Let's get straight down to brass tacks..this hotel is deeply average
Anyone who has ever stayed in any Canarian hotel will know that getting good service and a nice, modern, functioning room can be challenging. This week I stayed at the sprawling 584 room, 5-star H10 Rubicon Palace in Playa Blanca, Lanzarote. Sadly, it was not good.
Background
Regular visitors to the Canary Islands will know that in the wake of Covid, hotel prices have surged to all time highs and the relentless number of visitors to the islands means that this is going to get worse before it gets better. The locals are fed up, protesting "visitors go home", the Canarian Government doesn't know what to do and in the meantime the hotel owners such as Barcelona-based Grupo H10 are raking in the cash. It's a sad state of affairs, to put it mildly.
So I was pleased to find a 5-star hotel this week that was "only" charging €220 per night, all-inclusive. I was also excited to try out a new hotel firm, having stayed at various Iberostar, Melia, Lopesan and Barcelo hotels in the past.
I don't often stay in the larger worldwide hotels in the Canary Islands as you simply can't find them. Hilton, Accor and others haven't made any headway in the Canaries although readers may like to know that they can earn and burn IHG points at select Iberostar properties, through a recent new partnership with the Palma-based firm.
The Hotel
View from the rooftop bar, with Fuerteventura in the distance
The large chess board and pool / sunbathing area
The hotel currently has 584 rooms and was built in 2001. Other H10 hotels in the area are the White Suites (4-star) as well as the Lanzarote Princess (4-star) and the Timanfaya Palace (4-star).
The hotel itself sits on the edge of Playa Blanca and there are no bars within walking distance although you can hire an e-scooter or get the local service bus into Playa Blanca, both of which are accessible just out front of the hotel.
You can tell that the hotel has been well used. Despite the public areas being in reasonable condition, the overall theme is something that I would describe as shabby. Some of the floor tiles in the main areas were loose and, as we'll see in my room, the power sockets were in dangerous and unusable condition. Not really what you expect from any hotel, let alone a 5-star one.
The Room
The inoperative sockets and terrifying cut cable left dangling just behind
The view from my ground floor patio room
My room was as I say an entry level run of the mill H10 standard. Some of the decor gave away the age of the hotel (chipped / damaged furniture) although I did enjoy the large Samsung flat wall mounted television, which had both BBC1 and ITV.
The bed was comfortable although not very big and the room did have tea/coffee making facilities. None of the tea or coffee was replenished at any point during my stay. I have since learned that you have to ask the hotel to every time you want your room servicing, or they just don't bother.
As well as the lack of working power sockets at the desk, there were also other sockets that were not working.
Use of the built-in safe was free - something that you can't take for granted in Canarian hotels these days sadly.
The patio was pleasant but the patio doors had seen better days and it took a lot of brute force to get them to open and close. A less well built person than me would have struggled!
It's fair to say that I was clearly put into one of their worst rooms, possibly due to my relatively short stay or possibly being a single traveller on this occasion. It was not good value for money and certainly not five star.
Liking my 5-star stay so far?
Food and Drink
Breakfast with bubbles
Visit Mike's coffee shop from 11am for smoothies, cakes* and coffee
*cakes are NOT included, even on all-inclusive
Some of the F&B options at the hotel
I have to confess, I'm really not a fan of all-inclusive. It invariably revolves around a repetitive buffet and occasionally, they allow you to dine at a specialist on-site restaurant. In my case, because I was staying for three nights, I was entitled to one specialist restaurant however, by the time I had checked in, there was no availability left. This underlines a very common problem in all of the Canarian hotels that I have stayed at - restaurant capacity.
I have yet to find a Canarian hotel with anywhere near acceptable restaurant capacity and my advice is to never, ever, stay at a hotel in the Canaries, even 5-star, if you don't have independent local restaurants nearby. You'll find the quality far better and service stellar-like compared to limiting yourself to your hotel.
On my last night (pictured left), all-inclusive guests and half board guests were queueing for up to 40 minutes to get a dinner table at the buffet. Remember what I was saying about this being a 5-star hotel? It was more like Butlins.
I've said this before, as have others..when you have any sort of included meals, the hotel doesn't have to then extend any further effort. Whereas, the local restaurateur does have to earn your money because that's his sole income. All-inclusive and half board are fine, when they work, but my experience in the Canary Islands is they're just an over-priced rip off, as I felt here at the H10. The food was ok, but not a patch on similar Iberostar all-inclusives..
Keeping up with my 5-star experience?
The queue for a dinner table
The Piano Bar and my all-inclusive Pina Colada, Barraquito and JW Black Label
The Piano Bar is the central focal point for evening entertainment and to be fair, they had some good acts on whilst I was there including a talented singer and pianist.
The Piano Bar is open from around 11am and stays open throughout the day. During the day that I worked for a few hours service was excellent, very prompt. However, when a few more customers arrived mid-afternoon, I was forgotten about and had to go up to the bar to ask for a drink (they distinctly ask you not to do this, and to wait seated to be served).
At one point I saw a passing staff member and when I asked for a drink, he rudely snapped "I only collect the glasses, I'm not a waiter" and just walked away. Are you still following this 5-star experience?
Conclusion
My stay here was mixed, there is just no getting away from that.
This is certainly not a 5-star establishment, either by service or by the way it is presented. But it's ok, if you're ok with an average experience, and many are, according to TripAdvisor.
In my own extensive experience of Canarian hotels, if I were to list in priority of greatness each Spanish hotel brand by overall standards it would be:
- Gran Melia - for the sheer opulence (but patchy service)
- Iberostar Grand - again, stunning properties but just not quite Gran Melia
- Iberostar Selection - nice places, consistently good
- Barcelo - nice hotels but too many are franchises and Barcelo don't always enforce brand standards
- Lopesan - immaculate hotels but again, lacking service
- H10 - I only have this H10 to comment on, but will try more to see if they are all this bad
Would I return to this hotel? In a word, no. It is in desperate need of refurbishment, as Iberostar have done recently in a number of their Tenerife and Lanzarote sites, and service here at the H10 just wasn't up to standard.
That said, if you've never tried Iberostar (not perfect, but better than H10), you won't know any different. To my surprise, this hotel is rated highly on Trip Advisor so maybe as a sole traveller I was just treated differently, with H10 not knowing I'm a travel writer featured in publications such as The Sun and The Daily Star newspapers.
Not recommended.
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