"I’m a positive person and try to be as positive as I can especially when writing about people. There are some positives to this hotel, but unfortunately I don’t feel it comes close to a 4-star standard in the slightest. I would personally rate it around 3 stars at best but probably closer to 2 star. The biggest issue isn’t necessarily the facilities themselves although the facilities are now dated, but the lack of maintenance and, most noticeably, the severe understaffing throughout the hotel.
Like I said the hotel itself is quite dated and has a number of areas and facilities are in need of some TLC. Things like the children’s playgrounds, some of the sunbeds and the parasols are looking very tired. The parasols in particular were frustrating because you would put them up and within a couple of minutes they would slide straight back down again!
The pools were actually one of the best parts of the hotel. There is a great variety of pools with different depths and our children absolutely loved them. Some of the tiles are coming away from the bottom and could do with being repaired — although, amusingly, our kids thought finding the loose tiles sitting at the bottom of the pool was great fun! Despite this, they had the best time in the pools and would happily have stayed in them all day. We did enjoy Monica beach hotels pools too though especially because it had waterslides.
Our room was ok and clean enough, and I have to give credit to the housekeeping team who work incredibly hard. Our room was cleaned every other day and they always did a good job. However, the rooms themselves a could do with a few upgrades definitely as they are selling it as 4 star and, again, I would say they are more in keeping with a 2/3-star hotel.
We travelled as a family of four with two young children and our room was also a very long way from the restaurant, pools and main hotel facilities. This made going backwards and forwards for rests during the day much more difficult than it needed to be. If you are travelling with younger children, I would definitely recommend requesting a room as close to the main facilities as possible. We travelled with other families so saw there rooms and our was half the size of there’s and tucked away in the corner so although ours was small (luck of the draw) the other rooms were pretty spacious.
The biggest problem by far is that the hotel seems severely understaffed for the number of guests staying here. This affects almost every part of the experience.
At mealtimes, unless you arrive pretty much as the restaurant opens, finding a prepared table can be difficult. We often found ourselves walking around looking for somewhere to sit and then finding our own cutlery to make the table up. The food queues can also be extremely long, particularly for the hot food, pizza and meat stations. If you arrive later, some things have already run out and the choice becomes much more limited. The food itself wasn’t the best and became very repetitive. The desserts especially seemed to be virtually the same every lunch and dinner. We actually paid to upgrade to All Inclusive Plus so that we could spend the latter part of our holiday eating at Monica Beach Hotel instead, and the difference was very noticeable. We could find a table straight away, plates were cleared much more quickly and we thought the food was fresher, better presented and much easier to understand. Something as simple as having labels telling you what the different dishes and sauces are makes a big difference instead of having to guess what everything is. There was more choice for children at Monica beach and the entertainment was more entertaining.
Although most staff at Costa calma beach resort hotel are really helpful and friendly and are trying their best even though clearly swamped with workload, Some of the restaurant staff, particularly at dinner, could come across as quite unhelpful. (Not the friendly manager looking guy in the full suit that was usually around the door he was great) but On several occasions when we asked for something or needed help, we were simply met with a shrug rather than any attempt to help or explain, even when we tried to ask in Spanish to help out the language barrier. I do appreciate that they appear to be extremely understaffed and under pressure, but it did sometimes make you feel like you were an inconvenience for asking.
The bars were another major frustration. During the daytime there was often only one pool bar serving everyone, sometimes with just one member of staff. The queues for beer and cocktails could be horrendous, to the point where we either didn’t bother or got several drinks at once so we didn’t have to queue again. Another bugbear was the self-service drinks. There regularly weren’t enough glasses or cups available for soft drinks and coffee. Then, when you did manage to find one, the machines would sometimes have run out so you would just get soda water, and it could take a long time before they were refilled.
It was similar in the evening, with one main bar (sometimes 2) and usually only two or three members of staff trying to serve a huge number of guests. I want to make it clear that the bartenders themselves were lovely and worked extremely hard — the issue is that there simply aren’t enough of them. The cocktails were actually really nice, especially the strawberry daiquiri, but you have to be prepared to wait a long time for one.
The entertainment team are friendly and seem to try their best, but I don’t feel they have the resources available to put on particularly good entertainment. Apart from the acrobatic show, which we enjoyed, we found most of the evening entertainment quite boring. The mini disco is also very short and repetitive, with essentially the same songs every night. With more resources and investment, I think the entertainment team could offer much more.
Sunbeds are another huge problem. We genuinely never managed to get one. By the time we went for breakfast at around 8:30am, they already had towels on them, yet many remained unused for huge parts of the day. One morning we went to the beach to watch the sunrise and were around the pool area at approximately 6am — and the sunbeds already had towels on them! So people must be reserving them even earlier than that. I appreciate that selfish sunbed reserving is down to guests rather than the hotel, but I do think the hotel could introduce and enforce a system to manage it. It is particularly difficult for families with small children who genuinely need somewhere shaded to sit during the day.
The spa was also disappointing. The jacuzzi and sauna were unavailable throughout our stay — either broken or closed — which made that facility feel pretty pointless.
Reception staff, were not overly helpful whenever we spoke to them about stuff apart from the reception staff who were on shift the night we checked in (they were lovely). This was probably due to the amount of complaints they we’re receiving on a daily basis and Unfortunately, just like everywhere else, there was usually a queue to speak to them, which again comes back to the hotel seemingly not having enough staff for the number of guests. We paid for hotel towels and they never gave us any receipt or paper of any kind then when we went to return them for our deposit back they said they won’t take them as we didn’t have a slip of paper (that they 100% didn’t give us) and the were clearly were the hotels towels as they have SBH written on them 🙄 they were kept well by us and there was nothing wrong with them when returned. So that was €40 just wasted.
Another thing worth knowing before booking is the location. We hadn’t realised quite how isolated the hotel is. It really does feel like it is in the middle of nowhere, so if you like being able to walk out of your hotel in the evening and find lots of shops, restaurants, bars or things to do, this probably isn’t the best location for you.
Overall, I can see why this hotel may once have been worthy of its 4-star rating because the foundations are there but it’s most definitely not anymore. It has lots of pools, good size rooms, beach access and plenty of facilities (that I could see were once there but aren’t used anymore and are shut off or boarded up). There is definitely potential for it to be a really good family resort.
Unfortunately, it feels as though it has been allowed to become run down and dated without enough investment in maintenance, and there simply aren’t enough staff for the number of guests or to staff all those bar areas that could be nice. A lot of the staff who are there generally seem lovely and work incredibly hard, so my criticism isn’t aimed at them at all — they appear to be doing the best they can with the resources they have. With more staff, refurbishment of the rooms and facilities, better maintenance, improved food and drink organisation and a proper system for sunbeds, this hotel could be so much better.
As it currently stands, though, I personally wouldn’t consider it a 4-star hotel. For us, it was a lower 3-star maybe upper 2 star experience. We have visited all the canaries islands so far and also popped into multiple hotels in the Costa calma side of the island and it didn’t come close to other hotels that were rated the same star rating. The kids still had an amazing time though, particularly in the pools, and we made the most of our holiday, but there are definitely a lot of areas that need improvement."
