Riu Palace Tenerife

Visited here for 8 nights with my husband. Location for us was perfect, nice 10-15 minutes walk into main centre or 5 minutes walk the other way and your in the lovely little fishing village of La Caleta, where you will find some beautiful restaurants. Hotel staff were all polite and work hard to make attendance to your needs. Cleaners work endless to keep rooms and the rest of hotel in order. Unfortunately the rooms and hall ways are dated and need some attention. 5* hotel, that does not supply any free water daily. This is something I have never experienced before. Usually at least a bottler per day. My advice would be to visit a local supermarket to stock up as the water in the room is overpriced. Sun lounger were an issue on our first day, many being reserved and not used till late morning. Following days we did get up early to have breakfast so we were able to get a sun lounger. The hotel says it has a no reserving policy in place but this is not adhered to. Food was good, always finding something we would enjoy at breakfast and dinner. Just a few changes would make it a little more like a 5 star.

A beautiful stay at Riu Palace. For us the ultimate beach location, with pretty sunsets, an easy stroll to La Caleta and short taxi to Siam Park. The food was excellent with more vegetarian options than previous hotels of this level. The bedroom was clean and comfortable but what stood out to us the most was the friendly, helpful staff. Particularly Lachun who looked after us in the pool side restaurant and Mario who helped us with our drinks orders and gave general great advice. All the staff were so smiley and friendly though. Great customer service.

We stayed as two adults and two teenagers for a short Four night break, and overall the hotel was almost faultless.

From check-in, everything was incredibly smooth. We arrived earlier than the official check-in time and, although we had two rooms booked, the hotel kindly allowed us to have one room ready a little sooner, which was really helpful.

The food was very good. I wouldn’t say it was five-star dining, but there was a good choice and everything we had was enjoyable. One of the things we particularly loved was that there were no sunbed wars! You were guaranteed a sunbed every day, which made such a nice change and meant we could properly relax. The hotel was clean throughout and, above all, the staff were absolutely amazing for the majority of our stay.

I would definitely return.

The only reason I say almost faultless is because our experience on checkout day was very disappointing and completely different from the rest of our stay.

Before travelling, I had explained that we would need a late checkout because of an invisible disability. I was told this could be guaranteed for an additional charge of €20 per hour, which we were more than happy to pay. However, when it came to the last day, a member of staff called Pilar was extremely evasive, difficult and, unfortunately, quite rude. I was essentially told that she had not been informed about the previous arrangement, despite this having been discussed beforehand.

Eventually, we were moved to another room with a single bed and single shower, which was absolutely fine and we were grateful to have somewhere to stay until later. It was really the way we were spoken to and treated that was upsetting. After being made to feel so welcome throughout the stay, it was disappointing to feel as though, on the final day, we suddenly became an inconvenience.

Even ordering drinks became unnecessarily difficult because we no longer had our original room number to provide. We did manage to order them, but then I felt uncomfortable being followed towards reception to make payment, rather than simply being treated in the same way as we had been throughout the rest of our stay.

It really was a shame, because the rest of the holiday was fantastic and I would happily come back. I just hope the hotel can look into the way guests are treated on checkout day, particularly when additional needs have been discussed and agreed in advance.

Overall, a lovely hotel, fantastic staff, great facilities and a really enjoyable stay. We would definitely return and make sure our flight times were better on the way home so we didn’t have the same check out issues