Eurostars Al-Ándalus — Hotel in Seville

The biggest, and possibly only let down was the food.    The room and hotel was clean and well maintained (daily room service and replenishment).  plenty of room in a double bedroom.  Air con worked well, and generally quiet (despite one night there being a late night home game for Real Betis and the road outside the window being a fan zone, we couldn't really hear too much) - added to the experience!

Check in and check out went smoothly, indeed it dawned on us to ask about late check out the day before we departed and they were able to accommodate this.  5 euro an hour, but when we can to check out despite having been 50 minutes into the hour, the wouldn't charge us!

As any map will show, this is a little outside of the city centre, and the neighbourhood seems fine - never felt unsafe although clearly some parts less well off than others.  plenty of local bars aimed at the local population (so don't expect cocktail lists and happy hours with discos!).  Several bus routes stop near the hotel which will take you to different parts of town for 1.4 euro if you don't change buses.  We easily got to the train station, city centre and to Macarena using local buses.  There is a taxi rank outside the hotel where cars are usually waiting from a reasonably early morning.

High August, high afternoon temperatures.  We hit the pool in the mornings, never had any issues with a queue for sun loungers, or reserved seating, despite arriving an hour after opening.  Plenty of space.  Pool nice and deep.  clean.   Pity the bar, even for morning coffee etc doesn't open until midday.

Meal times are perhaps a little inconvenient in start a little late if want to maximise the day or evening.  Particularly so evening meal starting from 7.30 pm so by the time finish, get into town and start to enjoy local nightlife, the city centre is closing and the last bus back has stopped. - about 11:30 p.m.

But then the food was very poor.  Breakfast was a reasonable buffet choice, almost everything labelled, including the obvious ('egg', 'bread') but items that you'd expect to be hot, or at least warm were cold.  Drenched in oil.  Rice pudding, custard and angel delight odd breakfast servings, but available.

Dinner was appalling.  Nothing labelled, unless it was pork.  So vegetarians had to keep asking what was in dishes, and hope there was no translation issue.  All the food on the hot plates was cold, bearing in mind it was 45 degrees outside, yet the food couldn't even get to room temperature.  Often over cooked - vegetables just a sloppy mess on the plate.   I'm not a fussy eater, indeed 9 months after Christmas I'm still eating leftovers, but the evening food was some of the worst I've had.  We had 7 nights worth included in our stay, and could only bear it 3 times.  1st night as none the wiser, 2nd night hoping first was a one off, then a few days later the third was benefit of the doubt (by which time the same menu choice had already come around from night 1!).  If you think this is harsh, I'd encourage you to look at the photos.

Room and hotel fine.  Breakfast buffet if go continental okay, evening meal don't waste your money and go to the local pizza restaurant over the road (beer's also a euro cheaper there)

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We stayed for a week at the hotel and various thing were memorable. On the good side: The hotel is really calm, the pool was really nice to be around, so calm and peaceful, it's what we we're looking for. -The reverso bar is the perfect option plus they can give you the orders for you to go around the pool. The team is really nice and cheerful that's really great to see. The garden to eat on the other side is perfect and the calm moment you can have there are really a thing to experience. -The cleaning team is available for a long period of time which is nice so even if you go out around 11am/12pm they can still clean your room. The position of the hotel is nice, you have bus stops really near, you can access Sevilla easily, and even if you take a uber it'll cost you ~10€ to go back from the city at night for ex.

Now for the few bad aspects: The room are noted as SOUNDPROOF, it is absolutely not the case. To think that I paid more for that feature and got absolutely none of that is upsetting. I could hear my neighbor even cough. So imagine more noise. The cleaning team is available for a long time but you can hear them next to your room at 9am, door are slammed open/close so that awakes you so the little door paper you put to stay in calm in your room is useless as you are woken up by those noises. Same for the night when people come back talking really loudly, I know no one can stop bad behavior from people but a sign stating to keep calm could maybe help. -On the room the bed is nice but it crack/creaks every time you move so it looks like an old bed so either change them or do something like a frame to keep the bed from moving and making noise even more when you know how soundproofless the rooms are. Just sitting on it makes a lot of noise. The food/drink machine on each floor was not working so I wanted to get a coke at midnight and just lost 2,30€ and the hotel couldn't do anything as the machine is outsourced and not a possession of the hotel. And making an email for a simple coke seems like a lot but if a 100people have the same problem as me it may be time to repair/replace the machine. The room is quite dark when you are on the other side of the hotel (opposed to the pool) so even with all the lights on it's still not fully lighted. Also it would be nice to add hanger/towel hanger behind the door instead of in the shower. Also a toilet brush may be a good idea instead of letting the surprise for the cleaning team, you might want to be discreet about that.

In the end my experience at the hotel was really nice, mostly thanks to the staff, the calm and the good weather, but the main point to settle/solution is to install soundproof appliance, like on the wall, doors so that you are at peace in your room and don't hear all the noise in the night/morning. (For example acoustic panels on almost all the walls, that would be a good investment). With that the other small details may become less noticeable. Also water fountains near the room or water bottle available for free would be nice as the water is not completely potable and we pay enough to get at least one that we can fill after.

Photos of the rooms on the website of the hotel are close from reality so you...

Whilst we had a pleasant enough stay, we do travel a lot, and have stayed in many hotels, and I can honestly say that I have stayed in hotels with fewer stars that provided a much better service. This hotel, in my opinion, is all show but lacking in substance. Firstly, there are no tea/coffee making facilities in rooms. Not everyone is able to get up, jump in the shower, get dressed and go to the restaurant for their coffee. In fact many people I know need a coffee before they do anything else in the morning. I have always found tea/coffee facilities in rooms to be one of the most basic requirements, apparently not here. Perhaps this is because absolutely everything here is an expensive optional extra. We then went to spend our first day by the pool, to recover from our journey. Unfortunately, we ended up with multiple bites after finding ourselves covered in ants. This was a reoccurring issue around the pool area and deterred us from making use of the pool as much as we would have liked to. The hotel really needs to address the serious ant infestation, both around the pool and the outside bar areas. Regarding the pool, they have rules about what you can and cannot do. For me this is more than acceptable however, these rules should be made clear instead of expecting guests to be psychic. They are some signs, if you are observant, telling you not to wander around the hotel in your swimwear - totally understandable. However, it is not mentioned anywhere that you must not use your bath towels by the pool. There is a pool towel service, for which you are required to pay a refundable 10€ per person/towel deposit, returned at the end of your stay, when the towel is returned, or earlier should you return your towel before the end of your stay. This is all perfectly fine, I just feel guests should be made aware of all rules that the hotel wish them to abide by. A simple notice in each room is all this would take. We opted not to eat at the hotel restaurant, we felt the prices were a little steep for what was on offer. Instead we found a very reasonably priced restaurant nearby. There are many alternative options nearby, so should you stay here and agree with my thoughts on these prices, you should easily be able to find somewhere else to eat. We did observe many guests having pizzas delivered 😂 The hotel is a 30 minute walk from the centre, which we did multiple times. Yes there is a hop on hop off bus service, but we felt that this was not worth its money if you do not want to do the sights in order. It becomes too lengthy and wastes a lot of your time. For example, if you hop off at sight 8 and then want to go back to sight 2, you have to go via stop 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14 and 1 just to get there. The route is only one way. Back to the hotel, I have read many reviews about the temperament of the staff. My experience was that some were super happy and friendly, and some were not. However, we are all guilty of having a bad day, and we never know what is going on in other peoples lives, so I am not prepared to make judgement on this. Nobody was particularly rude, some were just more approachable...