Club Jandia Princess

By far the worst hotel I’ve ever stayed in, the family rooms smell like damp and dirty drains however if you visit without children you are given lovely, clean and modern rooms. The air conditioning is poor, there is no air conditioning around other areas of the hotel including the restaurant which is like a sauna and you are shouted at when opening any windows to allow a breeze. The staff are extremely rude apart from a small handful of evening bar staff, the staff are very particular about where you sit in the restaurant and will remove your food and tables infront of you if you disagree with the seating instead of having a polite conversation. Most of the all inclusive buffet food tastes like it’s been sitting there for days before you get to it, it’s very clear the staff pick and choose which guests they want to have a problem with based on what language you speak. Activities which are advertised on the hotel website are misleading and are actually away from the hotel and not included in the price, I’ve never had a worse experience in a hotel before.

Firstly, we have been visiting this hotel since 2018, and love both the place, and the staff that work there are just amazing. This review is more focused on the new senior management that has been in place since our previous visit and the ludicrous and unnecessary processes which they seem to be adopting which in my opinion (as well as those of many around the Chill Out Pool) are vastly over the top and simply are not necessary. There are quite a few small changes that they have adopted over the last 3 months which which take away some of the character from both the hotel but more importantly of what the staff do to make this place unique, but the biggest issue is the changes to the accessibility to the Chill Out Pool in the morning. Ever since we have been going to this hotel we would go to sit on the beds around the Chill Out pool around 9am and start to enjoy the sunshine. Now the pool is cordoned off, as well as the baby pool until 10am and strictly no entry is allowed. These changes will only affect people which like to start sunbathing before 10am of a morning, but they are normally a considerable number of people that do. I initially spoke to Yeray (Customer Relations Manager) about this and he stated that this was not a decision solely made by the hotel but was to comply with Canary Government legislation which stated that out of the pools operating hours they have to restrict both the pool as well as the surrounding area. Also, the during operating hours a lifeguard must be present. I subsequently checked the relevant website and the legislation only refers to the 'pool basin' and not the surrounding area, the piece about the lifeguard was correct. This was the first piece of info I got from their two Customer Relations Managers which was either poorly communicated to them by their directors or simply a blatant lie.! I also challenged him as to why only the Chill Out pool and not the main pool was subject to these rules, despite no lifeguard being present on the main pool until 10am either. He simply stated that they have 'other people' monitoring this pool prior to 10am who are first aid trained. This again is a total lie, people would be sat on beds from as early as 8am around this pool, and whilst the occasional staff member would be visible, there was never a consistent presence before 10am This was on around the 2nd day of our 2 week holiday. For around the next week a level of total inconsistency was evident with at times several people ignoring the barrier and just going into the area before the 10am timeline, at times we did this as well as the rules were a sledgehammer to crack a nut in my opinion. At times staff would also open the barriers 5-10 minutes before 10amDuring this time signs also starting going up around all the pools stating any towels placed around the pool with nobody in attendance would be removed and you would have to pay 2 euros to get it back. To be clear the part about removing towels where people place on a bed and don't come back for hours I am totally in agreement with, but on the flip side as many other reviews have previously stated sunbeds are in an abundance at this hotel, and on most days plenty of beds are still available after the 10am timeline. About 4 days before the end of the holiday, we got down to the pool around 9:30 am and found several towels were already on the beds, but people had then left them to 'queue up' outside of the barrier, so we decided to do the same. About 15 minutes later another lady came down (I didn't catch her name, but I think it started with an 'M") with one of the pool cleaners and started removing the towels and placing them on benches. I confronted her and asked why they was doing this when they were not doing anything with similar towels on the main pool. I also mentioned that we had visited their sister hotel which was around 400yds down the road and that none of these rules were in place. To state she was arrogant, rude, and a total liar would not be overstating the matter. She initially stated yes they were, and that the rules for both hotels had only been introduced the day before. I stated that this is not the case as the signs had been up for several days and the barrier and restriction to the area have been in place since the start of our holiday, her response was simply 'you are wrong'. At this point it was clear to me that I needed to escalate the issue to get a sensible answer so I asked her if I could speak with someone more senior on site. She simply responded 'That is me!. I challenged her on this as I had seen one of their sub-Directors in the restaurant 30 minutes earlier. Again she stated 'I am the most senior' after challenging her again and describing the manager I had seen I think she realised that I wasn't going to let this lie, and therefore she ultimately agreed to arrange an appointment with the Director. I met with Tomas later that morning and explained all of the above, he was certainly more reasonable and explained that the rules were twofold. Firstly the removal of unattended towels prior to 10am was to prevent the beds being allocated with nobody using them for hours. The second reason was due to H&S rules where they felt there was too much of a risk if no lifeguard was present. I explained that I agree with the principle of the H&S element, but that the rules were not being consistently applied to all pools and to me the risk is the same to all. I also explained that these new rules are creating other H&S issues which didn't exist previously as now once the first person is let in the area we evidenced a mad rush to get a preferred bed. At times people would run to get ahead of others and therefore the new rules have introduced trip hazard as well as potential conflicts between customers. I explained to Tomas that in my opinion the hotel was treating us like children and had taken the 'cheap and easy solution' instead of thinking how can we maintain our H&S requirement and not piss off 60+ people every morning. I offered the solution that they should simply get the lifeguards to start an hour earlier which would solve all the issues, but then he started quoting additional costs which yes I agree with but these would be pennies and would show that the new hotel management thinks of its clients and not just its bottom line. Lastly Tomas questioned whether this was just my view or whether there was a wider group which felt affected. I suggested he should come down that morning and speak to people as I had spoken with many of the people down there whilst we had been queuing up and their views were totally in line with mine. He said he would, but he didn't and this was also true for the remaining 2-3 days of the holiday. Also on these last 2-3 days the access to the pool was maintained until close to the 10am stated, but on these days the lifeguard was not present until 10:15am, so again a total lack of consistency understanding of what the rules were in place to achieve.!

I could go on for a lot longer, but I hope that this new senior management team listen to not only their customers but also their staff as I don't think its just customers which the senior management team's decisions seem to be affecting. Stop treating us like children and work to find solutions that work for all parties.

Ultimately I know this hotel is closing in October for some well overdue renovations, and I hope when this reopens, if this management team are still in place that they start looking at things in more of a customer focused way. Maybe they should spend a bit of time understanding why so many people revisit this hotel and build their foundations on that. As stated this hotel is dated, but the 'day to day' staff in all area's are absolutely amazing, and if they lose that they will start to lose the people that return year after year.!

This was our fifth stay at this hotel and we had another amazing vacation! We had much fun with the animation team and their planned activities like aqua gym, bingo, beer pong with water etc. Especially Lucas' and Normans energy made our vacation unforgettable. Also the water activities like SUP-Yoga and Aquabike were really fun!
The entire staff was very friendly and welcoming, we always felt well taken care of. The rooms need to be renovated but since we mainly used the room to get ready and to sleep, it didn't affect our vacation experience at all. The atmosphere at the hotel is fantastic. Even though there are families with children, it never feels noisy because there are dedicated kids areas at the pool and in the restaurant. I have celiac disease and the hotel handled my gluten-free diet well. I felt safe and well looked after throughout my stay, which made it more relaxing. We had a wonderful time once again and are already looking forward to our next visit!