Gran Tacande

I didn’t want to take the chance of staying in a poor-quality establishment, so I assumed (incorrectly as it turned out) that a 5-Star hotel should ensure that my family and I had a holiday to remember. Little did I know that I’ll be remembering it for all the wrong reasons! Below, I have detailed just what went wrong from the start: - I think it's pertinent at this time to allow you to understand why this particular hotel was picked because in my industry we talk. A few years back an entire production and crew visited Tenerife on location for the last Jason Bourne film, I asked my colleagues for inspiration and I was recommended Gran Tacande, clearly standards have most definitely slipped. Saturday, February 17th 2024. ● Having checked in, we entered our room, took our shoes off in our private hallway, and started to unpack. However, I could feel something under my feet. When I looked my feet were becoming black from the layers of dirt and grime on the floor which had a really greasy coating! That’s when we started to look around and saw that the whole room was dirty and didn’t appear to have been cleaned in some time. ● To make matters worse, there were only two sets of towels, slippers, bathrobes, etc., laid out for us even though there were three of us in the room. ● We were getting frustrated and hot by now, which was when we discovered that the room air-conditioning wasn’t working! We went down to Reception to complain. ● We pointed out the above issues to Carlos at the Reception Desk along with details of white specs of dust under the glass for making tea and coffee (we can only hope it was a creamer for coffee). The white specs continued down the cupboard and there was chocolate smeared on the edge of the glass! ● However, rather than give us his attention and respect, he got distracted by the phone ringing whereby he raised his hand to my face and gave me a stop sign as he answered the phone! ● I couldn’t believe how rude and disrespectful he was to me. I was so shocked at being treated this way that I just stood there when I really should have demanded to see the Hotel Manager. He continued his conversation for some time in Spanish, leaving me standing there fuming. Finally he realised just how angry I was becoming so he put the phone down and promised that all of our issues would be sorted, without giving us any apology. This was not a good start! ● Taking Carlos at his word, we went for a walk. Unfortunately, when we returned to our room that evening the air conditioning still didn’t work. The room clearly hadn’t been cleaned as there were still dirty marks and black hairs in the room! ● Having been travelling all day we were too tired to go back downstairs, so we went to bed and decided to complain in the morning. Sunday morning, February 18th 2024 ● I decided to start the day fresh and take a shower. The shower had a rain shower head attachment along with a handheld shower that was so badly corroded into place that it couldn’t be lifted out of its holder. Despite this, I got in the shower, turned on the overhead shower, got lathered up and decided to turn on the side jets only to have one of them explode, detaching itself from the wall and shooting straight into my testicle, which left me in a complete agony! ● While I’m writhing around in pain, my wife was sitting out on the balcony on what should be ‘luxury’ loungers, except that there was a large dirty round stain - emphasising once again that the room and balcony had not been properly prepared for our arrival and stay. It was disgusting! ● Once again, we complained, pointing out all of our original issues and adding in about the shower and balcony. Oh yes; the air conditioning still wasn’t working! ● Having been reassured once again that everything would be taken care of, we went out for the day, not returning until it was time for dinner. My wife decided to have a plate from the Chinese selection - only to discover that what should be chow mein and noodles was in fact spaghetti. We couldn’t believe just how bad our holiday was going. It was causing my wife and I to argue and was upsetting our son who is autistic. ● Returning to our room we discovered that absolutely nothing had been done to clean the room or get the air conditioning working! For the third time in 28 hours we complained to Reception, telling them that we want to be moved to a clean room where the air conditioning works! ● They sent a cleaner up to our room along with a technician at 22.00. You can see from the picture I’ve taken just how much dirt was collected from this supposedly clean, 5-Star, room! ● Also, the shower is fixed and we could finally feel the air conditioning working. ● The hotel staff did finally apologise to us and asked us to visit them in the morning, where they will have a solution. Monday, February 19th 2024. ● We visited Reception after breakfast, approximately 10:30. They asked us to bear with them whilst they sort out a new room. They promised to have an answer for us by 11:00 so we waited to hear from them. ● After breakfast, while we were waiting to be moved, my wife visited one of the many public toilets - only to discover that it was also very dirty and obviously hadn’t been cleaned for some time. What was particularly distasteful was that there were stains spreading outwards from the toilet seat onto the surrounding floor; absolutely disgusting and unhygienic! ● When we hadn’t heard anything by 11.30, my wife demanded to speak to the manager. At this point they had taken our suitcases so we couldn’t even go swimming. Eventually, a manager appeared at about 11:45. ● As she calmly walked over to us, my wife’s stress levels were dangerously high. The hotel wasn’t to know this but my wife’s mother is undergoing treatment for cancer (which is not going as well as we’d like) and she has a lot of stress trying to make sure that our son has as normal an education as possible. ● She told the manager how stressed and disgusted we all were, that we’d been treated appallingly since arriving and how we couldn’t believe that a 5-Star rated hotel (a holiday which cost us £7,000) could be so dirty and badly run. ● She apologised, but then gave me a pathetic excuse that the head of housekeeping needed to do her final inspection before they could release the room to us. However, as a gesture of goodwill she offered us a one-time entry to their Spa, allowing us to swim but not offering us any complimentary massage or treatments; just access for two hours to swim! ● We decided to have a go at playing pool, it's something my son takes comfort in when he’s anxious! When we arrived in this area we discover the tables were decrepit and broken, as we stood we once again looked around and realised that the entire area we were standing in had water damage in the ceiling, doors were closed up and the area was just generally shabby, not entirely sure why but there were even Zip ties around the door handles to stop guests entering through sets of doors out onto a balcony, What a mess! In hindsight I wish I'd started taking more photos of the dilapidated interior, but in fairness to myself I wasn't there to examine whether there was exceptional levels of protocol in service and customer care. All areas of operation should meet the five star level of quality for cleanliness, maintenance, hospitality and for the quality of physical facilities and delivery of service as it says in the criteria of a five star hotel abroad. Maybe it’s time for a review? ● By 13:30 we still hadn’t been given our room or clothes, so my wife took all of her anger and frustration out on the poor woman behind the Reception Desk. The lady could only apologise again though she did offer us a complimentary lunch down in the one and only bar that customers have access to. Totally deflated, we took the voucher and walked away once again. Even then, we were only entitled to lunch, and no drinks. ● After lunch we returned to the Reception Desk where we were told the room was finally ready for us. Room 410 ● As we entered our second bedroom everything seemed to be a distinct improvement on the first room. The flooring was lifting in places and there was a strong smell of paint, but the room appeared to be clean and we decided not to say anything and just try to desperately get on with some kind of holiday as it was already late Monday afternoon. ● What we didn’t immediately realise was that the air conditioning in this room didn’t work either! Words failed us. ● On this day we also visited the concierge and asked what there was to do? Behind the desk was a large TV and it was playing promotional videos, showing off the hotel and all it had to offer! Amongst the images there advertising an evening show, so I asked “when is this on?” she replied “oh, that show doesn't exist anymore, hasn't done so since COVID. We've been trying to get it taken down as it is deceiving! We need some new promotional films created” ha ha ha! ● I think this is where the problem lies, this possibly was an amazing five star hotel a few years back but sadly through COVID it's taken its toll, not able to even deliver on offering a clean and secure environment for its guests and is now simply living off an old reputation! Wednesday, February 21st ● Once again, the air conditioning wasn't working! We contacted Reception once more and used our voucher to visit the Spa. Even this caused an issue, as I trod on a broken mosaic tile, injuring my foot. I picked the broken tile up and placed it to one side, so no one else could injure themselves. ● When I got outside, I told the attendant and his only concern was whether I’d replaced the broken tile. I told him where it was and suggested he have it repaired before it caused a serious problem. ● When we got back to our room we instantly noticed that the room door had been left open. We assumed that the cleaner had made a mistake. As nothing was missing we let it go and didn’t tell Reception. ● Later that evening, though, after we’d left the room for a quick drink, the door was ajar again upon our return. Clearly, this wasn’t a mistake but the room door must be faulty. ● We reported this to Reception who apologised and promised to fix it immediately. They didn’t and the next morning we found our door once again open on our return from Breakfast. ● This time Reception told us that the door was on a twenty-second delayed timer and would automatically close after that. I have a video of the door staying open well after twenty seconds have elapsed. Dinner Menu and Hygiene ● It didn’t take us long to realise just how limited the Dinner menu/choice was and how difficult it proved to keep individual items warm on a plate whilst walking around to the different stations. ● More concerning, though, was some of the cooking methods, e.g. steaks were coming straight from the fridge and even though I asked for a medium steak I was served a rare steak which I believe should never happen, as there could be issues with uncooked meats. ● Also, the cut which we were consistently served was entrecôte which is from the rib area (basically a French ribeye) which is more often served medium as this allows the fat time to melt. ● We also observed cross contamination through staff using the same utensils to pick up raw meat and vegetables, whilst cooking behind the counter. I’m sure you can appreciate just how important hygiene is in a kitchen especially where different meats and raw items are involved. ● This was so concerning to us that we decided to eat out for the remaining four evenings and pay - even though our holiday included dinner! ● Both Thursday and Friday there were maintenance and painting happening all the way down our corridor and outside our bedroom door, on the face of it there's nothing wrong with this as such but I have never experienced in all the five star hotels I've ever visited and there are a lot, having to walk over dust sheets for two days straight to get to my bedroom, once again not very becoming of a five star hotel. The Hotel Air Conditioning System ● The hotel’s air conditioning is centrally controlled through their computers. Guests can have it turned on in the room but it won’t work unless hotel staff make it work. ● On Thursday evening we returned back to our room to find it swelteringly hot! I immediately contacted Reception to ask them to have someone come and fix our air conditioning. We fell asleep in a puddle of our own sweat while we waited, which was very unpleasant. No one came through the night! ● The next day was so hot that my wife demanded a technician come up and sort it out straight away. The same technician that we’d seen on and off all week arrived; he put his hand up against the air conditioning unit and declared that it was working. We simply laughed and said that we found it unacceptable and wanted something done without fail. After another twenty minutes it was on full power and, after five days of asking, we had consistent air conditioning that made our room comfortable for us to stay and sleep in. Friday, 23rd February 2024 ● Having been out all day, we returned to our room quite late and got into bed to watch some TV. While sitting there, my wife turned to me and asked if the bed sheets felt damp to him, to which he replied they did? I examined the duvet, there was a massive rip in the stitching! ● By now, we just laughed at what a terrible experience this whole holiday [hotel] had been. ● I went to put on a dressing gown and ran my hand down the gown into the pockets, except that there was only one pocket. Thinking I might be going mad, I found another gown which did have two pockets. I then put all three of our gowns on the bed to inspect them and discovered that the pockets had been ripped off or simply missing! Once again, not something one expects from a 5-Star hotel. Lastly, my wife was sitting in one of the smoking areas when she caught her ankle on a rusty, broken, table leg. The general standard of safety leaves an awful lot to be desired. As I said at the opening of this letter, we were all so looking forward to this holiday. We all really needed it to take our mind off of my wife’s sick mother and other issues at home. Rather than finding a vehicle for de-stressing, this disastrous hotel and [some of] the staff completely stressed us out and caused numerous arguments between my wife and I. It is truly a hotel from hell

Very happy with our winter break in Tenerife. We had a large room overlooking the tennis courts next door with a side view of the sea. Breakfast was excellent with a plentiful choice. Service from all staff throughout our stay was exceptional. Nice lunch and drinks by the pool and prices were reasonable.. We will return next year so I guess that's the highest recommendation

thoroughly enjoyed our stay at gran tacande in costa adeje. beach was across the promenade and the pools were lovely. staff were first class. rooms are clean and spacious, as is the hotel in general. breakfast offered a relaxed feel and provided a wide range of high quality items. Im not a fan of buffet style breakfasts but this was the best I have had. great place highly recommend for both the hotel and the location.

My husband and I spent our second holiday at the Gran Tacande in March. The staff are extremely friendly and go out of their way to ensure you have a good holiday. Our room was spacious and very comfortable. We loved the food. The location is excellent. We hope to return again soon.

We stayed at this hotel w/e 19/10/18 and stayed in room 305 over looking the tennis courts. Rather than go into detail if I said this hotel was pretty much perfect I think that would sum it up. If there was one thing that is worth a mention it would be the friendly and helpful staff.

Having walked past this hotel on previous holidays in Adeje and admired the location and facade we chose it for our Spring ‘18 holiday. Staff are very friendly and efficient and hotel management meet all guests at breakfast each morning. Facilities inside the hotel and around the pool are beautiful with lots of space just what you would expect for a 5* hotel. The hotel offers lots of quiet areas for sitting and relaxing and is close to 2 shopping centres and many great restaurants. As with all other reviews the bath in the bedroom was unnecessary but apparently it is part of the new design. Overall we had a fabulous holiday and will stay again at the Gran Tacande.

This hotel was almost perfect. There are a few minor points which if fixed would make it perfect and that is what I would like for this amazing hotel. Guests shouldn't have to pay extra for replacements of milk and sugar for in room tea and coffee, it should be replaced every day like the water. There was an unpleasant smell when the bath water was being drained so there maybe a drain problem. Lastly I could hear the conversations of guests in one of the neighbouring rooms, maybe this could be fixed just by changing the layout of one of the rooms. I loved this hotel so much and even if these minor changes weren't made I would still stay again. Well done Gran Tacande.

My wife and I have stayed at the Gran Tacande several times but not visited for about 6 years. It remains a wonderful hotel. The staff are wonderful, the facilities excellent, the breakfast buffet magnificent! The bedrooms are spacious and comfortable, and I understand they are to be refurbished / renovated shortly this spring. The hotel is not TOO large and certainly not ostentatious, but smart and spotlessly clean and cared for. I cannot speak too highly of it - we would not hesitate to return, yet again. We did not eat an evening meal in the hotel, as we enjoy going out to restaurants locally, and we are not always keen on hotel buffets. In complete honesty, I also thought it was overpriced. We did not pay as much for any meal eaten elsewhere in Costa Adeje, Fanabe, Caleta or Las Americas. My one persistent criticism is that the main pool is not heated, and is very cold, so that it remains almost empty, most of the time, which is such a shame. I did complain about this to a member of the customer satisfaction team.

This was our second visit to this hotel this year. The staff are so friendly. The food is simply excellent, especially the Chinese !. Such a great variety of food also. A big thank you to Simone on the reception desk. Such a friendly, pleasant, professional young man who I am sure has a great future with the company. Thank you for all your help regarding the booking.

Had a great holiday with my husband. Hotel excellent apart from pool being slight too cold. Apart from that no problem. Thought 50 euros was a bit steep for a late check out (4 hours) in a downgraded room - we only used the room for 30 minutes.