Gran Marbella Resort & Beach Club

"My wife and I have just come back from a lovely three night stay at the Gran Marbella Hotel and Beach Club. This is by far the nicest hotel I have visited this year; it is very modern, tastefully decorated and has an opulent feel. The rooms are spacious and spotless, the bed was comfortable, and we really enjoyed all of the toiletries. Breakfast was a particular highlight, a mix of buffet and à la carte dining, but be prepared to wait to sit outside for sea views. The resort has several pools, the loungers and day beds are all wooden with comfortable cushions and we didn’t have any problems getting one. The beach and beach club / spa are just a few minutes walk away and the hotel offer a free transfer. We were surprised to find out that access to the spa was free to hotel guests (we had expected to pay a small supplement), but the opposite was true of the beach club - while we knew that the sun beds were extra, we thought we’d be able to spend 5 minutes in the pool. Given the name of the hotel, I thought this was a little misleading - perhaps the ‘Gran Marbella Hotel and Spa’ would be more appropriate! The only other slight blemish in my opinion was the amount of space in the room dedicated to the (very expensive) mini bar. This seemed to come at the price of a big wardrobe - which was instead tucked away where one might expect to normally find a mini bar ! We only ate lunch at the hotel once, it wasn’t cheap, but we were really impressed with the quality of the food - the burgers went down particularly well. Overall, we really enjoyed our stay at the Gran Marbella and look forward to another visit in the not too distant future."

"Contacted them on Thursday 7am to book taxis, arrange something for the room but no response. Contacted them Friday no response. Contacted them Sunday no response. So I cancelled Sunday night. Guess what? Flurry of emails Monday morning. Why couldn’t they have just responded earlier? I’ve stayed once before so can tell you the rooms are very nice I’m not a fan of all the brickwork decor around the pools (that’s personal taste) but rooms are great. But I travel to Marbella (and areas) for work every month I wanted to make this my business hotel of choice but the service is too unreliable. I need to know I can actually speak to the hotel whether it’s September or January. Being truly 5 star is the service element. So it’s like almost 5 star facilities but even this experience and last time the service is nothing like 5 stars. I changed hotels and heard from them by email within one hour with taxis arranged and other requirements met - that’s how it’s done."

"The hotel is advertised as a “Beach Resort”, and the photos create the impression that the hotel is directly on the beachfront. In reality, to reach the beach, you have to cross several streets and pass between buildings. The hotel’s photos give a very different impression of its actual location. At check-in, we were also shocked to learn that access to the hotel beach cost 300 euro per day for three. This fee was not clearly disclosed during our booking. Our travel agent had even contacted the hotel beforehand to ask about additional fees and was not informed about this charge. The situation was especially disappointing because the hotel advertises “no hidden fees.” When we questioned the charge, reception tried to show us information on their website, but it was unclear, in Spanish, and did not show any price. We wanted to change hotels immediately, but unfortunately it was high season and other 5-star hotels had no rooms available, so we had no choice but to stay. The location is also quite far from Marbella city center if you want to walk around in the evenings. After our complaint, we got a letter and said they would update the information on their website and Booking.com for future guests. We appreciated the apology, but it did not change our experience"