Ona Alanda Club Marbella

Convenient location near beach, restaurants, and shops. Clean, spacious rooms with friendly, professional staff. Great views and proximity to amenities. Comfortable beds and excellent bed linen and shower facilities.

It's alright, in fact, it could be a much better place. Breakfast was quite nice: fresh orange juice, bread, hot and cold food (be aware they were only doing sunny side eggs in the wintertime...), cereals, coffee and fruit. My major problem with this is the decision of allocating a ground floor flat to a lone-female, especially when the shower was visible from the outside (see attached image); really wrong choice (yes, I did ask to move, but they said they had nothing else, that was all that was available). Not all the employees on the Front of House desk were that good, some would just stare with a smile like you are being an inconvenience and others would not want to accept a room change. I also noticed it depended on who you were. I know of a tall, white, blond man getting the room swap I was asking for without any quibbles. The two blocks next to the internal parking have a noise issue as well. Every time anyone enters, the main door slams and it wakes everyone up (the other blocks by the road have a middle door to reduce those types of noises, which is great, so they should put them every where). Moreover, the whole complex is next to the A7, which is very noisy and you can sort of hear the roads inside the flats, in some more than others (as a light sleeper, i didn't have a good night sleep). Spacious apartments (some larger than others) but generally speaking needing a refurb (especially the bathrooms and the kitchen). The bed mattress was too soft and uncomfortable, whereas the pillow was just to my liking, firm and sturdy. The kitchen is nice, well resourced and they give you some washing liquid to use throughout your stay. The bathrooms stink! I let the water run on all taps but still stank, they used a nice odour-spray upon entering the room and when they cleaned the rooms (not every single day, not every other day either), but you can't mask such a smell all day long. The bathroom also has a condensation issue, I would shower at night and it was still wet in the morning (yes, I hear you say: 'open the windows'... but I don't want to in case bugs enter the flat). WiFi is patchy but you can make do. TVs have plenty of channels in several languages (one in the bedroom and one in the living room). A/C is available, one unit in the bedroom and one in the living room, but even if you put it on 30 degrees, it doesn't warm up the space... not sure why. The flats seem to be very cold in the winter, perhaps great for the summer though. If you are in the Pamplona block, on the top, you will have sunlight a lot of the time in the day, but other apartments across the complex would only get sunlight one or two hours a day (which is a shame for the winter but great for the summer). Gym is very small but it tends to be empty in the wintertime so it should be enough. I did not try the swimming pool because it was very cold this time of year. The pool looked fine and it had toilet facilities next to it. There is also an indoor pool, which many people

We arrived on a Saturday around lunchtime and were told our apartment would not be available until 4.30pm (normal check in time). They stored our luggage for us and said we could use the downstairs changing rooms to change if we wanted to change our clothes or swim. Despite being a single female with young children we were placed in a ground floor apartment. When I asked if there were any non-ground floor apartments instead I was told “no we are fully booked”. The man at the desk (Antonio - not the slim one) didn’t even ask how long we were staying. His attitude was abrupt and rude. When I said I was scared of being in a ground floor apartment because I was a single female with young children he simply said “Why?” in what I can only describe as being aggressive. I told him I did not appreciate his tone and he just shrugged his shoulders. Very unpleasant. What I would say is that the ground floor apartments have metal gates across the doors and windows. They are locked using a key. I have no idea who has copies of the key. There was no way of self-locking the gates internally with a bolt. So anyone with a key could get in. I have no idea how many people have stayed in the apartment over time and may have taken a copy of the key. There was also no way of internally bolting the inside of the apartment door. That is a safety risk with small children - they could just pull the handle down and walk out. The hotel itself is tired and needs refurbishment. The sofas were grubby. They could easily be recovered and have new pillows. The bathrooms and kitchen were last done in the 80s or early 90s. The mattress was good and the pillows too. We did not have an issue with noise overnight. The breakfast was the same every day. And very busy. The best item was the fresh orange juice. Cooked food was salty. The indoor pool was nice. Quite warm and a decent size. The jacuzzi steps were dirty and green on the side and the water was cold. The gym was a good size for a hotel gym and lots of new looking equipment. The hotel needs to retrain certain members of staff and spend some money on refurbishing the place. It could be a wonderful spot. I’d say it’s average at best.