Hotel Taurito Princess, Grand Canary

...experience and have sold this hotel on many occassions without problems so when a good deal came up, I decided to take my family, and thought it was a pretty safe bet. Maybe I'm too fussy, but my review is honest and only my personal opinion based on our own experience.

Firstly, despite advising the hotel that we would be arriving very late, (in fact early am after a night flight) we arrived with our two children to be told they had ...
...on a night flight, the hotel simply assumed we were not coming-and there were no other rooms ready! We ended up not getting into our room until 23 1/2 hours after we'd paid for it- Not a good start. They did of course still expect us to check out on time- cheeky!
Now, if youre on a night flight, your room is booked and paid from mid-day the day you check in at your UK airport. This means that you may not arrive till the early hours the next ... more

My family and I have just returned from our holiday to The Mogan Princess. I'm a travel agent with over 26 years experience and have sold this hotel on many occassions without problems so when a good deal came up, I decided to take my family, and thought it was a pretty safe bet. Maybe I'm too fussy, but my review is honest and only my personal opinion based on our own experience.

Firstly, despite advising the hotel that we would be arriving very late, (in fact early am after a night flight) we arrived with our two children to be told they had given our room to someone else! It seems that despite paying for our room from the day before arrival and advising them that we were on a night flight, the hotel simply assumed we were not coming-and there were no other rooms ready! We ended up not getting into our room until 23 1/2 hours after we'd paid for it- Not a good start. They did of course still expect us to check out on time- cheeky!
Now, if youre on a night flight, your room is booked and paid from mid-day the day you check in at your UK airport. This means that you may not arrive till the early hours the next day but at least you get straight into your room and you do not have to wait till mid-day. This is why you have to check out at noon on the day of departure even if you don't actually fly till very late that same day-
The hotel gave away our room to someone else and were in the wrong- no appologies though and no refund offered either!

There were quite a lot of people asking to keep their rooms on and no one was able to that I knew of, this made a lot of people very unhappy- so be warned, if you're on a night flight, you will probably have to check out as normal at noon.

For those who don't know the area, The Mogan Princess is in Playa Taurito- some 45 minutes from LPA airport, approx 9km from Puerto Rico and 4km to Puerto Mogan. In Taurito itself, theres nothing much doing, but we like it quiet and always have a hire car to get around so we were ok with this.
Its high up, so if you've any walking or breathing difficulties be prepared or go elsewhere. I couldn't believe the amount of guests who had no idea that the hotel was basically up a mountain! So many people were dissapointed that they couldn't get around easily.
To get to the hotel, you have to go up a very steep road full of potholes, it's at the very top of the road & cars, buses and vans go up and down all day so hold on to little ones tightly.
Car parking is very difficult especially at weekends when the hotel seems to offer cheap packages to the locals and it's absolutley packed!
We felt we needed our hire car with the children, if you don't have a car, it's not terribly easy getting around unless you're pretty hardy and can face the trek in the heat, most relied on the courtesy buses which seemed to be packed when we were there- or you can always go in a taxi. As most tour operators charge around £20pp for transfers (even if they don't tell you the charge is there unless you pay full brochure price) we opted out of the tour ops transfers saving us £80 and the car was only £110 for the week- a bargain and so much more convenient to go when and where we wanted to go.

After eventually being given our room, we settled in.
Luckily for us we were in block 1 which is poolside, otherwise be prepared to negotiate a series of lifts and stairs to get to your room. If you have a child in a buggy try to request block 1 otherwise it might not be easy getting around the complex. It's pretty huge and a lot of people were complaining that were so far away from the pools/restuarants etc and felt it was a major expedition getting around.

Our "suite" (no 1406) was basically an apartment- it was adequate enough, nicely furnighed, but nothing particularly special compared to other 4* hotels we've been in elsewhere. We had 2 bathrooms which were very useful and the apartment was clean enough, although for some reason the maid didn't bother to clean the room one day, dunno what that was all about.

The children slept on sofa beds in the lounge area and the fridge was very handy. However, the air conditioning was very poor and when it's 36 degrees outside, I think it's pretty essential to requirements- after all it's a 4 star hotel and a fairly new one at that. We repeatedly asked for the air con to be fixed and the maintenance man did come to our room on a number of occassions but after a visit to the manager who admittedly did her best, it was never adequate and the room was far too hot.
BTW the twin beds are very very hard! Not very comfortable unless you like sleeping on a board! Between the hard beds and the roasting hot room, the nights were long and uncomfortable!
It improved slightly the last day or two but only because it was cooler outside.
The public areas, especially reception were also uncomfortably warm- as the reception area is almost all glass, it was like being in a greenhouse- not my idea of a 4 star hotel and we were not the only people who had problems with insufficient air con.
The hotel really needs to see to this as it really was quite uncomfortable and it would have made all the difference.

As you would expect in 4 star hotels, pool towels are provided in your room for the correct number of guests in the room on arrival, however, if you want them changed, you have to pay 1 euro each time you change them which means that a family of 4 staying for 2 weeks with clean pool towels each day will need to shell out another £56.

The hotel operates a card system for drinks etc, they supply you with a card which has to be shown each time you charge something to your room. Mistakes do happen and be warned that if you sign for anything you have to pay for it when you check out.
Some people were caught out when they signed their bills but paid for them as they went along, they had to pay again at checkout- I heard one woman get really upset at being charged a fortune for items she'd paid for previously again. The receptionist insisted she had to pay even although the guest was adamant she'd paid for everything as she went along.
This did not happen to us, but please be careful only sign if you want to charge items to your room- don't pay twice.

The lifts were quick- they had to be because they were also stifingly hot being glass fronted and south facing- some times being in there was unbearable- again they need to look at this.

The pool area was ok, although the poolside tiles were very slippery and we saw a few falls- one lady really hurt herself and she was being careful!
There are 2 pools- one above block 1 for adults only and the main pool, which was nice enough, not too cold or too deep but definatley would be a problem in high season as it's far too small for the size of the hotel.
The pool bar was popular, but only sold drinks and ice-cream, no snacks were available which meant that you either had to eat in the restaurant (14 euros pp) for a buffet lunch or "a-la carte" which was upstairs above the pool block- This is inconvenient. Not everyone wants a sit-down lunch and it would have been better if you could even order food at the pool bar to be served at the covered tables around the pool. I'm sure they would have found this popular with guests and more people would stay in the hotel for lunch.

All inclusive was available at 25 euros pppday. Not sure what they charged for kids though. But the all inclusive system was being abused by some. We witnessed one family of 6 adults where 3 of them paid to upgrade and simply supplied the other 3 who were on HB with free drinks all day and night! No one seemed to care-shocking!

We didn't bother with the evening entertainment as we tended to go out in the evening except for one night when the Calypso band was on, it was entertaining and it seemed the hotel had made an effort with their evening entertainment.
From what I heard from others guests it was pretty good in the evening overall. There was also an animation programme during the day.

The food was typical of a spanish buffet- chicken, pork, salads. Some people were impressed by the food, and it's true to say it was varied with plenty of choice. However, vegetarians will definatley struggle. My vege hubby found it was difficult. There seemed to be fish or meat with everything- even in the salads. We ended up trying the buffet first then eating out. After a week of pasta and chips, it gets pretty boring. We asked if there was any way we could have vegetarian food for my husband and were told there was plenty on offer. This was not the case, and on a few ocassions there were really only potatoes, chips and lettuce which had no meat or fish added. If you're not vegetarian then I'm sure you'll be fine, but there was NO childrens food at all, which these days is very dissapointing- Does the hotel think that perhaps children just don't eat?
We paid full adult price for each of our kids, and although my 12 year old daughter was mostly ok, our 7 year old son was not catered for at all. Surely a small buffet table with chicken nuggets/burgers/pizza even would be appreciated by the kids and the parents!
Also be warned that at weekends, hoardes of locals arrive and the dining room is jam packed with queues everywhere.

All in all, we had a good holiday, at the end of the day, a holiday is what you make it yourself but I wouldn't go back to The Mogan Princess. In my opinion, there are other hotels far superior and better located. However, if you get a good deal, and you don't mind it being so quiet, high up and youre not fussed about having a cool room with a comfy bed to sleep in at night, then give it a go, just don't pay over the odds you will be dissapointed, especially if you're used to 4 and 5 star accomodation.
The Mogan Princess is a good 3 star but poor 4 star accomodation, but forwarned is forearmed. Its not that it was bad, it just wasn't all that special. Everyone has their own tastes and expectations. Princess hotels are generally of a high standard so I expected this to be better than it was.
The Taurito Princess and The Suite Princess are also in Taurito and are in a different class. Theres also a lovely 5 star in Puerto Mogan- The Mogan Cordial Playa or try The Gran Costa Meloneras in Maspalomas.

The positives were that the rooms were clean, the staff did their best, the food (as long as you're not a child or a vegetarian) was ok and the views were nice, other than that, it was ok, but nothing special. If you're looking for a quality 4 star property, then you'll be dissapointed, but I'd say it's a very decent 3 star indeed.
Can't be faulted for cleanliness though and if you have a car and go in the cooler months, it would be better!

 

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