H10 Rubicon Palace

Lovely family holiday, with some opportunities to improve

We have just returned from another lovely family holiday at the H10 Rubicón Horizons Collection. This was our second stay at Rubicón, and we have also stayed at H10 Atlantic Sunset, so we have had the opportunity to experience two of the H10 Horizons Collection properties.

Overall, we had a fantastic holiday. Rubicón is a huge, beautifully maintained resort with a fantastic seafront location, lovely gardens, great pools and plenty for a family to enjoy. The size of the resort gives it a wonderful sense of space, although it also presents some challenges when it comes to delivering a consistently high level of service.

We stayed on a Privilege basis, and the food throughout the resort was excellent. We ate in all of the restaurants during our stay and were very impressed with the quality and variety. The Privilege restaurant was a particular highlight — we really enjoyed the food, atmosphere and service, and it definitely added to the overall experience.

The only real disappointment food-wise was the steakhouse, which we found fairly average compared with the other restaurants. Also, the toilets outside the restaurant area are in serious need of an upgrade, particularly as they service three separate restaurants.

A special mention has to go to Abel at the Privilege pool, who is excellent at his job. He was friendly, attentive and consistently provided a very high level of service. Staff members like Abel make a real difference to a holiday.

The newly renovated Red Mountain Lounge is also a lovely addition. It has been done very well, and the service there was excellent. Pedro in the Piano Bar also deserves a special mention — he was fantastic and made our visits there a particularly enjoyable experience.

There are, however, a few areas where we feel the resort could improve. Having stayed at Atlantic Sunset, we did feel that the overall level of service at Rubicón was a little disappointing by comparison. We completely appreciate that Rubicón is a much larger resort, but the difference was noticeable.

On arrival, despite checking in to Privilege, we didn’t receive the welcome drink or hot towel. We had also contacted the hotel approximately a month before arrival and specifically requested a front sea-view room, one of the better rooms and somewhere quiet. Unfortunately, those notes hadn’t been picked up and we were initially allocated a room down near the children’s pool. Once we raised this, the team were helpful and moved us to a much more suitable room.

The rooms themselves are spacious and comfortable, although some are starting to look a little dated, particularly the bathrooms. This didn’t detract significantly from our stay, and I’m sure it is something the hotel has plans to work on. A refresh of the rooms and bathrooms would certainly bring them more in line with the more modern feel of some of the other H10 properties.

There was also a small incident involving the gym during our stay. It didn’t spoil our holiday and was ultimately dealt with, but perhaps it is something management can learn from in terms of how these situations are handled with guests. Greater management visibility around such a large resort would also, in our opinion, make a positive difference.

The gym itself could also do with an upgrade. For such a large resort, it feels quite small and can become busy, so an expansion and/or investment in additional equipment would be very welcome.

The Junior Kids Club was good and our children enjoyed it. One relatively easy win, particularly for slightly older children, would be to make more use of the outdoor sports facilities by organising activities such as football every day. The football was only organised every other day during our stay, and having something available each morning would be a great addition for older children who are beginning to outgrow the traditional kids’ club activities.

We would also love to see the cabaret show brought back, as this would be a great addition to the evening entertainment for families.

Despite the points above, I want to emphasise that we genuinely had a lovely holiday. These are constructive suggestions rather than things that ruined our stay. We clearly like the resort — this was our second visit — and we would happily return.

I think there is a real opportunity for Rubicón to work more closely with the other H10 Horizons Collection properties and share best practices, particularly around service and the small details that make guests feel valued. Our experience at Atlantic Sunset showed us just how good the H10 service can be.

With some greater attention to those details, more visible management, continued investment in the rooms and gym, and a few additions to the entertainment and activities, I think Rubicón could take an already very good family holiday experience to another level.

Overall, 4/5. We had a lovely family holiday and would happily return. There is plenty to like about Rubicón — particularly the food, facilities, location and staff members such as Abel and Pedro — and with some relatively straightforward improvements, I think it could become an outstanding experience.

Soo majority of the staff here are rude!! Especially the lady on guest relations I went too on August the 1st (am) with my issues and she stop me from talking and fobbed me off! The manager in the Italian is rude and has no customer service, the egg lady is rude because I asked for a specific filling. The bedroom door didn’t lock and maintenance had to be called twice. While we were there the glass floor broke over the pool where a man went straight through it, pictured attached, there was shards of glass in the pool and it wasn’t closed off (pool) lots of police arrived and ambulance crew. This hotel does not take feedback on board Oh and pools are freezing! Also not much options for vegetarians. Buffet is so chaotic they can not handle the capacity. Sunbeds are reserved and no one says anything! Also didn’t see the life guard near the main pool kids going awol of the bridge! Water you have to pay for (we were half board) Definitely not 5 stars