It all depends what you are after. If you are going to be spend most of your time in the hotel, I would broaden your horizons as to the rating and destination. Places like Belek and Side in Turkey contain mostly 4 and 5 star hotels and are very cheap. You can expect a bias in some instances towards russians in respect of food and entertainment though. Best think you can do is look on the Tui/ Thomas Cook websites and do some web based research about the hotel.

I think the San Miguel in Ibiza is only a 3*AI but tends to get good reviews and lots of repeat guests. I guess you may need to compromise a bit on rooms (ie they will be basic) or maybe location, in exchange for getting decentish food. I stayed in the teguisol in Lanzarote years ago on AI and the food was OK for us, but it was so long ago it could have changed. With many of these hotels the Country's tourist board gives them an offical rating of 3* but the Tour Operator gives them 4T's or 4 ticks so that can be confusing.

I know its a pain, but trawling through shed loads of reviews is probably the only way to find out if the food is alright, well that and not expecting chateaubriand when you get there.