Alanda Marbella Hotel — Hotel in Marbella

Where do I start? I booked a Premium Double Deluxe room for €1414 I stayed here because of a wedding at Puente Romano across the street and it was a suggested nearby accommodation. Expect to carry your own luggage to your room upon arrival. Even when that room is in the furthest building from the main reception and hotel. Don’t expect directions to your room. Guess you’re just supposed to know how to find your room. You receive no suggestions for nearby recommendations or concierge feeling. I felt like a bother to the person at check in after traveling for 18 hours, you want to feel welcomed. It is a beautiful property, but half the pool area is unfinished which isn’t pictured on the their site or social media. The closest stairs to the pool are mysteriously blocked off so you have to walk the farthest route around. Pool “service” starts at 12 pm. Service entails asking for a towel from a non verbal lifeguard. That’s it. If you need a towel before then, better bring your own. There’s a walk up juice bar that closes at 6 pm. It is the only thing they are timely about. Two days in a row there were no chairs available to sit, once I waited it out and the lifeguard alerted me to open seats which was nice but also bare minimum of a “5 star” property. The second day I just went somewhere else.

The rooms are only cleaned once a day, don’t expect fresh anything in the afternoon if you use anything post morning clean. My mom asked for additional water, never came. Do you know a five star hotel (self acclaimed, Google says it’s 4.1 stars) that doesn’t do evening turndown service? There are slippers but no robes. The wifi is awful. Don’t bother. Constantly had to disconnect and just use my data. Now I’m almost at my limit. There’s no coffee machine, only an electric kettle with instant coffee. Premium? Most of the channels on the TV don’t work because of the poor connection. Thermostat isn’t digital. There’s a fridge in the room and two bottles of complimentary water provided daily. Called down to the front desk twice, both times lied to. First time was to ask about the wifi, said they’d send someone to my room, they never did. Asked for a Covid test to return to the United States and was told they would order one for me and call me back. Never did. When I went to the front desk to inquire about that, was told they would not be able to get me one in the time needed and I would have to go to Puerto Banus and do it myself. Why was that not said on the phone as an option when I called. I had plans to go there already and could have just gotten it done reliably. Luckily I travel with a Cue Health reader and had a spare Covid test I could take with a telehealth doctor. Except I could not use the hotel’s wifi to connect with my doctor. It would not connect. I had to disconnect and use my phone’s LTE service. ABSURD.

The included breakfast buffet 8-11 am is great. Lots of selection, multiple coffee machines and the omelette guy is wonderful. Deserves a lot of credit for remembering everyone’s orders always. All the breakfast staff are nice and actually greet you and are accommodating. I will miss the breakfast. A 114 person conference started at the hotel during my stay and it became impossible to sit outside for breakfast anymore post 10 am, probably the same reason it was tough for seats at the pool until the conference ended.

I asked about where room service comes from if I were to order and it’s just Manuka the restaurant on property which I did not enjoy. The elevators can be extremely slippery in the second building. Careful. They don’t serve alcohol. I read that in the fine print before I booked so I knew. There’s ample alcohol just across the street at Puente Romano. It’s not their fault people don’t read regarding that issue. It’s not weird, the hotel is halal.

In summary the rooms feel safe and clean and the location was unmatched but this is far from a 5-star property & I feel duped that it is being...

Currently coming to the end of our stay here, and - this is definitely NOT a 5 star hotel.

It’s just an odd hotel with an empty sort of feeling, with no atmosphere or character. It has a pretty lobby but that’s about it. Most things we came across were disappointing.

The rooms are quite small, especially if travelling with children. We asked if we could pay to upgrade to a better room, but even their best room (the suite) wasn’t anything special and overlooked the main road with traffic.

The hotel claims to be a wellness hotel but the spa which is supposed to be a highlight is very small (but tidy and clean). I’ve seen way better spas in my time. And you have to pay extra just to use the facilities, despite paying to stay at hotel!. No robes available in the spa when asked.

The pool doesn’t open until 11am is physically locked with a gate until then. That’s very late especially if you want to get in early with children. The atmosphere around the pool and poolside food area feels dead with no life.

The hotel doesn’t serve alcohol, which is fine as we’re not big drinkers - but I don’t think this is clear in the booking process at all, and is quite misleading.

Most hotels have a restaurant where you can go for lunch or dinner, but Alanda has 1 Labanese restaurant only. Therefore you’re better just going outside of the hotel for food during your stay here. Breakfast was okay, although again definitely not a 5 star experience.

Room service menu is very basic. Disappointing.

There was daily maintenance work going on every day of our stay. Workmen constantly walking around, building work being done. Just constantly felt like I was on a construction site or something was always broken that was being fixed.

Talking of which - the lifts to our block stopped working and the lifts to access the spa stopped working. When you have a child and a pushchair this is simply not good enough.

There are cracks in ceilings in stairway/lift areas and the decor in rooms and around the hotel feels very basic, considering it’s supposed to be a 5 star.

The staff are okay but I’ve stayed at hotels with Much friendlier staff who help you with your stay and suggestions/things to do/places to go.

On one day we said no to having our room cleaned by housekeeping (as it didn’t fit with our schedule/baby’s naps on that day). We ended up telling them 3 times we didn’t want a clean but they kept coming back, even as late as 10pm someone knocked and then just walked into our room when I was asleep with my baby, at 10pm at night?!!! That is not acceptable time to clean a room and moreover you don’t enter a room straight after knocking! This was a very unpleasant and scary experience as I was asleep with my child and a stranger just walks in at 10pm.

The only good thing about our stay here was the location - beach is easily accessible.

Overall - would definitely not recommend this hotel. And I feel I’ve been mislead by them promoting this as a 5 star hotel, when it...

This is not a five star hotel, nowhere near. Two positives. The breakfast and the sleep quality, and I will expand on these shortly. Our experience………||It all started before I arrived. I booked the hotel using their website and as we were attending a wedding there was a special discount code to enter. This gave us €500 discount. The website confirmed my booking with price and booking number. I took a screenshot to be on the safe side. I then received an email confirming the booking but the price had gone back to the original higher price! On arrival, I had a tough job convincing them that they should honour the screenshot price, which they eventually did. I had asked for a quiet room when booking and were given a room on the top floor (out of three) overlooking a very busy main road!||The room was completely characterless, a rectangular shape, which reminded me of a cabin on a cruise liner. The quality of the fit was very poor, especially the bathroom door which wouldn’t close as the base of the doorpost had swollen, probably damaged from water ingress. We called reception and they would send someone straight away. Three reminder calls and nothing. I am still waiting and this was weeks ago. I insisted they give us another room. They moved us next door. This was OK, but the laminate was coming away off the bathroom wall. The toilet seat wasn’t fixed properly and kept sliding when sat on it. The bed was very comfy and we managed to sleep very well. There was a coffee machine and kettle in the room, together with iron and ironing board. There was a magnifying mirror attached to the main bathroom mirror but this was too low and couldn’t be moved so it proved useless. On our first day the room hadn’t been cleaned by 15.00 so I called reception to be told that we hadn’t mentioned we wanted it cleaning! Another issue. They left coffee pods for the machine and one teabag. I was told to call room service to ask for more. I’m still waiting. ||The swimming pool, again characterless, and devoid of atmosphere, had this DJ playing very loud, booming music. I had to tell him to turn it down. The pool, annoyingly, didn’t open till 11.00. The gym was tiny and we noticed someone took some of the bar bells to their room. The bar by the pool reached prices I’ve not experienced before. Two slush drinks and two ice lollies = €24!||The breakfast was nice and the ability to sit in the garden was lovely. There’s a chef on sight who will make whatever eggs you wish. Good selection of meats, cheeses, breads, drinks etc. The staff were ok, though their English was weak.||The hotel is about 200 yards from the beach front and the promenade there was really extremely pleasant. We walked to the Old Town one day and Porto Bonus the next and there’s an efficient cheap bus service (€1.30) that takes you straight back.||There must be nicer hotels to stay. This one won’t get our...