Alua Suites Fuerteventura

Alua suites rooms were clean, big, with two twins and a pull out sofa bed if required, no partition!, The whole site could do with refurbishment. Food was as expected with regular theme nights showcasing mediteraninian, italian, oriental etc, The bar area was often busy on an evening, (not helped by outside dining being in the same location.) The one bar had constant single file queue. Entertainment was mostly singers. All the staff were helpful and cheerful. Good amenities with toilet blocks placed at convenient points. There was a problem with cockroaches on the site.

The hotel is in a good location if you don’t mind a ,short stroll to the beach or the shops and there is a supermarket very conveniently located just outside the front of the hotel.

This hotel is simply not 4*. The photos advertising the hotel on the various holiday websites that you can book this hotel through (we used On the Beach) must be very old as nothing is as pristine as the photos suggest.

We were in the My Favourite rooms - 4 people across two rooms - both rooms were tired looking with damaged walls, tables, window shutters/fly screens missing. The patio chairs were warped out of shape and were a disgusting colour with seat cushions that looked like they should have been replaced long ago. The showers both backed up so that at best you were paddling in ankle deep water and at worst they flowed over the top of the shower tray. Even when they did not overflow they leaked, so you had to have towels all over the floor to stop the bathroom flooding. Also, the bathroom sink would not hold water as the pop up plug did not have a rubber seal on it. The bathrooms also do not have extractor fans, only a small window, so the bathrooms also constantly smelt damp and humid, although I think part of this was due to the constantly leaking showers, as if you pressed on the wooden flooring next to the shower with your foot you could make it squelch.

Neither safe worked when we arrived and the air conditioning in one room was also not cooling the room and the unit was leaking water all over the floor - a huge slip hazard.

We reported everything to reception and basically nothing happened. We reminded them each day and often got told that someone had already been to look at the issues and they had been marked down as completed. We knew they hadn’t been done as everything was still as it had been. The air con was eventually fixed so it cooled the room on about day 4, although it continued to leak - someone came to “fix” that leak with a tube of silicone on our last night when we were trying to get ready for dinner at about 8pm!! Not sure how silicone fixes an aircon unit and it was too little too late anyway. The sink was fixed on about day 5. One safe was “fixed” with a little piece of plastic wedged in the front to stop the batteries falling out - I could have done that myself! And the showers were never fixed.

The My Favourite pool area was nice, but the decking was a health hazard. There were so many broken boards, nails/screws sticking up (my 80 year old dad tripped and fell). There were boards that when you stood on them they flipped up vertically like in a cartoon and guests started placing cones on them. The staff did nothing even though people reported things. From chatting to other people in the pool we found we were not alone with our room issues and the slowness to deal with things (if at all!)

There were days when our room was cleaned well after 4pm which was not ideal and one day it had not been cleaned by 5pm. I reported to reception and someone came, but all they did was leave fresh towels….i could have made a better job of making the bed…they basically pulled the duvet up. We also heard several reports of small items going missing from rooms…..make of that what you will.

There is also only one towel change point open Monday to Saturday 10am to 1pm. It is also a long way from the My Favourite area so inconvenient for supposedly premium guests.

The à la carte restaurant never changed its menu the whole time we were there and appeared to be more of a set menu as there were literally 3 mains to choose from, one meat, one fish and one veggie. The My Favourite restaurant had a lovely atmosphere but poor aircon and while this menu did change every night it was also only 3 main dishes to choose from and quite repetitive. The main Buffet restaurant was really the best place to go. The food was nice but was very slow to be restocked, there was often a lack of plates/bowls/glasses and the fizzy drinks were flat within a few days of us arriving. Staff were also often slow to clear plates. The bars were ok, but cocktails were all premixed and if they ran out of one they were unwilling to simply mix one up using the relevant spirits and mixers despite having them all behind the bar which was odd.

Overall disappointing. Would not recommend and will not be returning. I am sure there are much better hotels for a similar price.

The overall experience was very good - with one exception. The chairs and tables at the outside restaurant were extremely unhygienic - table tops are invariably wiped with dirty cloths; table mats are filthy, with old food ingrained; chair mats are stained with old food and bird excrement; tables tops needs a deep-clean to removed heavily ingrained grime.