Alua Soul Orotava Valley

The hotel is lovely, very spacious with excellent, polite and helpful staff - especially at reception. The facilities are fantastic with entertainment and daily activities. The rooms are a good size with comfortable beds.

Pros:

• Modern design with good furnishings.
• Friendly restaurant staff, clearing plates quickly and kindly offering to help carry things back to the table.
• Spacious room with a big bed (twins together).
• Two shower options: normal or rain.
• Free nearby parking.
• Good view from the lobby area into the town and sea.
• Lots of seating available in the lobby and around the hotel.
• Great hotel layout with open hallways and easy access to the pool for all floors.
• When connected, WiFi speed is very fast.
• One of the bartenders (David) was very friendly and helpful, waiting on guests during the evening entertainment.
• Having actual decent sized glasses for breakfast drinks.
• Good entertainment every night.

Cons:

• Not enough sun beds for all guests meaning many have to sit in chairs.
• The same drinks are served at both the main bar and pool bar, however, only some of these are available at the pool bar as part of the all inclusive package.
• Rooms are fairly bland, lacking character.
• Some areas of the hotel are in disrepair, including dents, scratches, marks, holes in the ceiling with active water leaking, stains in the carpets.
• Poor lunch provided at the restaurant on the first day with limited options. Only one main dish was available and everything else was sides.
• Lunch on the second day provided more protein options, however, each was cooked to order meaning you have to stand at the kitchen and wait for each item to be cooked. While we appreciated this meaning it was all fresh, this should instead be done by table service to avoid standing and waiting, or simply have these items precooked as a buffet.
• The need to pay a deposit to get a pool towel, not something to be expected at a four-star hotel.
• Pool towels are limited to only one per guest.
• Pool towels are not long enough for the sun loungers by half.
• No snacks or food available in the evening after dinner has finished at 21:30.
• Open access to all room areas and lifts, meaning anyone can come in off the street and access all parts of the hotel - these areas should be keycard controlled.
• Only two choices of juice at breakfast: orange and pineapple. Both are not chilled.
• Foul smell of sewage around the outside of the hotel where many balconies are and where the sun beds are for the pool.
• No food served at the pool bar between 13:00-15:00.
• No non-fizzy drinks available at lunch or dinner from the restaurant, except water - no juice or squash.
• Many of the plates in the restaurant were visibly dirty.
• On both days after housekeeping had visited, they left our ground floor balcony doors unlocked, despite us locking it between these visits for security.
• Inaccurate timings given for food service at the pool bar. Every time they would say “10 minutes” regardless of how busy it was - the more common times were 25-30 minutes.
• There is weak WiFi signal at the far end of the sun bed area. You can connect but it frequently drops out.
• Individual serving at the main bar (Marco) was rude when we ordered drinks, he made the wrong one and when we politely requested the correct one, he argued, rolled his eyes, walked off and made it, and slammed the correct drink down - all without saying anything. The second night he was also rude when ordering drinks with a similar attitude. This was what made us move the rating from a 3 star to a 2 star - in a 4 star hotel, you except good service, never less than respectful, not rudeness.