Reviews of Marina Hotel, Benidorm, Spain

Hotel Marina, Benidorm

Overall Rating:

5/10

Board Basis:

Half Board

Date of Holiday:

Nov 2008

Tour Operator:

A1 Travel

Submitted By:

jamesgwhite

Comments:

The room was good, clean, well serviced and maintained with Sky News available. The location from our perspective was excellent, in the middle of town surrounded by busy bars and restaurants - if you're an early bedder, perhaps not what you want due to late night noise. The hotel was principally occupied by Spaniards on holiday with the hotel entertainment catering for that market - no problem for us as there was plenty entertainment close by. The food was awful. Our opinion is that this hotel is overated by being listed as a four star hotel. We have previously stayed in the Hotel Melia in Benidorm and view that as a genuine four star hotel, significantly better than the Marina.

Advice:

If you like to party and enjoy cabaret, Benidorm is the place.

Activities:

good and bad review

Overall Rating:

4/10

Board Basis:

Half Board

Date of Holiday:

Nov 2008

Tour Operator:

Booked Independently

Submitted By:

engravingplus.dsl.net

Comments:

The Hotel itself was quite good but the food was awful not a great deal of choice for a supposedly 4 star hotel more like 2 star. Unless you managed to get some food as soon as it came out fresh it was luke warm. It was also in one of the worst places in Benidorm for noise as there were Bars and Kareoke very close and sometimes went on until 3 a.m. making it difficult to get any sleep. It is a shame really as parts of Benidorm are quite nice and it is possible to find a quieter area to stay
but I must say we would think twice before goind there again. The beaches are great and the weather was very good sunshine everyday and the scenery around the area is beautiful as we had three trips out. Mr. and Mrs. Barrs

Good for:

Beach 

We have stayed at this hotel...

Overall Rating:

10/10

Board Basis:

Half Board

Date of Holiday:

Oct 2007

Tour Operator:

Thomas Cook

Submitted By:

Miss A Livingston

Comments:

We have stayed at this hotel several times when we have been in Benidorm. The rooms are clean, towels changed daily and the food is actually good.



About the food - There are cold meats and rolls laid out for breakfast, cheese available if you are vegetarian, croissants and jam and butter, fresh fruit juice and fresh fruit. There are also hot items for cooked breakfast. Dont know what the lunches were like since we were half board. Evening meal - Since there is a salad bar and a hot bar, it is up to each person what they pick for their meal. No point in choosing badly and then blaming the hotel for the standard of the food.



We stayed 2 weeks and are going back in October 2008 (for 2 weeks half board).



Entertainment wise - Evening entertainment starts too late, as it does in most of the hotels in Spain. We went into the dancing in the hotel in the afternoon and learned to salsa with the instructor teaching in Spanish (and some English) and the Spanish people helping us in broken English. Learned a couple of Spanish club dances and had a brilliant laugh as well as a really good time.



For entertainment if you are looking for somewhere outside the hotel to try, the Irish Bar opposite had really good singers, give the Red Dog Saloon a go, its just round the corner (and it even has line dancing if you are in to that - otherwise its just a nice pub with a good atmosphere and live singer).

Hotel was very clean meals were...

Overall Rating:

6/10

Board Basis:

Full Board

Date of Holiday:

Jul 2008

Tour Operator:

Thomson

Submitted By:

Ms Sw Simpson

Comments:

Hotel was very clean meals were okay staff were not friendly .Full of spanish people entertainment and kids club for spanish people if you are of british nationality you are not quoted. As I said hotel good meals good staff lots of room for improvement.

Being my first time in Benidorm must say it was good apart from the fact we had to go out of hotel for entertainment I dont think Iwould go back to the MARINA HOTEL ALTHOUGH IT WAS VERY CLEAN SARAH

Hotel was great.Our room was not...

Overall Rating:

9/10

Board Basis:

Half Board

Date of Holiday:

Apr 2008

Tour Operator:

Booked Independently

Submitted By:

Mrs L Crawford

Comments:

Hotel was great.Our room was not ready when we got there, but after 2 hours we were settled and given free drinks with our meal every evening. this included wine. Rooms cleaned every day.Lots of choice for meal times. Centrally located. Pool was fairly large.Only fault -lifts were small and only had 3 which was chaotic at meal times. Aside from this I would recommend this hotel to anybody.

I loved Benidorm but the hotel...

Overall Rating:

6/10

Board Basis:

Full Board

Date of Holiday:

May 2007

Tour Operator:

Cosmos

Submitted By:

Mr D Counsell

Comments:

I loved Benidorm but the hotel was a bit of a let down.

The satalite tv had only 2 english TV channels.

The food was the biggest letdown as the choices on the buffet were strange and most of the food was a little greasy. The packed lunches however were great you have a couple of rolls, ham, cheese, tuna, fruit and a couple of drinks.

The bar was nice but genraly full of spanish oaps (there must be a theme there).

Its a good hotel but I would not go full board again.

booked this hotel as family...

Overall Rating:

3/10

Board Basis:

Full Board

Date of Holiday:

Apr 2008

Tour Operator:

Booked Independently

Submitted By:

Miss A Knox

Comments:

booked this hotel as family members had been there before, was very impressed with the reception area on arrival. The room we were given (405) was very nice 2 twin beds and a sofa. tv only had 2 english channels which were euro sport and sky news. went downstairs to get a drink and then discovered it was over run with spanish oaps and the entertainment that was on at night was ball room dancing. As the marina is in the perfect location for all the clubs and pubs it didnt really bother us but i myself think that the hotel catered more for the spanish oaps than the british. on to the food we had booked fullboard but we werent up in time for breakfast until the 4th morning, breakfast was nice and hot and but lunch and dinner was terrible the first night we went into dinner we walked straight back out again the food was diabolical. The next morning we found out that the marina had changed hands and had went down hill fast, for the full week we stayed we had breakfast twice and that was it. we ended up spending another £200 on eating out. Our room was never swept or washed the full week we were there and the bed sheets were never changed either as when putting makeup on a bit went on the sheet on the second night and the mark was still there when we left five days later. All in all I would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

well i loved the hotel and the...

Overall Rating:

10/10

Board Basis:

All Inclusive

Date of Holiday:

Aug 2008

Tour Operator:

britannia airways

Submitted By:

Ms Jade Furniss

Comments:

well i loved the hotel and the staff i thought it was very well ran and the checking bit was lovely i loved it ......................... the pool area was very nice



but the bit i did not like was the statue's on the outside front of the building



but all together the holiday was very enjoyable and my poor friend slept very well on the outside step

and when i lent her some clothes she got very excited and thanked me for my kindness... but when i got her some food she absouluty exstatic

the hotel overall was reasonably...

Overall Rating:

6/10

Board Basis:

Half Board

Date of Holiday:

Mar 2008

Tour Operator:

Booked Independentlyharvey travel

Submitted By:

Mrs D Bedford

Comments:

the hotel overall was reasonably 4 star, cleaners in every day, towels changed every day. The food however was only a 2 star. breakfast in the morning was either warm or cold, we had our breakfast out every morning at least it was hotter, dinner in the evening was a poor selection as were desserts, 1 x night we had beef, yorkshire puddings, but no potatoes. so had chips with it, ( well they do say chips go with everything) same old desserts ( sponge cakes, yoghurts, mousse and jelly.) bar staff could have done to have the odd smile now and again, ( miserable all the time) whilst we were there quite a few spanish elderly couples there, majority of them were fine but the others were the most rudest people i have come accross, obviously born with no manners or just a case of its our country so we do as we please? would go back to benidorm but wouldn't stay in this hotel? p.s no good if you have children nothing at all for them.

Our total cost for this holiday...

Overall Rating:

7/10

Board Basis:

Full Board

Date of Holiday:

Jan 2007

Tour Operator:

Accommodation2u

Submitted By:

Mrs G Williams

Comments:

Our total cost for this holiday was less than £200 each for full board which was brilliant for this time of year. The weather was fantastic for January; even laying on the beach some days which was heaven.



All in all the hotel was good, very clean, and spotless! Rooms were lovely.



Meals OK, edible I suppose, good food for the Spanish.



Entertainment good, although we never stayed in the hotel at night as there’s so much do to yourselves whilst there.



Good choices to go are Shooters Bar where the staff are very friendly, Talk of the Coast, and Talk of the Town where they have some fab shows on. Also try Sherrys Bar in the Old Town and the Rich is very funny indeed.



The Old Town is brill for some real Spanish way of life, worth a visit.

Hi, the hotel itself is nice...

Overall Rating:

1/10

Board Basis:

Half Board

Date of Holiday:

Mar 2006

Tour Operator:

Sunways

Submitted By:

Mr F Rasool

Comments:

Hi, the hotel itself is nice inside and out, nice black marble, reception, pool, canteen etc. The room I was in (807) was very small not big enough for three people.



Myself, wife, daughter were provided with 2 single beds and a sofa bed. My wife was using hair dryer provided in the toilet to dry her hair, whilst drying her hair the hair dryer went on fire and black smoke. It took two days to get the faulty one replaced. i.e. My wife had to go for 2 days without a hair-dryer.



In the bedroom the floor is tiled nicely, however are loose and cracked which caused my daughter to cut her foot on one. We were told the room had air conditioning, found it didn’t have it at all it was heating. I had to sleep on this sofa (which does not pull down into a sofa bed) as it is located at the balcony causing draught which I felt was not safe for my daughter to sleep on.



The first night there were no extra covers left behind for me to sleep on the sofa i.e. sheets, pillows etc. The mini fridge provided has soft drinks in it provided by the hotel, found a bottle of wine that had blue mould on the bottom of it.



Television had roughly 14 channels in Spanish 1 channel in English. Twice on separate occasions my slot card would not work as the hotels computers crash from time to time.

The towels are washed with cheap soap powder horrible smell from them. The breakfast was disgusting eggs were rubber, sausages half cooked, toast cooked on one side. The dinner was disgusting nothing for vegetarians salmon, veal, Hungarian goulash, octopus, over all the food we could not eat it was catered for the Spanish.



Hotel was full of Spaniards between the ages of 60 to 85 years old. Nothing for families. The entertainment was rubbish - ball room dancing every night for older people, same entertainment every night, music played was all in Spanish which didn’t help. Catering for Spanish again.



Swimming pool too cold to swim in. Shamrock pub which is an Irish pub. It faces my room didn’t help as they play extremely loud music up to as late as 5Aam. Which you can hear clearly even with the doors shut. In front of this hotel they are currently building other hotels so obviously the noise and dust during the day does not help.

I would not recommend any one to go to this hotel especially young, British people.



Me and my family had to eat out every night as the food was un edible. It cost us about 200 pounds to eat out for a week. We went to a cafe called Portobello, if you do go to this hotel and you do not like the food I would recommend that you go to that cafe as the food is excellent and the prices are reasonable.



Hotel is supposed to be 4* is more like a 1 or a 2 * I would not recommend anyone to this hotel 3* hotels are a lot better than this hotel as it is a disgrace. It is no way up to a 4* hotel standard as they are very poor.

This a run of the mill holiday...

Overall Rating:

8/10

Board Basis:

Half Board

Date of Holiday:

Jul 2005

Tour Operator:

Thomas Cook

Submitted By:

Mr JAD Davison

Comments:

This a run of the mill holiday that was very fun for the family and some friends that came and there were a lot of trips or day out options that were affordable there were a lot of bars were we were staying and a couple internet cafes. My favourite part of this holiday was I suppose the water park as it was refreshing and cool and also within an affordable price range.



So please if your looking for a fun holiday you should go there.

On first entering the Hotel...

Overall Rating:

8/10

Board Basis:

Half Board

Date of Holiday:

Aug 2002

Tour Operator:

TV Travel Shop

Submitted By:

Andrea K

Comments:

On first entering the Hotel Marina looks lovely, black marble and glass on the outside and the inside was very impressive, the only thing that let this hotel down was the reception staff, we had to queue up for ages to check in. The people that were Spanish and were speaking the language had a completely different service, they were all seen first, we found they were not very helpful if you spoke English, as it seemed that the majority of the guests they had were Spanish. Some of the reception staff were sometimes quite rude, I did read this before we went from other reviews that were left so we weren’t the only ones to feel like that.



Overall the rest of the hotel and service was very good the food, the bar staff, waitress’s etc. and the kids club kept my son entertained for ages. Nighttime got a bit noisy due to the bars and pubs closing. We were on the eleventh floor and the lifts kept getting stuck!

Centrally located and 2 mins...

Overall Rating:

7/10

Board Basis:

Full Board

Date of Holiday:

Oct 2003

Tour Operator:

Direct Holidays

Submitted By:

Mr D Markham

Comments:

Centrally located and 2 mins from the beach, I was quite pleased with the Marina. We were full board mainly because our 4 year old is a fussy eater. The food was fine, not a bad selection and the rooms were not to bad either. The pool was south facing and was fairly quiet during the day. Not a great deal for kids; kiddies pool and a little play area and cartoons on the TV in the bedroom. Never the less, the hotel was clean and tidy. Can be quite noisy in the evening depending on where your room is situated but the staff switched our rooms, no hassle at all. The Marina has a lovely reception foyer where the staff were polite and welcoming. You are situated on the edge of the new town only a 10-minute walk from the old town, which for my money is much better regarding the bars, shops and restaurants. It's simply more picturesque, less youngsters being a nuisance.



Benidorm 4*

Hotel Marina 3*+



Would go back.