Lopesan Villa del Conde Resort and Thalasso

My family and I love this resort, we have stayed at most of the hotels near here. Both the other big lopesans and the all inclusive Riu. This is our absolute favourite hotel. On arrival we were grated by Lars who was delightful at Main reception. Quick thorough and an excellent sense of humour. Our highlight on this occasion has been the absolutely fantastic Annimation team. Carlos, Ashraf and Fania. (apologies if I have mispelt) they were all amazing. Carlos and Ashraf's aqua aerobics were wonderful everyone in the water was smiling and so were most of the people watching. The mini disco was lovely and was great fun for our toddler. We also enjoyed the daily putting competition. Our room are very generous, large bed, crisp sheets. You also have a walk in wardrobe, a stand alone shower. Full bath. Big sink area with back lit mirror and magnifying mirror. There is also a sofa area. Loads of UK channels including film 4 itv etc. The room was spotless. Excellent daily maid service so remained very clean. We were travelling with family including a toddler. Everywhere was fantastic. We were looked after in every restaurant. Communal areas are spotless. Toilets by the pools were cleaned very regregularly. This time we paid for Half board plus so could dine at restaurants in the other Lopesan hotels. We found the standard of these meals to be superb. We enjoyed octopus, crocodile, superb steak, sea bass and pasta. Thank you for again delivering an amazing holiday for us. Small considerations would be a few extra plugs in the bedroom. We bought an extension lead which helped with this.

Not even close to 5 star. A 2 star experience in a probably 4 star hotel. Had a nice holiday, but the management here need to sort themselves out. I’d normally just not go back rather than leave a poor review but they need calling out.

The building is nice, albeit vast with large areas simply empty, reception bar closed, sections not in use. The rooms are fine and clean. The pools are nice although not the cleanest and lots of damage with missing tiles etc. Breakfast was ok, although you have to get lucky to get an outside table otherwise you’re inside in the dark to shovel a bit of food down in a poorly lit room. Decent location too although a good 20 minute walk to the lighthouse/centre but it’s a pleasant stroll.

Main issues -

No WiFi in the room or various sections of the hotel. Given they force the crappy app on you this is no good. Staff just said tough luck.

A courtesy small bottle of water but not restocked and no drinking water facilities, nor do they sell it apart from as a bar item I.e. you can’t buy say a 2l bottle. Was told by reception that I could walk to the shop and buy some (you don’t say). Asked how to keep it cold and they said “use the mini bar”, I said it wouldn’t fit and the reply was a sarcastic “well it is just a mini bar”. Absolutely bizarre interaction.

Was given a welcome drink then told we couldn’t have it until the next day.

Can only change pool towels in a brief window in the morning so have to take wet ones back to the room and dry them.

Sign at the pool bar says wait to be seated. So you wait to be ignored then just go sit where you want.

I spent approx 200 euros to play golf at the course owned by the hotels parent company. Was fine with that, it’s a beautiful course and was a treat. Asked reception to book me a taxi and was told I don’t need to, they will take me there (5 minute drive) in the morning. Came down in the morning, reception didn’t know anything about it and just called me a cab. However, they said get a receipt each and I will be reimbursed. Got my receipts and was told because one of them wasn’t the right type that they were not going to pay me back. I was categorically only told “just get a receipt” which I did, and was not told I additionally needed a printed itinerary. However, reception were rude, just shrugged and said it was my own fault. The manager also said the same, said it was my own fault but would try and resolve it and call me back. They didn’t bother and just left the poor girl on reception the next day to tell me tough luck. I was happy to pay for my cabs initially, so how it’s ended up with my feeling ripped off is a mystery.

I couldn’t really care less about the 9 euros, but I do care about being given incorrect information, being rudely blamed for it then the manager hiding behind their reception staff.

Rudeness was a general theme of many of the staff to be honest. Being ignored when waiting for service, shrugged at, grunted at, refusal to even bother helping when our child spilt a drink, really poor. I get it’s not the Ritz, but it was actually pretty laughable a couple of times.

I make exceptions for Lars on reception, the cleaning and garden staff, and the entertainment staff who were lovely. Of course some of the other service staff were really nice, but too many just couldn’t care less.

We wouldn't stay here or at a hotel owned by this group again if it was free - genuinely. Don’t get me wrong, we had a really nice holiday and we’d stay in the area again. The hotel being not up to scratch in certain areas doesn’t taint the entire holiday. Next time we’d try and stay at a hotel where they seem to actually want you to be there.