Hotel Mencia Subbetica — Hotel in Doña Mencía

|We booked this hotel to be near Luque. We were sceptical due to the price (approx £35pn per room in August) but we’re more than pleasantly surprised. ||Firstly, I am basing my score on what you pay for so don’t get the impression this is a 5* hotel (it’s not) but it’s perfect for what it is. ||It’s a small hotel, with just 18 rooms, but has a large restaurant, 24h bar/ cafe and a decent sized pool (and kids pool). It’s on the outskirts of dona mencia but only takes 5-7mins to walk into the town where your find supermarket, cafe etc. ||The hotel is spotless and the staff are |brilliant. We all loved Jesus in the restaurant who couldn’t of been more obliging. ||The rooms are well furnished; and again super clean. Good size bathroom with decent shower and comfy beds and A/C - pretty necessary in August! Only negative, it would of been great if they had a fridge. ||The bar has a snack/ dining menus and plenty of drink options- all very cheap. The staff don’t speak English, but very patient about trying to understand! ||The restaurant has a great lunch menu, €12 for three courses and drink which changes daily. We ate here twice for lunch, both times the meals were very tasty. They also have an a la carte menu for dinner, we had this one night on the terrace. ||The pool area is down some steps, so wouldn’t be ideal for wheel chair users, but again super clean. It’s a bit tired, and some of the sun beds are in need of renewing but we had it to ourselves a lot and we’re more than happy! We loved that they had set up some double sunbeds on pallets with mattresses - super comfy! Plus a hammock! Lots of parasols to ensure some shade if needed. There was a little kids pool as well, perfect for my son. ||We just felt so at home and relaxed here, had everything we needed and would stay here again in an instant and would also recommend...

Very pleased with our choice (based on previous reviews) of Hotel Mencia Subbetica as base for a short trip around Andalusia. The hotel is easy to find. Took the Superior room, as we wanted extra space for our little one. Worked very well - splendid bathroom, comfy bed with crisp linen and lovely views from the balcony. Room was very clean and very well presented. Heating/AC worked very well. Took breakfast in hotel, which was Continental style (juice, coffee and toast). Ate snacks/tapas and food in bar on two of the evenings - note restaurant doesn't open till 8.30. All very good quality and reasonably priced. Not a huge selection available outside restaurant hours, but enough for us. Staff all very friendly - reception helped us with directions to book a local tour of the 'cave of the bats' in Zuheros (lots of steps!), and in ensuring there were tickets at Alhambra. Bar staff even found us a plug adapter when we arrived as I'd brought wrong one. Too cool to use pool, but a nice little playground there. We were out of season, and so the only tourists throughout our stay. Some Spanish language will help you, as only receptionist spoke lots of English. Dona Mencia is a lovely regional town, with a nice centre inc large kids playground. Not a lot of eating options, especially before normal Spanish supper time of 9.00. We all thoroughly enjoyed our stay and would love to return. Though its not a large hotel, no hesitation in awarding it 5/5 overall. Good...

Check-in took far too long. The reception had already closed at 21:55, even though we had informed them we were arriving that evening (we booked at 19:30). We waited until the bar was almost empty before a waitress tried to help us. She didn’t know how to check guests in, so after some phone calls and help from what seemed like regular bar customers, we finally got our key about 40 minutes later and went to bed close to midnight.

Breakfast was a little disappointment: a fixed package instead of a buffet: one glass of juice, a coffee, a toast, and a small dessert. I asked for a lungo and got an espresso. To my surprise, the toast was excellent, but the donut was too sweet. I noticed they had croissants behind the counter, but I wasn’t offered one.

The bed was fine, and the duvet was warm, but all the pillows were hard and too high. You could also hear noise from the neighboring room, which didn’t help with sleep quality.

Also worth noting: Booking.com charged €13 more than the hotel’s official website, and I only used Booking because the hotel’s site didn’t clearly state whether breakfast was included (which, of course, it was). It’s worth mentioning that the hotel later friendly replied on WhatsApp confirming that breakfast was included, but by then I had already booked through Booking, which only had one room left at that rate.

Overall, a completely fine hotel. I would have given it a solid three if it weren’t for the...