Hotel Bristol — Hotel in Benidorm

The hotel was in a good location, a 5 minute walk to the beach and local amenities literally across the road with a proper supermarket, Starbucks, and restaurants almost next door. The service was good, reception available 24/7, with receptionists in the day, and basic contracted security at night. The superior rooms were of a good standard, and a standard I’d expect. It had a fridge, air con (although if you want the actual remote you need to leave a €5 deposit) and TV channels with British and European channels as well as radio. There was good internet with USB available at the desk. The balcony is as spacious and mine was private (although room 313 had no privacy barrier which wasn’t pleasant). Finally, they were not ‘adults only’, HOWEVER, children were clearly not encouraged as there was no children’s activities or children’s pool, so it was reasonably child-free (thankfully for me).

Constructive: They didn’t really read my booking notes, which asked specific things, like the room to be away from lifts, and that this was my mothers birthday stay - both comments were ignored, and when I called to ensure they had read the comments, the response was “just tell us on the day”. But of course upon arrival the response was in so many polite words ‘we’re fully booked, you’re lucky to have the room, we’ll make a note in case we can move you’. I had to suffice with a single bed rather than a double for the stay.

On check in there was a LOT of info, but no info pack (and the QR code to the welcome pack and on the wifi link doesn’t work) which included info like wifi, breakfast, check out, 10% discount if you pre-load a guest spending card, deposit for air con, etc, etc. A lot of people were baffled when arriving and needed some time to go to the room and find out what missing pieces of info they needed.

At night though you had to knock to come in, which wasn’t always positive - at 03:00 you don’t fancy being confronted with contracted security having had a good night out. Also if you check in at night and have a specific room request, you will have no hope as the security will simply say ‘speak to reception in the morning’, and the likelihood is you’ll unpack and just stick with the room.

No rooms have a sea view for your information. On the roof or top floors you might catch a a faint glimpse between buildings, but they point blank refuse to say if any rooms catch that view. Probably best to avoid disappointment.

Overall, a nice hotel, a good standard, and recommended for...

A lovely clean hotel on the edge of the old town Benidorm. Entertainment catering mainly for Spanish. Food catering mainly for Spanish. Problems with English speaking TV with excuses as to why certain channels disappeared with what I believe as lies as to why the problem was not resolved. The room was great and the housekeeper "Salwa" was excellent and deserves creditation from the management. The hotel in general is spotless but the downside it was catering mainly for the Spanish. The dining room leaves a lot to be desired in the respect of firstly the choice of menu, pigs trotters, pigs cheeks, turkey necks, tripe and chickpea stew sorry not for us. The salads and sweets were good but alas the food in general was not. The senior two managers which I think their title was left a lot to be desired and quite ignorant to be honest unless you were Spanish. We asked after the first sitting if we could not be placed by the trollies where guests had to scrape their plates and we feel that this was not accepted by the management because in the end we said no. There are no where near enough staff in the dining room as guests had to take their plates in-between courses and scrape them off, if we had waited for staff to do it we would still be there for breakfast from the evening meal. All in all I am sorry to say that the hotel warrants no more than 2* and unless the dining room changes vastly I would not recommend a stay at what could be a great hotel. Again it appears to be Spanish guest orientated which I have no problem providing this was pointed out in any advertisement. Finally the drop of point says 150m from the hotel what it does not say is it more like 250m and although down hill on arrival it is quite a pull back to the pick up point be quite an incline, especially for infirm or elderly guests. The hotel informed us that there was no off-loading or pick up outside the hotel yet cars, taxis and delivery vehicles were there daily, and to top it off we have photos and video of Spanish coaches picking guests up...

The hotel was very clean and well located for the old town but a long walk to the main shows in Benidorm. A cab to captun morgans the start of the strip was only €6.80 good value for money. The fact you have to pay for upgrade to use the pool on the upper level and the lack of table and chairs and parasoles was a bit upsetting, the sun terrace had no shade or parasoles. the pool bar only accepts card payments, no cash, some of the staff were a bit unfriendly, however you can hire the disability scooters from a company they use and secure storage and free charging is provided. the safe and air conditioning in our case was free as we booked direct. the included breakfast was OK, but the same every day. you could ask for snacks when you bought a drink as in really hard peanut mix or olives which were loverly, although at times it felt like you were asking for the crown jewels. we had initially a very nice room fully equipped with a big tv and bathroom without a view looking at a wall and we up graded the room at a big cost and got a balcony looking onto the main road with a tiny bathroom and small Tv (there are 3 english channel's. there are very few rooms in the hotel that overlook the pool or have balconies. our friends had a room facing the car park and said all they heard all the time were tyres screeching with the heat on the car park floor. they complained and asked for a free room change and was told no, as nobody had complied before? (I found that hard to believe) In all, a nice hotel set at the end of the main drag, and it's a very busy junction with busses every 10 to 15 minutes and taxis, etc on a one way system , well placed for the old town and restaurant's and a short walk to the beach the old town end. I personally will not re vist the hotel. I should have gone back to the Santa Monaco as it was in the middle of the two main areas, and a much larger pool and jacuzzi and sun beds and...