My wife and I had an RCI exchange apartment for one week. The RCI website pics were either of different apartments or had been taken some years prior. The 1-bed apartment was adequate for 2 but would have been cramped if using the sofa bed with 2 children, impossible with 2 other adults. We stayed from 3rd to 10th September, not the height of summer but still hot.
Positive features - nice balcony for breakfast and late evening. Excellent housekeeping service, cleaned 3 times during our stay. Gloria in Reception spoke excellent English and was very helpful. Other reception staff appeared less helpful but possibly due to communication issues. Swimming pool excellent.
Negatives- On checking in we were hit with a 30 euro housekeeping fee. Probably more of an RCI communication issue rather than the hotel.
No air conditioning. Two small fans were totally inadequate for cooling the apartment. On our penultimate day I noticed that the power connection for the water heater had come adrift and required support from an inverted coffee jug to keep the connection in place to maintain a supply of hot water.

If you wish to stay out of the most touristy area of Salou, this is the perfect choice! The apartment seemed to be quite newly renovated with all the equipment you need to have a perfect vacation. There was even a washingmachine which most parents, like us, would appreciate. Nice poolarea but quite a lot of bugs...

There is a minmarket right up the street and ceveral restaurants in the area.

Our apartment had a full kitchen with washing machine, microwave etc. It was clean, comfortable and quiet. In a week the bed was changed once and towels three times. The apartment did not get serviced for two days in a row and we had some rubbish build up in the kitchen and could not find a place to dump it. That was really a small issue, the apartment was the nicest i have ever stayed in on sun holidays.
The pool is lovely, loungers were always available. There is a waterslide and little kids playground. Guests do not 'book' up the loungers with towels, people just come and go.
It is located about 5 minutes walk from the train station, 10 mins to the beach and 25 mins to the livelier end of the resort. There is a big supermarket 2 mins away. There are plenty quieter bars restaurants and shops beside the apartments. The location won't suit people looking for busy nightlife.

We have stayed at Jardines Paraisol twice, in June 2010 and 2011 with our two kids (now 3 and 6). The hotel is located in the "Spanish Salou", which is significantly more quiet area and with less international tourists than in the Salou centre. So you can avoid the worst tourist traps and crowds. If you rent a car, parking may be somewhat challenging during peak times but we always found a place within a few blocks. There is also a garage in the premises but I'm not sure if that is available for hotel guests and with what kind of fee.

This is not a luxury place, but the hotel offers an excellent quality and value for the money. Pool area is very nice and comfortable with kids pool, water slide (during high season) and a kids playground. Sun beds were also adequately available.

Rooms are also ok in this class. Rooms are equipped with a washing machine, aircon and adequately equipped kitchenette.However, the quality of the mattresses available (especially the sofa bed) was very bad (way too hard for us). If you are sensitive to this you may have a problem. We solved the issue by buying a couple of extra camping mattresses. Without this mattress issue I would give this place a 5/5 rating.

There is a good supermarket one block north east from the hotel and a bakery one block east. We had some challenges finding good dining experience in the area but found the following to be good choices: Bar New York on the same street for their Indian curries, El Raco de la Tapa on Carrer Valencia (between the railway and beach) for their tapas and Arena restaurant (at Blaumar hotel) for their fine dining (quite expensive, though).

Bar Caminito is located in the same building an is a good choice for a drink, you can also fetch drinks to the pool area from there. They have complimentary Wi-Fi, if you need that during your holiday. Plenty of other bars nearby.