Senator Marbella Hotel

I found the hotel pleasant and would happily come back. My room was quiet, air-conditioned, spacious, clean, and had two comfortable beds, more than I needed. The reliable internet was an acceptable speed. The rooftop pool was a highlight, with lovely mountain and city views, and I spent an evening there with a soft drink from the bar, watching the sunset. Breakfast was decent, service was quick, and staff were friendly, though English was mostly spoken at reception. You can walk to the promenade, and the old town is about 25 minutes away. At check-in, clearer information about the fitness room, dining area, pool, and Wi-Fi would have helped, since I had to ask about those later.

The beds were the best part, though they were two 4'6" beds pushed together and took up nearly the whole room. The pool had loud pop music, so reading and relaxing there was difficult, and there weren’t enough sunbeds. The rooftop bar shut at 9:30, when 10pm would have been better. The bathroom felt old, with a shower over the bath and a curtain, and I had to ask for a non-slip mat. It wasn’t spotless, the toilet was very grubby, and the towels were old and thin. There were staff strikes during our stay, the dinner menu had little choice, and the air conditioning was hard to adjust.

The hotel is central, with welcoming staff, lovely spacious rooms, and a beautifully decorated reception. We booked twin beds that were almost the size of two doubles. The pool area is beautiful, and the top-floor view is hard to beat. It was spotlessly clean. There’s a spa, but we didn’t get time to try it, so I can’t comment on that. One incident at the restaurant was disappointing. My vegan friend ordered a menu dish clearly marked vegan. A staff member asked if she ate meat, and she said in Spanish that she was vegan. Shortly afterward, another staff member brought out a small complimentary “snack of the day” that she hadn’t ordered. She tried a little and realized it was meat. My other friend returned it and said, “You gave my vegan friend meat.” The woman replied, “I know.” It had been brought by someone else before she could alert the kitchen, but when she realized what had happened, she didn’t come over right away; we had to send it back ourselves. She apologized later, though it felt like an afterthought. I thought the response to the mistake was disappointing. Aside from that, we really enjoyed the hotel. I’m vegan too and had no issues the one time I ate there, but take extra care if you’re plant-based.

The pool turned out to be far too deep for young children, and the hotel website hadn’t mentioned this. Since we’d chosen hotels based on child-friendly pools, we asked to cancel and find somewhere more suitable, but management wouldn’t agree. At reception, the staff were unhelpful and made our family feel like a nuisance. If you’re travelling with small children, I’d strongly suggest looking elsewhere. The rooms were cramped and dated, there were no smart TVs, breakfast was mediocre at best, and the advertised nearby beach didn’t meet our expectations.