Occidental Fuengirola

I genuinely cannot understand how Occidental Fuengirola is rated the number one hotel in Fuengirola on Tripadvisor. I dread to think what the other hotels are like if this is the case.

I have stayed in many Barceló hotels before, and this was by far the worst experience I have ever had with the chain.

We arrived at around 10:30am and were told that our room wasn’t ready until 2pm. We completely understood that we were arriving before the standard check-in time, so we were prepared to wait. However, when we were eventually given access to the room, we were extremely disappointed with what we found.

There were stains on the bedding, as well as on the cushions and throw. The door frame had chunks missing from it and, although I’m not saying the room hadn’t been cleaned, everything about it just felt dirty, tired and unwelcoming. We were also given a twin bed with separate sheets and the cot was bright turquoise and looked really old and battered..

We didn’t even stay at the hotel. We checked out almost immediately after check in because we were so unhappy with the room and the overall standard.

We have stayed in plenty of hotels and have never experienced anything quite like this. The standard was nowhere near what we expected, particularly from a Barceló property and more like a 3 star absolutely not a 4! We have moved to a stunning hotel in Marbella.

We would absolutely not recommend Occidental Fuengirola and will never return.

We stayed for 4 nights. All staff were polite and professional. Rooms clean and comfortable. Good aircon. Lovely clean balcony. Comfortable beds. Stayed longer on departure day, was able to shower in the fitness suite at the end of the day. Great location. Amazing selection of food at breakfasts. We ate at 8am and was pleasantly quiet. Some lovely places to eat in the local area. Nice beach.

Very good hotel in a great location, ideal for families with older kids.

Hotel is 1km from the train station and the centre of the resort and easily reachable for all amenities like waterpark etc. Check in was swift and room available at 2pm which was great. Daily housekeeping was great and always complete before lunch. Staff were great in general. Rarely seemed to be issues with sunbeds during our stay. Prices in the bars are very reasonable for food and drink, quality was excellent. Rooms are good but lack storage.

Where it falls down: Breakfast is very poor. Have experienced better in Travelodges. If going again I'd like room only but this isn't an option. There appeared to be a Premium option but this was never explained to us. Pool - its small and about 80% of the outside pool is at a dept of 2.6M - great if you want to swim but as you'll see most just want a dip and cool down so 95% of guests cram into 20% of the pool Lack of atmosphere - no poolside music which I guess is down to surrounding residential blocks Bar outside closes at 12 but bar in reception never opened during our stay.

I would still come back to this hotel - I could get over the breakfast (or even better - try to upsell us the "premium" option?) but that aside its very good accommodation in an excellent loaction