Nice and quiet four stars hotel directly at the beach with great food and extremely friendly staff,…read morevery clean and well-kept.
Truly pleasant and relaxing stay!
And they even have a cute black hotel cat that hangs out on the loggia overviewing the pool :).
I was travelling solo and had booked a side-ocean-view room to the dune side which I did not like (view was more on a green building roof, kitchen smell, backstreet with trash bins with a glimps of ocean) and hence paid the extra to change to a full ocean view which had a great view and was very nice and also more modern. It was a great choice - I loved to sit in bed or on the balcony and listen to the waves and waking up to the view was great.
All facilities are nicely taken care of and clean, beautiful ocean view from all public spaces and you hear the waves rolling in. Pool staff is around all day, everything around the pool is tidy and clean. You have to choose a pool chair at the beginning of your stay which is then reserved for you - I guess that solves the eternal towel reservation problem quite easily. But also means that many good spots are reserved, but still empty all day. I mean, you can still sit on a reserved chair when no one is claiming it (which, it seems, no one did).
Just one step through a glass door and you are right at the beach.
What is a little of a pity, but not the hotel's fault, is that the city built a beach walk promenade right between the hotel and the beach so people walk by and look all the time. The hotel built a glass fence around its facilities (luckily no fence or wall which would have spoilt the ocean view!) and also set up plants around the pool, which was a good thing, I would not have felt comfortable without it, but you nevertheless can see through the glass from both sides. Another good idea would be to apply reflective coating on the outside so that hotel guests could still see through and enjoy the view from the inside, but people walking by cannot look into the pool and hotel area and watch you because sometimes it feels a little bit like being a zoo animal, especially when they are trying to take pictures from the outside....I did not let it bother me, but chose a pool spot that was a little hidden. When walking the promenade I realised that other, even five-star, hotels had a way worse positioning with regards to people walking by and no glass shields, so IFA Faro did a very good job with the situation as it is.
What I found rudiculous is to demand extra charges for room wifi and a room safe, even if it was not expensive - it's 2017 and a four stars hotel, please change this!
Wifi worked ok, although I needed to get new access codes on the second day.
The hotel is frequented mainly by seniors, a few couples, and very, very few families travelling with children and grandparents. It is very quiet, also in the evenings on the ocean front, which I truly appreciated as I was travelling solo and explicitly looking for detox, peace, and quiet.
Food (buffet) was delicious, an impressive choice of everything, and a lot of fresh vegetables and fruits which I loved. I cannot say much about the main dishes as I mainly chose from the entries. Dinner staff was super nice - for example, they quickly found out which was my favourite spot and that I was by myself, so they started setting that table for one person only.
As there is a kitchen/bar next to the pool, a slight food smell is lingering starting lunch time there which I found a little unpleasant.
Small gym nicely located next to the pool in a room with daylight, fresh air, and pool view; good massages available.
My check-in was very slow. Reception staff is friendly, but was on the first day not immediately available and all demands took a lot of time, maybe also due to a very slow IT-system. After that, it was fine - except for check-out which was also slow and the receptionist (same one as for check-in) started my check-out and then just left me standing there and took care of someone else checking out. It seemed to be an emergency as they had missed their bus, but I still found it extremely impolite to not even giving me an excuse or explanation. They also charged me something from the minibar which I had not consumed (waived it without any discussion when I told them) as the minibar was not fully stocked on my arrival which I had let the reception know.
In a nutshell: What really stood out for me besides the great location was the extremely friendly, yet discreet staff (I literally did not meet a single staff member that was anything but very friendly) who seemed to like their work, and that everything was very well-kept. Reception services could be improved.
I do not find Maspalomas itself particularly pretty, it is extremely touristy, but this hotel is a great spot to enjoy the beautiful view and the sun and to explore the lovely coast and beach on foot going east and west (walk east only if you don't mind the nudist beach area!