"£800 extra for a hotel that completely failed to deliver
Our stay at Villa De Benidorm was extremely disappointing, and quite honestly, we feel completely let down.
I am not a fussy person when it comes to where I stay. As long as a hotel offers a decent all-inclusive experience and has good facilities and things for the children to enjoy, I am generally happy. Unfortunately, Villa De Benidorm simply did not meet those basic expectations.
We had originally booked a different hotel but paid an additional £800 to change to Villa De Benidorm, believing we were upgrading our holiday and would be getting a better all-inclusive experience. We chose this hotel partly because of the facilities advertised, including the availability of snacks and refreshments. Unfortunately, we now deeply regret spending that extra money.
The price of this hotel is extremely high for what you actually receive, particularly during the summer holidays when prices are already significantly inflated. When you then add the additional money we paid to change hotels, plus the cost of having to eat out every single day because the hotel food was so poor, the holiday ended up costing us considerably more than we had anticipated.
One of the first issues was the lack of a balcony. This is not clearly stated anywhere when booking, and we were very surprised to arrive and discover that our room had no balcony.
Instead, the room has a window arrangement with sections at the top and bottom that can be opened, with what appears to be a plastic railing/barrier. We did not feel this was a suitable or safe alternative to a balcony, particularly when travelling with children. For a hotel charging the prices it does, we would expect the room facilities and any safety features to be clearly explained before booking.
The snack bar was a complete disappointment. It was only open at select times and was located downstairs in the restaurant. The morning “snack” consisted of what appeared to be leftovers from breakfast, including fried eggs and bacon. Ice lollies were also only available at certain times. This was particularly frustrating because having snacks available during the day was one of the reasons we decided to leave our original booking. Furthermore, the only snack available all day was stale crisps left out in the bar for you to help yourself.
The restaurant food was by far the biggest problem. We found the food completely inedible. There was very little choice and practically nothing suitable for children, never mind adults. Despite paying for an all-inclusive holiday, we ended up having to eat out for every meal and snack during our stay.
So, on top of an already expensive summer holiday, we paid extra to change hotels and then had the additional daily expense of eating and getting snacks elsewhere. At that point, the whole point of paying for all inclusive was completely lost. We could have saved ourselves a considerable amount of money by staying with our original booking.
To make matters worse, we also came home to find that new items of clothing we had taken on holiday had been splashed with what appears to be bleach from the cleaning process. These were new clothes that were perfectly fine when we arrived and have now been permanently marked and damaged. This is extremely frustrating and just added to an already disappointing experience.
The staff were another major disappointment. We found several members of staff to be rude, unhelpful and extremely unwelcoming. Simply asking the barman for a drink often felt like we were inconveniencing them. When you’re paying a premium price for a holiday, you expect basic friendliness and hospitality. Unfortunately, that wasn’t our experience.
The entertainment was also very poor. We completely understand that this is a Spanish resort and that Spanish will naturally be the main language. However, there was no real opportunity for non-Spanish-speaking guests to participate in activities such as bingo and quizzes. We couldn’t understand what was being said, so we simply couldn’t join in. There should be some consideration for international guests, particularly at a hotel welcoming holidaymakers from different countries.
Overall, we genuinely cannot understand how this is marketed as an all-inclusive experience.
I am genuinely not someone who expects luxury or is difficult to please. Give me an all-inclusive hotel with decent food and facilities for the children and I’m happy. Unfortunately, this hotel didn’t provide that.
We paid a premium summer holiday price, then another £800 to change hotels, only to find ourselves paying even more money every day to eat elsewhere. We also returned home with clothes damaged by what appears to be bleach from the cleaners. That is simply not value for money.
The biggest irony is that the hotel we originally booked didn’t have a snack bar during the day. This was the reason behind changing hotels because we thought Villa De Benidorm would give us a better experience mainly for our children who rely on a snack bar — only to end up eating out every day anyway.
For us, the additional £800 was money wasted, and the extra cost of eating out made the holiday even more expensive. The combination of the lack of a properly disclosed balcony, concerns about the window/railing arrangement, poor food, limited snack facilities, lack of suitable facilities for children, damaged clothing, rude and unwelcoming staff and entertainment that wasn’t accessible to us made this a very disappointing holiday.
We would absolutely not return to Villa De Benidorm and would strongly advise anyone considering booking to think very carefully about whether what you actually receive justifies the price being charged."
