Dreams Lanzarote Playa Dorada

From the moment we arrived it was great, glass of Cava for us at reception whilst we checked in. Room well appointed comfy bed and very clean all round. We were on an All-inclusive stay. Food at Nao restaurant was always varied with very good choice throughout the day. Staff helpful and friendly especially Andres on reception, Alissa on the activities team and Andrea who I believe was catering manager. Daily use of the pools , loads of sunbeds and 3 minute walk to the soft sand beach. Idyllic. We will be back 😎

Stunning hotel in a brilliant location right on the beach front. The staff is what makes this hotel so good. They are all so friendly and helpful and pleasant to deal with, especially Chris and Antonio at the horizon club pool bar. The hotel is so clean and the cleaning staff do a great job and again so friendly always say hello or good morning. This is my third stay here and the 1st under the new name. New name but the same excellent hotel. Until next time!!

Grab a snack, because this is going to be a long one…

We stayed at the Grand Hyatt Lanzarote Playa Dorada Resort from 20–26 August 2026 for our wedding anniversary. We were travelling with our young child, and I am pregnant.

We spent several thousand pounds on this holiday and, unfortunately, we didn't get to enjoy much of it. We have stayed in some lovely hotels over the years. We know what a genuine luxury 5-star property looks and feels like. This isn't it.

Arrival: not exactly “luxury”

We arrived late in the evening and were given room 3127, a double room with a pool view. The welcome itself was pleasant enough, but the moment we entered the room we noticed how dirty the floor and bathroom facilities were. The beds were probably the only redeeming feature. The terrace door was also concerning. It was on the first floor and the latch felt remarkably flimsy, hardly reassuring from a security perspective.

We were tired and hungry, so we went to eat. The waiter at Bella Riva was pleasant and helpful.

Back in the room, I noticed a small cockroach in the bathroom. I dealt with it myself. I told my husband because, frankly, I was disgusted. You don't expect to find cockroaches in a hotel room marketed as a luxury 5-star property. We hoped it was a one-off. It wasn't.

We complained. Nothing happened.

The following day, my husband went to the hotel's Guest Experience team and formally complained about the condition of the room. He had photographs. We were told they would get back to him. They never did. That detail becomes rather important later. That evening we went out for dinner and watched the hotel's entertainment. We returned to our room at around 11pm.

And there it was.

Except this time it wasn't a small cockroach in the bathroom. It was a big cockroach crawling over our shoes and belongings. We made a video of it because we wanted evidence. My husband stayed behind to deal with the unwanted new resident while I went to reception with our child.

Reception: “Would you like someone to collect it?”

I explained that we'd found a large cockroach crawling around our room. The response? “Would you like someone to come and collect it?” No. No, I did not want someone to come and collect it. I wanted another room. One without complimentary vermin. I explained that I am pregnant and that we had a young child and asked to be moved immediately. To their credit, they did move us to a top-floor room, 4327. But here's the astonishing part: There was no apology. No meaningful acknowledgement. No “I'm so sorry.” No gesture of goodwill. No manager. Nothing.

So at nearly midnight, we're packing up our belongings and moving rooms with our young child, while the hotel staff behaved as though this was all a mildly inconvenient administrative exercise, and we were moving because we didn’t like the curtains.

The new room: much of the same…

The new room was marginally cleaner. I stress marginally. But it had many of the same problems. Dirty and old flooring and bathroom fixtures. Skirting boards pulling away from the wall. Dirty wardrobe handles. Marks on the walls. A broken sink with what appeared to be a poor epoxy repair. Filthy grout. Black mould around the bathroom mastic. Chipped and peeling wood. All things we photographed, and perfect environments for breeding filth.

This is what this hotel is passing for “luxury”. The physical condition of these rooms is closer to 3-star standards (at best) but wearing a 5-star price tag.

The next morning: the “Guest Experience”

My husband had complained the day before and was told someone would get back to him, they hadn't. By this point my husband had actually captured the offending cockroach in a plastic water bottle and took it to the Guest Experience team. Yes, we literally arrived with the evidence. And this is where things became genuinely unbelievable.

The response from the Guest Experience representative woman was extremely dismissive, rude and empathetically unapologetic. We were essentially told: “We're on an island. This is an open hotel. This can happen.” No big deal…what’s our problem?!

Apparently the geographical location is now the hotel's pest-control policy.

What was particularly concerning was that when I took a photograph to document that we had made the complaint, the representative became more concerned about me taking the photograph with her in it than about the actual complaint. I was challenged about taking the photograph and actually physically and threateningly chased out of the room.

Given that we were already having difficulty getting anyone to take our complaint seriously, naturally we wanted evidence that we had reported it.

Then came Jet2

Then we went to the Jet2 representative at the hotel, Steven. Unfortunately, things didn't improve. We were again told: “It's an island. It can happen.”

I asked whether Jet2's terms and conditions actually state that guests should expect cockroaches INSIDE their 5 star hotel bedrooms. They don't. We explained that we had not left our terrace door open and that the condition of the room itself raised serious concerns.

Then came perhaps the most bizarre comment of the entire experience. When I explained that cockroaches can carry bacteria and are a hygiene concern, we were told by Steven that: “Cockroaches are actually clean.”

We’re still trying to work out what scientific journal that came from….

Jet2's proposed solution? A deep clean of the room and repairs to the issues we had raised. Except the room had obvious maintenance issues that weren't going to magically disappear with a mop and some cleaning products. And why the deep clean is not a basic minimum between guests anyways is a wonder. We were also told that if there was an infestation, fumigation would be the next step. Fumigation. While we're staying there. While pregnant. With our young child.

We asked if we could transfer to another hotel. No was his answer. We asked if we could leave early and return home. We were told yes; provided we paid any difference for new flights ourselves. So apparently this was the best solution to being unhappy with accommodation that doesn't meet the standard advertised. Excellent customer service Jet2, well done.

Steven, however, helpfully reminded me that I could “get in trouble” for going around and taking photographs of people. The timing of this comment was particularly interesting. We were standing there trying to report a cockroach in our hotel room, with the actual cockroach sitting in a plastic bottle on the table in front of the Guest Experience representative, and instead of focusing on the substance of our complaint, I was being challenged about documenting the fact that we had taken a picture of us complaining. I found the comment intimidating and entirely inappropriate in the circumstances.

It came across less as helpful information and more as a warning about what might happen to me if I continued documenting our complaint.

Instead, the comment felt unnecessarily threatening, particularly when he had otherwise shown very little interest in resolving the actual problem we had brought to him in any meaningful way.

And just to be clear: I wasn't photographing random members of the public. I was documenting an interaction during a formal complaint about a serious problem with our accommodation.

It was a remarkable moment. We had a cockroach issue, a pregnant guest standing there explaining why chemicals and fumigation wasn't an acceptable solution, and a family whose holiday had just been disrupted; and apparently the urgent issue was my camera. Priorities.

I still have the photograph, along with the rest of our evidence, and it forms part of the documentation of our formal complaint.

Jet2 WhatsApp

We subsequently contacted Jet2 through WhatsApp and were put through to someone called Oonagh. The response was essentially the same. No meaningful resolution. No apology for the cockroaches (only that we were still unhappy…?!). No meaningful compensation. No alternative hotel. Just variations of “deep clean the room” and “sort out the issues.”

We have since formally complained to Jet2, with no reply yet. Beyond this we are looking at other channels of complaint as well.

And here's the real problem…

Moving us from room 3127 to room 4327 didn't solve the fundamental issue. Moving guests from one room with problems to another room with similar problems isn't a solution.

We didn't want to spend our anniversary holiday conducting a hotel-room inspection every time we opened a door.

We didn't want to wonder whether there would be another cockroach.

We didn't want to worry about hygiene.

We didn't want to spend our holiday photographing skirting boards, grout, bathroom fixtures, dining room air vents, corridors and general facilities.

We wanted to enjoy the luxury 5-star holiday we had paid for. Instead, we spent our holiday worrying about the condition of the accommodation and hygiene.

And then I became ill

On our penultimate evening, I developed a significant stomach problem. I cannot prove that this was connected to the hotel or food, so I'm not going to make that claim. But given everything that had already happened, being unwell while pregnant was the final thing we needed. It certainly didn't help restore any confidence in the hotel's hygiene standards given we were all inclusive.

To be fair… There were two positives.

The majority of the service staff we encountered were very hospitable and friendly. And the buffet in main restaurant NAO was OK food wise. Ironically, we avoided a significant amount of the food because by that stage our confidence in the hotel's hygiene standards had been badly damaged. The other restaurants were much less impressive. Much of the food appeared heavily preprepared rather than freshly made, and one even served Pot Noodles as part of its main dishes which was certainly an interesting interpretation of “luxury dining.”

Look beyond the glossy lobby

The hotel looks impressive at first glance. The reception and dining areas are large and, from a distance, attractive. But look closely. The sun loungers are grimy, some are damaged, and the public bathrooms weren't what you'd expect from a luxury 5-star property. The rooms are tired. The elevators are small and years outdated. The fixtures are worn. Tiles were broken. The maintenance is questionable and severely lacking. There’s floating dust and hair balls in the corridors. Numerous ventilation covers absolutely covered in mould, thick with built up filth. I have attached a picture of two from the main restaurant, right above where the food is served. If this doesn’t turn your stomach, you must have one made of iron.

And the attitude when something goes wrong was, in our experience, even worse than the condition of the room and hotel.

“It's an island.”

This phrase has stuck with us. Yes, Lanzarote is an island. We know. We've travelled around the Canary Islands before. We've stayed in hotels on the islands before. We have never found a cockroach crawling around our belongings in a luxury hotel room. And we’ve never looked up from our plates of food and seen so much dust and mould above our heads.

Of course insects can exist in warm climates. Nobody is suggesting otherwise.

But telling paying guests that cockroaches in their bedroom are simply something they should expect because they're on an island is not an acceptable substitute for pest control, housekeeping, maintenance or acceptable customer service.

And when a guest has already complained about the condition of their room before finding the second larger cockroach, perhaps the appropriate response isn't to normalise it but to take accountability for it.

Five-star prices. Three-star room standards. Zero-star complaint handling.

We appreciate that many people have had good experiences here. That's fine. This review is about our experience, and ours was appalling. They did nothing about it and it ruined the entire experience for us. We literally slept with the lights on as we were so worried filthy bugs would crawl over us in the night.

If you're considering booking this hotel because it has “Grand Hyatt” in the name and looks impressive in the advertising photographs, please do your research and look beyond the glossy marketing.

Maybe you'll have a wonderful stay. We sincerely hope you do. But if cleanliness, maintenance and, crucially, how you're treated when something goes wrong that actually matters to you, I'd think very carefully before booking this hotel.