Sheraton Fuerteventura Beach Golf and Spa Resort

This is pure luxury in an idyllic location right by the sea. Beautiful rooms. Excellent food. Staff second to none. You will not be disappointed. Very Covid aware. Plenty of open space and well ventilated

This comprehensive review must start with major, whole-hearted congratulations to Sylvie and Tom, whose keen intervention and presence managed to save the stay. Both are very experienced and fully tailored to hospitality; their absence is noticed straight away and the replacement is not at all on a par! Fuerteventura tends to be overlooked by many with eyes on the Canary Islands and perhaps that comes to its benefit, filtering somewhat amount and kind of tourists. It's a quiet and very easy island, with a lot to explore, so any time range between 7 and 14 days, or even more, is adequate. This Sheraton unit is over 15 years old and time already shows in its structure and equipment. A do-up was planned for this year but the pandemic ruined those ; we all hope some renovation takes place soon, as it is urgently needed. It's a pleasant and smooth ten-minute-ride from the airport (taxi won't cost 20 euros) and the imposing building can be seen from a distance right on La Guirra beach, one of the few artificial inlets in a row in El Castillo sector of the island, perfect for families with children. Spanish, French, English, German, Dutch/Flemish, Italian, Polish and even Brazilian Portuguese are spoken in the hotel, due to staff members from all over, in an important cosmopolitan gesture of the Marriott chain to be inviting for all, be it to work with/at, be it to stay at! Parking is outdoors and free of charge, there are other hotels in the area (from the Elba chain, which also owns this Sheraton unit and most other hotels on the whole island), there is a casino and a shopping mall with supermarket no 3min on foot away, along with some restaurants, most of them well reviewed here. It is, on one hand, understandable that finding trained staff in Fuerteventura is a most difficult task, especially nowadays with the pandemic, there is indeed shortage of quality and even quantity. On the other hand, a five-start hotel cannot allow bad choices to be made, such as having the bellboy check incoming guests in - that made the process disastrous and caused a number of follow-up incidents, generously handled by abovementioned Sylvie and Tom! Receptionists are clearly overwhelmed and simply cannot handle pressure, especially when groups bundle in the lobby from charter flights all at once or around 11 o'clock for checking-out. They simply panic, have a blank face, give unclear answers and some simply cannot hide the terror on their faces when having to deal with the PR Anabel! Something must be done there urgently, for the sake of a warm welcoming/farewell to guests. The hotel has a number of different room categories, rather confusing and leading one to believe they are getting more (or even less) than what was paid for, another point to ponder. The junior suite is ample, favours natural light and is elegant, though furniture seems to be rather tired already, just like the shady and stained carpets on the hotels corridor - why Americans insist on something so unhygienic and expensive to keep clean like carpets remains a mystery to me! Speaking of them, one piece fell off of one of our suitcases the day we arrived and it remained there for the whole length of our two weeks in the hotel, which means the carpet never gets cleaned, as if the aspect were not enough for such suspicion! Back to the room, which in practical terms cannot be called a suite at all, the areas are clearly divided: sleeping room, terrace with view to the pool and bathroom, this one with four divisions, very elegant! Even a jacuzzi is part of the offer in the room! The world was not so digital 20 years ago when the hotel was planned and developed; as a result, power sockets are missing all around and furniture needs to be reshuffled for a more proper use of the space. I am positive this is planned in the renovation. TV has dozens of channels, even in (Swiss) German and Arabic. Internet is a problem on the island and that can be seen in the hotel as well, with the connection dropping all of a sudden or the need to log oneself in another time. The team is aware if of it and tries its best to solve it, but there is little they can do about it. The hotel is somehow targeted to half-pension package holidaymakers coming mostly from the UK, Germany and Switzerland. As a result, reception gets taken aback by guests with high status at Bonvoy programme and fails to provide some of the benefits, which need to be quoted over and over. Communication is, as a result, a major issue in the hotel, personell eventually gets mixed commands and some employees are really cheeky - fortunately they are very few. The mask policy should be made brutally clear to guests and it actually isn't. Some choose to wear it, some don't at all, some wear it incorrectly and everything seems to be permitted, which also applies to the restaurants and the plastic gloves when serving oneself! And only after upfront intervention reception started to have masks available upon request, a clear sign that the sanitary requirements are rather loose in this Sheraton. A vast garden area, four pools with different depths and temperatures, a minigolf court, a kids' club, basketball and tennis courts, plus the beach a few steps away, are some of the very good reasons not to go far from the hotel premises, all one need is really there and is vey well taken care of! There are four restaurants belonging to the hotel - Los Arcos (breakfast/dinner buffet), La Varanda (lunch/drinks at day time), Wok (Asian/dinner) and El Faro (contemporary/dinner) - and the reviews here give more detail about each one. The hotel also has a spa, Hesperides Thalasso, with treatments of all kinds and a 'water' space with pool and sauna; make sure to make an appointment (extension 4800, Graciela) and the spa also has detailed reviews on Trip Advisor. Due to the main target audience of the hotel, some activities are offered to try and please everyone make a lot of noise, like aquadisco, water aerobics, animation for children and music at the lobby bar in evenings. In no way can the hotel take them off the programme, so the solution is to try and get rooms as high as possible, as far away from reception/bar as possible and as far from the pools as possible. Last but not least, I leave personal compliments to some of the staff members, the ones who went over their list of duties to provide guests with high quality service: Willy, Aaron, Jamal (bar/El Faro); Nick (reception); Fabiola (housekeeping); Graciela (spa); Ra??l, Francisco (maintenance); Tania, Licia, Alan, Javier, Pietro, Antonio, Sergio, the two Alis, Monica, Jorge, Sergio, Carolina, Manuel, Angie e Ameliana (Los Arcos); and a great honourable thank you to Noemi, Sylvie and Tom, who daily grant their hearts and souls to the well-being of guests! Unfortunately the check-out process was cold and detached (including the clumsy and confusing bill explanation the night before) and the absence of Guest Relations or above was most frustrating. During the two weeks there, Mr Santos, the GM, also failed to make himself present and therefore, a post-departure goodwill gesture should have been made - and it still can be if willingness and humbleness prevail! Nonetheless, not even that won't stain the stay, which, with its many ups-and-downs, turned out to be very good and may lead to another visit some in the coming months: the hotel is really excellent, with minimal yet existing and not irrelevant faults.