“Perfect hotel”

Me and my partner chose the Occidental for our holiday and we’re so glad we did. Hotel is lovely, everything’s so clean, staff are all friendly, very spacious and modern. Food and drinks are great. We had a side sea view from our balcony which was amazing especially during sunrise / sunset. Bedro... more

Me and my partner chose the Occidental for our holiday and we’re so glad we did. Hotel is lovely, everything’s so clean, staff are all friendly, very spacious and modern. Food and drinks are great. We had a side sea view from our balcony which was amazing especially during sunrise / sunset. Bedrooms are spacious and the beds are comfy. Good location with things around and about a 10 minute walk from the port and busier area. We couldn’t fault anything and will be returning and recommending this hotel to everyone.

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“Amazing”

From check in to check out everything was amazing . Facilitates are second to none but the jewel in the crown are the staff they are brilliant so helpful. We are already starting to book to return in September. Barceló you must be so proud. You have a fantastic product which I will promote to eve... more

From check in to check out everything was amazing . Facilitates are second to none but the jewel in the crown are the staff they are brilliant so helpful. We are already starting to book to return in September. Barceló you must be so proud. You have a fantastic product which I will promote to everyone, the best Hotel in Fuengirola .

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“Fantastic Hotel and lovely staff.”

Fantastic hotel, lovely and clean and a really good breakfast. The pool is nice and it’s so easy to get to the beach. It was my birthday while there and I had a cake at breakfast with a candle on it, and then a bottle of bubbly left in the room with a lovely note. We have stayed before and this c... more

Fantastic hotel, lovely and clean and a really good breakfast. The pool is nice and it’s so easy to get to the beach. It was my birthday while there and I had a cake at breakfast with a candle on it, and then a bottle of bubbly left in the room with a lovely note. We have stayed before and this customer service really doesn’t suprise us, thank you.

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“Some good stuff, some very bad stuff”

Let's start with the elephant in the room (no, not the BMI of the guests): We filtered for adults only on hotels.com and booked Occidental Fuengirola. It's not adults only. The clientele is a mix of Brits treating it as their local pub before and after golfing, business trips and some couples/par... more

Let's start with the elephant in the room (no, not the BMI of the guests): We filtered for adults only on hotels.com and booked Occidental Fuengirola. It's not adults only. The clientele is a mix of Brits treating it as their local pub before and after golfing, business trips and some couples/parents with young children/babies. If you can't stand loud groups of men who golf, go elsewhere. Really. The hotel is alright, having been renovated in 2019 according to other reviews I've seen. Rooms are ok, beds are not very comfortable and soft at the top but very hard underneath the thin soft top layer. TV has a ton of channels if that's your thing. Bathroom is fine and does the job, but could have done with a little more light around the mirror. Shower has nice pressure. Minibar fridge is tiny, but can hold a few bottles of water and some soda cans. Service at the reception is pretty good, helpful and efficient. Overall positives do not make this a 4 star hotel in my book, more like a 3,5/5. Now let's dive in to the negatives: Breakfast buffet. Oh my god. Hunger games. The desperation in people and selfishness of how people behave when they have to wait to get bread, eggs, bacon, drinks, fruit and other stuff is sickening. The layout of the breakfast restaurant is probably not ideal, but I've been to plenty hotels with more guests and smaller areas where you don't fear for your limbs when waiting to get food. It might be a cultural thing with boomer generation Brits acting like neanderthals seeing food for the first time, but it got progressively worse during our week at the hotel. Staff did not do anything to make the buffet work in a more orderly fashion and basically seemed like they had given up on life. Very stressed refills of the food, undercooked pretty much boiled bacon served, undercooked eggs, only seriously terrible and cheap orange juice from concentrate (I understand that doing fresh OJ when people act like vultures isn't possible, but it doesn't exactly feel high standard when you could buy a 1,5L carton of the same juice for €0,5 at a market down the road). Fruit was pretty decent, to be honest, but that's about it. Breakfast experience is a solid 0/10 would never do again. If it was bad in May when we're not even in high season, I can't imagine how bad it is during peak. The pool bar was closed during our stay in May 2024, but the other outside bar/restaurant/lunch place was open. You'll find a mix of loud groups of golfers drinking silly amounts of beer both before they play and after returning to the hotel (Yes, you'll hear them. Yes, they get drunk and show little respect to other guests. No, they are not charming.) and couples trying to eat lunch. Service was slow because so many golfers demanded attention and ordered rounds upon rounds of beer. If it was bad in May when we're not even in high season, I can't imagine how bad it is during peak. Seriously, though. Golfers should try drinking water, not try to empty the bar. Gym had a decent selection of equipment, but treadmill was broken, shower was broken and there was nothing there to clean off the equipment you used. That's just nasty. Sweatfest 2k24. There is a kindergarten on the same street as the hotel and one of the babies spent all week crying basically non stop. If you read this in 5 years, the kid is probably in school and not there anymore, but if you read this in 2024, it's probably still crying. The elevators are tiny. And slow. And tiny. And slow. Prepare yourself to wait in line and be crammed into a small space with people with BMI on the higher side of the scale. You're probably better off taking the stairs, I know I did. If it was bad in May when we're not even in high season, I can't imagine how bad it is during peak. I think they forgot about sound isolation when they renovated the hotel in 2019, because you can hear EVERYTHING the neighbors do and everything that happens from people exit the elevators until they close the door to their rooms. That feels pretty common in hotels, but for some reason sound reflected extra harshly off the walls here and made sounds very sharp. To make a long story short; if you can avoid British golfers, do that and get another hotel that doesn't cater to that crowd. But if you are a British golfer, maybe think about other people and don't get rowdy just because you're abroad and think now is the time to relive your childhood days. It's just a bad look, mate.

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