IberoStar
reviews and complaints

Booked into iberostar los dalias tenerife left luggage in room went down for a drink I had my wife and two granddaughters with me went back to room within one and half hours to find our room had been entered and 1500 euros and 300 pounds sterling was stolen reported to manager and basically told we were lying management was of no help basically had no money for holiday nonhelp off anyone at hotel was very disappointed with their attitude granddaughter went down to room and saw person hanging about he tried their door she said she would recognise him but they would not let us look at cc tv

Booked ocean front Jr Suite, extreme bug infestation that got into our personal items such as toothbrushes, soap, medication, we notified customer service at the hotel and their solution was to deep clean with the poisonous chemical Raid…due to the extensive construction occurring we were told there was no solution to accommodate us so they put us in an average room claiming we signed and agreed to this which is a LIE. We paid 10 thousand dollars for what was suppose to be our dream vacation, this is a 2 star motel. Shameful that no one in your corporation would even attempt to make some of this right by us and by the way we are seasoned travelers.

I’m writing this letter in hopes of fairly resolving my situation regarding an All-Inclusive trip to Iberostar Laguna Azul, purchase price for 2 adults $6574.36. This Hotel is most definitely not deserving of a 4-to-5-star Resort.

Room – Broken patio lock (this was fixed) the A/C was extremely load, Safe was not secured to anything, TV had no buttons to turn the channel and the remote did not work, black mold that is clearly just painted over, the toilet seat was broken. The maid service does not fully clean and do not give you clean towels and change bedding. Our towels smelled horribly. And this is the only resort I have ever been that does not give you a couple pop or cans of beer in the fridge.

The facility – Overall the grounds were just OK, but there were white metal chairs with the arm rests missing with very sharp rusty metal edges that tears your clothing and could easily tear somebody’s skin. If they are not going to fix them at least wrap some duct tape around the razor-sharp areas so nobody gets cut. There is LOTS of broken glass all over the grounds you need to be careful not to get a shard of glass in your feet. The washrooms were basically bowls of water that flush, out of 3 stalls 2 will be missing toilet seats and no toilet paper at all ever. The ocean was very nice, the beach however is littered with cigarette butts, literally you could not pick up a handful of sand without at least 2 butts in it. Many of the lounge chairs were cracked and broken. At 7pm in the evening we were blasted with pesticide by a truck that drove past us on the path outside our hotel room, leaving us chocking on toxic fumes. You would think they would have the courtesy to do this during the early am hours when people are not walking about?

Staff/Service – Overall I found the staff not very friendly or helpful at all, it almost seemed like they were annoyed to be serving you, it made me feel uncomfortable anytime I had to ask for anything. Service often very slow.

Beverages – No Vodka at all, no fruit juices at all, first no diet cola for days then only diet cola for days, pop was always flat, sour tasting beer, everything else was hit or miss sometimes you could get a Pina Colada sometimes all out, the same with all drinks margarita’s etc.

Though the above were mediocre inconveniences and still unacceptable, I could have managed to make the best of things and enjoy the beach, entertainment and site seeing but was unable due to the reasons below:

Food/Eating facilities – There were many things that were just not good, many of the plates were chipped with sharp edges, the cutlery was not properly cleaned, there were cockroaches crawling around, centipede or ear wig looking bugs crawling around the food. Workers in the food stations being tipped, touching the filthy money, and just continuing to touch people’s food, I saw a serving spoon from the buffet fall on the floor, it sat there for 10 minutes a worker just walked by and put it back on the buffet. If you were at the buffet within the first half hour you might be lucky enough to get some roasted turkey or chicken but when it’s gone no more comes. I’m not sure what some of the food was it just looked like slop, and anything that looked good was just an illusion because once you put it in your mouth it tasted horrid.

The food was atrocious and made both my husband and I sick within a few days. I was sick for 2 days I could not eat, once I started to feel a bit better, I tried to eat a little bit and as soon I put that food into my body, I would begin to get sick again over and over. My husband became ill on day 5 I think and never did recover for the remainder of our stay. Between the two of us there was not 1 day we both felt well enough to do anything, constant diarrhea, severe nausea, and occasional vomiting. The last 4 days we did not eat pretty much anything the Ice Cream was safe to eat and we drank black tea. We did not want to travel home sick. This was the “resorts doing” that caused my husband and I to not be able to enjoy the beach, not 1 evening out to a show, we could not get out to do any excursions nothing because we were being poisoned from the only food that was provided to us. We were not the only ones either everybody I spoke to was sick or was with someone who was sick.

We pretty much spent our entire 12 days sick, not being able to leave the room due to illness caused by the food, frustrated, crying, starving and just desperate to go home.

My question to Iberostar Laguna Azul is do they feel for what I experienced during our stay at this hotel acceptable service for the amount of $6574.36 we paid for this vacation? Would you be satisfied if this happened to you?

Service at certain Restaurants were Horrible we felt like we were being rushed and were not comfortable with the way they talked to us. We payed $272 us dollars for a small birthday cake and some rose pedals. When it was painted as this beautiful decoration, 4 Champagne bottles, and a big cake. On top I was CHARGED 2 TIMES before I left REALLY!

Dear Iberostar,

My friend and I recently went on vacation to one of your hotels in Cuba. We were staying at the hotel Iberostar Selection Bella Vista Varadero from Sunday October 23rd until Friday November 4th.

This was my first experience staying in an Iberostar hotel and we were so excited. We hadn’t been on a vacation since the start of the covid pandemic began. My last holiday had therefore been in 2019! We had also saved for two years for this two week holiday. Going to Cuba was always a dream of mine and as it got closer we were both so excited.

I am writing today however to say that my experience at the hotel was generally very poor, we were so disappointed and I want to outline why. Before doing so though I would like to say that I think this is the first complaint email/letter that I have ever written. I am 48 years of age. It has taken me a few weeks since arriving back to my home country to sit down and to write to you, but I want to do so, also maybe so that other people can have an improved experience at your hotel in the future too.

Firstly, this is NOT a 5 star hotel as advertised, even by Cuban standards.

We arrived late in the evening and were shown to our room. Imagine our dismay when we entered the room. It is no understatement to say that it was FILTHY. The beds were two singles and had something like a white blanket over the top of each, this blanket on both beds was dirty and it almost looked as if a dog had walked on it with muddy footprints. Upon closer inspection we also found long black hairs, belonging I think to a lady, on both the blankets, pillows and inside. When I went in to the bathroom you could still see where a previous male guest had shaved his face as there were beard hairs all over the sink and even on the soap. I called reception and we were given a different room. THE NEW ROOM WAS EVEN WORSE! The bedding in this room was dirty too, more random hairs as well, there were cobwebs up around the lamp and when I went on to the balcony there was all trash on the roof below, cigarette butts and packets etc. My friend went to take a shower and when he pulled up the shower head at least 5 or 6 cockroaches cam out it! Finally, one of the two plastic chairs on the balcony was also broken and not safe to sit on. I telephoned reception again and was told they had no other room available and we had to take that room, at least for the night. We therefore had to sleep in dirty bedding in a room that was certainly far from 5 star or even close to it. Imagine saving up for 2.5 years for a dream holiday and then arriving to a room like that. I took some photos of both rooms and I will attach those for your attention.

The following morning we met with guest services representative who gave us a new room. This was at least better, but still not as it should have been. The bedding still appeared unclean. There was a blood stain on the sheets from the beginning. The same stain remained for more than a week, so I knew that although the beds had been made tidy each day by the maid, they hadn’t been changed at all! On day 8 I asked at reception and they were changed then. Again, how is this 5 star? Is it normal that you only put new bed sheets on by request and after 8 days? Later in the first week the door broke off the bathroom. I let the reception know, but the door remained broken for 3 days. It wouldn’t close, had come off the rollers somehow and was just sort of leaning propped against the door. This meant for three days there was no privacy when using the bathroom, not ideal when you have to use the toilet and your friend is in the room too. The door was finally fixed, but again this was only after numerous complaints were made.

I also want to mention the food. I know that Cuba is a poor island and that not everything is always available. I accept and appreciate that, however as a vegetarian, I felt that there was hardly anything I could eat at all. The staff in the restaurant didn’t seem to understand the concept of vegetarianism and every dish seemed to include meat or seafood. I existed for 2 weeks on a diet of eggs, rice, bread & cheese. Again, not a 5 star selection, or anything close to it. I was so bored always eating the same food. The only option I could eat at the snack bar for example was the tuna and cheese sandwich without the tuna. On at least 2 occasions I ordered this and specifically said ‘only cheese’ and still found bits of tuna inside! Once when we ate in one of the speciality restaurants and I asked for a vegetarian option they brought me a cabbage leaf on a plate!

I used the toilets next to the main restaurant only once during dinner, and there was no toilet paper, in either of the cubicles. I went into the women’s toilet next door and there was no toilet paper in there either. How can a hotel that claims to be 5 star have toilets where you cannot even wipe your [censored]?! I mentioned this to the girl on the door of the restaurant and she apologised. 10 minutes later she came to my table in the restaurant holding a pile of paper napkins/serviettes and offered me those so that I could go back to the toilet and finish wiping. Imagine that! The girl was super sweet and of course it wasn’t her fault, but what an embarrassment.

My last couple of points are minor but also important. Firstly, the entertainment people were lovely, friendly and worked hard BUT we heard them everywhere. Some people save their money to go on holiday so they can lie on a Cuban beach and listen to the ocean, to relax and unwind. That is what I wanted to do. Instead, wherever we lay I was forced to hear someone shouting into a microphone and they played the same 3 songs, over and over and over again! I have no idea how many times I heard the song ‘Madre Tierra (Oye) by Chayanne. Sometimes they were at the pool with the loud music and shouty microphone and sometimes at the beach. The problem was if you went to the pool to escape the noise on the beach you could still hear them at the pool because they were so loud, and visa versa. There were elderly people there too. I have no idea what they must have thought. Remember, people go on holiday to relax and unwind. I so wanted to fall asleep to the sound of the ocean whilst sunbathing. I sadly wasn’t able to do that.

Finally, the elevators. Basically there was no service elevator and deliveries and cleaning supplies etc including food supplies etc were being transported in the main hotel elevators. The elevators were in a bad condition and belonged more in a multi storey carpark than a supposedly 5 star hotel.

As I said at the start I was majorly disappointed in the hotel and its’ facilities, standards of cleanliness and general things like food and upkeep. The staff were mostly lovely, but Iberostar could do so much more. This hotel felt like a 3 star hotel at most. ☹((((((

We've sent multiple emails, phone calls, left messages for NO ONE TO HAVE CALLED US BACK YET.

We were supposed to be staying (4 adults, 4 children) for a week-long vacation (saturday - saturday), but less than 24 hours into our stay, my husband was given something in either his drink or the food he consumed that almost killed him. The lack of urgency the staff had, the 2+ hour wait we endured for a doctor or ambulance to show up and help is unacceptable for an establishment that claims to make safety a priority. The doctor that did show up claims to have given my husband something that would "sedate him for safe travel by ambulance to the hospital"...but instead, what he was given SNAPPED him out of whatever drug was racing through his body. Once the doctor gave him the medicine - my husband was no longer fighting for his life, but instead returned to his normal self, completely unaware of the last 3+ hours of his life. IT IS UNACCEPTABLE that no one has tried to talk to us. To give us updates of whatever they are doing to prevent this from happening again or what they are going to do to make it right for the 8 of us who did NOT receive what they paid significant money for. We paid for what was supposed to be a 5star resort experience. Instead, we almost lost my husband and have 7 other people traumatized for life. I'm disgusted with what little regard we are being given, considering the significance of the situation. Isn't someone almost dying after ONLY consuming food & beverages from your resort a big deal?

23/09/2022 My wife and I have been staying at the Grand Hotel El Mirador in February for the last ten years and as such we are Horizons Infinity members.

However, we are experiencing problems in booking for February 2023. We have been given three hugely different prices for the same room on the same dates.

Our preferred room is 1216, a Star Prestige Superior Sea View room. The prices we have received vary from 8056 euros to over ten thousand euros?

Please can you explain how this can be possible?

We thoroughly enjoy our stays in this hotel, but the booking process is very frustrating!

My recent trip to your Iberostar Tucan resort is by far the worst experience I have ever had in Cancun. As someone who frequently goes to Cancun, I was really stunned at how low the quality really was. On arrival we checked into our hotel room to find that the room dirty and felt like a sauna, 81 degrees and humid. We changed rooms and that room 78 degrees, not much better. My sister was also staying at Tucan and experienced the same problem. We decided this was just how your resort was and decided to try and proceed. Overall, we felt the food was not that good, getting reservations to what we wanted proved to be difficult. There is no swim up pool bar in the main pool, no pool side service, no room service. I don’t know how you consider this a resort with all these deficiencies. Two months prior we were in Cancun and stayed at the Dreams Jade Resort for about the same price. It was much nicer, had good AC and all the above-mentioned options. Two days later my wife arrived and checked in. We went to the room to find it was also 81 degrees and steamy. At that point we talked to the front desk and got transferred to Iberostar Paradiso Maya Resort. To do this cost me another 796 USD and half of our day. Also, I found it annoying that I had to pay for upgraded rooms at the new resort because that was the only thing available, was only going there because of the horrible conditions at your other resort. While the cost wasn’t my main concern the fact that we wasted a lot of time dealing with this and my vacation didn’t feel much like a vacation really annoyed me. Iberostar Maya was great, and I wished I had booked it from the start, but by the time we got there we could not book any of the restaurants we wanted because of our late arrival. To sum it up, I feel like my 5 day vacation was really 2.5 days of camping .5 days of changing resorts and 2 days of resort, a lot to pay for this experience.

We were at the Iberostar in Jamaica Selection Suites. We had a difficult time making reservations for our dinners. We had a party of 10 and when we arrived at the hotel we made reservations for the week. We were there 9 days. We had to wait until Sunday to make the M-W reservations. The last 2 nights were so late we have smaller children with us it is hard to wait until 8p or 9p. Our last night was at the steak house because that was all that was available. They took a while to let us in the restaurant and we can see they had a party table set up for a wedding. Its now past 9pm and when the waiter came it took a long time to take our order. Half the family left without eating, the staff was more concerned with cleaning up and setting up the tables back to the way it should be after people left. We ordered drinks they took over 30 minutes to come. We ordered dessert they never came and the rest of the party left. After spending all this money on a resort this left a bad taste in our mouth. It is unacceptable and should not happen. There should be staff to accommodate the visitors. Also, my son ordered prime rib and it came out as if they warmed it up on the grill which is not how prime rib would be made. We ate at the steakhouse the previous week and it was a very different experience. We also had an issue with the phone in the room, it doesn't work. They finally had someone come and replace it with a phone with no buttons so if we wanted to call the front desk or room service we would have to go in the hallway and call and ask the operator to connect us. The phone in the hallway doesn't work all the time the people on the other end half the time could not hear me.

I booked a reservation and then needed to change the date we arrived, the agent changed the date to March instead of May so when I called to verify the reservation, it showed me as a no show. Of course the room was paid in full but no one contacted me about refunding my money. Called the club to get this straightened out and it has been a series of talking with people that did not have a clue, at one point they told me the supervisor had left for the day and there was no manager on duty. This club customer service is a joke, these people are not well trained at all. If I had read some of these reviews earlier I would have never joined this club. I think legal action should be brought against them. The parties fly out tomorrow and at this rate we may have to make another reservation if the club does not straighten out this mess. No one takes responsibility for their mistakes with this company, it is not run very professionally at all.

I am a travel advisor and find Iberostar to be negligent in all dealings with their guests. I can't tell you the number of emails I have sent inquiring about important details for my clients arriving inn a few days. This is my second HORRIBLE experience with your company. NEVER again will I send any of my clients to a company that seems to care so little. The manager assigned to me is Suzanne Rodgers and she has been lacking in all areas of customer ratification. How can I speak to a corporate manager?

We are guest at your hotel in Lagos Portugal. We chose one of your superior rooms on a half board basis for 11 nights. We were very disappointed to discover because we are not all inclusive we do not get complimentary coffee and water in our room daily. We find this rather disappointing and perplexing for a 5 star hotel .

Russell and Belinda Gilmore
Room 603

I tried to cancel my membership due to COVID and they refused...covid is a real issue that will affect travel and nobody could have predicted. I spent over one year trying to get out of my contract due to covid and also membership perks they promised were NOT what was expected. I had to resort to cancelling on my credit cards. My credit cards were able to refund half of the 401K I paid. Iberostar kept the other half I paid and forfeited all my benefits and kept my money! I tried to get a compromise deal to be fair like a lesser plan than the GOLD I paid for. Even just a credit for the 18K they owed me to use in the resorts for vacation. Michel is awful! She is the contract person for Iberostar and never once will return my calls or emails. Who can I go to above her? What is the address for headquarters for Iberostar there has to be someone above her! The WORST customer service I have ever dealt with . She needs to be FIRED! They will not steal my money and get away with it!1

Same high pressure- boiler room tatics. I was promised up to 50% off room rates even though the contract stated that 25% was the minimum. I questioned it and the sales person and his manager assured me that I would get the lower "travel agent rate" most of the time. I have tried to book several times since I purchased April 16, 2017 for $19, 900 and have not been quoted anything lower that what I can find for anyone on their website! At this point, I want my money back. I love their hotels however, I don't appreciate being defrauded. I was actually told that if I found a lower rate on line they would match it...seriously are you kidding me what did I pay all of this money for. Buyer beware!

Me & my husband became members in 2018. They're definitely great at selling this membership, as normally we would not have even listened to their sales pitch.
We ended up joining since we take a vacation yearly and really enjoy their resorts. The customer service through the call center has been horrible. The service we received at the resort (the first trip we used the membership with) was terrible... we never received anything that we were supposed to, even after making them aware numerous times that we were Club members.
When we returned I contacted the Club and let them know how very unhappy we were with the situation, they made me feel like I should've wasted my entire vacation complaining to the staff about what I needed. We've been using the Club again to book our next vacation... and it has been NOTHING but problems. Originally booked the vacation in July and I called the other day to verify everything, and one of our rooms had been cancelled...
even though I had confirmation number. The turnover in the call center is huge... and everything IS the customers fault. They take no blame for any issues that may arise.
Our vacation is finally booked … again... But unfortunately we had to pay $500 more, as they would not honor the original price from July.. even though it was them who had screwed up.
Overall, the rates are not anything to brag about and all the extras that you get through the Club isn't worth buying into it. You'll get a better price by booking through a travel agent or vacation website that included your airfare.

I purchased an Iberostar club membership On December 18, 2019 at the Playa Mita resort. We returned to our room to analyze the documentation and we realized that there was an error so we took the paperwork back in the following morning and had it corrected on December 19, 2019. We flew back to our home in Penticton British Columbia Canada The evening of December 19. It took a whole day on December 18 for us to sign up with our membership so we lost a day of our holiday and then the following day we lost two hours with the renewal. Today is December 27, 2019 and I am still unable to access trendsetter. We have guests visiting from Vancouver and we were trying to set up a spring break trip. I had contacted Iberostar club on the 24th when I received notification that I could access the websiteI And was told that somebody would have it activated by the 26th because of the holidays. I have contacted a Iberostar club again and they told me the gentleman that deals with trendsetter is running late today so they should be able to get To get it up and running at the earliest by tomorrow morning which is at a great inconvenience to me because my guests leave this evening. Also a concern I had is we had five days to cancel our membership but I was not given access to the membership until the 24th and I still do not have access to trendsetter. With the amount of money that we had to put down to obtain this membership I find it to be very unprofessional and I find that the club has not practised their due diligence. The consensus I received from the person that we purchased the membership through was that the club offers the highest level of customer service and complaints are minimal due to this. I have operated restaurants in the past where as if customers were unhappy I had to rectify the issue as soon as possible and make sure they leave a happy customer. 10 happy people might tell one person but one unhappy person will tell 10. My family is excited for the opportunity of being part of this club and I hope from this day forth things go smoother.

Good afternoon, with regret .
I'm unfortunately launching an official complaint with IBEROSTAR, directly as I don't think my complaint was handled properly, and now with the Thomas cook situation we have lost out on the little compensation we did have.
The hotel we stayed in was a disgrace! We had a really horrible time and we struggled for two week after to feel ok again we were that ill.
I have 100's of photos, videos and screenshots of complaints and responses.
I am seeking compensation, I do unfortunately have no other choice than to post these images and videos of this hotel at its worst into my huge following for social media, if this issue is not resolved quickly.

I spent 8 weeks trying to sort out the issue with Thomas cook which is why I am coming to you direct.
I did put in a sickness claim which Thomas cook was dealing with. This isn't the case anymore so I do hope such a big brand like iberostar can resolve this.

Regards, Sophie king .