Iberostar Heritage Grand Mencey

The Iberostar Mencey in Santa Cruz has a very good location opposite Sanabría Park and close to the old town. The traditional style building looks appealing from the outside - a beautiful courtyard. The outside facilities with the pool and beautiful trees is very well maintained. The staff - especially in service - were mostly friendly and helpful. The breakfast buffet was good and was constantly replenished. What struck us: in the last week of our stay there was no more "Cava" in the morning - and that in a 5* hotel! We had booked a superior room with twin beds for 22 nights 3 months in advance. After our arrival they assigned us a room with a handicapped bathroom. The sink is more suitable for a guest toilet. The shower had no closure to the front, and so the water then flooded the entire bathroom. It became slippery and you had to be careful not to slip and fall there. I read here on TA that some people got upgraded. But for us, it was definitely a downgrade. It was an imposition, frustrating and disappointing. We immediately complained about this room, supposedly they could not offer us a replacement right away. After three days, a room above the restaurant would have been free, but we refused (we had read the comments here..). So we got another room only after a week. This was a standard room. However, we could not notice any difference in the furnishings from the previous one, which makes us doubt that this is a superior room. I.e. we would have paid too much for this room. By the way, we have had nicer rooms in 3* hotels.... The hotel did not refund us the price difference in cash but pretended that we had to spend this money at the hotel. We explained to the hotel on the spot why this would not be possible for us - for various reasons. In the restaurants the choice for vegetarians was insufficient for lunch and dinner. Three days before departure, Mr. S. from the reception mentioned that he could have ordered us "something" vegetarian. No, thank you, we don't want to eat "anything" but choose something. We already told all this to the people in charge in the hotel during our stay. It's a nice hotel, it's a pity that they did not react flexibly at all and did not apologize.

We had an enjoyable 3-night stay for which an on-line questionnaire was completed, providing the hotel with feedback but in spite of making 2 requests, the hotel failed to give me an email address to which further comments could be given. Generally the staff we dealt with were very efficient, knowledgeable and courteous, but conversely some did not have those qualities. The pool was great and well maintained, as was the gardens and surroundings. We had dinner in the restaurant on 2 occasions and found the waiters very helpful and polite. The food selected was very good too as was the local wine which we chose. But we have the following criticisms: The hotel has an underground car park for which a fee of 12 euro per day is payable in advance but the voucher we were given did not satisfy the car park attendant who was extremely rude to my wife. This was certainly not 5star experience. Regarding the bar. My wife and I sat down in the bar one evening and waited to be served. We sat there and waited. A waiter came to re arrange our table and we remained. Eventually another waiter arrived and took our order and we waited. We waited and we waited watching the bar attendant serve other customer's drinks and eventually we left in disgust. Again not a 5star experience. At breakfast I was asked by a waiter if we would like omelette. Again staff were very polite but on each of the 3 mornings I requested an omelette my wife had finished her breakfast before the omelette arrived. In fact on the last day, something which looked like an omelette was served but clearly it wasn't fresh. Not 5star service. Lastly our room. We stayed in a lovely room which was clean and spacious, but the hair dryer was in-effective as it kept cutting out, even when set on the low setting. My wife didn't make it known to me until the last day. Rounding up, a lovely hotel but let down by minor detail, which in my view doesn’t justify the 5 stars

Feb 2023. A one night stay in a standard room, with breakfast included. A great experience overall. Very helpful and friendly staff, a nice clean spacious room with balcony and great food with good service both for the evening and for breakfast. The breakfast selection was amazing. A real nice relaxed feel to the hotel with great facilities, both inside and out. Would definitely like to return.