Hotel Molino Blanco

I am basically not too fussy and I have never had cause to complain about a hotel room in my 45 years. But room 417 in the Molino Blanco in Puerto de la Cruz caused me to break this habit.
The room was atrocious, so awful that I cannot believe the management had the nerve to let it.
It is difficult to know where to start.
We checked in at a perfectly acceptable reception area and the manager was pleasant. Once we had checked in, an assistant was summoned to show us to our room. We were led outside, up the street, down an alleyway, up some steps and onto an external pathway alongside an annexe at the side of the main hotel. This pathway led to two rooms, ours being the further. The nearer one was undergoing renovation, and we had to struggle (unaided) to manoeuvre our cases around building materials, a wheelbarrow and a pile of debris partially blocking the path. There was a very, very loud hammering coming from the room being renovated, which did not bode well – more on this later. On entering room 417, the first thing we noticed was the smell. An strong, musty, unpleasant damp smell. Next came the dirt. Not only was the room furnished with ancient 70s style furnishings and furniture (which I could have accepted) but it was truly filthy. There were stains on the carpets, the shower curtain – and also on the bed linen. Someone's dirty socks (I am not joking) had been left on the sideboard. There were two sets of patio doors leading to outside terraces. These had locks that had clearly been forced and were broken. Each set of doors had a hole drilled in it and in the hole in one of the doors was a nail, that when inserted stopped the door from opening – a crude lock. The other set of doors had the hole but not even a nail, so anyone could have walked in at any time. Now more about the hammering – this was enough to drive you to tears. We arrived at about 12:30 in the afternoon for the start of our stay, and apart from a one-hour break for lunch, this deafening hammering continued hour after hour throughout the day. It was unbearable and the only reason we stayed in the room was because we were on the Internet and phone trying to sort out alternative accommodation. The vibration from the hammering was so intensive that with each blow, the wall lights in one of the bedrooms flickered on and off.
None of this report has been exaggerated – I have described it as it was. So awful was this room that I half expected to see Jeremy Beadle popping out of the wardrobe.
We complained to the manager and he simply said that there were no other rooms available for the night, and only a possibility of changing the next day. After some hours we found alternative accommodation, and moved out in the evening, not even staying one night despite having booked and paid for a week. We asked at reception to log a complaint, but were told that this was not possible because the book was locked away, and as far as the member of staff on duty was concerned, that was the end of the matter and a refund was out of the question. We were calm and polite. He was not pleasant.
We are now trying to get a refund through the booking agent, alpharooms.com – it is too early to comment on this process because they need time to investigate before they can do anything.
What I can say to anyone thinking of booking at the Molino Blanco – PLEASE for your own sanity make quite sure there is no chance whatsoever of getting room 417, because at the time of writing, being in this room is a truly awful experience.