HOVIMA Santa María Hotel in Adeje

It’s the third time to this hotel, and to be honest the only reason we book is because it’s one of the cheapest and the location is great! We won’t be returning. Although we don’t spend much time in the room, we were put in the basement and it’s as grim as it sounds. On the balcony is a view to a wall so you can’t see above ground level. It felt like being in a prison. We did ask to be moved but nothing was available and was told it’s because we paid less. The cleaning staff are hardworking and generally friendly but the trolleys start banging across the ridges on the floor from 7am and you can hear them talking and shouting to each other in conversation. Had the worst sleep all week! The rooms were cleaned everyday and had fresh towels. Our bathroom had a shower tray but the plug didn’t drain properly so we ended up having to soak up the water on a number of occasions or not have the shower on full. Although we are very aware of the pool opening and times policy having been here before, it just doesn’t work and I’ve never known any other hotel like it in any country we’ve been to. People queue for over an hour for the pool doors to open at 9am (9.30am for two days) to get a sun lounger, all running like lunatics to get their place round the pool, they then leave their towels for hours on end. Surely it would be better for the policy not to be to towel drop and to monitor that instead. Some of the staff of reception were aggressive and rude (not all of them) but seemed defensive. Claire and the entertainment girls are brilliant! Happy and chatty and genuinely seem to love people. Our daughter loved kids club, it was on for 1 hour in the day and there were a few activities through the day. bingo, darts, water polo, aqua aerobics. It’s clean but really old fashioned and dated. Could do with a refurb but I guess that would increase the price. To be clear though this is not a cheap holiday, but over new year in Tenerife is not cheap, booked somewhere else for next year.. need a change of scenery. Food is ok, what we expect tbh! Despite this being a 3 star budget hotel, I wouldn’t actually recommend it for all of these reasons.