H10 Rubicon Palace

After a long flight with our two tired kids, we just wanted to get straight to our room. Instead, reception subjected us to a bizarre, non-transparent upsell tactic, randomly claiming there were "only two good rooms left." It was an exhausting and frustrating way to start a 10-night stay.

While the reception area is kept in great shape to give a strong first impression, the rest of the hotel is distinctly run-down. Our room suffered from poor general amenities and terrible cleanliness—bed sheets were never changed, and some days our bins weren't even emptied. We also had a broken internal door lock. Maintenance had to come out twice, and on the second occasion, I had to spend five minutes arguing with staff who wouldn't understand that the inside mechanism was broken. Adding to the neglect, a lift by reception was out of order for our entire stay without a single engineer in sight; reading older reviews, it appears it has been broken for two years.

This hotel is simply way too big for what the management and staff can handle. The buffet restaurant was a daily nightmare of constant queues, agonizingly slow drink orders, and food running out, with cooks who were completely unwilling to communicate. We tried the a la carte options, but they were pointless. The Italian restaurant manager actually blamed us for his staff bringing the wrong order and was miserable for the rest of the evening, and the food was no better than the buffet. The poolside restaurant's food was so poor we only ate there once.

The safety standards here are shockingly negligent. At the poolside restaurant, which features glass floor panels over the water, someone actually fell through the glass! Unbelievably, staff didn't even think to clear the pool to check for dangerous glass shards; they simply cordoned off the broken section while guests continued to swim below. It was bizarre. The kids' pool was just as dangerous—total madness with children left to run wild on the slides and zero lifeguards or supervision. Ultimately, that pool was closed for the majority of our holiday anyway due to a child having an accident in the water.

Aside from the hardworking entertainment team, the staff are generally miserable and uninterested. And despite the hotel claiming to have a strict sunbed policy, it is absolutely not enforced. Save your money and book somewhere that is actually equipped to handle its guests safely.

Made my 1st Mojito 🍸with the lovely Francesco who remembered all 14 of our names in the Mojito making class this afternoon at the Rubicon Horizons

Very good great hotel here now we love it