- Gran Canaria Holidays
- Maspalomas
- Tabaiba Princess
It's all about indulgence and relaxation at the 4 star all inclusive hotel Tabaiba Princess. The recently renovated resort is nestled in a tropical garden and is only a few minutes away from the famous dunes of Maspalomas. Adults may look forward to the following amenities: • Chill-Out area with private pool bar, counter-current pool and Bali beds • Spa with wellness pool, saunas, steam bath and salt cabin • Gym with state of the art equipment • Tropical main pool area with 4 pools, one with a man-made beach • 5 buffet restaurants (incl. 2 specialty restaurants) • Free Wi-Fi Highlights for children include: • Serengeti-themed water park with slides and splash area • Two children's pools (heated in winter) • Kids Club with Mini-Hotel and playground
Relax at the full-service spa, where you can enjoy massages, body treatments and facials. You're sure to appreciate the recreational amenities, which include 8 outdoor swimming pools, a nightclub and a complimentary water park. Additional features at this Beaux Arts property include complimentary wireless Internet access, concierge services and an arcade/games room.
This is one part of a paired hotel. Both are run and operated by the same team. The staff are a credit to the organisation and the building is really nice and is very clean throughout. However, that's where everything ends. The management and leadership in these hotels leaves a lot to be desired. The hotel is de-facto a no-smoking hotel with one dismal area in a dark corner of the outside bar area for smokers to sit and have a drink with less space for the number of smokers than patrons who smoke. The chairs in this area are plastic and incredibly uncomfortable. Elsewhere around the outside of the building there are one or two standing spots where a smoker can smoke but you have to stand in the corner around the ash-tray post. Despite the other paired hotel (Princess Maspalomas) being set up for families with children (e.g. the children's play area is aligned with Princess Maspalomas) and the outdoor facilities (pools etc.) being shared across both hotels, families with children are booked into Tabaiba. This was confirmed on our arrival by reception staff admitting that Maspalomas was ideally for families with children. Note: THERE IS NO AIR-CONDITIONING IN EITHER HOTEL except behind reception. There is air ventilation which, at best, reduces the temperature by about 3 degrees so if the temperature is 29 outside, it'll be a sweltering 26 (including humidity) inside - day or night! In Princess Tabaiba, the dining area admission is controlled by a maitre'd. However, the rationale for seating is as random as leaving patrons to find their own seats. Families with children are seated beside patrons without children. Even requesting to be seated away from children is futile as, after having been assigned your table, they will seat other patrons with toddlers right beside you! The two official 'Restaurants' (One Asian and one Italian) are not restaurants. They are buffets in the same manner as the main dining area with little or no difference in food to what is offered in the main dining area. Overall, the food selection is good but lacks flavour. Having stayed at a few 'All-Inclusive' hotels previously, the food in this hotel is significantly below par. Disabled facilities in this hotel are abyssmal. There are sun-loungers with the disabled icon on them but the loungers are about 30cm off the ground. Needless to say we didn't see one disabled person use these. There is no way a disabled person would be able to use them at that height. This forces a disabled person to use one of the 'Cabanas' - which has to be paid for above all-inclusive. Toilets in the disabled rooms are standard height rather than being raised toilets.
If you’re thinking about booking this hotel, do yourself a favor and look for another option.
We stayed here two years ago and, while it wasn’t perfect, our experience was generally okay. That’s why, despite the reviews we found online, we decided to give this hotel another chance and came back this September.
What a mistake.
The biggest and most unacceptable problem is the air conditioning, which simply doesn’t work — neither in the rooms and in the common areas. The rooms are unbearably hot and stuffy, to the point where it’s genuinely difficult to breathe. After taking a shower, it becomes even worse. You basically sit in your room sweating and waiting for some air that never comes.
And it’s not just the rooms. The main restaurant is just as hot and suffocating. Imagine trying to eat an already mediocre meal while sweating from the heat, surrounded by other guests who are also visibly sweating. It’s honestly ridiculous for a hotel in a warm climate.
We went to reception multiple times to complain about the problem. Every time, they acted as if they had no idea there was an issue and promised to send someone to check the air conditioning. Of course, nothing changed. No proper solution, no improvement, no explanation.
The heat also affects the bars. There is a noticeable smell of fermented drinks, most likely because the drink dispensers are not being cleaned properly. Since the bars are self-service, guests are constantly using these machines. As for the quality of the drinks — don’t expect much. The alcohol is clearly the cheapest stuff available: wine, cava, beer and other drinks that look and taste like the €1–2 bottles you’d find in a supermarket.
The food is another major disappointment. The meat and fish are consistently overcooked, dry and practically tasteless. Everything seems to be missing basic seasoning. The pizza is honestly awful — even a €2.50 pizza from Mercadona tastes better.
And the paella… I genuinely don’t know how you can take such a well-known Spanish dish and turn it into a plate of dry, tasteless rice. It’s almost impressive.
The pool area is another missed opportunity. There is complete silence most of the day. Some quiet, pleasant background music would make the atmosphere much more relaxing. The only time you hear music is when the entertainment team is running activities in the pool.
The rooms themselves are also far from impressive. They smell damp because of the poor ventilation, and they are visibly worn and in need of renovation.
Yes, there may be a few positives, but honestly, they are completely overshadowed by the problems. When you can’t even escape the heat in your own room or sit comfortably in the restaurant, everything else becomes irrelevant.
We came back because we had stayed here two years ago and thought it was worth giving the hotel another chance. We definitely won’t be making that mistake again.
It’s a real shame because the hotel actually has potential. But the way the current situation is handled is simply unacceptable. Guests should not be paying for a holiday only to be placed in unbearably hot, stuffy conditions without being warned about the problem beforehand
On our first night the unit was extremely noisy and not cooling. It took three or four calls and visits to reception to get an engineer, who stopped the noise but couldn't make it cool. The next day we reported it again at 2pm, and it wasn't looked at until 7pm, after several reminders. When we phoned reception, the phone was often answered and left on the side without anyone speaking. After two nights with almost no sleep, we were offered a junior suite, but its air conditioning was no better. Reception and TUI's rep then confirmed that the hotel runs on a central air conditioning system that simply doesn't cool properly.
Other issues included dirty glasses at the self-service bars, a persistent bad smell in the corridor, and being asked to pay to hire an iron. None of this matches the Platinum standard we've experienced at other TUI hotels.
Reading other recent reviews, we're clearly not the first to have this problem. If you need a cool room to sleep, especially in warmer months, we'd think carefully before booking here.
We stayed at the Tabaiba Princess and, overall, there were some definite positives, but also quite a few things that fell short of expectations.
The Tabaiba Princess has some lovely areas, friendly staff and plenty of food options, but there are quite a few things that need improving. In particular, if you’re booking this expecting a genuinely adults-only experience, be aware that this is not the case apart from the designated adults-only pool and bar area. The poor air conditioning, dated rooms, additional charges for things like cabana beds and proper cocktails, and unreliable Wi-Fi also took away from the overall experience.
Overall we enjoyed our stay at this hotel, however didn’t find anyone very helpful when we had a problem although they were very friendly.. We booked an adjoining room with two single beds and was told it was a double bed so had to wait until they got another room ready.. For some reason we were only left two cups in our room and there wasn’t one left in the adjoining room which clearly someone was in there as the bed had been slept in every night, in the end we just fetched our own cup up everyday.. Our water bottle was taken by the cleaners as we were only given one between the two rooms so we couldnt refill and was told by reception that it wasn’t anything to do with them to see cleaners, we just bought our own water in the end and refilled them bottles.. Our rooms and the hotel was very clean.. The entertainment was ok .. The pools were spotlessly clean and we had no problem in getting a sun bed whatever time we went down as we aren’t fussy and dont need to be right next to the pool as long as there is access to the pool we were happy.. The maintenance man was lovely we had him up because we couldn’t close safe and we were having trouble with the telly.. The air conditioning was very poor.. The staff in the dining area were extremely friendly and made you feel welcome and I enjoyed the food… It would be easier if the water tap was easy to refill the bottles some of us dont drink alcohol and would have been great if one of those big taps contained water as that was my main drink through the day and night…
