"We left early because the condition of this supposed five-star resort was unacceptable – families should look carefully at the photos before booking
I have thought carefully about writing this review because Bahia del Duque has an excellent reputation and is marketed as one of Tenerife’s leading luxury hotels. Unfortunately, our experience was so poor that we ultimately left the hotel before the end of our stay.
That is not something we have ever done lightly on a holiday.
We had booked Bahia del Duque expecting a genuine five-star experience. Instead, we found a hotel with such a large number of maintenance, cleanliness and safety concerns that, after repeatedly raising issues during our stay, we no longer felt comfortable remaining there.
I would particularly urge families with young children to look carefully through the photographs attached to this review and make their own judgement.
Some of what we encountered went far beyond a hotel simply being a little dated.
One of my biggest concerns was the condition of electrical installations and equipment around guest areas. We photographed electrical cabinets/panels that appeared open or readily accessible, including installations positioned at a height that could easily be reached by a child.
In a family resort, that concerned us enormously.
Small children do not understand that they should not touch an open cabinet, cable, switch, damaged fitting or piece of equipment. They explore things. They put their hands into gaps. They run around pool areas barefoot and wet.
I do not think it is unreasonable to expect electrical equipment in publicly accessible areas of a five-star family hotel to be properly enclosed, secured and maintained.
We also saw cables and electrical equipment around poolside areas. Again, I am not an electrician and I am not claiming to make a technical assessment of the installation, but as a guest looking at an exposed extension lead and a speaker covered in a towel for protection next to a pool where people are swimming, it was deeply concerning.
There were numerous other potential hazards throughout the resort.
We photographed broken sun loungers with exposed and protruding bolts. A guest sitting down without noticing could easily catch themselves on one. A child climbing or playing around a lounger could potentially be injured by it.
We found damaged and uneven paving, broken surfaces and areas where drainage covers or surrounding surfaces appeared damaged or displaced.
Again, think about what that means in practice in a resort full of families: children running around, guests walking in sandals, people moving between pools with wet feet, elderly guests and people walking at night.
A five-star hotel should be actively identifying and rectifying hazards like these before guests encounter them.
The pool areas were particularly disappointing.
During our stay the main swimming pool was closed for a period due to what we were told was a technical issue. The appearance of the water was extremely poor and we photographed murky water and debris.
We also saw rubbish within pool areas, including what appeared to be discarded plasters.
Around the pools we encountered broken or poorly maintained loungers, dirty or abandoned towels, used glasses and bottles and other signs that, to us, suggested the area was simply not being maintained to the standard we would expect.
There were also parasols with significant visible staining and what appeared to us to be mould or mildew.
None of these things in isolation would necessarily ruin a holiday.
The problem was that there were so many of them.
Every time we walked around the resort we seemed to notice something else: damaged fixtures, deterioration, poorly maintained areas, broken surfaces, drainage issues, neglected equipment or something that simply did not belong in a hotel operating at this supposed level.
Our room had its own problems.
The air conditioning was ineffective, which made the room uncomfortable in Tenerife’s heat.
We experienced repeated gurgling from the drainage system accompanied by an unpleasant sewage-like smell.
The water temperature in the shower also fluctuated considerably and at times became extremely hot.
Again, one maintenance problem can happen anywhere. What concerned us was the accumulation of problems both inside our room and throughout the wider property.
Even areas such as the spa, which you would expect to represent the very best of a luxury hotel, showed visible signs of deterioration.
We raised concerns while we were staying at the hotel. We did not simply come home and decide afterwards that we had been unhappy.
We spent a significant amount of our holiday speaking to people, photographing problems and trying to get issues resolved.
We were offered solutions to individual problems, such as changing room or using alternative facilities, but by that stage our concern was no longer about one room, one broken lounger or one pool.
It was the overall condition of the hotel.
We simply did not feel that moving to another room would address what we were seeing throughout the resort.
Eventually we made the decision to leave Bahia del Duque altogether and continue our holiday elsewhere.
For us, that says everything.
We had paid to stay in what is promoted as one of Tenerife’s premier luxury hotels. We had no desire to disrupt our own holiday, pack our belongings again and move resorts partway through a short trip.
We left because we genuinely felt the experience and condition of the hotel were bad enough that remaining there would spoil the rest of our holiday.
What makes all of this especially disappointing is the huge contrast between the image Bahia del Duque sells and what we experienced.
The property is undeniably impressive architecturally. The gardens can be beautiful. There are areas that photograph extremely well, and I can understand why someone arriving and walking through the grounds for an hour might initially think it is wonderful.
But luxury is not just attractive architecture.
It is maintenance.
It is cleanliness.
It is ensuring broken equipment is removed.
It is making sure potentially hazardous installations are inaccessible to guests.
It is inspecting sun loungers so guests are not sitting beside exposed screws.
It is maintaining paving and drainage.
It is ensuring swimming pools and surrounding areas are properly looked after.
And, particularly in a resort welcoming families, it is recognising that something positioned at an adult’s waist height may be directly at a child’s eye and hand level.
That is why I am uploading photographs alongside this review.
I do not want anyone simply to take my word for it. Look at them and decide for yourself whether what they show is consistent with what you would expect from a five-star luxury hotel.
For anyone travelling with children, I would look at them particularly carefully.
Children run around.
They touch things.
They do not notice uneven paving.
They do not understand why they should stay away from an electrical cabinet.
Parents should be able to relax at a luxury family resort without having to constantly scan their surroundings for poorly maintained equipment or potential hazards.
Hotels sometimes have maintenance problems and we are realistic enough to understand that. No property is perfect and we would never leave a review like this because of a cracked tile, an old piece of furniture or one faulty air-conditioning unit.
This was different.
It was the scale and variety of the issues, combined with the fact that we continued discovering them around the property, that destroyed our confidence in the hotel.
Ultimately, we voted with our feet and left.
I would not return to Bahia del Duque based on the condition we personally experienced during this stay, and I could not recommend it to friends or family.
If you are considering booking, especially if you are travelling with young children, please look beyond the promotional photographs and look closely at the photographs attached to this review before making your decision."
