Hotel Castilla Guerrero

The staff at reception and housekeeping were kind, attentive, and helpful, and the hotel was very clean and well located. A few things could use attention: the shower wasn’t good and seems easy to replace, while the old desk was unstable. The walls are very thin, so even quiet conversations from other rooms carry through.

The room was clean and quite nice, and I thought the price was great for the length of my stay. The hotel is right in the center, handy for exploring the area. I did hear some outside noise during the day, perhaps because the walls are thin, but it was a lovely place to stay overall.

The hotel manager’s response to our complaint made an awful night even worse. When we tried to explain the heat and humidity, she spoke over us rudely, then asked other guests in the lobby if their rooms were too warm. They agreed they were, and she rolled her eyes before saying she’d call maintenance to turn cooling back on. Instead, she skipped work for the couple of days until we checked out. The claim that most guests wanted heating makes no sense with outdoor temperatures around 65-75F (18-24C), especially when all the hotel and room windows were open to air out the heat and humidity. Management knew it was too hot, and I believe they cut off the air-conditioning to save money at guests’ expense. Don’t stay here. They don’t understand hospitality. This boutique “hotel” is run like ghetto apartments, and it was by far the worst part of our three-week stay in Andalucia. I’ll post this review on all the travel and booking sites so others don’t make the same mistake. We’d paid 100 Euros a night and got what felt like urban camping. The towels were smelly old rags, the bathroom dingy, and there were no toiletries, but the most basic thing we expected was working air-conditioning. When we checked in, our room on the 4th floor already felt hot and humid, even though it was a mild 65 degrees Fahrenheit (18 Celsius) outside. With the windows shut, it felt like 75F (24C), too hot for sleeping. The property managers had left a window open for ventilation. I shut it and tried the thermostat, only to find the air-conditioning locked on standby heat. Staff told us the whole building’s central system had been switched to heat. I also saw a Google review from someone complaining about hot air two months earlier, around September, which is still summer in Malaga. I suspect the switch was made to save costs. The manager refused to switch the building back to cooling and suggested we sleep with the windows open. That meant hearing cars, conversations, and loud drunks, as well as getting exhaust fumes and cigarette smoke inside. I had to choose between heat and humidity, or noise and bad smells. Either way, I got no sleep. We had a miserable, sleepless night, and I was exhausted and worried it would spoil our Malaga vacation. If you have a city tour or a long travel day ahead, look elsewhere. When we checked in, we raised the heat and humidity right away because it was immediately obvious. The manager also turned to other guests who were waiting in the lobby and asked if they thought the rooms were too warm.

Once we finally made it to the hotel, the bathroom door in our family room was broken, so we had to wedge a chair against it to keep it shut. There was no tea, coffee, water, or kettle, and the air conditioning only blew hot air. On our last morning, the water stopped completely just before we were due to leave for the airport. Getting there was difficult from the start. Our taxi dropped us in the wrong place, and when we contacted reception for help, they strongly refused to send the right location on WhatsApp. They later said they’d had fraud attempts, but could have checked our booking to confirm we were real guests. It was noon, we had children with us, and we arrived late and tired. Málaga itself is beautiful, but the hotel experience spoiled our enjoyment of the stay.