Hotel HL Río Playa Blanca — Hotel in Yaiza

Returned home late last night and we'll what to even say!! Rooms was lovely, everyone gets their own bungalow, although it was 2 single beds instead of a double that constantly moved throughout the night, with no bedding to actually fit as a double bed. There's also no dividing wall if there's more than 2 staying in the room. It's an open hall so to speak with no privacy. There is a little yard at front for you to relax at. Whilst on the rooms, when I first arrived I had to ask for a travel cot as I was traveling with a young baby. That wasn't a problem, but on returning to the room I noticed ants on the side so explained to house keeping which just wiped them away. There was no fresh water in the fridge for me to make baby bottles and when I asked I was given a small glass water bottle and was told I had to fill that instead, which as you can imagine was a nightmare when having to prepare baby feeds!! I ended up buying a 5l of water each day in the shop just so I could sterilise bottles and make feeds. On going to make feeds the 1st night I noticed the ants had gotten into her prescription milk so ended up needing to bin the tin. I was told the room was fumigated so I kept my daughter out as long as possible. When waking after my 1st night I was horrified to be absolutely covered in ants, all over the bed sheets in my daughters crib, all over my sons bed and all over mine. I again was told the room would be dealt with. This went on for around 3 days!! I ended up needing to buy my daughter milk which gave her a really bad stomach. When I explained to reception, there was no compassion and was just told it would be dealt with. The location is beautiful with the town, well few shops and the beach not to far a walk. The hotel itself I found a little small for the number of rooms. No matter what time I got to the pool I was unable to get a lounger, esp in the shade to keep my daughter cool, esp in weather reaching 29° there was only a small pool for younger children and 2 pools pretty much attached. Didn't really find it enough given the amount of people who was around. There was also only really a pool side bar which I found frustrating. The pop was self serve which made the queuing easier, but again frustrating as it seemed to be run out more than working. Was only bar unless restaurant was open. The food itself was reasonable, plenty of option for different things. Altho my partner did end up with food poisoning, in the morning the pop machine wouldn't be on until 11 am, and after 11sm the coffee machine was turned off. Housekeeping was a bit of a nightmare, they kept rooms lovely and clean, although I did need to ask twice for more towels as there wasn't enough for a family left. We asked them to come back one morning around 9.30 am as my son was in shower and they didn't return. On my 3rd day I'd gotten all out stuff together and noticed my daughter swim hat and a few other bits missing. The hat was on the side as I'd used it the day before. When I spoke to reception I was told she would speak to housekeeping. My room number ect was never asked for. I had overpacked for my daughter to make sure she had plenty and most was brand new with tags on, she's 7 months so getting around. I had asked again the next day and was told the same, when packing Sunday so it wasn't a rush Monday morning I noticed a number of things missing from my room. Including a bag of new clothes that was left on the side. I again spoke to reception and was given the same answer yet again. I pulled apart the room and cases incase anyone had misplaced them, but I couldn't find them. All cases was packee by myself so I knew what was in each. Yest when checking out I again mentioned it and was met with the same answer. To which I was met with same answer. When I explained that I had spoken multiple times about it he then contacted house keeping, and I was told they hadn't been taken. I was made to feel like a lier! Customer service is disgusting! Don't even bother with wrist bands for water park, it's a splash park in different hotel...

✅ Animation Team - Spot On. Fireworks for the Queens Jubilee. With the kids in the pool keeping them entertained. This team are a credit to the hotel. Evening entertainment has been good too. The outdoor theatre is a great space! You’re very lucky to have this.

❌ Customer Service - the two areas of staff I’ve spoken to: Reception and Restaurant staff are incredibly rude. Reception are supposedly there to help. Instead, everything seems too much hassle and on one instance we got shrugged shoulders. We have given up verbalising our feedback as it goes nowhere and we just get looked at as if we shouldn’t be talking so TripAdvisor is my only option.

❌ Restaurant - My husband was shouted at this evening for asking for a table to be cleaned. This is the first time we’ve encountered an issue for space in the restaurant but there were no clean tables for 5 at 19:25. It was clear that staffing levels were below minimum this evening and tempers of the staff and some guests were visible. I did get a kind of apology but it was more “it’s not my section you have to ask someone else”. I personally work in Customer Service, even if it isn’t my job, when a customer asks - it becomes my job - the staff need to take ownership even if it is busy!

Furthermore, plates, cutlery are not well cleaned. Again, I’ve overlooked this until tonight when I picked up 8 dishes (one after each other) and they had dirty brown water in and clearly visible food stains on. In the end, I ended up cleaning them myself so my kids could eat. They clearly come straight out of the dishwasher onto the serving area without any forethought that the dishwasher hasn’t done it’s job.

Frequently the post mix self service machines are out. I even told a member of staff tonight that the Pepsi Max was out - nothing was done. The beer tap is usually not working. Wine glasses are none existent and I had to request one this evening they came out… piping hot. I love having warm wine…

🆗 Food wise, food selection is okay. It is well presented and there is enough to go around unless it’s after 19:30 (evening dinner finishes at 21:00). You need to get in between 18:00 - 19:30. After that, empty serving dishes are plentiful and you are left with a smaller choice. Pizza is forever out and causing long queues… Also, poor choice for dessert unless you like flan or ice cream and the salad is drab… and where is the cheese????

❌ Room Cleaning - Well, I gave her the benefit of the doubt the first night as we arrived really late. I tried my best in Spanglish to say we didn’t need a clean - we’d been in the room 6hrs from arriving in the middle of the night before she knocked on the door. I had to sign to say I’d refused which I found odd but hey ho… guessing that ensures she doesn’t get in trouble. Then, it doesn’t get any better unfortunately when we’ve had the room serviced. Beds are made, towels are redressed and bins are emptied but it stops there. Rooms are left unwiped including the 2 bathrooms. Room isn’t swept/ mopped and neither is the courtyard. We went to the beach yesterday, rest assured - the sand is still in the shower/ courtyard… the master bedroom beds weren’t even touched but she’d been in - as the kids beds had been done and supposedly the towels had been changed but the smell of damp was too much. I went to reception to get those changed! I mentioned the smell damp and I just got a grimace…

✅ Other hotel facilities I’ve used are well kept, pools are brilliant, public toilets are well kept / cleaned and the overall public areas are well kept.

❌ Covid Restrictions? - So we had some day trips planned and as we are all inclusive asked for some pack up for lunch. Firstly reception told us to come to the restaurant and ask, the restaurant told us to go to reception… we went around that a few times until we spoke to the Restaurant Manager who said due to sanitisation rules they couldn’t do it… but it’s the same as dinner service just putting it in a...

Had a really nice stay here - not without faults though wouldn't put me off coming back.

Firstly I have to commend the entertainment team here. tireless effort, regularly coming round the pool area to get people to join in with dancing and activities throughout the day then putting on some of the best shows in the evening i've seen from hotel entertainment teams, especially Greatest Showman. The amphitheatre for the shows at night here is huge. Get your drinks before you go in for the shows. Full size astro football pitch, tennis courts, archery, pellet gun shooting, volleyball etc etc LOTS of things to do.

Food was decent. Plenty of choice and those reviews that say otherwise are just either very fussy or need to visit specsavers. Some nights they brought out a huge coal bbq so fresh burgers, pork steaks etc straight from the grill.

Breakfast - omelettes are cooked fresh in front of you, crepes are also fresh and regularly come out. decent sausages and grilled tomato. Hash browns could definitely be improved - some days they tasted reheated.

Lunch/Dinner - always generally plenty of good choice, fresh salad/fruit bar in the middle. pizza/pasta/pork/chicken/fish choices regularly. canarian potatoes,chips etc. can't really go wrong.

Service - couldn't really fault the people, the guys covering the restaurant and bar areas are running at 100mph constantly and always generally helpful but they definitely could do with more staff in areas at some points. Long queues at check-in for reception when we got there for example, a regular queue at the pool bar etc because there's only 1 or 2 people staffing.

All inclusive drinks - they're in paper cups for a reason you are round a pool. Bar staff had no problems using plastic cups if you brought your own and they were available from the supermarket.

Amstel on tap, local spirits and expected all inc 'cocktails' - cocktails if you wanted to upgrade to real ones they were 6 euro and worth it.

Hotel was clean though be prepared as round the pool area there are little birds and flys fairly regularly which can get a little annoying, though neither you could really say are a fault of the hotel. Not sure what they could do here with these.

Pool is well maintained, and the kids splash pool reopened after a refurb whilst we were there and was great. There is a much quieter pool round the back of the amphitheatre available too.

Location - you're literally on the doorstep to the local waterpark, a 5min walk to flamingo beach and a 30-40 min walk to the harbour. great spot in my opinion.

The faults - When we first arrived we were greeted to a room which was full of little fruit flys, we got there late so the cleaners came into the room at 22:30 and fumigated... we then woke up to several dead cockroaches off the back of that. That was enough for us to change rooms and almost put this into our bad books..... Reception staff were quick to swap us though no complaints there at all and went to a spotless and very clean smelling room with no flys. It was cleaned regularly throughout too for the remaining holiday though we actually had another couple of dead roaches in the bathroom appear a few nights later - came to the conclusion they could have been in the pipes as we had windows/doors shut- but nothing further from that. Maybe one the hotel need to investigate.

The lift - this is mentioned on a LOT of reviews. It's rubbish. I carried our suitcases up/down the stairs as its forever out of order. Hotel really needs a second adding in. Wasn't really a huge issue for us but I imagine it would be for lots of others.

All in all, outside of the odd unwelcome room visitors and a knackered old lift, I couldn't really complain about HL Rio - certainly one I would consider again if the...