Gara Suites Hotel Golf & Spa

This was our first holiday together an celebrating my 40th.... Booked mon-fri self catering..... A massive sandstorm delayed us a day so didnt arrive until tuesday night to then find out previous guests were stranded so we had to be sent elsewhere..... luckily the sister hotel was all inclusive which made it a less bitter pill to swallow.... finnaly got 2 our hotel here on the wednesday afternoon.... its so lovely just been refurbished so everythings white new an clean.... weather was amazing! The only thing ill moan about it the payments situation! You have to pay by card for everything no cash, this was annoying because obvs we had changed our money into € an had to go out to spend it.... You can charge to your room if you put money on your room but only if you do it by card! so annoying!.... Hotel is away from hustle an bustle but about 15 min walk to the strip... first time to tenerife an i loved it... highly recommend

Unfortunately, i would like to apologise that i have only just got round to reviewing this absolutely awful hotel. Me and my friend both in our 40's decided to have a few days away. So we booked with 'On the Beach' this hotel and it looked perfect. It wasn't in the hustle and bustle of Tenerife it was a bit further out. We wanted something more relaxing and it had a spa, so it ticked a lot of the boxes. We arrived our room was really lovely, the balcony looked onto the golf course and the front door was poolside. Everything seemed perfect, until our 2nd night. We decided to have a snooze before we went out to dinner as we were planning on going into town, as the restaurant wasn't great. I set my alarm for about 7.45pm and woke just before the alarm went off and i was texting, when all of a sudden our bedroom door flung open and a man with a hoody on stood in the door way (obviously our room had no light on, but the hallway light was on). I was so shocked that some random man was in our room. I screamed and he ran, i got up and ran out of our bedroom (have no idea what I was going to do, but think the adrenaline kicked in) it looked as though he had got in through the balcony door, as the net curtain was stuck in the door. My handbag was on the table in the front room and he had helped himself to our money. I rung reception, quite distraught as you can imagine. They said they would send security, this took 20 mins for security to turn up, we were shaken/shocked that someone had got in our room and all sorts was going through my head of what could have happened. Security came, could not speak any English. We asked if someone from reception could come to our room, but it seemed like they did not care, they told us to go to reception. We were so shaken up we packed our bags and went to reception, hoping for some reassurance. At no point did they ask if we were ok, they told us to go and sit over there and wait, as we asked if we could move rooms as there was no way we were going to spend the night in that room, we felt so unsafe. We sat for about 30 mins, it was like WE had done something wrong; they were so rude to us. I went and asked if they had found us a room, their response, no they are busy, we are going to have to wait. I just did not get why we was being treated like we had done something wrong and why they just couldn't find us a room. A passing comment from one of the reception staff said, she had found a room, but it was an upgrade, so we said cant we have that room she said she will carry on looking for another room. It was like we had made all this up and we did it to get an upgrade, she said you would be surprised what people do to get an upgrade. We were shocked the way they were treating us, why oh why would we make something like this up. We asked to see a manager but told there was no manager on site. Surely, this was serious enough to ring the manager of the hotel, as a man has just robbed us in our room. Anyway after about an hour and nowhere nearer to getting us a room, or making sure that we was ok, my son in England had contacted someone who he knew in Tenerife and he told us to go his restaurant and he would help us. We asked to check out, they were shocked that we wanted to check out, (it was like a little game to them). By this time, we were absolutely distraught because we knew they didn't believe us, we asked them why they hadn't rung the police or a manager or even checked to see if we were ok. At that point they rung the police, they then told us the police would not come out and we would have to go to the police station that night. So we left the hotel in a taxi to go to the police station to be told that you have to book an appt due to having an interpreter. So, we went to our new hotel for the night, at a cost to us. The next morning I rang 'On the beach' . Who took a statement of what happened. We then had to call a number for the Police to take a statement and then we had to go to the police station to sign it. On the way back from the police station we decided to go and see the manager of Gala Suites. We explained to her what had happened, she was very lovely at the time and took notes and apologised by the way we had been treated. She asked us to come back to the hotel and stay and she would make sure that we would be safe. We said how can you 100% guarantee this. You have security at the front of the hotel, who never checks anyone's wrist band or hotel key, as we have just drove straight in by cab and we are not staying here, they did not even stop us or look. We personally think it was an inside job, but that’s our opinion. Something really isn’t right at this hotel, there have been too many thefts within the hotel over the years/months and nothing is being done. I really ask anyone that is thinking of going to this hotel, PLEASE DON’T. I must admit i read a couple of reviews before i went about things going missing in room, but i turned a blind eye.. I really wish i hadn't. This seriously has affected me and its probably why it has taken so long for me to write this review, re-living what we went through on that night, not only someone breaking into our room and robbing us and seeing him, but also the way we were treated by the staff at this hotel. Just absolutely appalling.