Spirit Hotel Benalmadena Beach — Hotel in Benalmádena

My family and I arrived at the hotel @ 1200, 2 hours before official check-in... The room was not ready. Not a problem as we were early after all. We returned at 1400, the official check-in time... again, the room was not ready. We were asked to come back in 30 minutes. I returned at 1430, the room still not ready. In the end, I loitered around reception until the room was ready at 1440.

We got to the room, and the card wouldn't open the door. A passing staff member got us to try the 2nd card which did work. A minor issue that simply led to increasing the already present frustration.

My partner and daughter headed down to the pool with a large inflatable I had purchased. The lifeguard informed them 'no large inflatables, no animal inflatables, and no jumping was permitted as it was adult relax time'. Adult relax time in a hotel marketed as being family friendly!

It was at that point, 7 hours after arriving that I requested to speak with the hotel manager. I was informed by him (Hugo) that the hotel tends to focus on the comfort of adults hence my daughter being asked not to splash, jump etc. Due to the rules around children in the hotel, we were offered a day at the Benalmedena Palace Hotel with a free lunch and transport there and back. We were also given a voucher for three free drinks in the bar of the Benalmedena Beach as well as being told a bottle of Cava would be sent to the room. The Cava however, did not materialise.

We decided to go to the Benalmedena Palace and everything was arranged without issue. Upon arrival, the second inflatable that I had purchased that was acceptable at Benalmedena Beach, was not acceptable at Benalmedena Palace. Once again, I requested to see the hotel manager, this time of Benalmedena Palace and request that the hotel pay for an acceptable inflatable for my daughter to use. This request was initially rejected but later authorised.

We decided to also make use of the free lunch at the Benalmedena Palace. The food was utterly disgusting and not of a quality expected in a four-star hotel.

Back at our own hotel, Benalmedena Beach, the dinner choices were limited and of an extremely low quality. Food was prepared in large quantities, piled high and stirred occasionally. In contrast, other hotels we have stayed at, prepare smaller quantities and replenish it on a regular basis. This remained consistent throughout the stay and lead us to not always attend breakfast and dinner sessions, instead choosing to eat outside of the hotel at our own expense. Whilst on the subject of dining, we also had to source cutlery from other tables due to the state of the cutlery laid out, with the previous meal still attached to so called clean cutlery. Two-star standards at four-star prices.

The kids mini disco started at 2000 each evening. Two female staff members set up a portable speaker with music, some hula hoops and face paints. Both we and ultimately my daughter, were left disappointed at the minimal effort involved and no further sessions were attended. Again, a totally different experience to what we have seen in other hotels.

We were also told there are sunbeds on the beach in front of the hotel for hotel guests only. Due to the pool restrictions with children, we opted for a beach day on day two. Upon arrival, we discovered there are around 24 sunbeds for a hotel with 143 rooms and as they are fully occupied, we were left with little choice but to pay for the remaining public sunbeds.

On day four, the room key card had again failed, prompting another trip to reception to have it resolved.

The hotel (Benalmedena Beach) is a shell of a hotel with no soul. It should not by any means, be marketed, advertised or sold as a family hotel when adults are a priority and children are merely tolerated. Its four-star rating is also undeserved. It should also be noted that Hugo, whilst happy to do the minimum to keep us happy whilst we were there, was a completely different character once we were home. I was seeking a partial refund and he demonstrated what an absolute excuse spouting...

Positive: next to the beach, with own sunbeds. Officially, it's forbidden to "reserve" them. The sea is shallow, although too deep for my 1.5 years old son. swimming pools: outdoor, indoor and a Jacuzzi. Sauna and massage shower. Everything is great. One must wear a swimsuit in the sauna. There is a swimming pool for kids! Playground, playroom and a 15cm depth pool next to them. An excellent location for my son. He could play there all day long All rooms are at least a small glimpse of the sea. Some have a view on the road, but everyone will get a part of the scenery Hotel is rather new. The design is a "loft" type. Some walls are just concrete. But the feeling is that it is because they ran out money. Some areas look like not finished... The food is great. No stunning variety, but FISH!!! If you have breakfast, you can choose out of raw meat, fish, prawns and make your own mix. This is the first time I see that and we all fell in love! They have cribs for small kids and the room was pretty big for one and extra space. The TV has some built-in games and a USB which could read videos from my thumb drive. The excellent thing to shut up your kids! The town itself has great attractions. We went to a cable car and the "flight" to the top of the mountain was the best memory. I strongly recommend trying that. And take a cab - Uber costs nothing compared to Berlin. There is a park in 20 min walking, and it's a great place to spend the time! the staff except the room service is excellent: smiling, very helpful and professional. They make the stay super-duper pleasant.

Tips: deposit for sunbed towels is 10EUR you may find it very odd to have 2 sinks in the room (they are outside of the bathroom!) drinks are included only in all-inclusive. Even a coffee and a juice. They are included only for breakfast. Book all-inclusive if you don't want to go to the shop for the wine one can drink tap water. It's very soft, I had a feeling that the soap is still on my arms. 20EUR for the cap to the airport. And no hassle. But use Uber - local taxies are more expensive. Come to the beach just after the breakfast to get sunbeds in the first row :) There are stairs to the quay next to the outdoor swimming pool. But if you are on the wheels (like a stroller) you need 40 minutes to make a trip there.

Negative: cleaning is not done in the rooms. Waving a broom is not really cleaning. Either Spanish people are ignorant of dirt and walk everywhere in the street shoes, or (I strongly believe) room service is not performing. The room had been dirty for the whole time. Not a 4-star hotel! The administration had no power over staff when we complained. I set 1 point there. Good for the hostel, but one doesn't pay for a hostel like that! it seems one should not use Booking to book this hotel. This is the first time the safe use had an extra charge. I've contacted Booking support, but either I've missed their reply or they never came back to me. Administration told that the safe costs 1.5 EUR per night. How you could have a 4-star hotel and this?! I've been to many hotels and it was always included in the price. Lucky I was not...

The fact that the hotel plays obnoxious music loudly in the hallways at all hours of the day and night is enough to warrant the single star. It's clearly audible from the rooms and appears to be whatever awful royalty free elevator music they can find. Perhaps they are trying to drown out the noises of the street and bars outside, but fighting noise with noise justs leaves you feeling unable to escape and get rest.

Generally the hotel is nicely decorated, but areas of unfinished (not nicely polished, but completely bare) concrete and bare rebar fails to add an industrial tone, but just makes the place seem incomplete.

Beach towel rental is available, for a €10 deposit, but you are not allowed to change towels more than once every two days. If your towel gets wet or dirty in that time then apparently you are just out of luck.

In room safe is €1.5 per day, which personally I think should be included for a 4* hotel, but I still remember when hotels still had safety deposit boxes at the front desks so maybe I am showing my age a bit.

No baths in the rooms only an admittedly very large shower, not bad just something to be aware of.

The flooring around the pool area is incredibly slippery, we saw 4 people slip and fall in the space of an hour, and I almost went over myself. The plastic grate around the pool was bent up with sharp points right next to the slippery floor, and at least one child slipped into it resulting in a serious graze while we were there.

The hours of operation for the pool and bars seem to be completely arbitrary, often being different from the posted hours and in the case of the pool having multiple conflicting times showing in various areas.

The cleaning staff leave trolleys blocking the lifts, often tying up two of the 3 elevators at the busiest times of the day. Multiple times we had to let 2 or 3 lifts go as there was no room for any more passengers with long waits in-between. Adding to this the flooring in the lifts is incredibly uneven and feels like it is caving in on every one. On one occasion we entered the lift to find blood splatters all up the side of the wall.

The in room coffee refills each day were hit or miss, every day was a different brand of coffee and sometime there was only one coffee sachet for two people. There was also no tea bag other than a peppermint aniseed hybrid.

It's such a shame, as some areas of the hotel are very nice and generally the staff are very accomodating and polite, but it seems like some areas were not at all thought out.

Despite the one star and all those negatives, the hotel does have positives. The location is good, especially for access to bars, restaurants, and the beach. The breakfast buffet is reasonable, the rooms (despite what publicity pictures show) feel quite spacious. The beds are very comfortable, with a memory foam feel but still not too hot. It feels like they just ran out of money or time and opened the hotel before it was...