La Pinta Beach Club Timeshare Release

This was a promotional ‘timeshare‘ type visit to the RCI BEACH CLUB section of the hotel…apparently same building but separate ownership…which we were not aware of until we arrived!!

La Pinta Beach Club reception was the size of a cupboard away from the main welcoming reception. During our week’s stay we saw three lady receptionists who were not to say the least overly friendly.

The apartment was adequate but tired and in need of an upgrade. We had to ask for ant spray as they seemed to come out of the woodwork.

The hotel was in a superb position overlooking the beach but noisy and so compact that you were living with your next door neighbours when both on the terrace and in the apartment.

The terrace side walls were so low that that you saw and heard every conversation..sadly we had four very crude and noisy adults to one side and spent most of the time with the doors closed.

The environment was a mass of bars and restaurants with loud music starting at 10pm and not stopping until midnight. Good and very reasonable restaurants in the near vicinity.This is a very lively location and not for those wanting ANY semblance of peace and quiet. It is impossible to stroll more that ten feet before being accosted by sellers of holiday club membership,sunglasses, watches or crested wigs.

Every restaurant has a ‘PR’ person outside enticing you in to their establishment. Not for the faint hearted. Having paid a 100 euro deposit in case we damaged anything, 28 euros for the car park and 18 euros for the safe we checked out in the ‘cupboard’ being told to wait…in silence hoping that the receptionist would at least ask us if we had a good time, whist she contacted housekeeping to confirm that we had not stolen or broken the not so expensive contents of the apartment.

We were then dismissed without a word.

We paid a promotional price as they wanted to sell us fractional ownership which we declined and so could not complain about the price we paid for our not so enjoyable experience

We were invited to stay at La Pinta on behalf of RCI’s promotional team. It was an opportunity for us to visit Tenerife and compare the standards of time share property between Interval International and RCI. Interval International win on every count!

The hotel is clean, with well equipped rooms – kitchen had fridge, microwave, cooker and hob, large flat screen TV in living/dining room with comfortable setee and dining table. However, the whole buliding was dated and in need of a re-vamp to bring it into the 21st century. We did see the product of one room that had been updated and if all the accommodation can be changed to the same standard four star rating would describe it perfectly.

Ditto to other reports about sun loungers being “reserved” making it difficult to find an empty one. The hotel’s policy on this did state they would remove towels from unoccupied loungers – we certainnly did not see any evidence of this.

La Pinta is perfectly placed, with so many bars, restaurants and the beach directly in front of the hotel, makes it a perfect base for your holiday. Food is cheap and local lager at 1 Euro/pint made it good value for money. A great Indian Restaurant – Bombay Babu just round the corner – more expensive than some restaurants but worth every Euro!! We ate there twice.
The In & Out Bar had a fantastic band called Soundchaser – look them up on Facebook/Twitter/Youtube – if you love Rock you will love this group. They will be touring in the UK this year. Another good bar for drinks only and live football is the Pheasant Plucker.

The downside of La Pinta, maybe out of the Hotel’s control, was the RCI team’s representative we met after our 3 hour statutory talk & tour – he was rude, agressive and unprofessional. We own a timeshare and have used Interval International to book our hoilidays successfully for the last 12 years. Yet we were told we were basing our choice (not to switch from Interval to RCI) on ignorance. Not a pleasant experience and one I warn others of when they receive an invitation to stay at La Pinta in exchange for a tour/talk by the Timeshare team.

Try out La Pinta for yourself – the facilities are good – free WiFi in reception – (although we managed to pick it up in our room) good choice of bars and restaurants, plenty of opportunity to walk to other beaches, very clean and spacious reception but old & tired rooms.

Would we stay there again? If all the rooms were updated to the standard of room 401 then yes.

We have just returned from spending an enjoyable week at this hotel in a two bedroom apartment overlooking the beach..

We used our timeshare and I have to say that our appt was in need of refurbishment as furniture was looking tired.

We did make use of the kitechen and it was too small and was not well equipped for 6 people. However, the apartment was well equiped with most itmes we needed and the linen and towels were clean.

The location was great for shops, restaurants and bars. The entertainment in the hotel was good standard and the pool was well maintained and clean.

IIt was quite noisy if you wanted to sit on the balcony at night as the music from nearby bars went on till quite late.

Time share owners beware! We were not impressed by the RCI office at check in or check out. They had a bad system for check out and too few staff to organise it.

Be prepared to pay £100 cash up front as a security deposit for your appartment and remember to ask for your TV remote as they have to issue them at the office!

One positive will be the welcome basket of fruit, milk, water, bread and wine that were in the apartment waiting for you.