Hotel Palmasol — Hotel in Benalmádena

Ok, my honest review of this place …. For context I stayed here with my mum, dad and sister for a fourteen night stretch.

The positives: Friendly and hard working staff, a wide selection of soft, hot and alcoholic drinks at a really affordable cost, a great pool and jacuzzi facility which is cleaned daily by a member of hotel staff alongside being cared for by a lifeguard, a general drive to make entertainment better in the hotel thanks to the ‘animation’ team in particularly from the newly promoted entertainment manager (I can’t remember his name now but he’s the young guy in an orange t-shirt who’s always smiling !), a generally clean and tidy room which was catered to regularly, sea views clearly visible from the room balcony, a wide variety of food and drinks available on the ‘all you can eat’ buffet downstairs which didn’t just cater to me as a British person, but seemed to consider the range of all nationalities staying at the hotel, a lovely recreational area in the backyard, which is lovely clean and relaxing to spend time in, complete with a sheltered area in the shade with comfy sofas and chairs, great air conditioning in the room (perfect for the warm summer evenings !), a lovely wide balcony to sit out on in the mornings and evenings, and a great range of international television available on the TV set in your room !

However, there were some issues …. First and foremost , the staff at this hotel seem so over worked and it’s a shame as they all seem very genuine and nice people who are mostly happy to help with any queries. I recall one evening a young girl with red hair in the dining room downstairs literally running so she could get everything done and keep the place clean, I felt horrendous that she’d been put in that situation, so if the manager is reading this, I seriously think you need to give a bit more thought to how many staff are down there at meal times. Simply, there is not enough, and your workers are really struggling. If I was honest, as a holidaymaker, it put me on edge at times.

I must warn others that this hotel is next to a building site. Builders start around 7:30am. I’ve seen a few reviews on here where they’ve said the noise was horrendously loud, but to be honest, I don’t think it was that bad. I personally don’t sleep too heavy, and couldn’t hear them much.

Another, and probably the most annoying problem was the wristband situation. The hotel opt to give you a wrist band instead of a traditional key card to get into your room, you can also use this wristband to load euros on to to pay for refreshments at the bar. In the fourteen nights I was there I visited reception roughly 5-6 times about the faultiness and its inability to open the door to my room. Reception were happy to help and would recalibrate it, however it’s faultiness continued. My family had exactly the same issue as me and In the end, one member even decided to request a key card to get around this issue. So please be wary of this !

But … Overall this is a good place to spend your time on holiday, we had some cracking evenings and days out here, drinking lovely quality sangria and getting involved with the activities set out by the hotel entertainment staff. But please be aware of the teething issues surrounding this place before you come … I personally wouldn’t class this place as a four star hotel as it claims to be, even though some areas were definitely better than others … but it’s still good enough...

Upon booking this trip with JET2 we were told that the hotel was a 4 star hotel, however we found this to be a generous rating.|The hotels location was ideal as a short walk would take us to the marina and the vast selection of bars, restaurants and entertainment although the hill on the way back to the hotel was steep and not ideal for anybody with mobility issues, The hotel was clean and the daily maid service was good even if the towels that were exchanged were a bit tatty and well used, the rooms air con was good however it didn’t work with the sliding balcony door open.|Travelling with my partner and 10 month old child the “family room” we were placed in was directly under the evening entertainment area which was extremely loud until 11pm meaning our babies sleep routine was greatly affected, even if we were moved to a quieter area the noise was loud throughout the hotel. The rooms themselves are very small even without a cot in them, this was a regular complaint of many other guests we spoke to, the bathrooms were also tiny and could do with a revamp although the shower was powerful and of good quality. There was a lack of wardrobe and drawer space which meant our suitcases took up the small area of floor space available.|We were told that the building works taking place directly next to the hotel were “light and shouldn’t affect your stay” however they were a great deal louder usually starting at 8am and even to the extent that the local transport police had to attend due to the chaos on the adjacent road with the cranes and fork trucks movements. The pool area was small and often felt cramped alongside the next sunbed, the pool area opened at 9:30 but people que from 8:30 to secure a sunbed, there is however a grassed area to the rear so we never struggled to get a sunbed somewhere. The umbrellas were short in number so shade for our baby could be hard to find. The pool itself was often cold and for the first few days unclean with leaves and other debris however it was better towards the end of our stay (may have been a filter issue). The food at the hotel was average, a good sized selection each day but sometimes was cold, at busier times the dining room was full even though there was a taped off area that they never opened which would have alleviated this. We were half board but would have been extremely disappointed if we were all inclusive, on an evening there was one drinks bar open and service was extremely slow and ques built up even with 3/4 bar staff working, however the quality of drinks (cocktails/beer) was good. The elevators were very small and claustrophobic which was not ideal when using a pram, one elevator often broke down even after the engineer had “fixed” which caused ques for the second working elevator. The method of putting cash onto a wristband to use as a payment method was a flawed and unnecessary policy, we found it difficult to keep track on what we were spending and how much was left on the wristband, the credit was also only placed on my wristband not my partners so she couldn’t use to pay, bar staff on occasion were also confused by this. A lot of guests we spoke to had issues with wristbands not working for room access. Overall we found the quality and value for money at the palamsol to be average and more of a 3 star...

We were concerned before departure about several negative reviews about this hotel, but I have to say that we found the hotel to be mostly fine and had an interesting stay over a couple of weeks. We were thus in a minority, as the majority of those staying seemed to be on short stay holidays. Lots of golfers, groups of friends, and people staying for just a few days. At times it seemed as if the cleaners were overwhelmed by all the comings and goings. If you are unlucky enough to find yourself in a room surrounded by people in a large group be prepared for loud conversations along the corridors at all times of the day.|The armband system seemed to cause all sorts of problems for many guests. It is not properly explained at check in and the number of guests going back to reception to resolve problems seemed constant. After 4 resets in the first 24 hours, my husbands band was cut off and a new one issued.|I agree with previous posters that this really isn't a 4* hotel. There are lots of facilities that would tick off the star system requirements but these were closed down over our visit. The indoor pool closed, the children's play area was permanently locked, outdoor breakfasts were stopped, and we saw no sign of a spa. I find it hard to accept that a 4* hotel does not provide pool towels, charges for tea and coffee supplies and makes you pay to use the safe! Gradually the restaurant offerings were reduced. Cava at breakfast, along with various fruit juices vanished overnight. Bread choices were reduced and the variety of nuts, seeds and dried fruits were restricted. Some areas of the restaurant were closed off and then reopened, possibly at the whim of one member of staff. Rules and regulations e.g dress in the restaurant, or smoking around the pool were ignored by many guests and never implemented by the staff. We did find plenty of choice in the menus and felt that we could eat well.|Our room was overlooking the garden, so we missed out on the noise from the builders on the road side of the hotel. We did, however, hear noise from the bar and the pool during the day. The bed was comfortable, we asked for extra pillows, and there was adequate storage and hangers for our needs. Our room door was badly fitted and we ended up putting towels around the bottom to try and reduce light seeping into the room from the corridor. |We were staying as part of a Jet2 package, and found the rep. very helpful. She helped us to work out the local bus system, buy green card bus passes and avoid some of the rudeness that we witnessed towards tourists from some of the local bus drivers.|My major complaint about this hotel was the volume of the music played around the pool during the day. The playlist that one of the animation team left us with contained repeated swearing, and these appalling lyrics could be heard by us all. If you sit behind the loudspeaker and bring your own earphones you might be able to avoid it and I suppose many non-English speaking guests might not understand but I felt sorry for parents of the few small children in the area.|We think that we would like to return to Benalmadena, but if we did I think we would look for a different hotel. I think this hotel would suit you if you were in a large group or going for...