Hotel BlueBay Banus

I feel very sad to say that this hotel didn’t meet my expectations. The photos admittedly showed a dated decor, but I’d hoped to look beyond that. I visited with a friend, both in our late 40’s and hoped to have holidayed with a similar, if not broader range of age groups. The majority of the visitors were at least 70+. The rooms were basic, dated and lacked any nice touches-i.e a kettle, iron, glasses (other than the two to hold your tooth brush in the bathroom). We stayed in room 815. The TV was on the same wall as our beds so we were unable to watch TV unless we sat on the spare bed/sofa with cushions that faced the TV which wasn’t ideal. The TV had one British channel - BBC that was repetitive to say the least (Blue Bay were obviously not at fault/responsible for the latter). The outside bar would not allow us to take two wine glasses to our room, which I could not understand why, and have been allowed to in other hotels in Puerto Banus without question nor risk attached. There was no free internet, other than the ten minutes free per day that they bizarrely allowed. The breakfast was really disappointing. The food served was very poor quality. Bacon was paper thin and very fatty. One day it was slightly over cooked and the next very undercooked. There was mixed veg and broccoli served for breakfast and on only one of the four days we stayed did they serve sausage, which were mini frankfurter style?…. The baked beans were presented in a large flat oblong dish on a hot plate that didn’t keep them even warm. The juice machine/s served very poor/low quality orange/pineapple juice that was tasteless and not pleasant. The coffee machine was really nice. One of the best coffees I have had from a machine. The staff were really attentive and kept the restaurant really clean and tidy. The pool area/s lacked atmosphere. The music played from the hotel speakers was absolutely AWFUL. It was neither Spanish, modern nor remotely familiar and caused much upset and misery to those who expressed an opinion to the bar staff to changed it. The room cleaners were always happy, helpful and kind. They kept our rooms and bathrooms exceptionally clean but the tired decor and lack of maintenance to mend things that break over time made their efforts very slightly in vein. I feel this hotel could be so much more but needs huge financial and emotional investment and updating to be worthy of a more positive review. In summary, if you are 70+ and do not care for tired decor and poor quality food, this is for you - otherwise, a younger audience may struggle…

Lovely clean hotel, room very spacious, balcony fab, we had a superior room and was well worth the extra money. Staff were so friendly, cleaners kept the room spotless, food was amazing, couldn’t fault this hotel, yes the furnishings are authentically Spanish but much prefer that to your bog standard boring “executive rooms” they have in the new hotels. Lovely walk along the boardwalk (full of beach bars and restaurants)to the center of puerto banus with its amazing shops, bars etc. we jumped on and off the bus (cheap as chips and they run every 25mins)and went to visit Marbella and Estepona, also San Pedro is a walk along the boardwalk in the other direction. Lots to do and see and a great location because it’s so peaceful at night.

After reading the reviews we was preparing ourselves for a basic stag and hen do hotel that I have experienced in the past, but using it just as a base we was happy with that. It couldn’t have been any more different - the reception is lovely and the staff really friendly. We was in a group for a delayed 40th so when 3 of our 4 rooms was ready we had a little look round. The grounds are stunning with a quiet pool and a larger pools that has entertainment through out the day and a pool bar serving great food. Our room over looked a little pretty courtyard and although a little dated just felt like a typical Spanish room. We booked half board as it was the cheapest option thinking we would eat out anyway. We had breakfast there every morning with a great variety of hot and cold food, was nice and chilled and not like a canteen with queues like in some places. We even had the dinner after coming back from a beach club before heading back out and it was lovely. We ate at the pool bar a couple of times also and it was great, service is a little slower there but they are run off their feet in that heat and we had no where to go so it was fine. We was out of the hotel a lot during the days and on the last day spent it round the pool, a woman came up and introduced herself asking if we had just arrived as she hadn’t seen us, we explained we had been out and about to beach clubs in the day which she laughed and said we had experienced the Marbella lifestyle to the maximum. She then carried on speaking to everyone round the pool recognising people. I found this a really nice touch. The only thing I can say as a negative was the noise of the road but the same road goes passed the hard rock hotel which I’m sure people are paying a whole lot more money for the same privilege. I would 100% recommend this hotel, it’s a great location, lovely and clean, food great, staff great and was a great price.