time came and nothing arrived. On checking we found that our menu had not even been taken from the night before. Amazingly this is the first time this has ever happened to us in all our years of holidaying, but this just sums up this hotel. They were of course most apologetic and offered to get us breakfast or send us champagne and chocs etc, but that is not what we wanted and not the point. Just get the basics right! Another time our room did not get the evening turn down. Just detailing that they fail to attend to. 9) Although we were in a Junior Suite our separate shower was appalling. It only had a hand shower on a slider rail, no overhead rain shower or any added feature to what should have been a prestige bathroom. Frankly I've had better in a Premier Inn. 10) The hotel offers 3 separate a la carte dining restaurants for the evening instead of buffet in the main dining room. Strangely this is only used for breakfast so where everybody goes in the evening remained a mystery as these restaurants were always quiet. The setting and décor in each is attractive but let down by lacklustre service and poor quality food. Two of our three main meals had to be rejected as being inedible. Yes they didn't charge us, but again the experience was spoiled. Also they thought it was important to serve you as quickly as possible, hence you are in and out within the hour, hardly conducive to a dining experience. Most disappointing all round. The only good food in the hotel was in the pool bar area for lunch, that was always pleasurable. I know some of these points may seem a but nitpicking, but if you want to be a successful five star hotel then you have to aim for, achieve and maintain a high standard, and this hotel just couldn't do it. Frankly it took us 3-4 days to even get near to relaxing due to all the small stresses and aggravations we endured. I know we are on holiday and don't want to complain and moan, but we really felt we had little choice to keep raising issues with the hotel. We certainly will not return, nor would we recommend the hotel or even the resort area (the south of Tenerife at the Costa Adeje being far superior). However to finish on a positive note for the hotel, we had left behind a usb charger and wires which they kindly posted back to us in the Uk at no charge. If only the rest of the hotel could match the good intentions of their customer service endeavours then maybe they could be considered a proper four star hotel, but five star…..??