MYND Yaiza — Hotel in Yaiza

Just home after a visit to Lanzarote, 5 nights in Costa Teguise and then 5 nights in Playa Blanca at the Mynd Yaiza.|I wish I had booked all 10 nights here at Mynd, it was amazing!! ||CHECK-IN|We did the online check-in before arrival and everything was quick and smooth when we arrived. Greeted by 2 lovely Mynders, and when one gave us the hotel information the other served the kids cold soft drinks and the adults an ice cold beer.|It was noon and rooms not ready but our luggage was put in storage until calls later that day to say accommodations were ready. The only negative here is the resort credit doesn’t start until you have your room meaning potentially you could arrive early morning but not start using credit until late afternoon.||ROOMS|We were a party of 5, Myself and my 13 year old stayed in a swim-up double room and my sister and her 2 children (ages 12 and 15) booked a swim-up triple room but were upgraded to a junior suite with private pool.|Would highly recommend the suite if more than 2 people as regular rooms are not large. Our room was perfect for 2. We had 2 twin beds and a small sitting area. Room was spotless clean, and cleaned daily. Lovely modern shower. We did have issues with water turning very hot or very cold during peak hours, but nothing that we couldn’t cope with. Free safe in each room, and also a small fridge. We didn’t need an iron or kettle but I believe you can request at front desk. The swim-up rooms are located on the west side and the evening sun here was just bliss! Really enjoyed the use of the swim-up pool. The suite with the private pool was located on the south side with a lovely large patio and garden area, and enjoyed sun all day long. If I went back again with just 2 people I would 100% book the swim-up again, but if 3 people I would splurge in the suite.||HALF BOARD and CREDIT SYSTEM|We booked half board meaning all adults (anyone age 12 and up as a child is classified as 11 and under) receive 28 euro per person per day credit to be used for food and drink.|The credit carries over daily and can be used until 12pm on the day of checkout. So for our party of 5 for 5 nights we had 700 euro credit to spend.|It’s a great idea as it gives you flexibility to eat outside the hotel for dinner. As the ethos of the hotel is sustainability, they want to avoid food waste at the dinner buffet, so hence their incentive to offer credit. |We ate at the hotel A La Carte on 2 nights which was fully covered with our credit, and ate out 3 nights.|The rest of the credit we used by day for lunch, drinks, ice cream and snacks at the pool bar, and in the lobby bar in the evenings.|The pool bar has pizza, chicken fingers, chips, hot dogs, chicken baguette, ice cream, crisps, peanuts, etc ….. highly recommend the chicken fingers, I don’t know how they do it but they are the best!! Burgers at the A La Carte were fab too, as were the sweet potato fries.|As commented in other reviews, you have a paper card where each spend is written on the card which seems very old school in this digital era! |Besides carrying a piece of paper which can get wet around the pool or easily get lost, it was also very time consuming for the staff, but other than that it really is a great idea!||ANIMATION TEAM and STAFF|Kids too old / too cool for kids club, but the animation team are amazing. You can see they genuinely love their jobs and the small kids adored them. They work so incredibly hard.|They walk around in the mornings to let you know what’s going on throughout the day but aren’t pushy or annoying. We joined in a few events and really enjoyed their energy.|All areas and members of staff are so friendly and hardworking. You would see the same people day after day from early morning to late evening, and always with a smile.|We had an issue with the safe (our fault for inputting wrong code) and after a visit to reception, the maintenance worker was in my room 5 minutes later to resolve the issue. |Every staff member we encountered always offered a friendly “hola”.||POOLS|There are 2 sections divided by a block of rooms. To the south you have the family pool and kids splash pool, and to the north you have the relax pool.|There is only one lifeguard on duty between them all so if you have kids that aren’t strong swimmers I would make sure to not leave them unattended.|There are lots of beds and loungers, but on hot days (we had a heat wave whilst there) it did get very busy from early in the morning. The lifeguard would come around at about 10am and remove towels from unattended loungers.|On our last morning, the pool cleaner wouldn't allow towels to be put on a sun lounger before 9am, which was hard to man as there is no single point of entry to the pool areas. We typically left the kids in bed and went for our morning cuppa at 8am and drank it on the loungers until the children arrived at around 9:30am, so were surprised on our last morning we were told we couldn’t, but was we stayed with the loungers and had our morning cuppa and chat we were allowed to.|The pool and pool area are very clean. With exceptionally nice and clean public bathrooms.||SUSTAINABILITY|As mentioned, the hotel has a strong ethos on sustainability, hence why they are so against food waste, which is amazing. |One thing that bothered us however was the lack of water refilling stations. We had reusable bottles but for the first few days were unable to refill, it was only near the end of the holiday that we found a water fountain. It is located outside the laundry room. This was the only one we saw throughout the stay, and again, it was near the end when we stumbled across it. |I had heard there was an option to receive credit for not having your room cleaned but that wasn’t offered to us. |I hope the hotel adds more bottle filling stations and makes guests aware. ||LOCATION|About 35-40 minutes from airport. Taxi cost 55 euro each way.|In our opinion, Playa Blanca is the nicest part of the island. |Swimming at the beach in Playa Dorado feels like swimming in the Caribbean with it’s crystal-clear water. We take bread to attract the fish and enjoy snorkeling.|When you exit the hotel turn right, cross road and continue through the Princess Yaiza car park to get down onto the promenade right onto Playa Dorado beach (about a 10 minute walk).|From the promenade turn left to the marina and left to the town. Lovely flat walk on the promenade in both directions.|We ate at Jungle Vibes in the Marina for a birthday celebration and highly recommend. |On another night we ate in the town on the promenade in IMAGINE, a fantastic Indian restaurant.|Also right there on the beach at Playa Dorada, they rent sun loungers and umbrellas, and there are plenty of water activities to avail of.|The kids did the UFO/Donut, and we all did the pedal boats and parasailing. They also have jet skis and paddle boarding.||My only negative is we checked in on my daughters 13th birthday and had noted that on the booking. Her passport obviously verified the date. There was a little A4 printout saying happy birthday n the room , but it would have been nice to have had a bigger acknowledgment.|As a person who travel frequently, I wouldn’t hesitate to rebook this hotel again if back in...

The standard of accomodation at MYND Yaiza was pretty good, and the food and staff attitudes were also both very good. We were in a junior suite overlooking the relax area pool - they’d upgraded us so we had a suitable room which was much appreciated- and it was clean, comfortable and had all we needed - except for instructions on the air conditioning system! I did hear some people less happy with standard and superior rooms You do need to be comfortable with smart phone / tv to get all the info you need at your fingertips - tho staff always helpful.

Lack of a welcome drink and potential queues to use the self check in needs to be sorted - not always enough staff on the floor to deal with sudden influx of arrivals and it felt a bit mean to not have that welcoming glass of wine or a beer after a long journey!

This hotel has its quirks - do check out the food offer if you are thinking of booking half board, it is a bit different to usual - but the flex in that package is very helpful it operates like a credit on your account - very helpful.

We had some excellent food in the Lalama restaurant with terrific quality, imagination and service. We liked that both restaurants had table service. But some of the dishes in the main restaurant were not great - others were very good - so there’s an issue of quality and consistency there. The translations of some dishes also need checking!

Breakfast offers a wide choice but the hot food isn’t hot enough. No hot food to order not even eggs or pancakes. There seemed to be loads of stuff that was maybe wasted not lease because eg the bacon was rock hard and lukewarm being kept in huge trays under the heat lamps - not appetising - and lots of strange vegetable type things that seemed weird for breakfast and maybe leftover from dinner. Some tinned fruit too and would prefer fresh. Labelling not 100% sometimes guessing what things were!

Overall they need more staff as others have said!

We received good support from hotel and when we ran into a medical issue and with any queries or difficulties. Just need a few more of them around!

No drinks served around the pool - it’s a bit of a trek to the bar if you are on the far side and no pool snacks in Relax area - that’s a real miss - we didn’t enjoy having to go down to the even noisier family area to get some lunch.

Tho quite a lot of the hotel is accessible it isn’t all ramped / lift accessible - and so getting to bar or spa isn’t easy or may very impossible it you’ve any mobility issues.

A major issue which did affect our enjoyment was the much too loud and very frequent times of loud thumping music being played in the outdoor areas including the ‘RELAX’ area invading the peace and quiet even in the rooms. I simply do not understand why this is necessary or even desirable. We all have different taste and most of us can listen to our own choice of music these days on our devices. Why have piped music at all in an area that’s meant to be ‘relaxing’? If you must have it limit the times, volume and vary the style! I had to raise this frequently with the hotel and they were responsive especially Alex the lovely guest relations person who did achieve some temporary change and a compensatory voucher for our marred spa experience but - the issue kept recurring! This factor alone would prevent me from rebooking there.

Entertainment in evenings ok but not much to our taste. Daytime activities varied and free - some looked fun but happened when we were out - maybe timing of these could be better.

The spa area is nice but limited and the pool really needs to be warmer there to make it comfortable to use as intended, as a therapeutic experience! Costly too.

Anothe bugbear was charging €15 rental plus a €10 deposit for a kettle! What? Never been charged anywhere for this before and in a 4* hotel it’s really unacceptable! Increase the deposit by all means but rental? Very off-putting.

Close to one of the beaches, not far to marine and very close to a bus route and a small...

Hotel as a building was really nice, nice pool areas, one side for families and one for relax. Breakfast was also really nice, good selection of breakfast options to cater for different tastes and also it was never too busy. We made use of the spa facilities (Pool, sauna and steam room) which was really nice and also very clean. Free filitired water is available on tap in the lobby area which was really handy to have.

However there were several things which let the hotel down:

⁃ We arrived around midnight and had to use self check in, no one was there to show us around or where is our room, no mention of breakfast times etc. ⁃ We discovered that air con in our room is not working, we reported that straight away to a member of staff, after waiting for him for several minutes I went downs tairs to remind him we are still waiting, he couldn’t fix our air con, told us it’s too late to change our room and there is nothing he can do. The temperature in our room was above 27 degrees and it was impossible to try and sleep and we couldn’t open the window next to the bed as it opens sideways so anybody could enter or see straight into the room as our room was at the top of a staircase. The next day after asking twice for someone to come and fix our air con finally at around 4-5 pm it was repaired, I’m sure if I hadn’t have chased this up then it would have probably not got fixed for several days. As It was made to feel like an inconvenience. ⁃ Except for a hairdryer and small fridge there is no other facilities in the room. You would normally expect to find a coffee machine/iron in any 4 star hotel however this was not the case. You can however rent an iron for 2 hours for 5 euros with 20 euros deposit however, that can be only paid by cash. ⁃ Drinks in bar weren’t great and overpriced, you are lucky if there is actually someone working there as most of the time member of staff member is busy or end your in a long wait with just 1 member of staff by themselves (also mentioned in several other reviews) ⁃ There is no reception, only small desk next to the “shop” where again, you will wait ages as there is always massive queue of people. ⁃ Housekeeping will come whenever that want, one day it will be 8am, another 5pm, they only make the bed and change towels, nothing else, our floor was really dirty from all the dust from outside so I have to clean it with a towel myself. ⁃ When we asked housekeeping for the shower gel to be topped up as it hadn’t been refilled we came back to find we had been given another shampoo. ⁃ Most of the staff don’t really speak English well so it made it hard to communicate and generally found the staff to be fairly hostile compared to other hotels I’ve ever been to. English is not my first language but I would expect more from 4 star hotel where at least half of the guests speak English (maybe that’s why Spanish speaking guests have priority before English speaking people which I saw a few times) ⁃ We asked for late check out as our coach was coming at 7pm, we were told straight away that’s impossible, when I told them they have this option online and we don’t mind to pay for that, they said they will have to check availability which of course lady at the desk didn’t even look at the screen and told me there is none, which is funny as you could still book the same room type for that day so clearly had availability. We were offered a ‘slot’ at the spa for a shower but a proper courtesy room like many other hotels have would have been better. There is also only the warm reception area to wait in which is not air conditioned. ⁃ Would avoid standard double rooms as no balcony at all just a terrace on a shared walk way. It turned out that this was mentioned in room type on jet2 but a pool facing room would definitely be better.

It’s a shame that staff are a let down and from negative comments I can see that I’m not the only one with this opinion. We didn’t even try the restaurant after reading bad reviews...