Barcelo Fuerteventura Mar

We are avid travellers and have stayed in numerous family hotels, mainly 4- and 5-star properties, so we feel we have plenty of experience to compare this hotel against. Unfortunately, this has been one of our most disappointing stays. In our opinion, this hotel does not meet the standard we would expect from a 4-star property, particularly one within the Barceló brand. We paid £5,500 for a one-week family holiday for four people, and the overall experience has been extremely disappointing. ROOM AND JACUZZI UPGRADE We arrived early, so we didn't expect our room to be ready straightaway. However, we had to wait until the advertised check-in time of 3 pm. We were upgraded to a jacuzzi room, which sounded lovely, but the shower overflowed. The door was visibly warped, suggesting this wasn't necessarily a new problem. Someone did come to rectify the issue quickly, which we appreciated, but this isn't what you expect when you're supposedly receiving an upgrade. At night our room was overlooking the sister hotel with music playing until after 11.30 - not ideal with two young children. FOOD AND DRINKS The Premium Deluxe offering was essentially a smaller buffet, with very slow service and food that fell well below our expectations. The choice was extremely limited, particularly for children, and the options for adults weren't much better. Food was often barely warm, and the combinations available were frequently unappealing. We ended up eating out every evening, defeating the purpose of booking a hotel where we expected to enjoy meals as part of our holiday. For £5,500 for a family of four for one week, this was simply not good enough. To make matters worse, five nights into our stay, I was suddenly told that a drink I had been ordering throughout the holiday wasn't included on the menu and would have to be paid for. I refused, as the hotel staff had been serving it to me throughout our stay without mentioning any additional charge. Surely, if there is an issue with what is included, this should be communicated clearly from the outset rather than becoming the customer's problem halfway through their holiday. POOL AREA The pool area has cracked tiles, and the black slate-style flooring is another issue. When wet, it leaves black marks on your feet and clothes. Be careful with anything you wear or leave around the pool, as you risk it becoming stained. This is not the standard of maintenance or facilities we expected from a 4-star hotel. HOUSEKEEPING This was another particularly frustrating experience. After four days, we requested fresh bed sheets because ours felt dirty and were full of sand. I made two requests through the app, followed by a phone call and a visit to reception. I was told the cleaning staff had already gone home. By 1:45 pm the following day, our room still hadn't been cleaned and the sheets hadn't been changed, so I had to chase the issue again. It was only finally resolved after another visit to reception. Having to make repeated requests for something as basic as clean bedding is unacceptable. It shouldn't take this much effort to get a fundamental part of hotel housekeeping addressed. STAFF AND ENTERTAINMENT The evening entertainment was ok, and the venue is comfortable. Credit where it's due, this was one of the few aspects of our stay that we genuinely enjoyed. Unfortunately, the wider customer service experience was disappointing. Staff often came across as unfriendly, and there appears to be a real need for better customer service training. Too frequently, we felt we were having to chase issues rather than receiving the service and attention we would expect. All of these concerns have been raised with reception during our stay. We are due to fly home today, and it is disappointing to be leaving feeling that so many issues have affected what should have been an enjoyable family holiday. We genuinely struggle to understand why so many people return year after year. Perhaps their experiences have been different, but based on ours, we certainly won't be joining them. For the money we paid, we expected good food, clean rooms, well-maintained facilities and friendly, efficient service. Instead, we experienced problems across almost every one of these areas. The evening entertainment deserves credit, but it cannot make up for the shortcomings elsewhere. We have stayed in many 4- and 5-star family hotels, and this experience falls well short of the standard we have come to expect. We don't feel this hotel deserves its 4-star rating based on our stay. We will not be returning, and we would advise other families to carefully consider the food, service and overall value for money before booking.

Great hotel, great location. Excellent food, drinks and entertainment. Our housekeeper Maria Yurema did a wonderful job looking after our room, it was always spotlessly clean, thank you!

Having stayed at many 4-5 stars resorts this hotel whilst is overall a nice stay it falls below the usually 4 star experiences. We went for a week with a 9 and 6 year old, all inclusive. Overall our room was nice, the air conditioning worked, a fault of many other guests, it would appear, fridge in room. Very comfortable bed and sofa bed, lovely balcony The general upkeep of the hotel was good but it was tired in places, broken tiles everywhere, walls needing repainted. Staff at reception were nice but we did at the restaurants encounter some staff who could do with some lessons in customer service and smiling. Buffet restaurant - this is where I think it let the hotel down the most. Most other hotels had an element of show cooking, displaces of seafood etc and this was lacking. Every meal the food was just warm and sometimes even cold, there was a lack of replenishment of dishes and by the end of the week not much variety. Same sort of food most nights and almost always something that had run out at every meal. We had to ask for butter, bread and orange juice to be replaced at breakfast, whilst they did so there was no level of apology and it took an age for it to actually be replaced and were made to feel you were putting them out for asking. There were gluten free options every evening but usually a manager or chef would show you round to explain what you could have, this didn't seem to be an option. The special buffet rodizo was lovely and I couldn't fault this experience. Bar - both the green bar and snacks bar had lovely staff..could have done with less machine based syrup cocktails at the green bar Kids club - this has to be one for the best plus factors about this hotel, a wonderful play area with sand pit and a play team who are the most caring individuals, my son was breaking his heart leaving yesterday due to them, in particular Anna, Angy and Alice, all so attentive and absolutely nothing was too much bother. Out kids loved visiting buffet lunch with them, crafts, face painting, treasure hunts. Evening shows - overall great entertainment, we loved the Tanzanian dancers and Chelsea vox, a really highlight One downfall at check out is they have no pre-booked rooms available if you have a late flight, your directed to a "shower area" this was for the regular pool user, this was absolutely swimming and unusable to change to clothes for a flight therefore had to use a toilet cubicle to change Overall we had a nice trip but we wouldn't return to this hotel, the 4 star status doesn't reflect overall the standard we would have expected

Ideal for relaxing and enjoying. You only have to do what you want. Kids will love it. The bars and restaurants cater for virtually every taste.

Great facilities. Nice food. A charming island. Can be tricky for kids, as we paid premium for our family of four but the kids were not allowed to SPA nor GYM. Otherwise, we fully enjoyed our stay. A tip, book your dinner at Rodizio reastairant as soon as you arrive. Great food if you like Brazilian Cousine. The manager, Sebastian, made the enevimg really special.