"We stayed here for 11 nights, the first 3 nights there was a heatwave highest temperatures reaching 49°C (bare this in mind!) - I have restricted mobility issues so I hired a mobility scooter during our time in Lanzarote to help us get about etc, we booked a superior room and were placed in block 2 room 23. We arrived 3pm and checked in at reception, we were handed the keys and a piece of paper with a bunch of rules and timetables on it, included in this was the cleaners schedules, how often the rooms got cleaned and on what days, how often towels were changed etc and we were also given a coupon for a free drink at the pool bar. The pool bar in block 2 isn’t even open or in use. Anyway, we got to the room and it was roasting! (49°c) we found the AC in the bedroom and turned it on, then realised that there is only AC in the bedroom and not the living room. We hadn’t unpacked our cases as we were both sleep deprived and exhausted so we opened them on the bedroom floor to get what we needed from them then left them unzipped on the floor. That night we were sat in the living room on the sofa and noticed the ants! I mean thousands of ants! We hadn’t eaten anything yet and we were going to get groceries after 8pm once it had cooled down outside. The ants were coming out of the middle of the wall from a small hole behind the plug socket used for the tv. There was thousands crawling along the wall up around all the door frames and into the kitchen area then re-disappeared back into the wall! Now I’ve been to lanzarote many times so I know a few ants are normal and to watch you don’t spill or leave crumbs about but as I said we hadn’t eaten anything yet! By 11pm we went to bed the beds were so creaky and moved so easily I was scared getting in and out that I was going to fall on the floor! We were given one pillow each now we’re both asthmatic and need 2 pillows each to sleep, we noticed the pillows straight away when we checked in and I phoned reception which would’ve been 4pm to ask for 2 more and explained we’re asthmatic only to be told that it wasn’t possible to give us extra pillows until tomorrow… I was too tired to argue so we ended up stuffing clothes under our pillows to prop them up abit! - once in bed we realised the AC did nothing to cool the room down, we even brought our portable fan with us so we had the fan full blast and the AC on and still it was too hot we couldn’t sleep! Day 2 after barely any sleep I went to use the shower now I was relieved at the thought it being a stand shower not a bath as again I have mobility issues. I got in the shower and my feet kept slipping out from under me and was highly dangerous! I got out and had to wear my crocs in the shower just so I could wash! The cleaner would come in and was muttering stuff in Spanish under her breath, we ended up translating something she said and it translated to “oh my god” which I don’t understand why because we’re not dirty people nor are we messy? Ants were still crawling all over the wall and the ac still did nothing to cool the room down. Day 3 is when things took a bad turn! Now everything we ate stayed in the fridge or on the kitchen counter and all rubbish was in the bin in the corner of the kitchen and we only ate in the kitchen. The wall the tv is on the wall where the ants were coming from is the same wall that connects to the bedroom on the other side of that wall. We went to go to bed night 3 AND THE BEDS WERE INFESTED WITH ANTS!! Thousands!! We obviously called reception and whilst sat on the sofa it was infested too! We were physically wiping ants off our arms and legs whilst on the phone. The receptionist spoke English and her exact words were “oh my gosh… erm right I’m sending someone over now!” 20minutes later a man who spoke Spanish came round and gave us a can of ant spray and videoed on his phone the line of ants on the wall and in the bedroom, around the door frames etc then pointed to the phone on the room and muttered something about reception and left. We sat waiting for a call from reception for an hour and nothing, by this point it was 1am so I phoned reception back, I told them the guy had been he videoed the ants and gave us the ant spray I also said that it clearly says on the back of the can do not use if asthmatic. It was a different receptionist and she was extremely rude, she said it was out fault for leaving crumbs about and that they weren’t going to do anything else tonight and we have to wait till tomorrow. I questioned her and asked her what we were supposed to do about sleeping as the beds were ant infested and she told us the sleep in them. We went into the bedroom to see if it was even possible and the beds were swarmed!! And our suitcases with all our clothes were covered too inside and out!! We sat on chairs wiping ants off our arms and legs till 9am! During this time we contacted booking.com about it and they tried to phone reception on our behalf but reception did not answer them. Booking.com said they were opening an investigation for us but they couldn’t do anything else. 9am reception called us saying we were being moved rooms from block 2 room 23 to block 2 room 2 which was 2 doors away. We obviously accepted and packed our stuff and moved it all. During this the woman from reception took me to the new room and showed me around and gave me a lecture about crumbs and letting ants in through the doors, I told her we had only eaten in the kitchen and the ants were in the wall and were not even going for the food they were going for the bedroom living room and bathroom! She didn’t listen and told us we were the reason the ants were bad and left. We ignored her and videotaped all the ants as evidence and moved our stuff to outside the new apartment. The cleaner asked if we were done moving and we said yes, 10 minutes later my partner went back to get the ramp for the mobility scooter and saw the guy from last night spraying the can of ant spray a ridiculous amount to the point clouds of the spray were coming out the doors! We took our stuff to the back outdoor room where you have washing lines etc and a drain, we took stuff out one by one shaking it and checked EVERYTHING for ants! Then my partner had to get all the ants out the sems of the suitcases and in total we had to remove and squash over 20 ants! We took our stuff through and put it away in the wardrobe and put the AC on and realised this AC actually worked! We then realised these beds didn’t creak and were comfier and the tv was a smart one! (The old room had 3 channels!) bare in mind we paid for a superior room! So I phoned reception and told them the old AC didn’t work and I want all of this logged on the system. She then told me the AC worked fine before we arrived and then started blaming us for the ants again!! I told her respectfully my grandparents live in lanzarote and I know what attracts ants and how to avoid them, the problem is the apartment was infested with ants and the whole time I told her this she spoke over me saying it’s our fault and don’t let it happen again said goodbye and hung up on me. I was sat shocked. We brushed it off and decided to finally try enjoy our holiday! Now on the piece of paper we were given it clearly says the cleaners clean everyday apart from Wednesday and Sunday. They actually cleaned one a week. On the paper it said the cleaners change the towels every 2 days. They actually just hung them back up and changed them twice a week. This is highly unhygienic and gross. It was for this reason we didn’t use the swimming pool! When the cleaner did clean the room she was extremely rude and bad tempered and slammed the door in our faces as she left! Then one day we went out to the shops and came back to our fire alarm going mad so my partner quickly unlocked the door and checked all the rooms but no fire? So we phoned reception and they said they were sending someone round with batteries so we waited 20minutes and the guy arrived, he moved the coffee table to the side and grabbed the broom… and FULLY WACKED THE FIRE ALRM OF THE CEILING SO IT CAME CRASHING TO THE FLOOR!! We were sat gobsmacked he picked up the fire alarm and left and we never got a new one?!?! We were sat questioning if that had really just happened!! - overall the place isn’t great at all it’s dirty, old , out of date, crumbling, and to top it off the staff are rude and will blame you for anything. The locals in the area say las Gaviotas has gone downhill since they changed hands. And I couldn’t agree more! Please read all the negative reviews because we have and I promise you they aren’t exaggerating!! Save your money folks! Ps photos are screenshots from the videos we took all black specks are ants"
