Hotel Castillo Alcazar — Hotel in Verwaltungsgemeinschaft Ettenheim

Love love love! Just like any EP hotel we had a great experience. We had a themed suite (the Colombus one if not mistaken). It was on the 9th floor, the view was not like wow but it was very nice. Compared to the themed suite of the Colloseum, the + points are: The balcony that you can access from both rooms The coziness of the siting area The - points: No coffee machine in the room The bunk bed that our daughter loves to go up and play has some wooden curtain decoration that she unfortunately bumped her head quite badly (not ideal having that there but I’m sure it’s better than an actual curtain). Oh and no kids tiny toilet which is an addition I loved in the Colosseum.

The room: has one separate bedroom, bathroom with bathtub (no shower, no kids toilet, no separate wc-just pointing this out in comparaison to other hotels’ themed suites), a very spacious living area with bunkbeds for the children. One closet in the living room and one in the bedroom. Same with TVs. Access from both rooms to the balcony (also sitting furniture for outside- cushions in the closet) There are slippers and bathrobes for the adults. Attention to the coffee table we were constantly about to knock it over and the light above it, I think I bumped my head there at least 10 times. There was a lovely little stool for kids to access the sinks in the bathroom.

The breakfast area was very very nice, the buffet had very nice food and Ed even was there taking pictures and interacting with the little ones. Our daughter is very very shy and has never seen any Ed-like “creature” 😅 before but the second time they met at the buffet Ed even got a hug!

The staff at the hotel are super nice, polite and accommodating.

The Castillo and the Andaluz share the reception while Santa Isabel is pretty much next door. All three hotels are attached with passages from one to the other. You can use the facilities from the other hotels if you wish without an issue.

The access to the park is very close. Just a short walk in the outdoor hotel area or side area and you are there. Like a two minutes walk from the reception.

On the same floor as our room was a bar. That was worrying me a bit for the noise (people and music) but we never heard anything. There is also a door to access the corridor of the suite and you need your room key to pass through it (same for colosseum) so that might also be a reason for the quiet.

Great experience I...

Let's start with the bad:

Lights in the room non-existent, you can barely see your own hand infront of your face, let alone unpack a suitcase (Don't let the images I added fool you as some are enhanced so that everything appears better). If someone says this is to fit the theme that cannot be true, the bathroom is well lit, so the rest of the room should be too.

No mini-fridge, never been to a 4 star hotel without a mini-fridge

No way to make coffee or tea in the room as there is no kettle or coffee machine in the room

Booked a room for 3 adults, but were only given a double bed (2 singles connected) and the other person had to sleep on a kids bed (it was a kids bunk bed), not to mention the very hard mattresses. The beds also make you sweat like crazy because of some layer of the sheets.

No bath robes, slippers, or any other items which are normally given in 3 star hotels, let alone 4 star

Health and safety non-existent (I'm guessing the inspector must have been blind), multiple hooks at kids eye levels, if a kid was running and fell, they would definitely have serious injuries

Wardrobe is very small for a 3 person room, it is the same size as a room for 1 person

The shower step in my opinion is also very dangerous, it is quite high and with the water in the shower it can be very slippery.

Toilet dates back to the 90s where none of them had soft closing lids

Face cloths were taken but we weren't given new ones

The few positives we saw:

Breakfast was vast and good, but hectic and disorganised, and there was no coffee machine, you have to ask if you want a specific type of coffee

Very close to park entrace

In conclusion, this definitely does not deserve 4 star rating it has, if it was up to me, it would barely get 2 stars. It is a far cry from any...

Perhaps our expectations were a bit too high of a 4-star hotel (in Germany). Perhaps.||||Then again, paying ~340 EUR for a room with 4 adults for one night is definitely not a low price by any means (even if it is "4-starred").||||The hotel building from the outside is quite nice, giving off the feeling that it is a Spanish castle. The inside tries to mimic the feeling of being inside a Spanish castle, doing it's best to hide the fact that, well, it is a hotel. No problem there and relatively neatly done.||||The rooms are where our review starts to get a bit more just "acceptable". Even though due to the coronavirus the number of guests greatly dwindled, we still found some things to be not clean in the room. For example, the bedsheet cover - although it seemed washed - had smudges on it, probably from previous guests. ||||On top, in the restaurant we experienced sometimes even borderline rude behavior and general crankiness from the service staff. All this is understandable (since wearing the masks makes everything much harder and more complicated for everyone), but still something that should not be the case for a 4-star hotel. In addition, we had the feeling that there were not enough people waiting for tables in the restaurant, but more on that in our dedicated "Castillo" review.||||Perhaps - if we come a second time - we will try out more of the hotel amenities or try to come through a special deal and then could give a better rating, but for the time being: don't go with high expectations and you will...