Melia Fuerteventura Hotel

We stayed at Paradisus by Meliá Fuerteventura in April 2026 for a family holiday with our 8-year-old son.

We booked Paradisus expecting a premium family resort and paid accordingly. Unfortunately, our experience was so far below the standard advertised that we subsequently made a formal complaint.

This was not one isolated problem. We experienced repeated failures across cleanliness, food safety, service, facilities, maintenance and complaint handling.

Cleanliness and hygiene -

Our room was not properly cleaned throughout the stay.

We also had a mosquito problem that was not properly resolved, and visible remains were left on the walls for the duration of our stay.

The buffet was another major concern. In our experience it was poorly managed and unhygienic, including children being allowed to handle food unsupervised and incidents involving broken glass and spillages.

For a hotel operating at this level and price point, these are not standards we consider acceptable.

Food and dietary concerns

One of the most serious issues involved being served incorrect food.

For somebody relying on the hotel to provide accurate information about what they are being served, this goes far beyond a minor restaurant mistake. Correct food identification is important, particularly where dietary requirements are involved.

This understandably caused us serious concern and significantly reduced our confidence in the hotel's food service.

Service

Service throughout the holiday was extremely disappointing.

We experienced excessive waiting times at bars and restaurants, poor communication and a general lack of clear guidance from staff.

Restaurants and dining options were also either unavailable or not presented to us in the way we had reasonably expected from the hotel's information.

At a premium all-inclusive resort, guests should not have to repeatedly chase staff simply to understand what facilities or dining options are actually available.

Facilities

Several of the facilities also failed to meet expectations.

The pool advertised or presented as heated did not feel heated during our stay.

There was confusion surrounding use of the Jacuzzi, with rules either unclear or inconsistently enforced.

There were also repeated occasions when pool towels were unavailable.

Individually, some of these issues may sound relatively small. Taken together, over the course of a family holiday, they become extremely frustrating.

Room and maintenance

We also experienced basic maintenance problems.

The telephone in our room did not work properly, and the Wi-Fi was unreliable.

Again, these are things you simply do not expect to be repeatedly dealing with when staying at a resort positioned as a premium product.

Staff behaviour

Unfortunately, some interactions with staff made matters worse rather than better.

We experienced behaviour that we considered rude and dismissive, received conflicting instructions from different members of staff, and there was also an occasion where our 8-year-old child was spoken to in a manner we considered inappropriate.

We appreciate that staff work in a busy environment and no employee or hotel will be perfect. However, there is a significant difference between an occasional mistake and guests being left feeling dismissed when trying to resolve genuine concerns.

Management response

Perhaps the most disappointing part of the entire experience was the hotel's handling of the problems once we raised them.

We gave the hotel opportunities during our stay to address our concerns.

Instead, we felt that a number of issues were downplayed or denied, problems were not properly resolved and there was no meaningful recovery action or follow-up that reflected the seriousness or number of concerns we had raised.

That is particularly disappointing from a hotel carrying the Paradisus/Meliá name.

Problems can happen in any hotel.

What distinguishes a genuinely premium hotel is how it responds when things go wrong.

In our experience, Paradisus Fuerteventura failed that test.

We spent far too much of a holiday that we had looked forward to dealing with issues that should either never have occurred or should have been resolved quickly once reported.

When you take your family away, especially when you have paid a significant amount of money for a premium resort, you expect to spend that time relaxing and making memories.

Instead, we found ourselves repeatedly dealing with cleanliness problems, restaurant issues, poor service, facility problems and management.

You cannot give a family that holiday time back.

We have retained the information and correspondence relating to our complaint, and this review reflects our genuine experience of the hotel.

Anyone considering booking Paradisus Fuerteventura should, in my view, look beyond the attractive marketing photographs and carefully read recent reviews concerning cleanliness, food service, restaurant availability and management's handling of complaints.

For the amount this holiday cost and the standard Paradisus promotes itself as offering, we expected considerably better.

Would we return? Absolutely not.

Would we recommend Paradisus Fuerteventura to friends or family? Based on our experience, no.

A deeply disappointing experience from a hotel that should have delivered far better. A very expensive and extremely disappointing experience.

We are part of the Meliá circle programme and attracted to this hotel within a hotel offering which did not involve children.

As part of the reserve offering, we enjoyed an adults only breakfast and pool side experience which lasted until 7pm. Which was great.

This bliss ended at that point. After 7pm, we were faced with millions of unruly screaming children in the buffet area ruining our meal and to finish us off, there was no seating available because selfish parents hogged the day beds in the bar…putting their children to sleep on these beds in their pyjamas whilst they took the main seating opposite the entertainment.

No seating available, so we went to the neighbouring area, which clearly stated was for reserve guests only and were told rudely you cannot be here because it’s a speciality restaurant right now and you have no right to be here. We ended up sitting in front of reception for the rest of the evening. Utterly horrible.

We could not get into any of the all inclusive restaurants because they were fully booked.

As a result of this dreadful experience, we left a week early which is not a great advert for Meliá given we are Platinum members and subscribing to the Circle programme.

When we got home, no one from the circle programme bothered to get in touch with us to check on how we enjoyed our holiday but we did get a response from the customer services department from the hotel. They proceeded to lecture me on how they have to balance the needs of reserve guests like myself, who want peace and quiet versus those who they have to offer a welcoming family environment.

I have no problem with families, but why can’t they extend the reserve experience into the evening to avoid this welcoming environment if it is not for you.

I will never stay in this hotel again, and will be cancelling my circle subscription as soon as I am contractually able to.

I threw away €2,500 euros of holiday because this place was so horrible for me. Sadly, no one from the circle programme bothered to check with me if I had enjoyed my holiday and didn’t seem that bothered that I left a week early.

For people who want a peaceful family free holiday…avoid.