Niza Hotela — Hotel in San Sebastián

Nice Hotel with Character; Great Staff, Great Location; Awful Beds

Location: Right in the heart of San Sebastian on the beach front, about half way between the 2 mountains to each side of the bay. Easy walking to the old town, shopping streets and right on the beach.

On the Beach: Superb sandy beach with cleanliness second to none. Popular but not too busy during the day. High tide makes some it a little smaller but plenty of space with well defined swimming areas and diving platforms.

Hotel Amenities: Loan bikes available to book. Restaurant and bar (both serving meals). Both are very popular so book if you want a table. We found the casual tables by the bar were available if you get there early enough. Loan umbrellas for the odd rainy day. Lobby area contains large TV and seating for relaxing in. Doubles up as a sort of lounge for the hotel.

Rooms Air con in some rooms - check if important. The room to the rear we had was conditioned and it was needed. Decent size but European standards with very generous toiletries and towels in bathroom. TV had a small selection of cable channels but not many in English. Possible to cast to the TV from your tablet/laptop if you take a dongle. Clean and well presented, with a small balcony (not usable). Front rooms have views over the beach and sea. No working safe in the room - had to use the reception safety deposit boxes. No coffee or tea making facilities in our room.

Beds Ours were ludicrously small (I am 5'8" and my feet were over the end of the bed; they were also unbelievably hard. We literally had back-ache from them. I think these were cheap bases and mattresses - the only real flaw with the hotel.

Car Parking - possible with reservation but limited number of spaces. Secure and a short walk from the underground spaces back to the hotel. As always, the spaces were tiny so it was a mission to get our (larger) car in without risking dings in the doors or rear. Costs to hire these but worth it.

The Lift Unusual to mention a lift but everyone (including us) asked if it was safe. It is very old, with old fashioned inner and outer doors. It works okay but just looks very rickety. It appears maintained by professional lift companies. One of the character features of the hotel.

The Food Excellent offerings from the kitchen in the bar (we could not get a table in the restaurant). Ate there on several days and it was great food, with some good and affordable wines to accompany. There are enough choices if you are not into shell fish, and it was always hot, and delivered speedily.

The Staff Friendly and very helpful. The bar staff were excellent.

Billing Watch out here - they charge you for the first night before your arrival and get you to sign the receipt - keep this... you may need it. The final bill had the first night already paid for, included again. Luckily I spotted it. Had to dig out the receipt to 'prove' that we had already paid for one night (apparently they should have taken it off already but had no way to verify the payment other than our copy of the credit card slip).

Overall Nice hotel which just needs to sort out the beds. We will assume the double billing attempt was a one-off mistake. We would not go back just because of the beds, but would definitely eat there if...

When I was there for 5 days the WiFi didnt work in my room. Repeated requests to have them fix it failed. I was not alone as I overheard another patron also proclaiming how bad it was and she, like me, was heading down to the lobby, the only place in the hotel we seemed to be able to connect to it. I had 4G data I could have used but inside my room the signal was weak so it was lucky to get H+ speed and one bar. I had to go outside on the balcony to get 4G.

There was no air conditioning in my room with a sea view. Not too big of an issue in the time I was there as the weather was mainly mild. The one day and night it was above 30C, I couldn't cool down. I couldn't leave the balcony door open on my 1st level room as there is nothing stopping the nasties flying in nor the signficant noise from 1000's of people who walk by - as they should of course.

The following are not meant to be in the room as it's not stated it would be. But, for a three star you would expect it. My fault for not reading the fine print.

There is no bar fridge. You pay 230+ Euro a night for the room, you expect a fridge and a very good 3 star may also have tea and coffee making facilities. A one star right behind them has both, and a working WiFi with A/C. This has none of that so your stuck if you would like a cold drink in the evening when everything around is closed.

They didn't provide a place to rest your cases inside the room I had. A simple thing you don't notice until it's not there. You may be in and out of the bag on the floor like I was. There was no room safe in my room. They do have a sticker saying you can store your valuables with reception. Definately an old school approach.

There are no seats on the sea view balcony and no privacy between balconies but that's expected in these older style buildings.

So the final odd miss here is that they don't supply your typical "Do Not Disturb" or "Clean My Room" sign. This meant I had random knocks on my door a fair bit asking to clean my room at what was unusually odd times during the day. It also meant the poor cleaning staff didn't know I was out and it was free to clean.

The front reception ladies that work there are very friendly and as helpful as can be. The one guy that I had on front desk wasn't great.

All in all, it's a missed opportunity for this prized location. They could do so much better. A shame really because all the staff in the hotel (except the guy mentioned) and restaurant attached on the ground...

Arrived there by Car .. theres no way to park outside to unload luggage .. after parking far away and a long walk back to the hotel the staff told me theres a parking bay oposite but it was blocked with parking cars ... so theres no possibility to Park shortly .., We booked a Sea view Room and now comes the only Positive thing: The View was really fantastic |Sadly the Room was dirty in the corners ... hairs on the floor , urin marks on the toiletseat .. back to the reception for a complain ( friendly spoken just reporting the facts ) the female receptionist freaked out , she starts really screaming to us , talked racistic to my girlfriend ... foreigners especially from east europe all dumb etc , she told us that we are used the toilet already thats why it has marks and that we are to blind to find the ( blocked) parking bay . |We decided to go and check out after 15 min as we dont wonna stay in a place like that not longer. We booked trough Booking.com and she told me they will charge us the Night full ( trough booking they had my cc details ) after i complained bout that ( still spoke friendly )she faked a manager telephone call and told us they will not charge us any money but we should get the f... out ... My Girlfriend was in Tears at this time as we planed a wonderful stayover in san sebastian and we want to discover the beautiful town , but it was august and all city hotels were fully booked ... we decided drove to france where we luckily found a nice friendly place .|Days later i found out that Hotel Niza charged my cc card with full amount .. ( seems to be an ongoin scam from them as i can read here in other reviews) |I am curious how the Management will Reply on my Post . I never been treaten somewhere before and after in my life like that . We are friendly People and expected in a Hotel in Basque Country some Hygienic Standards and some Friendlyness . I also informed the San Sebastian Tourism Association about this Case and hope that the Receptionist recieve professional Help from a...