Lopesan Villa del Conde Resort & Thalasso

Fabulous hotel, built like a village. Beautiful buildings, garden and swimmingpool. Lots of activities. Top service from all employees. Good food. I would go back any time. Hotel is close to Meloneras centre, directly on a promenade by the sea.

First of all: they take care of their (4) 'hotelcats'! In hotelgarden a special area and a cat house was made! Love it. Upon arrival we were interested in Unique. Except that we could see a De Luxe View for € 75 extra per night, they did not make an effort to make Unique more attractive for us, even though we were 8 times repeating guests. Unique service in our room was € 90 p.n! We already had seen & heard that Unique service in their lounge was less attractive than 2 years ago. After arrival ± 11h45 we had welcome drinks and already got our preferred room around 13h30. We would have expected at least 1 bottle of drinking water in the room upon arrival. But nothing. Our rented (!) Dolce Gusto nespresso machine arrived a bit later, but no water… This is not 5* service… We needed to buy water immediately somewhere in a supermarket (± 10 minutes walk). We know directions in Villa del Conde, happily, because many direction signs were confusing (or wrong). Room was nice as usual. Still we miss drawers a/o small cupboards in the room. Again I brought my own small baskets to put in small things (on the nightstand…). But walk-in closet was good. Bathroom is okay but shower a bit dated. No possibility to move the handshower higher… Space on sink: good! Gastronomy: La Plaza: good enough for breakfast and dinner. We do not understand rows for meat, fish a.s.o. (± 20h45). Should be coached better. We just get something else and return later… Food quality at dinner was slightly better than in 2022. We missed a lot of small ‘food signs’. Serving staff was kind. Desserts: if you do not eat icecream or fruit, choice is not great and a lot of repetitives. OVO: nice and friendly staff. Went there twice. Not a lot of choice on the menu. A pity, because now we did not return a 3rd time. Pub Zythum: good for a coffee or drink during the day (at the sunny side). Staff was very kind. A pity: no (‘small’) food not even pastry! Only went later in the day twice: once aperitif, once digestif. Azotea ‘snackbar’: only went once: very small menu, average sandwiches. Before (until 2022) at dinner we ordered a (half) bottle of wine and did not finish a lot of times: so took glasses outside after dinner to sit outside at the Plaza or terrace Pub Zythum. Or coffee in the morning to drink at ‘smoking area’. It is not allowed anymore. The official arguments are nonsense, sorry to say! Hotel doesn’t want to clean outside or sell more from the Pub?? We buy less drinks now: only 1 glass of wine for y husband to finish during dinner and 1 bottle of water for both. We do not buy more drinks outside and in the morning there is no coffee to buy around 10h30. Only once a drink after dinner. We stay in 2-3 different 4-5* hotels a year at the Canarian and Balearic Islands (and in the Netherlands…) and never experienced this! Not customer friendly at all! We miss the Patio Bar for coffee, a drink a/o a cake or snack during the day; it is now 'Unique' only. Pub Zythum does not have anything to eat! On many days we stay at the ‘upstairs’ pools, Arcos Pool or Quiet pool. We like to go and sit for a drink and sometimes a snack or small lunch on/around the Plaza. But the ‘village plaza’ has turned into a boring, empty, unattractive place, during the day. If it would be a rainy day, you could stay inside Zythum Pub, but could not even order cake, a sandwich or so… (and it cán be raining once in a while!). We have to go now to the the Azotea Bar (very small menu now, nothing nice on it) or Alpendre. And then: App reservation! Only heard after a few days how/where to download that. We tried to make a Reservation in A la carte restaurant Ovo by dialing ‘9’. That was written in the App. But wifi was bad in the room. First time we got a Receptionist at the phone who tol dus: use the App! He did not believe that there was written: dial 9. And finally made a reservation for us. Next day we went to Reception and we were told that we could really dial 9 next time or go to Recepcion. So 2nd time we did that last one, because again bad wifi in the room. Again we were told: use the App! Then he tried himself and also had problems to ‘get through’ the system. And said that is was only possible at two times: early of late… But was not true; he did not succeed at the desired time and made this up. So, we left without reservation and managed ourselves in the app, standing at the Plaza…, at our desired time. I am handy with digital matters, but no without wifi. ‘Saddest’ thing: one day we went to Alpendre around 15h00 for a late lunch. There was a man/waiter at the desk outside. There were a lot of free tables. But he pointed to a sign, next to him (!) with a QR code, that we had to scan to make a reservation. At that same moment and we were standing there… Finally he allowed us in ‘for this time’ without reservation. This is ‘crazy’ and the worst example of customer ‘Service’. But ‘great’ were ladies Jessica and Farida. Jessica was our waitress many times during dinner. She was very kind and service oriented. Our chambermaid Farida was very good and kind. And Kim (Dutch) at Recepcion was also kind. We think as a 5* hotel Villa del Conde should - just put a Nespresso machine in rooms (maybe first 10 cups included?) - put bottles drinking water in the room, at least upon arrival, for the first 2 days or so - bring back possibility of having a snack during the day around the Plaza, for ALL guests; offer more possibilities around the Patio, not only for Unique. - work on your customer friendliness: help guests in stead of sending them to an app all the time! - give information about, for example, a boattrip, in stead of: “it is all in the app”! ( even a Guest Relations lady could not help out: she sent us to Baobab to a desk with personal help?! But not at the moment we went there…) Looks like Lopesan Costa Meloneras is doing better. We went there 3-4 times for coffee/drinks on their ‘plaza’ and for lunch on the terrace of the Italian restaurant (without reservation…). But for us the hotel is a bit too massively. September 2022 service was ‘weird’ in general because of a big event (and storm). Also Unique service in lounge was not clear. So, we were doubting about returning. But… we did. And we partly regretted it. It was just good enough because we had the online Summer24 discount. But now: no return for us in a long while.

The hotel is set in a beautiful position on the sea front, with lovely pools and grounds. The bedroom was spacious, with a well equipped bathroom. However, for us, the nightly outdoor entertainment which was so loud meant we could not use our balcony of an evening to read or have a drink or leave the bedroom doors open for an early night. This music is horrendously loud from approx 9pm to 11pm every evening. Our room did not overlook the main square either where the entertainment was held. I felt the hotel was somewhat understaffed, for instance, at the pool bar the staff were rushing around as there simply was not enough of them, not their fault. We did not use the pool restaurant as had to book using the wretched app, we certainly didn’t know what time we wanted lunch daily, we were on holiday. The irony was that restaurant was generally empty! Probably why! As a result we went out for lunch most days. Check in was dreadfully slow, a 40 minute queue. No offer of a drink or to sit down and wait to be called when a receptionist was ready, not a good start after a long flight. Check out equally bad. No courtesy rooms made available if one had a late flight home and no changing/showering facility. We were offered use of the gym which only has one male and one female shower. The hotel is stunning but certainly does not offer a 5 star customer experience.