Alexandre Hotel Gala — Hotel in Arona

Just finished an 8-night, 9-day stay at the Alexandre Gala Hotel, and although the hotel looks lovely, there are definitely improvements to be made.||Firstly, the hotel is advertised as a 4-star, and although I could see why it has been awarded this ranking, I would say that the hotel is more a 3-star working towards being a 4-star. The staff throughout were lovely and attentive when needed, which is a great start. Checking in was great, and the people at the desk are always happy to help. Our room was given along with our key cards, and we were also given free safe use (rather than the approximate prox per day if you are not given free use). We are not sure why we got this, but we were very grateful for it. This is when we were informed that our key cards would replace the standard use of a wristband, meaning that every drink and every meal we had, we needed to scan our key card before we ordered. I believe this is to reduce waste from single-use wristbands, especially as this hotel displays a very clear green initiative; however, this did become a nuisance as you were unable to self-serve your drinks within the restaurants for lunch and dinner, and you had to ideally wait for a waiter to take your drink order before getting your food. If you got food first and then waited for someone to come and take your drinks order, you did risk getting missed by the waiters, as they seem to think that eating means served, so they won't bother you. ||Another downside to the key cards is that, due to handing them over at check-out (from 12 p.m.), you no longer have access to any further all-inclusive privileges. This means that from 12 p.m., you no longer get free drinks or access to the restaurant should you want a meal before you travel. Due to our flight being late in the evening, we were given a complimentary voucher for lunch, but after this, we were lost on what to do. This is the first all-inclusive where I have had all services stopped at check-out, and for the price we paid, the least we would have expected would have been the full 9 days rather than 8 days and a morning. You do have access to all facilities like the pool, a luggage lock-up, and a shower room, but, of course, you would be paying for all drinks or food you may need. ||Moving on from check-in and the key card issue, we got to our room. We were situated on the top floor and had a street view, which was decent enough. We did have the typical kebab shops and pubs to look at with a sliver glimpse of the sea, but we had a balcony which remained in the sunshine until about 6 p.m., so that was great. The main bedroom was modern with a small television but was about 20 years ahead of the bathroom. This was more dated but functioned as intended. In the main room, we had two beds pushed together to make one, a small television, a sofa bed, kettle, coffee machine, mini-bar, and, of course, a safe. Overall, the room was nice, but the cleanliness was a bit of a problem.||The room appeared tidy at first glance; however, closer inspection revealed issues. The floors were dusty, and anything touching them became soiled. New white socks were stained black simply from the bedroom floor within hours. This definitely needs addressing and should be discussed with the cleaning crew. The bathroom had similar cleanliness issues and also suffered from extremely fluctuating water temperature, swinging from freezing to boiling. Aside from these points, the room was fine and spacious enough for two people. While not a four-star room, a few improvements to cleanliness and the bathroom would significantly enhance it.||Regarding food services, the four-star rating is questionable. Breakfast, lunch, and dinner service times were good, offering ample opportunity to eat. However, drink orders were often slow or missed. The quality ssue was also inconsistent. From a pregnant woman's perspective with dietary restrictions, options were already limited. Lunch and dinner frequently consisted of pizza and chips or pasta, not due to a lack of choice, but due to the quality of other options. I avoid red meat, and I observed chicken being prepared on surfaces used for other meats, making it unsafe for me to eat. Some meat was undercooked or poor quality; even my fiancé, who eats anything, agreed that some chicken was too pink or simply unappetizing. We are unsure if this is due to differences in produce, ries but caution is advised. While nobody became ill, and not all dishes were substandard, the desserts were excellent. However, dessert allergen information was unclear. For example, "assorted desserts" listed all allergens but didn't specify which dessert contained which, preventing me from trying some due to potential meat products like pork or beef gelatin.|Overall, for the food, we would give it a 2-2.5/5, but that is only based on our experience and choices. We can't say it would be the same for everyone.||Finally, regarding the bars and amenities. The best thing about the bar was the availability of real soft drinks like Coke, Coke Zero, and Fanta. The downside was the slow service. Most bars (we accessed all three) often had two staff members, but only one serving drinks. This led to long queues. The snack bar, also run from one bar, further slowed service. A self-service pump, even just for soft drinks, would improve flow. The card-scanning requirement added an unnecessary step. The pools were lovely; there are two—one for adults and one for families. We preferred the family pool due to the adult pool's depth (1.8m) and temperature difference. To secure a sunbed, we needed to be up by 7:30 am at the latest.||There's a large variety of entertainment, but we didn't see much due to early nights or a lack of seating. For adults, entertainment starts at 9:30 pm, but tables filled by 8 pm. I can't comment on alcoholic beverages due to pregnancy, but the beers offered included Amstel, a lemon Cruzcampo (2.2% vol), and another we can't recall. My partner enjoyed both the Amstel and Cruzcampo.||Overall, I wouldn't recommend this hotel without warning. Many things could be easily improved. While it's classed as a 4-star hotel, I'd rate it a 3 possibly on...

The beautiful Alexandre hotel gala? On the surface, yes. Don't get me wrong, the view, the pools, and the spa are amazing. The hotel itself also looks beautiful. Sadly, a fair few staff we encountered were arrogant, rude, uncaring, and pretty useless. Let me start at the beginning. We arrived at 12.30pm. I'm both diabetic and disabled. After being up since 2.30am, I was very tired and my blood sugars had plummeted. We were told at reception that we couldn't check-in for another hour. Not a big problem, it happens, but my husband told him that I was exhausted and I really needed to eat. The receptionist replied "what would you like me to do about it?!?" To which my husband replied "tell me where I can get food for my wife?!" He slapped a card on the desk and told him "go to the pool bar then!" My husband queued for 30 minutes and managed to get something to me just before I was about to pass out. Not a good start. We paid for an all-inclusive holiday. After we sorted ourselves out, we decided to go to the pool. We went to the bar which had a large cocktail menu. Great we thought, until we ordered. Only 6 out of about 20 cocktails are part of the 'all-inclusive' menu. Only the chips are part of the large array of food available at the pool bar too. Not too happy, we ordered a couple of drinks and enjoyed the pool. Back at the room, we discovered the door frame was falling off and the lights weren't working. We told our rep and they were sorted them the next day. The next day, the lamp also stopped working, but that was replaced. We were in a superior room which had daily spa access. That alone is worth staying for and I highly recommend it. That night we were tired but our room was right over the internal stage. On the 4th floor, but the nightly entertainment was very, very loud. Off we went to reception to ask when the entertainment stops. Apparently, it was going on until 11. Not too bad when you aren't exhausted, but we really wanted to go to bed. We asked if there might be a quieter room? We were very rudely told "yes! All the way over there, (queue exaggerated pointing gesture) AND it will be a lesser room!" We asked what that meant? Amongst other things, no fridge which I need for insulin. Still shattered, we just went up, closed the internal door and managed sleep. We had an issue with a cleaner entering when we'd asked them not to clean, but it was eventually solved. A few grunts, ignoring staff and we're here, on our last night. OK, all packed, off we went to the restaurant. We finally found something to eat and a waiter, dressed in black got us drinks. He had a bit of an attitude, but we were well used to it now. I finished my drink and asked another waiter, also dressed in black, if I could have another drink? Some unknown Spanish was said and he gestured yo the guy who originally got our drinks. I asked him for another drink. He also gestured, muttered dome Spanish and walked away. A few minutes later, my husband had stepped away, the same guy came back. I asked if the drink was coming? It had been 10 minutes since I'd asked. He responded "ASK THE MAN IN THE RED SHIRT. NOT MY JOB!!!" He then walked off. On his return, I explained to my husband what had happened. I came upstairs very upset and in tears. My husband complained. The end result was that the waiter was asked to leave for the evening. I really wanted not to encounter any more rudeness, but it's been a daily occurrence and I just want to go home. Thankfully, we fly out tomorrow. The good (and goodish) things: The food is okay, more suited to the Spanish and Germans, but passable. What isn't great is the likelihood of getting served a drink at lunch and dinner. The hotel is very child friendly. The kids pool looked great fun and the entertainment in the early evening is geared towards the kids. The view from our room and the pools is spectacular. The location is very convenient and central to shops, bars and restaurants. Check out the Hard Rock Cafe and Punhjabi Junction restaurants. Both have amazing food, amazing staff and were...

Never, ever again! Where to start, Good location to the beach, if you want to be close to nightlife then good location, however do not book this hotel if you want to relax. We went as a family of 8, 6 adults and 2 children, our first proper family holiday so we booked 10 nights here… way too long for everybody’s liking. On the first night we arrived at 10pm kind of time so we missed the food however we got given a little bag of sandwiches and apples, the sandwiches were dry and apples soft so we binned them. Next morning we had breakfast and wow I’ve never seen such a poor offering of food, flies around the ham and cheese’s, very unappealing continental breakfast, I tried to make the most of it and had bacon, scrambled egg, sausage, beans and hash browns, the bacon was cold and chewy, scrambled egg was runny and watery, the hash brown inedible and sausages was tiny. Lunch and dinner food was also horrible, we was all inclusive and I really wish we hadn’t bothered as we maybe ate at the hotel 4 times in 10 days. A very poor selection of dinners on a daily basis, they also do American nights and Italian themed food etc but honestly it’s the same food over and over again, a hamburger the size of tea light candle is not an American burger! Onto the ALL INCLUSIVE… what a con, on arrival we was made aware the indoor pool is part of the spa, which is extra, something around €17 per person!!! Then the gym… again extra money around €11 per person! I’m sorry but all inclusive should be all inclusive to what the hotel can offer. The accommodation, wow I’d never stayed anywhere as bad as this place! From night 1 until night 5 we was kept awake by the music from the nightclubs on Veronica strip, not managing to get sleep until 4am daily, so enough was enough we asked to change room and was rudely confronted by the staff as to say why had WE left it so long to say something, being brits we tried to just crack on and persevere but getting no sleep was not enjoyable at all. The next day we got moved to another room which granted was a lot quieter and looked like the rooms advertised. The finish of the rooms are not 4 star by any means, I’d personally say 2 star maybe 3 at a push. A premier inn hotel on the side of a motorway is cleaner and fresher. Staff in general are rude and arrogant, and one individual is very unprofessional, I believe he was the ‘restaurant manager’, his behaviour and professionalism needs to be looked at, after ordering a Coca Cola he took my driving license from the back of my phone and started looking at what I can drive/ride, then going onto his personal mobile phone and showing me a motorbike he has… this was without any interest or interaction from myself, I just wanted a drink. Another occasion I ordered 4 drinks, one for myself, partner, brother and his girlfriend, bearing in mind we was all inclusive, he refused this drink order and persisted we only have 2 as the card system says 2 people on one card. If you want to eat and drink I’d recommend going half board and eat/drink in local restaurants and fast food chains as the food will be enjoyable and you won’t have to deal with unprofessional, unhappy people. We got woken up by my brother who told us someone was very loud in the early hours of the morning and upon opening the room door they was welcomed to a pile of human faeces, not behaviour you would expect from people staying in a 4 star hotel. This was cleaned up quickly but again staff seemed unbothered to how disgusting this was! The pools was nice, busy which is expected and sun loungers was sometimes hard to get hold of. The entertainment was very poor, very kid friendly up until 10pm and then the adults get a 1 hour entertainment act but it’s nothing that’s amazing, music is repetitive because it is always playing baby shark and songs like this for the kids, which is fine but the adults in general are sitting there bored and uninterested. I honestly think 7 days here would be too long, a family of eight that spent around £10k for 10 days and not one of us would ever go back...