Albir Playa Hotel and Spa

We have stayed at the Albir Playa Hotel & Spa previously, this was our third stay. It is located in a very good position, just 2 minutes walk from the main tourist drag and 10 minutes walk to the main beach area. There are lots of shops, restaurants and bars to visit within easy reach. The hotel looks impressive from outside and indeed on first impression is also impressive inside. It is a little tired looking but towards the end of the main holiday season this can be expected. The outside pool area is very good with a nice pool and plenty of sunbeds. There is also a very nice pool bar serving decent food and drinks. There is a patio area just away from the pool and near to the inside bar which is excellent too. The rooms are decent size with a usable balcony. However they are very basic with no kettle or hot drinks facility. The air con works well and the maids keep the rooms clean. So why have I only rated the hotel 2 star? On closer inspection, there are lots of stains on the carpets. The hotel has a large window section around the reception area and when using the glass sided lifts it's obvious the windows are filthy on the outside. The bird muck on the windows looks like it's been there a long time. Now the worst bits.

1. There is virtually no entertainment. The "entertainment team" did aqua aerobics in the pool for 30 minutes on 5 of the days we were there. That's it. Some music was played in the entertainment lounge in the evening, NOT live music I might add. It is a substantial entertainment room which was unsurprisingly empty every time we went to buy drinks, the bar was good and you didn't have to queue for drinks.
2. The restaurant. This really is the worst bit. There is a limited selection of food, with a small basic salad bar. Fruit selection is ok. It's the hot food selection that is the problem. Not a great selection. It was never more than warm, we did go for our evening meal at different times to see if that was the problem but no, it was never more than warm. Add to that the plates were always cold, and by the time you got to your table your food was cold. A specialist cook to order bar is there but we never saw a cook/chef to ask for anything. Breakfast was again very limited with often only one side of the food counter open. The restaurant was also the only place some of the staff were not friendly, in fact one member of staff, an older guy, was downright rude when we asked about the food.

To cap it all off, we were stopping in the "Deluxe" section on the 5th Floor. There are 3 lifts and on day 3 one of the lifts broke down. On day 6 another lift broke down meaning only 1 lift was available by the end of our stay. We had a reasonable holiday, between using the pool area and going into Albir and Altea towns for meals etc. and using the hotel mainly just as a base. However we had paid for 4 Star quality but this was certainly not delivered. In a 4 Star hotel I expect above average service and facilities. I would be hard pressed to describe this as a 3 Star hotel. We were very disappointed especially as we had high expectations after stopping here on 2 previous occasions. This hotel has definitely gone downhill since our previous stays. It is definitely not 4 Star quality, TUI you need to reassess your ratings.

Just returned from 7 days B & B. Hotel is spotless, location is good.Breakfast was excellent with lots of choices.Pool area was spotless, just think should review opening times as 10am is late, maybe move to 9am till 7pm Rooms are spacious,plenty of storage & very clean. Only thing they could improve on is to put a bottle of water in fridge on arrival as we arrived midnight & everywhere was closed Also as mentioned the reception staff werent very welcoming on arrival & departure, need to smile a bit more Overall a very good expereince would recomnend this hotel.