Asia Gardens Hotel & Thai Spa, a Royal Hideaway Hotel

The hotel was booked for three nights in early May then cancelled two days later due to unforeseen circumstances. We had paid a 50% deposit as they advised that we were to be members of some club they have. When we cancelled, with three days notice , they refused to refund our deposit. We lost over £350.00. They did not advise of this condition and have no right to retain our deposit. We’ve sent over ten emails and they have not responded. Extremely poor PR, poor.

To be clear, we’re not fans of Benidorm. Asia Gardens bills itself as a 5 star refuge, above the fray of Benidorm, where the 7 pools and the Andulasian sun are the point. I’m sure we’re not alone in that we came for the pools, not the location. Too bad the pools are so hard to enjoy. Equally tragic: management is contributing to the problem. This resort suffers from the same problem as so many other mass tourism resorts in Europe: not enough pool lounges, people “reserving them” with towels, starting in the early AM, and management, despite claiming to prohibit this practice, doing nothing to prevent the practice, and, indirectly contributing. Let’s start with facts: this resort has 292 rooms. Double occupancy is a safe bet, so at full occupancy, this resort will hold 600+ guests. I counted approximately 150-170 lounges anywhere near a pool, not counting the “suites only” pool. To be fair, the staff set up more lounges in random places along walkways as things got more crowded, but, again, this isn’t the point to being here. And even if there were enough lounges to accommodate everyone, 2/3-3/4ths are “reserved with towels” by 1030am. I’m looking across the pool at 20 chairs...3 are occupied. 14 are “reserved.” Now: why does this happen? This is directly caused by the idiotic “exchange a towel for a card” system. This system, used by many badly managed resorts, means that a towel actually belongs to a current guest who intends to return to the chair, vs simply left behind. This means that it is very easy for a guest to block a lounge all day by simply draping a towel that he/she does not own, over the chair. At resorts where towels are freely available, people understand that they really need to leave personal effects on a chair to mark it as “occupied”. As few people are willing to do this (all day), the problem disappears. To make matters worse (and fundamentally insulting), management’s response to the problem is to refuse to issue towels until 10am. Of course savvy guests beat the system by keeping their towels from the night before. We were effectively penalized for playing by the rules. Our first morning, we got to the pool at around 1030, and it took 20’ to find and shuffle four chairs together in a back row, distant from the pools. Our second morning, our last day, we got up early with the intention of actually enjoying the pool between 830-11am (check out is at 11) and we’re told that we could not have towels until 10am. So: one day with no real pool access. A second day with no towels. Finally, on the subject of chairs, I will note that management claims that it prohibits “chair blocking” for more than 45 minutes. We saw zero action to enforce this rule. I will note that, on the days of our visit, the resort seemed far from fully occupied. I can’t imagine what this problem would be like on a full day. More broadly, the resort is “fine,” but no where near it’s 5 star claim. Service is fine when you manage to find someone, but the resort is stealing money out of is own pocket by under-manning the pool area. Not once were we asked whether we wanted anything. News flash to inept management: our kids know our room numbers. You could have easily fleeced us for 100 eu of additional soft drinks with their help. Net, if you like crowded, generic mass-tourism resorts in general, are used to, and have your own guerrilla tactics for securing pool chairs, you will find this a nice step up, albeit at a hefty price, from the bedlam of Benidorm. But if you were thinking that this would be a quiet, relaxing luxury experience with 5 star service and lovely pools that you can easily enjoy, you will be sorely disappointed.