"Spent 7 nights at THB Royal in playa blanca, travelled with my sister, we booked via TUI. We were really looking forward to relax and rest in the sun, and at first glance the hotel looks fantastic.
We got a room on second floor by zen area and it is indeed a quiet and relaxing area. No sun at any point in the day on the balconies (we had 2), which was a bit disappointing but we spent the days by zen pool area instead, so it was fine.
The pool was so cold that smaller children cried, but ot looked clean and was not at all crowded (probably because of the temperature?).
Sunbeds are easy to find but not clean and when moving them a bit you can find rubbish under (we noticed a piece of food on first day that was still there 2 days later).
Unfortunately, cleaning is not up to standard in the room either.
The surfaces are never wiped off and floor is only wiped sloppy leaving hair and dirt, and never behind doors.
We are both very mindful and clean (both have worked in service and particularly during seasons) so we put away our stuff every day to make cleaning easy, and even bought a little basket to keep our suncream, shampoo etc so it would be easy to lift while cleaning in the bathroom. This didn’t help, not sure if the sink was ever cleaned during our stay.
We had some rain and wind the last three-four days, which is unfortunate but no one can control the weather, so we just made the best of it.
However, rain leaked into the room, which can and should be controlled, so we reported it to reception (first time was on Friday) and maintenance (thank you serviceminded Eduardo!) came by and fixed a clogged drain on the balcony, and arranged with towels to dry up excess water over night.
Sunday morning we woke up having half of bedroom floor flowed with water, which was very unpleasant, not to mention dangerous given the hotel-telephone cord was under water and we did not notice the wet floor until we stepped in it getting out of bed (electricity and water should never mix).
Luckily we had no personal belongings except my (inexpensive) slippers (room was very cold) on the floor by the bed. Also luckily, none of us slipped which is a risk when tile-floor is wet.
We alerted reception and was surprised with the lack of urgency to solve this for their guests that paid a lot of money to come their hotel, there was also no compassion or apology for how this affected our holiday.
Instead we had to go and ask staff ”pronto please” to come and remove the water from the floor.
The cleaning lady was furious we demanded this ”instant” support (we had already waited almost an hour!!) and was very rude and unprofessional, ignoring us and muttering in Spanish and claiming this happens every time when raining during her 10 years working there.
This was even more shocking, they knew about the problem from before but did not make sure to check weather forecast and prevent the problem instead let guests wake up and deal with this in the morning!
She eventually called her supervisor and we thought that now someone professional serviceminded person will come and take control of this situation, but no. No apology, no kindness, and now we have 2 people in our room roaming around muttering in Spanish, making us feel like WE are the problem. Worst morning ever!! I actually cried when they left, feeling like vacation mood is ruined with this treatment.
When we asked to talk to management and they said they are not available until Monday (this was Sunday), and we said ok but we are leaving on Monday morning, cleaning lady said ”Yes!!” and laughed like a maniac? I do not think they understand that this is not professional at all and that we actually saved up to pay a lot of money to go on this vacation and are now being treated like this is not ok!
This time they left towels again, covering the balcony-doors and this was lucky because at night it rained again and the towels stopped the water from flowing in (we actually had trouble sleeping so we got up and checked several times during the night to make sure). However, it is not a long-term solution since it also stops the only places where air can come in, leaving the room insanely humid and damp.
In the morning, before leaving with taxi to airport, we again asked to talk to the manager but despite knowing we stood across the room waiting to speak with her, she never approached us in the reception so I guess she was not interested to talk to us.
We are never coming here again, and despite some good parts, it is not possible to give the overall experience anything else than 1 star in review.
I do hope that management/owner takes this seriously and make some changes. I understand that having season 365 days a year is exhausting for staff but each week brings new guests and it is never ok to treat guests like this. Please be more pro-active for next time and control the situation, and please put your ”guest-goggles” on and take a stroll around your hotel and you will easily spot the issues with cleaning. Educate staff to be more serviceminded and please send ”our” cleaning lady on vacation, she seems to need it."
