Axelbeach Maspalomas - Apartments And Lounge Club - Adults Only

I have stayed at Axel hotels before and I have come to expect a certain quality and standard. I am prepared to pay a higher price for a premium experience, but this is the worst Axel hotel I have ever stayed at and is probably one of the worst ‘high end’ hotel experiences I have ever had and I am extremely disappointed by my 5 nights there. Firstly the rooms have an institutional feel about them which makes you feel like you’re staying in a hospital ward or prison cell. With no decoration, soft furnishings and wipe-clean furniture it felt as though you were keeping the rooms basic so that you could sluice them out with a hose once the guests leave. The glaring spot lights in the room did nothing to lessen the industrial effect and you have to turn most of them off if you want to create any kind of relaxing ambience. Plus my safe didn’t work. When I checked into my room it smelled as though someone had just extinguished a cigarette in there. I complained to the receptionist and he offered to change my room but offered me a room at the back of the hotel with a view of the dual carriageway and since I’d paid (a pretty premium!) for a poolside view (which turned out to be a view of the empty tennis court), I declined. He did say however that he would look at changing me with guests who hadn’t checked in yet, but after taking almost an half hour to get back to me (in fact I had to phone the reception desk) said that there was no-one I could change with. So his solution for the cigarette smoke smell was just to leave the air conditioner on. However, the AC units are so complicated that it would take someone with an engineering degree to work them properly. The receptionist had to come up to work my AC and it took him about 10 minutes to get it to blow cold air. The smell of cigarettes permeated my room for the whole 5 day stay.

Going to breakfast was like Groundhog Day with EXACTLY the same food on the buffet each morning. Exactly the same cooked breakfast, including soggy pancakes and scrambled egg that seemed to be cooked in the microwave, exactly the same diced up melon, exactly the same bread and pastries, no variety at all. As a vegetarian I had a pretty limited choice of bad scrambled egg and processed slices of cheese. No attempt to add variation over the week (maybe a juice of the day for instance) just smacks of lazy management that don’t care about their customers. And at 11 euros a day, I strongly suggest guests just stock up at the local supermarket instead. The pool area is nice with enough loungers and umbrellas, but what should have been a relaxing experience of laying by the pool reading a book was entirely ruined by music being blasted through speakers at ear shattering volumes. And terrible music at that. It seemed like someone had just got a CD of the best of the 90’s and was playing it on a loop. The third time I heard Dido being played in one day forced me to complain to the receptionist. The music was eventually changed to some chill out music, while still loud was better than the terrible music that had gone before. However, I had to complain on two other occasions as the music was far too loud and you are not gauging what your guests want… if you looked at the men sitting around the pool, all of them were either sleeping, reading or listening to their own music with their ear pods in. I don’t believe any of them were looking forward to hearing another ‘hit’ which should have been consigned to history’s dust bin a long time ago. On Saturday afternoon there was a DJ to add to mix and make any relaxing sun bathing impossible. That coupled with a woefully unfunny drag queen made me and most of the guests leave when she started to caterwaul. Again, Axel, you are not gauging the temperature of any of your customers and just seem to be repeating things

Location is excellent. Overall cleanliness and room size were very good. Grounds were nice.

Hot water system sucks. scalding to lukewarm temperature changes every couple of minutes is unacceptable for a relatively expensive luxury resort. This wasn't just my room - other friends experienced similar issues in a room at the other end of the hotel. Food at onsite cafe mediocre.