"A luxurious hotel by the sea that has just been thoroughly renovated and given a completely new look.
Our room Roof Terrace Sea View was of sufficient size and with a large terrace. The decor was discreetly luxurious. We had a great view of the sea and Gibraltar. The air conditioning worked very quietly. The room was quiet, we didn't hear any noise from outside.
Three pools + a special children's pool and also a beach club, which also has a pool. The beach club is Adults Only, which is very good, because there are many families with small children in the hotel and at least there is one place where you can relax in peace.
It would be very nice if the upper, longest, pool were also free of children, because it is an ideal pool for swimming, but it is very uncomfortable to swim, because in the middle of the pool there are parents with their small children floating chaotically and apart from their child they can't see anything around and they were often annoyed that I wanted to swim back and forth there and thus interfere with their play with their child.
The beach is not perfect, but it was the best of the Costa del Sol beaches we visited (Malaga and Marbella). The hotel beach club was crowded, but the beach itself is very wide and there were very few people there.
The breakfast was the best of the hotels on this trip, not as rich in choice as in luxury hotels in Asia, but the choice was large enough and everything we tried was of high quality. Hot drinks were brought by waitresses and at least we got them very quickly every time.
Free parking.
We stayed in several very luxurious hotels on this trip and the guests at this hotel were noticeably younger than elsewhere. While half of the guests elsewhere were aged 60+ and there were very few guests with children, here there were very few guests of such an advanced age and there were a lot of families with children, but the children were mostly very young (up to 2 years old) and we did not see those most problematic 6-10 year old children running around and screaming at all.
It seems that the staff training is still in progress, most of the staff are very friendly and try to provide good service, but not all of them and often they don't know anything else besides a friendly greeting and even for simple questions they have to go look for someone smarter who knows the answers.
We asked the hotel where their beach club is and they told us where the gate is that leads to the beach. We went from this gate to the beach along the first road (there were no signs) and there were several club-like places with beach chairs and all of these places were without visible names. We went to the first club and asked if it was the hotel's beach club and we found out that it was, but we were immediately made an arrogant remark that you can't enter it from the beach side and we should have come from somewhere on the street side and they have a very high demand and there are no free places. When I pointed out the two free sun loungers in front of us, we were told that we were very lucky, because other customers were just leaving.
While we were swimming, the staff straightened our towels on the sun loungers, but at the same time lifted our bags from the shade into the sun. I would have preferred if the staff did not touch our personal belongings at all, especially not lifting them from the shade into the scorching sun.
Another problem was with bringing the suitcases out of the room during check-out. Since the room was on the third floor of a building without an elevator and far from the main building, help was needed. It took over 25 minutes and I had to remind them three times that we were still waiting. When I first asked where the bellboy was, 12 minutes later, I was told that the suitcases had already been brought out. The problem was not that everyone was busy - there were free employees, there was just chaos in the organization.
I extended my 12:00 check-out time to a later time, but at 12:20 I received a phone call asking why I hadn't checked out. Our electronic keys were extended, but they forgot to enter the late check-out information into the system.
The valet parking also works chaotically, because when I needed the car, there was no one at the door and the staff inside didn't know where the car keys were and it took a long time before the car keys could be found.
When checking out, there were five employees at the counter, but four of them were unable to work independently, because they constantly had to ask the fifth employee for advice (who was busy with other customers).
The territory is very large and is located on a hillside. There is a lot of walking (including up the hill) and since there are no elevators in the villas, you also have to climb the stairs in the villa (our room was on the third floor). At first glance, the roads between the villas are chaotic and, since there are very few signposts, the first few times you won't find the most direct route and you often end up going in circles. This can be a problem for older people. Of course, you can always ask to be driven in a golf cart, but you have to order this golf cart specially each time and wait for it to arrive.
The hotel is located in a quiet villa area and there is nothing happening in the area within walking distance. If you want to visit local restaurants and/or go shopping, you will definitely need a car.
Overall, it was a very pleasant experience, despite some shortcomings in the service. Next time we visit the Costa del Sol, this would definitely be one of the hotels we plan to visit again."
