Gran Melia Palacio de Isora

We’ve just got back from a week here as a family of three, staying in an All-Inclusive Suite. Once settled, we genuinely had a good holiday. The physical grounds, pools, and architecture are immaculate, and the huge pools are fantastic, especially the Pirate Pool, which was absolutely perfect for our 20-month-old to splash around in. The evening "Isora Funfair" (bouncy castles set up in the conference hall) was also brilliant for tiring him out before bed, and our suite's location and separate bedroom/living room layout worked really well.

However, against 5-star expectations, the resort falls well short due to tired rooms, inflexible service, and an aggressive tiering model.

Arrival & Inflexible Service Our arrival day highlighted these shortcomings right when we needed help most. Despite the hotel booking our private transfer themselves and us specifying a midday arrival online, our room wasn't ready. Reception offered an alternative room, though it was clear this was intended as a straight room swap for the full week rather than a temporary fix for a nap, and they were honest that it wasn't as nice. They also promised a call when our actual suite was ready. That call never came; when we walked back at 2pm, the room miraculously became available at that exact moment.

Waiting for two hours in travel clothes with heavy bags and a screaming toddler also highlighted a real gap in the lunch setup: unless you are Red Level, there are no casual or grab-and-go food options between 12:00 and 16:30, only formal sit-down dining. While the food on the bar menu is technically included on All-Inclusive if you're inside the restaurants, dragging our overtired, screaming boy into a quiet sit-down meal just wasn't fair on anyone else trying to eat in peace. The staff could clearly see we were fresh arrivals, still in our UK travel clothes with bags in tow and visibly struggling with an exhausted child. We just wanted to grab some of that exact same food to take away from the Palapa Bar counter, but the staff flat-out refused, hiding behind confusing "Red Level" rules. Instead of showing an ounce of common sense or empathy to help out struggling parents right in front of them, we just got a rigid "computer says no." We couldn't get our son a proper meal until that evening and had to rely entirely on snacks to keep him going all afternoon.

Room Condition & Cot Issues When we got into the suite, it had clearly been a rushed turnaround. The floor was dirty and the bath still had sand and hair from previous guests. Housekeeping did improve over the week, though daily cleans mostly amounted to a quick mop and a bedding/towel change. The suite itself is very tired, overdue a refurb, and clearly hadn't had a proper deep clean in a long time. Touchpoints were covered in fingerprints, and surfaces were grubby and sticky to the touch. The furniture was a major letdown too. The sofa was abysmal, being a pull-out style where you constantly sink right into the metal bed enclosure, with a backrest that is essentially a hard plank of wood.

Another major failure was the cot situation. We had requested a wooden cot in advance, yet walked into a room set up with a child's bed in the living room and no cot at all. By this point, our 20-month-old hadn't slept since midnight, was hungry, and had developed a fever. While we were waiting for the cot to be delivered, a painter knocked to do touch-ups in the bedroom, so we turned him away. Thirty minutes later, his supervisor came by to ask why we had sent him away. We explained the situation and asked them to return the next day while we were out so our sick toddler wouldn't breathe in paint fumes, but they never came back. When the cot finally arrived over two hours late, we had already given up waiting and put him to sleep on the adult bed, spending hours sitting in the room watching him constantly so he didn't roll off. When we saw that the cot that finally turned up was a genuinely filthy, stained fabric travel cot, we were simply too exhausted to even bother fighting for a replacement.

Dining & Stretched Service Across the week, dining felt restricted. Because Red Level gets a 7-day booking window versus 48 hours for standard guests, à la carte restaurants were practically unbookable. That left the main Pangea buffet, where service felt rushed and frantic. Waiters were sometimes trying to take our drinks orders before we'd even sat down, such as when we were still trying to corral our toddler into a highchair. You would at least expect a few minutes grace and for every diner to be seated before being hit with an order request. Beyond that rushed start, service basically amounted to being shown to a table, having that single drinks order taken, and never being offered a second drink all week.

The Red Level Divide & The Timeshare Pitch Fundamentally, my biggest issue is the Red Level and "Circle" model. Usually, an upper or adults-only tier is kept in a physically separate enclave. Mixing them across the main resort makes the segregation blatantly obvious. Prime areas, including the sunbeds directly outside our terrace, were roped off for Red Level and sat empty all week. It is telling that the hotel maintains two separate TripAdvisor listings to insulate the Red Level rating from standard guest frustrations.

Having checked the numbers, the All-Inclusive Suite we paid for actually costs significantly more than a B&B or Half Board Red Level room (with Red Level packages often coming in hundreds or even a thousand pounds cheaper), so receiving inferior service rules in shared areas feels completely backward. Even the main indoor children's play areas are locked behind the Red Level Lounge keycard door (to be fair, there was a 90-minute free "stay and play" session in the Kids' Club most days, though this fell right over our son's nap time so we could never use it). We were quoted an extra €210 per night for Red Level in a pre-stay transfer email, though we were spared the hard sell at check-in, either because of our screaming, feverish child, or because they recognised pushing our total cost even higher was an impossible sale.

What really rubbed salt in the wound was when our "Guest Concierge" reached out on Day 2 asking how our stay was going. We genuinely thought this was an appropriate avenue to voice our arrival issues, so I sent back a polite, detailed message. It turns out the concierge check-in is nothing more than a thinly veiled sales tactic. They brushed right past our complaints with a token "Sorry for the issue" and immediately launched into a sales pitch for their Circle by Meliá timeshare club. Disguising a timeshare pitch as guest care after a rough first day was infuriating.

Verdict It all whiffs of the "enshittification" trend seen in streaming services and airlines: unbundling basic hospitality and putting conveniences behind paywalls to extract maximum revenue. In years gone by, an All-Inclusive Suite meant top-tier, friction-free hospitality. We booked this resort primarily for what it offered our toddler, and on that front, the pools and evening funfair delivered. However, Meliá’s implementation of Red Level, where a two-tier system bleeds into shared spaces rather than treating every paying guest equally, might work for some, but it is not a model I have any desire to buy into again. Because of how Meliá chooses to structure this experience, we will be taking our future bookings elsewhere.

This was our eighteenth visit to Gran Melia and we had a wonderful eleven nights

Having read a lot of the recent reviews it must be a nightmare to decide whether to book but it also shows we all want and expect different things from a holiday

So this is my overview

Firstly the staff are amazing! We have got to know a lot of the teams and they genuinely love what they do. Particular mention to Moses, Jesus, Victor, Beatriz G and Lorenzo who always take care of us.

Food We have seen a lot of changes over the years. We booked all our restaurants through the app and had enough options but we eat late so that probably helps. However, you can always talk to guest services if you struggle Quality of the food this trip was amazing

Drinks We go all inclusive and there was nothing we couldn’t order. We drink wine in the restaurants with a drink in the bar before and after so no issues

Rooms Layout is great with everything you need. If you don’t want cleaning leave the do not disturb sign on the door

Pools We used the infinity pool everyday. No issues with sunbeds. We love the salt water as it feels clean and fresh

Area We walk every day left or right out of the hotel. Left (facing the sea) is to the local village and right is about 45 minute along the sea coast to the next resort

Entertainment We enjoyed a lot of acts over 11 nights and it was good to have tables to eat outside some evenings to watch it

Will we be returning again?? Absolutely!

Are there room for improvements?? Absolutely The hotel opened in 2008 and we have seen that some rooms do need an upgrade especially lighting, smart tvs, usb sockets The restaurant booking system needs some way to help people get better access Poolside drinks staff hardly around here unless you go fetch your own Long queues some days for lunch at Agave but staff doing their best and the hotel was full Cleaning came too late every day so we requested earlier and it was sorted There is an odour from the drains at times which needs attention

I would love to see a buffet option at lunch or a light bite sandwich / salad bar as we often didn’t want a sit down restaurant meal

Ice vending machine would be great

Would also be great for staff to walk round from guest services explaining the hotel layout / options (not Circle staff selling as that now stops us talking to people who May genuinely be checking in with us)

This hotel is not a typical all inclusive 5 star. It is a Meliá with lots of different levels which can be confusing. ( We went to the new tapas restaurant only to realise it was not included but we just left and went to a different one ) The location is not central to lots of bars and restaurants which is why we love it. But the bus service is regular to los gigantes, Costa adeje or taxis are reasonable