Melia Benidorm

Booked for a birthday celebration for a party of 8 people, from the start the hotel staff were unhelpful and rude. When trying to call to change a room in advance they hung up 6 times in a 1 week period. In the end, I’m a member of Melia rewards as use them worldwide and went through the rewards team on Facebook who were fantastic (service level I expect). On arrival, the venue is disappointing. Car park under construction with no signage or guidance. The hotel atrium is dark, outdated, unclean and unwelcoming. Reception weren’t very interested in being helpful. The lifts! OMG the lifts - fit 4 people max and are the slowest you’ve ever been in and temperamental. There were 3 teenage sports teams staying and so we had to queue for 15 minutes for a lift to 13th floor as there were so many people and so few capacity. Then the lifts would take you to random floors or just stop! health & safety should be looked at. Deposits! Deposits for everything: €10 euros per beach towel (collect from reception), €10 for iron and ironing board (come and collect from reception - in those lifts are you crazy! Had crinkled clothes rather than waste another 30 minutes of my life). Every ‘normal’ convenience was ‘come and collect from reception and give us money’. WiFi - don’t bother, only 2 of a group of 8 could get on for limited time in bar area. The rooms were a waste of time. Restaurant- think school canteen and you would be close. Drinks service slow and had to go looking for someone to serve the table on 2 occasions. Rooms : outdated, broken showers (reported but not fixed in our 2 night stay), cleaners just walk into the room when you’ve put ‘do not disturb ‘ on the door. I was asleep and given a rude awakening! I could go on further, but generally really awful. Made the trip difficult to enjoy and really tarnished my view of the brand. How can they let one of their hotels be so bad???

We decided on a very minute short break to Benidorm and chose the Melia mainly because of the location and pool. I didn’t have great expectations but the hotel is good enough as a base. Upon arrival the female receptionist was friendly enough and check in was quick, it was my birthday and she wished me A “Happy Birthday” that’s as far as it went. Now I know I shouldn’t expect anything but in every hotel I’ve ever stayed in they at least make a small gesture on your birthday but not here. We arrived prior to advertised check in, so it was welcome that a room was ready. We chose a higher floor (17) as we thought it would be quieter from the street noise and a better view and we weren’t wrong. The hotel is not the 4 star we are used to, we weren’t advised of the deposit for a safe key upon arrival so had to trek back down to reception (be warned lifts are old and slow so can only imagine in high season this isn’t fun). When we got the key for the safe it didn’t work as had dead batteries..... The room is very basic and a little tired but a good size balcony which was lovely to view from day & night. A fridge was hugely welcome as there is a great little supermarket across the road from the hotel. My only real gripe with the room is that the floors were clearly not cleaned regularly enough so make sure you take some room slippers like me! The pool area is really quite nice but the pool doesn’t seem to get the attention it needs as there was often rubbish in and around it. Particularly the far end away from the bar. I appreciate it’s not peak season but the weather was lovely and seeing cups and plasters floating doesn’t make it inviting. You expect the odd debris from the trees etc but again this needs more focus from the hotel. We chose not to eat at the hotel so I can’t comment on the food, we did order drinks at the pool bar, but only once due to the cost so I can see why many chose All Inclusive. The hotel overall could do with a facelift but if you want somewhere cheap, close enough to everything without being in the centre of the new town.....oh and British TV then this is the place for you. :0)

Enjoyed our trip to melia Benidorm, travelled as a group of 7 to celebrate my 40th birthday, we found rooms and hotel very welcoming and comfortable, stayed on 13 th floor so had amazing view of pool, hills, sea, entertainment in evening was very good and lively but finished quite early, didn’t bother us though because is plenty of bars/clubs outside hotel. Biggest let down was the food, which we all found was samely even though only stayed 5 days, also food not very warm, because of this unfortunately we would not return to this same hotel. Outside pool looks very nice with palm trees and fountains but was too cold to use because early season and not heated. Indoor pool was o.k, nothing special, jacuzzis were cold when we used. That said We all still enjoyed Benidorm and holiday, entertainment staff were all amazing in hotel as well.