Sirenis Holiday Palace Hotel Benalmadena

Do not go to the Sirenis Holiday Palace Hotel Benalmadena.

All will be explained:

First things first. It is listed as a 4 star hotel, and indeed looks very nice. 4 star is what you expect when you see this hotel, if not a little better. So why not go?

1) SURROUNDINGS & Location.

The HOLIDAY VILLAGE purchased a huge piece of land a long time ago. They started building in 2001, and now have two hotels in the "complex", this one included. There are plans for 3 other hotels in the immediate vicinity, a gold course, and a train station - all owned by the same group, with a similar theme. The ENTIRE surrounding area was being flattened, almost finished, so that building could start. You will be looking at construction sites for the next two years, minimum.

The now infamous hill! We read stories about this "hill" you have to climb. We have been on holidays before where the hotel is up a hill, and we found people complained without reason - perhaps they were just lazy! However, THIS hill is even joked about by the reps taking you to the hotel - "maybe we'll just drop you at the bottom". There is a minibus that will take you down the hill and back up, for a charge of €1.50 per day. You must use this hill to get anywhere. The hotel is located in the middle of no-where, you must get a bus (good service!) either way to Torremelios, or Fuengerola (the latter being the better place in my opinion). If you wanted to go to the beach, you had to walk at least 20 mins before you could find access down (20 mins after you have negotiated hill!).

2) VIEWS FROM THE HOTEL/ROOM

The part of the hotel that faces the sea has only four rooms, which do not have an immediate balcony. There are essentially no sea views from this hotel. The sides give you a nice view of the flattened, pipe-ridden land. The rear has probably the nicest view, of the mountains behind.

3) INSIDE HOTEL.

Looks nice in general - they have tried to go for a green rainforest look of sorts, green tiles and water inside. If you have seen any pictures of the big windows, you will be disappointed to find that they haven't been cleaned for a long time, even at the lowest, easiest to reach, point. This gives the hotel a grimy feel, certainly not a 4-star feel.

4) ROOMS.

The rooms were pretty grubby.

- Bedrooms

We had a 5 person room, which contained two beds and a sofa bed. The beds were big, but if you had 5 people, three will have to share the sofa bed.

- Bathroom

The toilets were huge with a bath (shower overhead) and an extra shower (this shower was strange, the non-direction head was directly above the taps, if you moved, you were in risk of moving the tap turning the shower cold, or off; using the shower would expel water through the shower doors with some force).

- Kitchen

The kitchen is a farce, if you have 5 people. Very very small, basic microwave, hobs and sink. Only one small frying pan (enough for two eggs) was supplied, nothing better was available on request.

-Living Room

The sofa was definitely in need of a good wash! Quite small compared to the bathroom.

-Balcony

The hotel is in a sort of pyramid design. This means that all rooms above you can look over to your balcony. We found that people would sweep their balconies straight onto ours. People even poured drinks onto the table, ruining what we had left on it. The balconies have plants, built into the walls. There was a huge ant army (150+) constantly moving on the balcony, living in the soil (4 floors up!). They managed to get into the bathroom, even though the doors were always shut. Cigarette butts (lots) were in the plant soil, which were obviously from the previous guests. That was disgusting.

-Other

TV has only news for English channels, not that you will probably be watching any TV.

The safe, which was already fitted in the room, had a charge of £2 per day; we stay in 4 star minimum all the time, this is the first time we had to pay for something that was already in the room.

5) PROBLEMS

Ok, we seemed to have a good share of problems. If you have none, then you are going to have a better holiday. First, we arrived to a flooded kitchen because the fridge was left open and the ice had melted. We were told to clean it with some towels that would be replaced the next day (4 star?).

We later had a leak from the sink in the kitchen! We waited 3 hours after reporting this as we were told someone would be "right there". Nobody came, so we placed the "do not disturb sign" on the door as we wanted to get ready to go out (not wanting someone to unlock the door whilst in the shower, not hearing them). When we left, we decided to talk to the reception to see what was happening, at which point they started to argue with us because we had the "do not disturb" sign on, and the repair chap came to fix. In the end they still had to get him back, and the argument was not required.

When we arrived back late at night, we found that the problem had been fixed, but they had left the floor covered with water and muddy footprints. We complained to both the hotel and the rep, it was 3-4 days before the cleaners actually cleaned it (we left it for them), even though they were in each day (note, there was no mop in the room).

The lifts are dangerous. There is no sensor when the doors are closing, and my girlfriend got her arm trapped, which was very sore. The lifts had no sensible programming, we found we would go UP even though we pressed a button to go down, and when it arrived at a floor, it would "forget" where it was to go next. You MUST press the buttons again. There was at least one lift broken EACH DAY.

The indoor courtyard area seemed to come to life around 10pm, where karaoke and music would seep up into your room until 2am. Kids were left to their own devices; we counted 12 playing outside at 1am, screaming, on one night. (Note there is a kid's supervisor available between 9-10pm).

We had an aggressive guest verbally abuse my girlfriend in English, when she tried to take a sun bed padded mat from a communal pile. He wanted to keep them for himself. My girlfriend was extremely upset, and I asked the hotel to do something as the chap wasn't going to apologise. They said there was nothing they could do (even though the gates to the hotel have security). We had to call the police in the end to get it taken care of. The hotel just wasn't interested.

Scottish currency will get you less than English is you exchange at reception, even though they are both Sterling, and both are the Queen's money.

The hotel shop marks items up by at least 50%. Internet is ridiculous price.

This hotel was meant to be for "couples", whereas the partner hotel was for families. This hotel was packed with families. The pool was completely full at all times; finding a sun-lounger was a real task, no matter what time of day you appeared.

In conclusion, I could probably say that this hotel would be 4-star and a good choice, once all the building work was completed, and if it were cleaned every now and then, as well as improving the overall service. They certainly know how to take the hospitality out of hospitality service.

If you are used to 4 or 5 star, you will be sorely disappointed. We specifically booked this holiday because of the 4-star rating; we will not make the same mistake if we return to Costa del Sol.