Arenas Del Mar Hotel

Unfortunately, I would not rate this hotel as 4 star. I’ll start with the good points. The reception staff working at the hotel were friendly and helpful. The lady who worked in the beach bar was lovely and welcoming. Looking at the hotel, it looks ok to start with. However, when you’ve been there a few days you start to notice things that are not so good. The biggest let down for me was the pool area. There’s no shaded cover so if you want to put the umbrella up for shade you can’t because the lifeguard says no it’s too windy. The furniture is in one word rubbish and even the one lifeguard said that to me when I showed him my sun lounger was broken and missing a screw. I had to move to another lounger which was fine but then started to notice after days of being there. Half of the sun beds are broken when you check them. I spent half my time having to move round to different parts of the pool trying to seek shade because there was no shade. The parasols they have there are useless because they don’t stand wind so why have them. Maybe invest in some proper furniture that can. In fact, day 5 of my holiday all of them had been taken away by the lifeguard . The pool area was not cleaned properly at all. For about four days there were cigarette ends left right by where the pool is, which is really off putting. The pool area was just dirty and when I watched the cleaners cleaning in the morning, they did half a job. As for the food, some food did not look cooked properly. I went to have the prawn salad but when I looked at the prawns they were partly blue so definitely not cooked properly. Food was very much the same everyday. I had to stick to foods that didn’t look like they would give me food poisoning.In the end, I did go out and have food at local restaurants which the food was great. You had to pay one euro for a plastic cup for the pool side cup for you holiday, which is something I’ve never heard of until I came here. You couldn’t use the safe because you had to pay for a key to lock it, which when I’ve stayed in 3 star hotels they have been free. The spa towels weren’t the best either, the first day I had one, it looked as though there was something brown on the towel, so dread to think what it was. The spa which was shown on the hotel booking was shown as been part of the holiday was not free and apparently cost 15 euros for two hours. The reason I booked the holiday was because it was showing it as part of the holiday. I was all inclusive so would expect to be at least able to use that facility but not unless wanted to pay 15 euros for two hours. At the end of this holiday, I am struggling to see why this hotel is rated as a 4 star hotel… The people who run this hotel really need to rethink what they are doing because after staying at this hotel, I will not be returning as it’s probably one of the worst hotels I’ve stayed in. To rate this as 4 star is not good enough. I feel that the hotel is cutting corners on what they do and it really shows.

We are currently approaching a two week stay here and cannot believe some of the poor reviews! We have had a fantastic time here with exceptional friendly and welcoming staff, in particular Marlen. The ambiance is very calming and the rooms spacious. Fantastic choice of food with varied menu and the wine is quite acceptable. Amazing views from the dining room and terrace bar. Evening entertainment is low key but fitting with the calmness of the hotel. If you want a really relaxing holiday this place is highly recommended. It ticks every box for us and we will return again without hesitation.