Agua Azul

The only good thing about this hotel is the location. Everything else about it is poor, or bang average at a push. On arrival, the receptionist said that our room wasnt ready, and made us wait 2 hours whilst people coming in after us were getting their rooms straight away. We were given no appology and the rooms were also bang average. The pool situation is ridiculous, it doesn’t open until 9am and if you dont start queueing at about 8:30am, you dont stand a chance at getting a sunbed. There were no poolside cleaners to collect glasses, the sunbeds were rock hard and extremely uncomfortable, and the tables and chairs are cleaned with the pool water. The sunbeds have plastic signs attached to them which rattle and swings everywhere, I got hit in the head with it a few times. The lack of bar staff made getting a drink a nightmare, people were often queueing out the door for a drink and only one bar staff memeber was usually on. There was a lack of staff throughout the hotel, however this was mostly noticed at the bar. Self service for soft drinks wouldve have been so much better and faster. As well as this, the hotel claimed to have a pool bar, but it wasn’t open due to it not being ‘high season’. Same with the outside snack bar. If its not ‘high season’, then we shouldnt have to pay the same price as if it was. The food was a mystery, you couldnt often make a meal out of the things they served. The combinations were so random and way too salty. I had meatballs on the last day of my stay, but couldnt bring myself to eat them because they didnt look cooked properly and I didnt want to be ill. Loads of people had D & V bug during our stay, including my sister, and apparently before we arrived as well. Not sure if this was down to the food but it wouldn’t suprise me. We spoke to at least 10 people during our stay that had the same ‘bug’. The wristbands are a good idea for the room key, but getting people to scan their wrists before they go for their meal is a bit mind boggling, we were under the impression that it was so you couldnt go back in after youve been once, which isnt great if everyone in your room doesnt want to eat at the same time. The hotel is SO noisy, theres obvious traffic noises which cant be helped but it sounded like someone was moving tables and chairs at 3am for ages most nights. All in all, id give this a 2.5 out of 5 stars.

Stayed here as a couple and had a good time. Issues are as largely stated, pool area is jam packed and if you don’t queue from 8:30am with the ‘Brits abroad’ gang you don’t get a bed. Loads of unused beds with towels on and zero enforcement from the hotel. The hard rule should be that you get a couple of hours to nip into town/beach and if you are not back they take your towel - should be quite straightforward. This hotel in particular has a bigger problem with this issue, since the pool area is simply nowhere near big enough for the amount of guests using it. If you do get a bed, be ready to get familiar with your snoring neighbour who will only be a matter of inches away from you. The beer is indeed undrinkable and really annoyed me. Plenty of cocktails and other stuff to choose from though. There is a queue for drinks but never queued longer than a couple of minutes, and the hotel are generous giving out endless bottled water and full bottles of wine. Other than that the hotel is pretty good. Really liked the food, rooms are a good size with good shower and comfortable bed. Location perfect close to the old town and pretty quiet of a night apart from some inconsiderate guests returning in the early hours. Would stay again, being mindful of the above issues which can be annoying and need to be mitigated. I’m in my late 30’s and was the youngest guest there by about 20 years.

We are frequent visitors to Benidorm and normally stay at The Hotel Victoria/Royal, which are sister hotels. They were both full so thought we would give this a go? Firstly the pluses; Staff at reception very friendly and welcoming. Smooth arrival/check in. Lovely room, clean and airy, no noise at all and great layout, I think, I like the open plan design. Good choice of food at mealtimes and snackbar. Then the minus points; The pool is cramped with no sunloungers available after everyone has queued to reserve at 9am, even though some are never used but has a towel on! Then the bar!! Well this is interesting. You have to queue for ages to get a drink as there was only one person serving, which is not great, and the quality of the beer or cider was very poor. Infact undrinkable for my husband!! The bar staff appeared very unhappy and rarely smiled at all! No nice bar area at all to sit inside. My husband became ill whilst there as did many other guests. We would not return and this hotel is not a 4 star!

Group of 4 of arrived at hotel.check in was fast and friendly.going to the lift we met someone from home that had been there for a few days already who was heading up to her room as she felt rotten and we later heard she was i her room until the following evening having had diarrhea.we assumed it was a one off till 3 out of 4 of us were poorly during the holiday and I've been struggling until today at home having given a stool sample to my Dr as I couldn't shake the bad tummy and had lost weight since coming back.dozens of people we spoke to had the same and a group were hospitalised.queing for drinks before dinner/ lunch in the same queue for dining area was ridiculously long.pool area snack bar and bar wasn't open.staff worked so hard some when finishing breakfast service in dining room were straight into the bar and rushing around at times with just 1 behind the bar making queues even longer.glass partition in middle of hotel room was expected but I still walked into it twice.pool area didn't have enough tables and chairs for sitting with a drink.saw a seagull most mornings having a nice bath a poo in the pool before swimmers got in.i saw outside of pool cleaned by cleaners but never saw the water itself being suctioned ( usually a little hoover thing with hose attatched) goes in after pools closed and it scrubs bottom of pool and it didn't smell of chemicals at all.we did see someone with a net fishing debrus out.i wondered was the bad tummy to do with the pool originally as the only one out of our 4 that wasn't poorly hadn't been in the pool.hotel area is perfect.entermainment was a mix of good and bad with great shows or a show that would have been better on a cruise ( ladies dancing around and some of the routine on the floor itself not the small stage so you could only see thier feet flying back and forth) and 2 eucalaylyes with no strings in them pretending to play and soo many costume changes was tedious.so very near the beautiful old town.sadly we won't be returning to this hotel

This was our first visit to Benidorm and we chose this hotel on its location and reviews. Pros: We were welcomed at reception by two friendly members of staff, check in went smoothly and we were able to check in our room straight away. Reception area was clean and tidy. Our room was as expected from the description on the website, it was clean and the cleaning staff were very friendly. The hotel is very close to the Old Town so an ideal location. The cleaners do a great job in the rooms but we did notice an empty beer glass on the first floor that had been there for 4 days. Cons: As previously has been mentioned the bathroom has a glass screen and glass door on the toilet. If you use the toilet in the night you need to put the light on which illuminates the whole bedroom through the glass door. I had read about people bumping into the glass screen in the night so I bought some plastic suction hooks and hung a dressing gown on this so as not to bump into it in the night. The bar system is really poor, you have to queue for your drinks to take into the restaurant, they are really short staffed and this showed around the pool and entertainment area as glasses were left for long periods of time. If you don’t want to watch the entertainment in the evening there is no quiet area to sit with a drink and it can be quite loud in that area. The restaurant area had a similar feel, the staff looked stressed clearing the tables. We thought the food was below average. I found quite a lot of the meat dishes too salty, there weren’t enough vegetarian hot options. Whole prawns in the chilled area were on the edge of the hot plate with heat on top of them so avoided them, I did notice later in the week these were removed from the menu. Pool area is cramped and if you don’t rush out at 9am you are lucky to get a bed. People were reserving them all day without lying on them and nothing was done about it, even though there are signs on the beds not to do it. Whilst we were there there was an outbreak of D&V which my partner got. I informed the hotel and they said it was Norovirus which was all over Benidorm and they were going to put some information out to the guests regarding this which never happened. We spoke to numerous guests who had been ill and witnessed at least 3 ambulances attend the hotel, whether this was to do with the D&V or other issues I am not sure. In general I feel the hotel needs refurbishing, especially around the pool area and it certainly doesn’t warrant 4 stars.