Lopesan Costa Meloneras, Resort & Spa — Hotel in San Bartolomé de Tirajana

Just finished 2 weeks, half-board stay April/May at Lopesan Costa Meloneras. First time at a Lopesan resort, having always admired them but our usual Christmas travel time is far more expensive. Absolutely stunning hotel & experience for a myriad of reasons. I know my review might seem rather lengthy but I am a customer experience professional by trade so details matter and I think opinions are candidly worth sharing.

We stayed in a deluxe garden/pool view room. There was an unbelievably comfortable proper king size bed with giant pillows - none of this two mattresses push together stuff you get at other hotels. A kettle, wide range of teas & coffee available alongside a stocked mini fridge. Personally, we emptied the mini fridge & put all of the contents on the shelf above so we could use it for our own items (nobody minded); fridge was silent & cold. 😉

2 walk-in storage wardrobe/closets with a safe, fluffy white bathrobes & plenty of towels. The mirror has an anti-fog system and the walk-in rainforest style shower was enormous. Luxury lotions, soaps and shower products available, so the fact I inadvertently packed 2 conditioners and no shampoo was an stress-free experience for me. 🙏

Towels for the pool areas were able to be changed out daily. Just make sure you check the hours because they are specific block times. The pools as far as we could tell were all heated and incredibly easy to access even for a person like myself with disability. We never had any difficulty finding sun loungers *during peak season this might be different though. We were impressed to see the lifeguards were quite happy to remove towels that had been left all day as ‘reservation’ but the patrons were nowhere to be found - to ensure guests who needed a particular set of sun loungers were definitely served first.

When it comes to food, yes if you wait a little too late into the breakfast or the dinner period it will be a little bit like ‘mass chaos’ with a queue. This said, my husband (who usually gets sick of resort food in 3 days or less) was still quite happy to eat in the half-board buffet restaurant even on day 12 because he said the food never tasted the same and was constantly changing. Again TOP MARKS to this resort, the array and selection was beyond anything we’ve seen before and should be definitely commended. A few pretty specific shout outs were the sashimi tuna and salmon, entrecôte and veal steaks cooked to perfection (whole sirloin steaks), pork shoulder, and focaccia bread which I could literally eat every single day if I had the chance, the little Caesar salads - really well done too. The gammon steaks for breakfast were a welcome delight.

We did have 4 separate reasons to need to contact the maintenance people but I’m incredibly pleased to say the hotel was utterly responsive and timely about to each issue. I always think complaints in some cases are unavoidable, but it is HOW the resort deals with them that truly demonstrates “service” quality. Lopesan you are doing a great job.

The only thing I could comment and was a little bit weird about the hotel was the whole UNIQUE option. I’d read plenty of reviews where people suggested if you have the opportunity to get Unique you should take it. Therefore, on our check-in day Unique was the first thing I asked about and sort of expected someone to try and ‘sell’ to us as an upgrade, but this was not the case. The staff at the front desk were not able to explain or ‘sell’ it to us in any way other than it would be another €120 per day and that we would have a room in Block 1. *After taking the time to read the website and understand a bit more for myself, we couldn’t justify the additional €120 per day to have breakfast in a different place, wear a bright orange wristband, use bright orange towels and have a special designated pool. If anything, the unique guests stuck out like a sore thumb. If they ate in the regular restaurant, the hotel put a big lamp or Unique “sign” near them which in my humble opinion looked like they needed attention in all...

Long Read:

In summary, the hotel is astoundingly beautiful but sheer robbery in relation to food and staff attitude.

Arrived at 1pm and was met by a male receptionist who didn’t make a good first impression. He was supposed to be checking us in, but barely said a word to us and floated around making faces and completely blanking us at points. He then started to get involved in other families check in, pointing his finger at us to ‘wait’ (we had been waiting - waiting for someone to tell us what was going on).

He told us he needed card details from us. I asked what for and he said a deposit. I said do you mean incase we use anything from the minibar etc and he said yes. I said so nothing comes off the card right now and he said yes again. He proceeded to give us a card machine with €450 euros on the reader. We questioned this and I wondered if it was a deposit that’s returned at the end of the stay - he just shook his head. Eventually, he told us it was credit for the hotel. At no point had he mentioned credit until we quizzed him. He was about to have us put €450 euros to be spent in the hotel ONLY under the guise of a deposit. After refusing, he then shrugged and told us to come back in an hour as our room wasn’t ready.

We came back and a different sour looking receptionist gave us a map and sent us to find our room, which should have been a room with a view or high up. We open our window and see some fake grass and a roof at base level. We requested a room change but were told we didn’t ask for a view (although we literally had the proof). They said they would try and sort it for us but it would be unlikely.

After a long trip (and finally receiving our luggage and room) we jumped into the shower together and a few minutes in a woman walks right in on me and my boyfriend without knocking and sees us.

We headed down to reception to complain to be told by the receptionist and further down the line the PR manager that this was our own fault. Apparently, although the maids had JUST cleaned the room, someone separate looks after the minibar and this can be checked at any point in the day. She also said that if we don’t want anyone in, then we need to always have to have the do not disturb on the door. I’ve never heard of this - as far as I know once the maids have been no one else should be coming into the room unannounced.Are we saying then that if they did knock and we didn’t answer they can just come in at any point??

Although nothing could be done with the embarrassment of her walking in, the PR manager did send some chocolates and champagne as an apology which was nice and we fully appreciated and thanked her for (although ironically the woman who delivered the champagne also just walked right into our room without knocking). She also then looked into changing our rooms seeing as we were two hours in and it had been terrible. We did eventually get a room change and the view was much better.

There weren’t anymore specific incidents after this but in general:

Terrible staff attitude (minus one receptionist with red curly hair who was amazing and this doesn’t include the bell boys and maids who were lovely). Everything felt like an issue, staff looked displeased just to be asked if you could order a drink. Poor check out. Told the receptionist we were checking out and she asked my room number and said that’s us you can go - no asking about our stay. Didn’t even bother to take our wrist bands off. Amazing facilities - if based off this alone it would be a 10. Beautiful pools, dining areas and spotless! Breakfast - carnage and not 5 star. Undercooked eggs, same thing everyday (understandable normally but 5 star you would expect something different). An anxiety inducing nightmare. Hundreds of people banging into each other, skipping ‘queues’, no instructions for example some days we were offered coffee other days told to get it ourselves. Loungers - a fight to get one every single day. internet - poor and didn’t work in our new room.

We wouldn’t return and wish we saw the negative...

The first impression was great. Detailed attention to arriving guests. Friendly and smiling staff. At the entrance to the hotel, a huge hall, designed interior details and a spacious view of the terrace through the large windows, then the pool and then the ocean are pleasantly surprised. The hotel itself is huge, several floors, with several pools, jacuzzi, shops, spa, gym (not enough equipment), restaurants (at el churrasco the waiters care more about themselves with elements of circus performances, than about ordering for guests: food quality is average, some hot dishes were served cold ). There are tennis courts. There is also a playground for children outside, but with old furniture. There are also separate apartments for children with the cool staff who organize different events.

Getting to know the administration was pleasant, but the inexperienced young administrator, due to language difficulties, was uncomfortable explaining the information we needed. We had to ask several times and clarify the necessary questions and answers.

The room is large, clean, smelling, without any flaws. Huge bed. Balcony with a table and two chairs, where you can sit in the evenings with a glass of wine and the sound of music from hotel area, if your room is located on the side of the hotel where all the events take place. If the noise does not bother you, and even like it, choose such an apartment.

Daily cleaning of the room was of high quality, strict, but still the bed, if it was dirty or there was sand after the beach, did not always change, but simply ordered.

Since we were with family and the choice of the hotel was partly determined by the availability of a service for two-year-old children, we still did not manage to make sure that the hotel could provide such services. There is no pool with the right water temperature for such children. You can use the common swimming pool with a smooth shore, but water is too cold.

There is more than enough food in the buffet. Breakfasts and dinners were always good, some of the dishes were just great. Great selection of food for both meat lovers and vegans. A bunch of desserts, buns, cakes, corn flakes, yogurts, fruits, fresh and pickled vegetables etc. There was always a choice of several types of juice for breakfast. You can drink a glass of cava also. The waiter always brought a thermos of coffee and warm milk. But if suddenly you don’t have milk and want to take it from the machine, it will be sweet for some reason. The difference between breakfast and dinner is that the waiter no longer brings coffee. There are no juices at dinner either. This can be ordered for a fee. Light alcohol (beer, wine) must also be ordered separately.

As for drinks, you will probably be disappointed. Especially if you like to drink cocktails on a hot day by the pool. The most ordinary classic cocktails are some kind of horror. The attitude of the waiters is the same as in el churrasco restaurant, they are not at all interested in making them the way they should be. For example, instead of a mojito, you will get the worst cocktail imitation with a lot of ICE, after which you may lose interest in mojito forever. I ordered cocktails every day. Several different cocktails. And only once out of a dozen cocktails did I get a normal mojito just because the cocktail was made by a new bartender. They even served sangria which tasted like a 1 euro tetra pack.

Since the territory of the hotel is huge and quite easy for strangers to get into it, every day we could see how a security guard approached uninvited people with a request to confirm that they were guests of the hotel. It was very strange.

In any case, we had a good time and were satisfied with our holiday in the...