Iberostar Selection Lanzarote Park — Hotel in Yaiza

Genuine review from a travel industry professional with over 20 years experience contracting hotels||Stayed 2 weeks, couples holiday, all inclusive SP in room 3125, Junior Suite with sea view located 2nd floor - Travelled, 1st 2 weeks of June.||Having had an excellent holiday at Iberostar Palace Fuerteventura last year. I decided to try Lanzarote which did not disappoint. ||Arrival|Streamlined check-in with a huge warm welcome whilst relaxing in the SP lounge. Felt like our holiday began immediately and room was ready before check-in time. Effortless||Location|Superb with fantastic sea-views / Fairly middle of the resort|40 mins walk one way to lighthouse or marina, both excellent scenic walks and easy|10 mins walk to the port / 15 minutes walk to the main shops in the town|Bars/restaurant options less than 7 mins walk both sides||Bedroom|Spacious both room & balcony|Pool/sea view in the distance|Serviced daily & nightly turn down, plenty of clean towels|Room equipped with everything you could need and more|Beds very comfortable |Huge bathroom with a double shower and sinks & dressing room area|Stocked and daily replenished mini bar, we didn’t use too much as we got most of our drinks at the pool bar or in the restaurant there was no shortage of drinks on offer|Plenty of plugs & a USB connection|Decent toiletries |Wi-fi fairly strong||Food & beverage - SP & main buffet|Fantastic such a varied offering with so much choice. Iberostar offer one of the best hotel buffets out there.|Cooked to order meat and fish a fabulous touch|English bacon cooked to order & better bacon what the UK supermarkets have to offer!|SP buffet smaller offering but so close to the main buffet it was easy to choose from both|Steaks, Lobster, King prawns, caviar, chicken, pork - Soo much choice and quality|Desserts - Outstanding|I usually get fed up with hotel buffets, not the case here, I felt like I was having a dining experience every day. Didn’t feel the need to eat outside the hotel as the food was so good.|Excellent drinks on offer:- Coca Cola products, Frixnet fizz, San Miguel Beers & all the top shelf drinks you could want. Iberostar cocktail was gorgeous. Spanish wines on offer were good & didnt need to turn them into a spritzer.||SP Pool area|Loved the fact it was adult only which was a big reason we booked|Fairly big area with plenty of beds, superb pool which was warm enough to swim in|Large jacuzzi was a nice option|Comfortable sun beds/plenty of umbrellas and a good number of double shaded beds. Many areas with stunning views overlooking the ocean|Excellent pool bar serving drinks and snacks all day|Week 1 it was quiet and no need to reserve beds/week 2 you needed to be up by 07h30 to reserve a bed with an umbrella ||Spa|With SP you got 1 x 2 hours to use the indoor pool, hot tub, plunge pool, sauna, steam & rainfall showers|Nice sun comfortable lounges to chill out on|Loved my time in here and felt very under utilised as we had to ourselves which was nice. |A lovely different experience one afternoon as an alternative to the pool area||Bars/Entertainment|Only used the main bar once, we spent most of our time in the pool bar area day and night|We only dipped in/out of entertainment as it’s not our thing but pleasant enough. Nice touch early evening having the saxophone being played in the pool bar, very atmospheric. ||Staffing|11 out 10 - Outstanding, credit to the hotel and Iberostar there main aim of their working day is to make sure all guests are happy and having a fabulous holiday experience. It’s clear to see strong customer service delivery. They were excellent with anyone who had disabilities this is a hotel which clearly caters well and cares for their guests.||Constructive feedback|Week 2 SP pool area just too busy and did feel at capacity at times |People reserving beds which wasn’t used for 1/2 the day or in some cases all day. I appreciate this is difficult for hotels to manage|Phone speaker free pool area, no need to hear other guests FaceTiming their friends & family, some guests were just too loud and it was unnecessary |Sometimes food could be lukewarm outside the cooked to order (Specifically Pizza & burgers)|Main buffet area sometimes could be chaotic with little space, this could do with being a little bit wider. |Staying 2 weeks felt guests should have another 2 hours spa area on week 2 maybe this would help the pool capacity especially in busy periods|Bathroom closed toilet area as it wasn’t private.|Very minor felt pool area could have been cleaned a little better daily ||Overall|We had a fantastic 2 weeks holiday and didn’t want to leave.|Iberostar is a hotel chain you can trust to deliver in all areas, the repeat guests who have been staying for years speaks for itself.|Star Prestige was well worth the money and delighted we did this which elevated our overall holiday experience.|Thank you team Iberostar Lanzarote for a fantastic memorable holiday. We will return. ||Top tip|Diet before you...

We stayed here as a grown up family trip and stayed SP, I wanted to give a detailed review for anyone thinking of coming!||Service/reception check in 10/10|The service was incredible, from the minute we arrived we were greeted and our cases taken to the reception, we booked star prestige so we were led to the SP lounge for check in where we were given a glass of caca, a cold towel and a macaron, this was especially nice as it was really hot outside when we arrived, the staff could not have been friendlier. Our rooms were not ready yet but they gave us our bands and told us to go and enjoy some lunch at the buffet, got a call about 45 minutes later saying our room was ready, went to reception and they gave us our room number and told us our bags would be delivered to the room (this was really nice and completely stress free!) ||They rang the room a few times to check in to make sure we were happy which was nice to know that they cared to make our stay special. ||Rooms 8/10|The rooms were lovely, we had a star prestige double room on the second floor, nice big rooms and bathrooms and the showers were amazing! ||I would only say that the aircon could use an upgrade as it didn’t get the room cold and we ended up having to open the door to get some cool air on a night! And the bathroom isn’t very private, you can hear everything whilst someone’s on the toilet as it’s only a glass door, maybe a proper door on there would be better! ||You get a mini bar in the room included with all inclusive/Star Prestige, it’s got beers and Prosecco and soft drinks and even milk for your teas and coffees, this was restocked everyday, it was a nice touch! ||Pool 8/10|The pool was nice for a swim, it was really hot whilst we were there but it was still heated which meant it wasn’t great for trying to cool down, we ended up going down to the beach when we were hot for a swim in the sea! ||The staff were friendly and made some great cocktails! The snacks by the pool bar were lacking, the only toasty was cheese and ham or you could have a salad sandwich or wrap, I expected slightly more by the reviews but if you’re a plain eater it’s great! ||Sunbeds were easy ish to come by, I’ve seen lots of people saying they remove your towel if you’re not there by 9am but one morning we came down before breakfast at 7:30, there were towels up and the people didn’t show up until 1pm! No towels removed, but they seemed like regulars to the Hotel, which there felt like a divide in those that come all the time and first timers, the staff also treated the regulars more favourably than the first timers which was a shame as we all had paid to be there. ||Towels can also be changed a few times a day but in SP people do it a lot and then sometimes there’s a wait whilst they go and wash them all to bring them back out! ||Food 8/10|Breakfast - 10/10|Breakfast is definitely the best meal served at this hotel, the egg and bacon stations, the pasties, the salmon, the salads, all were absolutely superb! And the freshly squeezed orange juice, it was amazing, and so nice to sit in the SP area as it was a much quieter more chilled atmosphere at meal times||Lunch 9/10|There’s a lot less option for lunch but in SP you get table service drinks which you don’t in the main restaurant, so being able to order you coffee at breakfast and wine/beer at lunch and dinner was really nice! The food was always fresh! ||Dinner 8/10|The dinner here was good, some nights were better than others, the Canaries night was great with fresh fish and Oysters, and the Moroccan night had a few themed dishes but mainly your normal pizza, burger and chips and we prefer to be a bit more adventurous! Then we got to the Mexican night which we were disappointed by, there were nachos and some small quesadillas and that was it, I feel like there are lots of options for this but the rest was the same of pizzas and burgers and I would have liked more variety in these themes! ||Desserts 10/10|All the desserts for the whole time were great! There was something for everyone and everything was great, especially the ice creams, no matter what they always just tasted so nice and always so much choice of what to have! ||Entertainment 6/10|Definitely pros and cons to this, there was a woman in the SP in the week who was great and really tried to get everyone involved, she spoke multiple languages and made everyone feel welcome! Whereas I found the weekend there was nothing in SP to do at all… luckily I had some books to read! On a night time we only really went to the SP bar but you couldn’t ever get a seat but we took a baileys to bed and the staff were friendly and even handed out blankets as it was a bit colder. ||Overall this hotel was nice, but there are improvements to make, I wouldn’t say there’s enough to do for more than a few days - to a week, but it depends what you want, if a pool is simply...

Please note this is a review for the hotel and not for Lanzarote as a destination which is a cracking island, of which we would definitely go back to though we would rent a self-catering villa apartment - we would not return to Iberostar Selection Lanzarote Park.||Positives:||The staff that we met/interacted with were friendly, attentive and provided good service, housekeeping kept our room clean. The resort location is good in Playa Blanca, stepping out on to the sea and walkway the runs alongside the front - though of course there are many hotels/accommodation that also do this. Our room 1303 had a great view out to the sea and walkway.||Negatives:|| Over-priced for what it is, I realise some of the pricing is set by the travel companies that sell the rooms however even so I was not of the view that we received value for money for what we paid - we had a 'standard family room' - three adults, we went with our adult daughter.||I would describe the room as uncomfortable, the settees were uncomfortable to sit on, the beds which were two single beds pushed together were absolutely lousy akin to two camp beds, certainly not of 'five star quality'. The air-con is useless as has been written in many other reviews, in the really hot months the room will be really uncomfortable because of the poor air-con. ||I think the room would be a nightmare if your were staying with children, there are two settees in the 'lounge' area that double as beds, our daughter is circa 5 foot 11 inches so they proved unsuitable we therefore requested and were provided with an additional bed which was placed in the lounge, there is only the one bedroom and a bathroom so we had to take turns in getting dressed etc. - we were on the third floor, this is notable as we had a large balcony with only a small table and two chairs initially, even though we had booked as three adults, we had to request an extra balcony chair which was provided - we could have easily fitted sun loungers on the balcony but were told when asked that these were not provided for third floor rooms, these seemed unusual as an explanation we would have paid to rent them but they could not be provided - which if an additional bed can be moved to a third floor room they should have been able to provide a sun lounger.|||Food - I would describe it in a range of fine to mediocre, luke warm and not kept hot by the weak heating lamps but definitely not five star standard - we stayed all inclusive and this will be the last time we do. I would recommend only staying on bed and breakfast basis and eat elsewhere - the food and there are large amounts of it is pretty standard Mediterranean type all inclusive ie. you could be in Spain, Italy, France etc etc it is that same type of food that gets set out - Spain has a great cuisine and I do not think the selection was reflective of that however I note they are catering to a wide audience - there are the usual stations where you can queue for food to be cooked, steaks, chicken, fish, bacon, eggs etc etc (note this hotel has an international range of guests not all of whom know how to or will queue so that can be frustrating) - the dinning room is very reminiscent of a canteen or for those from a forces background a NAAFI - it is quite a chaotic experience with lots of people milling about the food stations and areas, it is busy and not a pleasant experience - we went outside of school holidays as we have done our time with loads of kids running about however instead there were loads of pre-school children and babies - it was very noisy, also what is it now with parents just putting their children in front of iPads etc at the dinning table this also just creates additional noise ......... certainly as other reviews have said avoid the first hour of mealtimes, well certainly in the evening and you will hopefully avoid the worst of that chaos - I also noticed during the week as more people booked in there were less tables available, again during peak season I could foresee issues with that.||Entertainment - this was very reminiscent of a Butlins type approach to evening entertainment ie. pretty mediocre and pretty cringey, we did not stay....||Mosquitoes - use a good spray and get plugins for your room otherwise you will be covered in bites - the problem is that even though you may try to keep your room mosquito free, housekeeping when they clean the room which happens on a daily basis wedge the room door open which will allow your room if unlucky to be filled with mosquitoes.||Responsiveness to reported room problems - the extractor fan in the bathroom was not working and given there are no windows when using the shower the room became completely steamed up - we reported this to hotel reception on our first day, it was never fixed - whilst minor overall it does not bode well for if you had a...