Tabaiba Princess — Hotel in San Bartolomé de Tirajana

Overall outcome: we won’t be returning or recommending.||We arrived to the hotel on the 28th August for 2 weeks all inclusive. Overall when we arrived the first impressions looked good, quite nice in the reception area. |We got booked in and the male at reception mentioned an inclusive premium/ plus package but we said we’d ask about this the day after as we just wanted to get sorted. |We went up to our room, the overall appeal was ok, we did think we paid for a more modern double room however it didn’t really live up to that, the bathroom was dated, we had x2 twin beds that kept separating, but it was fine. |A bottle of water was left out on the side, not in the fridge and due to the lack of air con was warm, nothing else in the fridge. |When we unpacked and looked inside the wardrobes, the doors were very stiff and also a piece of metal that goes along the bottom was loose and sharp, didn’t look the best. |We went down to have some food as we arrived quite late, there wasn’t much left understandably and from first glance the selection looked like there was a lot of options so looked forward to the morning. |Morning came, we went down for breakfast, was impressed with the cooked breakfast selection, fruit was ok but a lot wasn’t ripe and hard etc.. |I was surprised that it was all self serve for hot drinks as usually it’s nice to see waiters coming round offering tea/ coffees but everything was self serve and sometimes the queues were ridiculous/ machines were broke/ not enough cups etc.. |We noticed pigeons kept coming on the tables outside and punching food off peoples plates as they weren’t getting cleared quick enough. |We went to reception the following day and asked about the inclusive plus and what this was, we were informed it was for branded drinks, €30 a day. |I asked if we could just do it for one adult as I’m pregnant and won’t be drinking, the response I got was ‘no because you can have non alcoholic beer’, the lady was quite miserable and not accommodating in the slightest. It felt stupid having to pay another €420 for one person to enjoy branded drinks, we didn’t know anything about this option until we arrived so very disappointed.|Around the pool the beds are ridiculously close together, so crammed in there’s hardly any room around any beds. They are uncomfortable, some broken and the umbrellas were dirty and broken too. |Once we got set up and wanted to go into the pool, we noticed the lifeguards kept on blowing their whistle continuously throughout the day, we realised that balls/ lilos aren’t allowed in a section of the pool and only in the part where there’s sand. However due to this that side was always too busy with children obviously wanting to play. We didn’t agree with this as no one was causing any issues in the pool, children wanted to play close to their parents and they had to move. |I wanted to buy a lilo this year as being pregnant I could just chill and relax in the pool but I couldn’t even do that, so very disappointed in this. |The lifeguards were quite rude with how they told people also, blowing the whistle and pointing rather than having a conversation. |The pool bars again are all self serve, even pre made cocktails you did yourself and there was about 6 from the same machine so not the best. I noticed someone walking with what looked like a frozen pina colada but didn’t appear to have a premium wristband so I asked if the bar tender could make one for my partner, she didn’t even respond but just pointed at the pre made machine so I said no please can you make one and she said ‘no you pay’ and walked off. Clearly not wanting to do it regardless of if I had a band for premium. |The entertainment during the day around the pool was ok however the same thing every single day, the games were the same and got boring. |We didn’t realise that they had a rule about towels being removed before 10am on sunbeds, I think day 3 we came to the beds after going to the toilet and our towels had gone. My partner went to reception to ask where they were to be confronted by a male who just said ‘it’s forbidden’, he then noticed a slideshow on the tvs that mentioned it for a split second, there are no notices around the pool to indicate this and you don’t get told on check in. |The towels had been taken to the towel area near the toilets and just left in a slot. This happened to a few British couples throughout the 2 weeks but never anyone else? |In peak times of the year i understand a towel rule however the beds were completely empty around us, no one rushing for beds, no one struggling so it did seem daft. |We ate at the ‘healthy bar’ around the pool pretty much every day, it was nice here the salad was a nice change from eating burgers/ chips everyday.|When we went back to the room, the aircon had not cooled the room down at all, you could hardly feel it, I’ve noticed on a good few reviews aircon gets mentioned a lot and it doesn’t appear much is being done about this. |The room didn’t appear cleaned really at all apart from the bed being made? No smell of cleaning products, had to ask for toilet rolls etc.. the cleaner would also sometimes knock on our door at 08:30 and basically ask why we were still there. |We also had a conjoined door between us and next door, this was very irritating as we could hear everything, it was very loud outside of the room as reception was 3 floors down over the balcony, if we didnt shut the middle door we wouldn’t of slept at all. However when we did shut the middle door it sounded like a wind tunnel coming through the room as we discovered our balcony door wouldn’t shut properly and had a gap at the bottom. We had to try fix this by piling pillows against it to stop the noise. |The food in the evening was ok, some nice options but one side mirrored the other so not much variety in all honesty. Again everything is help yourself drink wise, even alcohol unless you pay… the staff either cleared your plates too quick or not at all. We went into get dessert and our whole table had been cleared, drinks removed and cutlery, which was annoying as we had to go get more. |It’s as if the staff don’t want to do anything or acknowledge you as it’s a self serve holiday pretty much, if you can do it yourself then they leave you to it. |We booked into the Italian and Asian restaurants, these were lovely but again self serve apart from drink! Nice change. Food was good nice to get away from the business of the buffet. |The only thing I’d raise is that the food didn’t change in them, we did the Italian 3 times and it was always the same food. |Checkout was simple, you get a 30 min slot in a room to have a shower and re fresh before you leave. We got given a room key for a room that we actually expected to be in when we arrived. It was very modern, very clean, bathroom was lovely, not sure why they use this as a shower room as I’m sure someone would love to stay in it instead. |Overall we made the most out of the holiday, we enjoyed ourselves just being away was nice but I am disappointed with the hotel, the amount of money we paid and what we got in return...

I have just returned from a five night stay at Tabaiba Princess. I travelled with my sister, my cousin and my Dad plus 3 children aged 3,4,and 8. ||The positives||The hotel is spotless|From the rooms to the restaurant to the building to the pool and the surrounding areas the place is absolutely spotless. The self-serve drinks stations are kept clean and there are no wasps or flies. ||The swimming pools are excellent! |There is a huge swimming pool in the middle of the resort which is kind of divided into several smaller pools and surrounded by snack bars (more on those later!) the pools are all beach entrance and the is plenty of room for everyone even when the hotel is full. They are very safe and they have huge areas where even my young children could reach the bottom. At the deepest point i'd say its about 6ft deep so you can have a good swim too. There is also a 'fun' pool which I think they call the Aqua park, this is two pools, one of which is only knee deep and has slides and fountains for little children, the other is a bigger pool with bigger slides. The rule is that you have to be 1.4meters tall to go on these but my 4 year old daredevil son is just over 1m and some of the lifeguards let him go on which I was pleased about. The lifeguards in the big slide pool were very good I didn't see any other life guards around but the beach pool is so open it felt very safe. ||The Entertainment|The entertainment team work so hard, they seem to be on duty constantly either running the kids club or energetically performing at the kids disco or the cabaret show. In the day they do aqua fit, volley ball and various other activities but they don't come and bother you or try to get you to join in, in fact we were never asked to join in which was perfect for us because we don't really get involved in any organised fun until the evening. The reason so many of the events team are name dropped in these reviews is because they do come over an ask you to mention them by name, even giving you cards with a QR code to this website and their name on. I think this is a bit cheeky but they work so hard they do absolutely deserve the credit they get. The evening shows were also some of the best quality i've seen in a hotel, especially since the majority is all in-house.||The other bits||Food/Drink|The all inclusive was ok, most of the food was well-cooked and the restaurant layout was great. There was a pretty good variety for all the age groups with us and plenty for my Gluten Free sister. Front of House service in the buffet was good and the tables were cleared efficiently, the chefs weren't especially friendly. ||The snack bars around the pool absolutely let this hotel down. They were pretty awful. Food was nice, they were a bit chaotic at lunchtime but ok if you went in a bit later. The staff in the snack bars were horrible, incredibly rude and made the whole experience of going in there unpleasant. Whether it was barking at you to put clothes on (how utterly ridiculous that you can't go into a pool bar in swimwear - its a POOL BAR!!!) I totally get them asking you not to go in if you were wet but if wearing dry swimwear just felt stupid. At one point the beer had run out and I asked the lady if it could be swapped, you would think I was asking her to brew it herself she was nothing short of rude There were NEVER enough drinks cups and they were very slow to replenish them. Each pool bar had different food, one burgers, nuggets and hot dogs and one more healthy food. There was also one that sold crepes in the afternoon but they charged extra for these which I think was greedy of the hotel, either make them all inclusive or don't serve them! ||Bar hours and location|We stayed in a very nice junior suite which was close to the theatre bar and the aqua park. The bar right next to our room was only open from 6.30pm each evening. The self service drinks stations were the same. In fact there was nowhere close to our room to get anything at all to drink in the day time without walking to the main pool bars. For this reason alone I won't return to this hotel, feeling incredibly thirsty in 36 degree heat while my child napped is not what i expect in a hotel like this one. How hard is it to have the self service drink station open all day in the theatre bar - even just water! ||The Rooms|Very nice rooms, nothing to complain about except the air conditioning was rubbish! We also found the rooms were not sound proof which meant you could hear all the music in the evening but this didn't really bother us because we were up anyway. ||Exceptional circumstances|Unfortunately when we were dur to fly home my cousin's 8 year old got an ear infection and was told she was not fit to fly. The hotel were very accomodating and allowed her to keep the room for an extra 3 nights. They charged £900 which was a high rate but they did suggest she asked TUI to help her find a better deal. |The hotel pharmacy were a bit rubbish, their Dr prescribed the wrong medication and the wrong dose but luckily there is a hospital a 6 minute cab ride away with a paediatric unit who were great. |On the first of the additional days upon returning from the hospital with a very poorly child my cousin found her key card didn't work. The hotel had locked her out of the room and told her she couldn't have her things or go into her room until she paid the £900 upfront. I totally get that it was necessary to ask her to pay in advance but this was not the right way to treat a highly distressed young mum in a horrible situation and it just goes to show that guest wellbeing is not the a priority to the hotel, its just not how you treat other humans and it was a horrible thing to do after initially being so accommodating.||This review isn't the place to go into details but all I can say of the TUI reps in the hotel is they were absolutely useless in our time of need. They couldn't have cared less or been less helpful. They are a disgrace to the company and i'll be making a complaint about them.||Post office Travel insurance were AMAZING and I cannot recommend them enough. Whatever you do please don't forget to boo travel insurance.||Overall this hotel was lovely, our stay was lovely there were a few issues for me with the layout and some of the staff attitudes, particularly in the pool bars but overall if you have a young family who love swimming you will have a great time at this hotel. Theres loads to do for families, plenty of sun loungers and the...

I booked this hotel for a family of 12 - 8 adults and 4 children, ages between 1-12, directly through their website.|I contacted them several times via email before arrival with different queries - one being to confirm that one room would have a cot, one being to confirm that one of the rooms was big enough for 2 adults and 2 children. My son also contacted them on a separate occasion about the cot required.|Responses were fast, and reassuring. So we were disappointed on arrival to find that they only appeared to have knowledge of 8 adults arriving and no children. Despite numerous emails, despite filling in all the relevant information in the booking form on their website (4 rooms, 1 for 2 adults, 1 for 2 adults and 2 children, 1 for 2 adults and 1 child, 1 for 2 adults and a baby). It appears that their website booking process is faulty, and email communications are not tied up with the booking itself. So I suggest if you are booking rooms for more than 2 adults, don't do it on their site.|Of course, this created another issue. The price I was due to pay had now significantly increased, but I had no choice but to pay up.|It made the holiday, bearing in mind I was paying for 12 people, a lot more expensive than I had anticipated.|Not a good start unfortunately.||The hotel itself is well set out, a large hotel with lots of trees and green spaces and a range of pools to suit all ages.||Pool area: plenty of pools for adults, children and babies. Plenty of sunbeds too - with 12 of us I expected us to all be in different areas, but we always managed to get 5/6 sunbeds together, which was all we needed between us all.|However, there is a big negative about the pools. The "sand" that many of the sunbeds are in is actually deep and sharp gravel, which is horrible to walk on barefoot, and gets stuck underfoot in sandals and flip flops, making it difficult, and uncomfortable to walk around. Pushchairs have to be left on the main path because of this, which is inconvenient to others, but it is impossible to push on the gravel.|To make this even worse, the gravel gets walked into the pool, so there is no escape, putting your feet down in the pool is often an unpleasant experience.|It would be far better if they stopped trying to recreate a beachside experience and paved it all over instead.||There is an adult pool, we didn't get to try this, but it seemed quiet and tranquil. There is also a spa area, and a small gym.||Rooms: rooms are large and beds are comfortable. Each room has a decent sized balcony, with 2 chairs and a table and a clothes rack for drying. Plenty of drawer and wardrobe space for clothes, and plenty of space in the bathroom. The shower is an overhead rainfall shower, probably one of the best hotel showers I have ever experienced.||Dining: Plenty of choice with a wide range of food available throughout the day. Food was clearly marked as vegetarian/vegan/gluten free etc (we had vegetarians in our group, so that was very helpful). Lots of healthy options - plenty of vegetables, salads and fruits; and plenty of unhealthy options as well for people who would prefer that. For daytime eating around the pool area, they have 2 restaurants, a healthy one with salads, rice dishes, pasta dishes, and the unhealthy one with chicken wings, burgers and chips etc. You can bring food from one to the other. You can also use the main dining room for lunch. At breakfast and dinner, the main restaurant is busy yet big enough for everyone, with inside and outside tables. Very well organised, and staff are very quick at getting you seated, clearing plates and making sure the food on offer is topped up frequently.||Location: This was a bit of a problem - there is one small shop about 3 minutes away, but if you want more, or if you want to get to the sea, it is around 20 mins walk away, on pavements that are often rough and uneven, and along main roads - okay for adults but for anyone with a pushchair, it's hard work. I made the mistake of thinking that when we walked to Meloneras or Maspalomas there would be little shops and places to look at along the way - instead it is just main roads for cars. There are buses that run up and down the main road so that's the best option if you want to get out and explore the local area.||Walking to Play del Ingles is a long walk in the sun so I would suggest you get a taxi there and back.||Entertainment: entertainment in the day and in the evenings was fairly low-key but fun; and there were plenty of places to sit to watch the entertainment in the evening, or to sit quietly and chat or play games. The pool bingo was a particular favourite with our group!||Staff: Staff were always friendly and helpful; we couldn't fault them. Rooms were cleaned to a high standard.||There are lots of positives for this hotel, and we had a great stay, but the negatives - the website booking process, the gravel "sand" and the location means that we would be hesitant...