Playa Blanca, H10 Rubicon Palace Hotel

If you want excellent service and all round care for your enjoyment whilst on holiday The Rubicon Palace offers this and more. The food is varied daily and lots of choice on offer. The housekeeping staff maintain a very high dialy standard of cleanliness throughout the hotel. All the staff ensure that your stay is problem free.

Everyone knows that first impressions are extremely important. It is a pity therefore that our first impression of the Rubicon Palace in Lanzarote was rather negative. With a little effort this could be a fairly good hotel even if there is no way it could compete with hotels of a similar class outside of the Canary Islands.

To start with we were allocated a room that overlooked a car park, with views of cement mixer building materials and three rubbish skips. We were extremely disappointed as this was a special anniversary trip so we asked for a different room. We were told that the hotel was full and the manager was busy; but when we persisted, a room was finally found. Quite a nice room really if a little old fashioned, but acceptable had this been provided without a dispute. There was no offer of help with our cases and we found out later that there was transport around the hotel which no-one bothered to mention at check in.

The room:

Well, there was no bathroom fan: the safe needed new batteries which took two visits by maintenance (Reception said they were very busy and it would take 2 hours) and I wondered why I bothered anyway as the hotel refused liability. There were no tea/coffee making facilities and everyone does not want to walk to the main hotel for a cup of coffee. The fridge cost 3 euros a day if we wanted to keep our bottled water cool. We wondered who was walking around in boots upstairs at all hours and felt that it may have been the same for people beneath us. Insulation seemed to be at a minimum and noise a maximum.

The maid was excellent apart from knocking on the door at 8.45 one day: a time I do not normally recognise when on holiday.

The dining room:

A large room with tables packed like sardines so that it was not always easy to walk between them. It looked good and the food was varied and not too bad if you chose well. It was a shame that warm food managed to cool and congeal on the warning plates after a few moments and bacon was either incredibly greasy or consisted of small piles of tough solid layers. Hot food at the carvery was quite reasonable. Coffee and tea were a nightmare. There was only one machine and there were always long queues at breakfast. There were thermos flasks on the table but the coffee was usually lukewarm. And what a clever idea to warm the butter under hot lights so that it dripped from the wrapper!

But the biggest problem was the noise. There were no soft furnishings to deaden the noise of a few hundred diners and the waiters seemed to delight in vying with each other to see who could make the most noise. Crockery was thrown into plastic bins, noisily dumped on a trolley with square wheels and rumbled and rattled to the kitchen, to reappear washed and ready to be dumped at the service stations. Cutlery was thrown into bins with a resounding crash from sacks a foot or so above the plastic container. Knives, forks and spoons were sorted by the simple expedient of throwing them as hard as possible into the relevant container. It was hell if you sat close to these stations and with three of them it was impossible not to be affected wherever you sat.

Bread is normally cut with a bread knife but sometimes a serrated cleaver was supplied. This was useless. The staff were friendly and seemed busy but were loathe to actually do anything constructive, sometimes removing plates and cutlery after the first course but never thinking of providing cutlery for the next. And often they did not even do that and dirty plates littered the table until we removed them ourselves.

There were no towels or hand dryer in the men's toilet outside the restaurant whilst we were there, In spite of reporting it to staff who promised to take care of it nothing happened.

Location:

The hotel was situated quite a way from the main town so unless you took a taxi, a night in the town was not too easy. The grounds were well kept and quite the best feature of the hotel although they turned off the picturesque waterfalls during our second week. We never found out why.

The hotel complex was surrounded by ugly wire fences that served no purpose other than to irritate. Our room was at the far end of the hotel and it would have been nice to park close to it. Only two entrances were ever open: the hotel foyer and a gate at the rear leading to the promenade. All other gates were locked. The one at the end of the grounds near our room was only opened for hotel cars so we had to walk the full length of the hotel every time. We were told the gates and the fence was for our security although as the rear gate was never locked and there was a hole in the front fencing this seemed rather doubtful. In any case we did not notice any security personnel.

Entertainment:

In general pretty poor, although the Mongolian troupe were quite good but the magician depended too much on low lights and the scattering of confetti. However I did enjoy his one man levitation effect. The children's entertainment was frantic and geared towards seven year olds. The entertainment team put their backs into it but it did not finish till about 10 pm thus rendering the room uninhabitable for those without children. This may have been the reason it was almost impossible to find a seat in the piano bar.

Conclusion:

This all sounds rather petty in the cold light of day but the excessive noise and the many relatively minor irritations ruined the holiday. There is nothing really wrong with the basic hotel that a little attention to detail would not solve. For example all gates could be opened during the day. Dirty crockery could be removed directly to the kitchen and management could be available to talk to customers to find out first hand what they wanted. A computerised form with tick boxes only serves to give lip service to the idea of customer feedback.

So to answer the question "would I return to this hotel?" A resounding "NO"! And I would be very dubious about the H10 chain. Once bitten, twice shy!

But of course we can dine out for a long time on the tale of the Rubicon Palace. Especially with photos and recordings!

I have just returned from H10 Rubicon Palce July 08 and had a fantastic time. On arrival to the hotel we had to wait about 2 and a half hours to get our room and after travelling all day, I have to say I was not happy, however the rest of our stay made up for that. We got to our room and it was lovely, it was right by the pool which at first I thought oh no but it was so quiet there it turned out to be fine. Our room was clean and really big but all the doors in the room were either broken or on their way to being broken. The front door concerned me the most as it didn't seem safe. After THREE days they finally came out and fixed them. The pool area was lovely and you could always find a sun lounger no matter what time you went. The pools were huge but were freezing cold. The weather was good but VERY windy and it is very deceiving as you don't realise how much you catch the sun! The hotel was quite a walk from the town but the free bus put on is brill but only drops you off to the sister hotel which is about a 10 minuite walk away from the town. You can get a taxi which we did try but there was so many rude people there they got in them all even though we had called them for ourselves. I have to say the majority of the guests there were either German or Spanish. But we got used to it by the end of the holiday. The food was lovely but the breakfast disappointed me as there wasn't much there I personally liked but that's my own opinion. The evening entertainment was Ok but the starlite express show was so boring we ended up leaving half way through! ALL the entertainment is in Spanish so it was such hard work trying to understand! With the all inclusive drinks menu you are only allowed about 3 drinks on the cocktails menu which in my opinion didn't have a drop of alcohol! They come out of a machine! That says it all ! If you pay for them they will make them from scratch and taste like a totally different drink! I was really disappointed with this! Overall the holiday was a positive one but I could think of a number of improvements they could make to make it more of a 4* to me it was more like a 3 and a half!

Sstunning views, if you're on the beach side. Evening entertainment a joke - really bad. Service slow and sloppy. Food like bad school dinners. Childrens play area in unsafe state. Just not good enough for a hotel that is being sold as a 4 star premier. more like 3 star. overpriced and disappointing.

Very good hotel, would definitely return

We stayed at the Rubicon Palace in Dec 2005 having transferred from dreadful apartments in Puerto del Carmen.

The hotel, furnishings and rooms were excellent. Would definitely reccomend a fully inclusive deal. Hotel was only 50% full. Don't know how it would be in August at full capacity although we are booking to go back for 10 days at that time.

There are plenty of pool areas and loads to do for the kids. The kids club was fantastic, the best we have ever experienced. The staff at the hotel and people staying there were very friendly.

Excellent. Highly recommended. Like other reviewer mentioned, there are screaming children, but it is easy to find a quiet place to relax, after all, there are children anywhere you go. The hotel has a good atmosphere, and all staff are very helpful. There are lots of pool areas available. The main pool gets busy and noisy, but there are other pools which are much quieter. The hotel is so good, I have booked again for next year

Just got back from Playa Blanca, H10 Rubicon Palace Hotel 28/07/05. Thank goodness glad to be home. Could be a great hotel. If you love young children screaming and crying all day because they have had no sleep, then this is the hotel for you. It could be a great hotel. No dress code as stated. Food very repetitive though good. Hotel rooms are very clean. Pools are great. Eating is an experience; felt we were at a Monkeys tea party. We gave up in the end and ate out despite being all inclusive. I wouldn't go back if they offered me a free holiday. Front of house staff very polite and helpful, otherwise the service we got from the staff was disappointing. We were counting the days in the end to come home.

We visited the Rubicon Palace in August 2004 and were to stay for 7 days. On the 5th day my 12 year old son became ill, and was admitted to hospital. As a result we were unable to return to the UK for another 4 days and my husband and two daughters left without us. My son was on a drip for 5 days and we were told that he had a rota virus. It was only when we returned to the UK and I took him to see my own doctor that he had a stool test and he tested positive for "Salmonella" which he had until mid October 04

H10 Rubicon Palace Hotel is a good quiet hotel, both resort and the hotel not for the young and trendy. Minibus to town was a boon but hotel does not make much mention of it. Despite being on a last minute deal we got a lovely room with great outdoor table beds etc.

I would go back