Hotel Riu Palace Tenerife — Hotel in Adeje

We have recently completed a family holiday at the Riu Palace Tenerife and overall enjoyed it. Many of the reviews are highly positive and I can see why but I’m going to provide a more detailed overview. There are some things this hotel does very well but also things that as it claims to be 5 star it needs to take on board as feedback to be and sustain as well as meet high expectations.||Starting with the positive points. ||The hotel is nice, very clean and in particular the house keeping is exceptional. The team are hard working and every day the hotel room is left immaculate. I’ve never seen a hotel bathroom so clean. ||The hotel is very well situated. It’s on the edge of Costa Adeje so quieter than some areas but equally close enough to go to shops and restaurants etc we had a car which I’d recommend and could park easily.||The pool area is well laid out and well maintained with lots of different areas to sit, bath and relax. Generally if you visit the pool areas before 10am you can find sun loungers in good positions to use for the day. There are different pools for different purposes such as adult infinity pools as well as pools for kids to play in, makes sense and works well.||The hotel is half board and has plentiful good quality selections for both breakfast and dinner with plenty of seating. The restaurant staff work very hard, especially at clearing plates which if not done promptly can ruin a buffet. The bar area is big with great attentive service and found the drinks pricing reasonable and choice plentiful.||The rooms are very spacious and comfortable beds with a large bathroom. All have a sea view, even the side cheaper rooms.||Points and areas for improvement and feedback.||The lifts are very small and can only fit 3-4 people in at a time. This is really the only area that seems not cleaned regularly as the mirrors and buttons are dirty and one of them still taped up with brown tape, noted on a previous review weeks ago. This is a 5 star, hotel, replace the glass!||It seems the term ‘twin room’ means something different here. We paid for 2x ‘twin room’ which should mean 2 rooms with 2 separate beds each in each. That’s not what you get, you get a large double bed. It’s very comfortable and spacious but means sharing the bed with a family member, this not what we asked or paid for. The assumption is you are ok to do this. This is a large double room not a twin room. This is misleading and needs corrective action. ||This hotel is what I call a ‘door banger’ hotel. The sliding wardrobe doors have no padding so any other guest opening or closing a wardrobe in a nearby room makes a loud bang on each action. This is the same for room doors. As we know most of the public only care about themselves so make no effort to be quiet so adding to the issue. Talking on the halls echos loud due to its design. This issue is not just this hotel I’d imagine, but worth knowing if you are a light sleeper. ||The buffet has very good food but can be very busy and difficult to choose and carry food due to sheer numbers of people. I’m surprised a simple time slot system doesn’t exist as to spread out guest numbers a little.||The staff are generally good, friendly and polite. We found some very friendly but others less so, it was a little inconsistent in this respect.||The evening entertainment is not very good. The quality of it disappointing. I appreciate securing higher quality acts every night will not be easy but our experience was underwhelming which is a shame as the outdoor bar and entertainment area is lovely and over looking the sea. They could really excel in this area with more effort. ||The charging for water at dinner is not good. It’s free at breakfast but not free at dinner? This only serves to frustrate guests as to why they are doing that. Similarly charging 25 euros for a safe. It’s not the money but the principle, this is not a cheap hotel to stay in and these items should be included.||To get pool towels you need pool cards which you swap as you enter the pool area. This system doesn’t work as there is often no one swapping cards for towels, you just take towels and in return end up with more cards. Silly really. This is a 5 star hotel, just give your guests towels as they need, most will return them if towel bins are visible and others will be I’m sure left on loungers.||Conclusion ||The Riu Palace Tenerife is a good hotel and we had a nice holiday. It provides for a good experience. It is a little rough around the edges as the building is older than it appears so they need to stay on top of the maintenance to maintain its look and feel. ||I would however recommend this hotel to young families for a well rounded holiday experience in Tenerife. I hope Riu management act on this constructive feedback as it’s the difference between a good hotel and an excellent hotel. ||We overall enjoyed our holiday at Riu...

I stayed here for a week in May 2023 with my partner in room 763.

Room - overall very good. We were unexpectedly given a ‘family room’ meaning two connected rooms sharing one doorway. We had a lot of trouble in the first three days with the keycards not operating correctly, and on one morning where we had an early excursion booked, we were unable to get into the room with our clothes at 6.30 AM. The hotel handled it well and apologised profusely, but the many trips back and forth to reception were a bit annoying by the third day.

Bathroom very clean, bedroom well maintained to the usual RIU standard and the furniture, bed, balcony all very comfortable. Air conditioning did not initially work but was fixed quickly after a request via the RIU app.

Staff- the whole hotel team - be it at the reception, cleaning staff, pool attendants or staff in the dining room were exceptionally friendly and went out of their way to help us, say hello, check everything was OK, offer information, etc. It’s a really obvious difference compared to a hotel in the UK! There’s also a ton of staff and consequently the hotel is constantly spotless. When someone leaves a dining table, it’s cleared, relaid and cleaned in seconds. Particular thanks to Adrian, Pilar and Rebecca who were kind and friendly.

Clientele - as with other RIU hotels, nearly everyone there has come via TUI and consequently are from the UK, Netherlands, Germany and France. Hard to say exactly, but probably about 40-50% of the guests were from the UK and the vast majority in their 60s. As 40 somethings we felt extremely young!! We’re also a same-sex couple and unfortunately found that we were the subject of stares and the odd unfriendly interaction. It’s hard to say exactly if this is because we’re two men, but having experienced that all of my life I have a fair idea when that is the case, and unfortunately as an LGBT traveller I didn’t feel totally welcome. This is not the hotel, it’s the customers. I would go back, but I wouldn’t have any physical contact with my partner in a public area. If you’re one of those disapproving straight people reading my review, consider how you’d feel not feeling comfortable being able to hold the hand of your partner or even hug for fear of a stare or a shaking head of disapproval.

Food- pretty good, and very similar to what we’ve experienced in other RIU hotels. The main dining room has a very wide range of food for breakfast and dinner with some daily variation. You have to pick carefully as not everything is amazing, but most things are really nice and because of the turnover of people eating, everything is fresh and nothing hangs around long. I came home weighing more than when I left! The wine list is good and the table wine surprisingly good and inexpensive.

Poolside snack menu is not the best and overpriced. There are nearby much better lunch options if you’re staying local.

Communal areas & pools- the bars, reception areas, terraces and pools are all well appointed and looked after. Fresh flowers in the reception looked great and a constant stream of gardeners looking after the grounds. The pools are pretty good and large enough to have a short swim in. Sunbeds are subject to the usual towel politics nonsense and I’m sorry to say it seems to the people from the UK who are the most territorial and self interested (Sorry Europeans, we’re not all like that!). Entertainment is variable, but really is dependent on your own taste. Easy to dip in and out and entertaining just to watch the interesting dancing exhibited by other guests!

Overall, we would go back. Location strikes a good balance between out of the noisy parts of Costa Adeje but not so far away that you’re isolated. The staff alone made for a great stay and really contributed to...

Stayed at Hotel Riu Palace Tenerife a week ago, and unfortunately do not consider this hotel as a 5 star rated hotel. Im not sure where the great reviews are coming from, as it did not live up to the high standards that i expected from a 5 star hotel. I don't normally leave reviews as i am generally an easy to please person who would rather see the positives, but feel i need to review on this occasion.

We requested a room on a high floor (and although we appreciate that requests cant always be fully met) we arrived to be given a room on the lowest floor (floor 1) with no view and an open balcony which overlooked the pool area with no privacy whatsoever (every person walking in from the pool could view us whenever using our balcony!) this meant that we barely used our 'open' balcony. The main door to the room did not fit the door frame properly and leaked a lot of light from the corridor at night once all lights were switched off (which affected our sleep quality) The rooms were not cleaned to a decent standard. The floors were left dirty (particularly obvious in the bathroom) after the cleaners had been in. The robes provided were never replaced / washed for the whole of our stay. Not good enough for a five star rating. If you do stay in this hotel, please be aware that there is no drinking water provided by this hotel. You have to buy all water at the extortionate hotels price, which is not value for money, compared with the local supermarket price. Hence why many guests often brought water from outside of the hotel to drink around the pool etc.. A bacardi and coke cost 9 euro 55 cents at poolside. And there was a mini fridge stocked in the room, however all at an additional cost if wanted. The food was ok, but again wouldn't consider it 5 star in comparison to previous hotels i have stayed at. The icecream flavours were almost the same every night, and the plates /cutlery were often dirty. I also note that the restaurant manager very hostile. Maybe she would be better suited to a job in a prison. The buttons for the lifts were grimey and never seemed to look like they had been cleaned! The pools require maintenance urgently. The reason being that children were frequently coming out of the pool with many sharp cuts on the underside of their feet. Obviously sharp broken tiles on the floor of the pool which require attention! Entertainment was what you would expect of any hotel in the canaries. Nothing special (again, would expect that little bit more for a '5 star' perhaps) Hotel is situated in front of beach, which would be great, but its not exactly the most scenic beach, much of it is coarse under your feet, and some parts full of plastic on the shore. Been to better beaches. Amenities are limited in the hotel, the only thing offered is a spa, nothing additional in the way of entertainiment such as tennis courts / games room for younger guests etc... which again disappointing for a '5 star' hotel. To summarise, if you want luxury, i wouldn't consider this hotel. Mediocre for the...