H10 Estepona Palace

We booked the non refundable deal prior to viewing, i will summarise here and i'm sure the hotel will come back with some waffle about "You signed the lengthy document on arrival" DO not book for a family holiday, this place is very boring and poorly managed. Good points: 1. Views from hotel 2. Free parking for cars 3. Free room upgrade Bad Points 1. Clueless upper management whom do not understand the H10 brand and require further management training. 2. Pool temperature is stated at 24 degrees, however the correct temperature mid pool was 21 degrees and too cold to fully use for long periods of time. 3. Very average food 4. Some waiters are very rude and think they they own the restaurants. 5. Gym opens very late in the day, no use for gym type people who want to work out early. 6. Very poor kids entertainment 7. Only page 1 & 2 of the snack back menu can be used for all inclusive and not very good quality. 8. Very confusing drinks menu, depends what time and what bar that you can get drinks. 9. Coffee in breakfast restaurant very poor and watery, also old tasting as been sat about many hours. 10. Shower in room full of black mould on ceiling, spoke to management and didn't want to sort out as that's how it is was told. 11. Carpets on stairs in main area are threadbare and need replacing. 12. The hotel always runs out of glasses and breakfast and cutlery during service. 13. 10 Euro to borrow the iron for 1 hr 14. Safe is not free and requires a price 15. Beach towels are charged deposit on arrival 16. Very extensive signed documents to sign on arrival to waiver what you can't have. 17. This is not a proper H10 hotel, just a purchased and loads of H10 logos everywhere. 18. No water in fridge on arrival 19. Very slippery walk area around kids pool, our daughter and several others fell over badly, none slip required. 20. Front of house staff unhelpful to resolve anything, always passing you off as in we have your money, now please go away. 21. Many cracked and dirty tiles around pool areas 22. Pools not open very early, close very early too 23. Somebody did go to the toilet in the pool and was shut for an hour to kill bacteria, this wasn't the hotels fault, but clearly shows it isn't a 4 star hotel type people who come here. 24. Bars close very early and you then have to pay for drinks even though your all inclusive. 25. Average wait time for a bartender to serve drinks over 5 mins as normally out the back chatting in the glass wash area. 26. Mattress in room liken to sleeping on a marble floor 27. TV Channels in room very poor I would not advise anyone to book here until the managers spend time at other H10 resorts and understand the H10 Hotel concept on high standards as this place is nothing close to other H10 resorts.

Stayed for 10 nights, H/B. We arrived 10.30pm and were given a very noisy room (263) people were sat in the outside bar area almost adjacent to our balcony, no privacy at all once the balcony door was opened and very loud music from entertainment area which could not be avoided, even with door shut. We asked to change rooms and were told no other room available until after 11am the next day, not happy about this. As we had missed our evening meal we were provided with a prepacked sandwich (which did not appear to be very fresh) fruit, packet of crisps and a small bottle of water each. Neither of us slept well due to the noise and uncomfortable bed and pillows. Next morning we then had to change our plans for the day due to waiting for the alternative room (124) to be vacated and cleaned. This room was slightly smaller, the décor was noted to be in much better condition than the previous room, it was also much quieter and had the sea view which we had paid for. The pool area was observed to be well maintained, there were lots of sunbeds and parasols which could only be used in fixed positions as no bases were provided. Towels were available for a returnable deposit. Most of the sunbeds and parasols were reserved very early in the morning and often left unused until later in the day. The dining room was chaotic, the staff worked extremely hard but there was just not enough of them. Staff were polite and helpful throughout the hotel but did appear to be under pressure in the dining room. The breakfast buffet was very good with plenty of variety, evening meals were acceptable but I did not feel the variety was as good as I have experienced in other 4* hotels. We opted to have lunch instead of dinner on three occasions which we both enjoyed, good variety, and dishes served hot in contrast to the evening, where apart from the grill which was very good the food was noted to be luke warm. We slept badly throughout our stay, due to the very uncomfortable bed and pillows of very poor quality. The entertaintment was varied but average apart from the flamenco show which was excellent. The Hotel is a little isolated from bars and restaurants, the nearest is 20 mins walk away at the port €6 in taxi. The port and town of Estepona is accessible by bus L1 every 40 mins, bus fare €1.10 per journey. Overall a nice hotel with nice pools however I do not feel it is a 4*.