We booked our trip through hotels.com, the pictures there shows a wonderful place with lovely apartments and a reasonable price. We come to the place and find a staff who are completely uninterested in us. Which is OK since we always manage ourselves, and are very familiar with the Marbella area. We get a room not far from the reception (87). We had to drive around the complex to get our spot and then go back outside to get to our apartment that was over the bank and video store, felt as if we we're not part of the hotel. The doors to the garage close behind you, and apparently you can't use the same door to go back in to the garage we found out later which the staff neglected to inform of us, so lugging the luggage became a task, luckily we were 3 so that we could have one to look out for the luggage and keep the door open, keeping us from walking several sets of stairs up and down to get to the exit and entry doors to the garage. So feeling a bit annoyed, we got our luggage to our room and thought, ah finally we can rest and forget the minor annoyances that just took place which took us least an hour just to get there and get our luggage in our room. So we come into this room to find it nothing like what it's advertised! Only thing that was accurate that it was large apartment and large veranda and clean. The furniture was terribly old, the sofa was hard, and you saw old sweat stains in the sofa ( we ended up putting sheets over it and the deck chair pillows we had to buy since there were none), the bedroom door wouldn't close, several door handles was 70% broken off, making it hard to use. Everything was so dated! We never visited the common areas because it was so inconvenient from the location of our room, since we would then need to go through the garage to get there. We left the room and tried to work this out with the staff. Still the same old, they dismissed us instantly, saying they had "nothing to do with us" because we rented through hotels.com. We asked if any of the rooms were any different, but they dismissing told us that they all were similar. We would've left there and then, but to our regret the site made us prepay the entire amount without clear notice of when we made the reservation, so after paying 600 pounds for 5 nigths, it wasn't for us to get a new room at a new hotel since we don't know if we would get a refund from hotels.com - Who still haven't gotten back to us, which of course we sent a complaint to instantly we got home. I blame hotels.com for giving such a false impression (not to mention I've seen they mix up pictures on other hotels, suspect it's been done here as well considering the staff said that all the rooms were identical), and the hotel for being so rude, and doesn't seem to care if we may want to return to the hotel. If not the apartment was not so clean as it was, we would've left spite ending up paying another hotel 600 pounds. We ended up staying out all day as much as we could, when we were in the apartment we would sit mostly outside until we went to bed. My advise, if you ever use hotels.com, double check the net for the hotel official page and see if it goes over with what the site says, and never pay through that company but the hotel itself. Never go to this hotel, if you paid to get a little extra to get a nice room to stay in, or if you ever need the assistance of the reception staff. When leaving, we were the 4th in line, the 3 first asked about things to do in Marbella, none of them got a answer they needed, we ended up advising 2 of them instead which is ironic since we're not the locals here.

My family of 6 stayed at Aloha Gardens, which we pre booked in December 2007. We have never stayed in Marbella before and were over for a family wedding and decide to make a weeks holiday. It is a 5 drive to Puerto Banus, and Casino. First impressions were a little undesirable as a painting scaffolding was outside reception as was a skip that was full, but on entering the reception we found a pleasant receptionist whom was very helpful. I asked as had previous when booking requested a lower floor duplex apartment due to an elderly mother whom could not climb many stairs, the receptionist allocated us number 16. This was however up two sets of steps of about 8 steps, this was everytime we needed to walk from the complex, but if driving one set up as car park from here was on a higher level. Once we had been given our keys to the apartment, we also requested and hired a space in the underground car park which we found secure, cool in the warmer weather and convenient for our apartment. this had a remote entry key. On entering our apartment we were pleasantly surprised, it contained everything more a less home from home, all facilities were great except it could do with more english things like sky for the t.v. and dvd,s to watch as the player was there. It was a very clean and very, very large apartment with two bathrooms, one en-suite to the master bedroom on the 1st floor and three terraces, one rooftop but no shade for the serious sunbather, then one with an airer on the first floor outside master bedroom, and the ground one with two sunbeds, 4 chairs and patio table, but no parasol, this was on the ground floor surrounded by tropical gardens to which it was convenient to get to the heated indoor pool. It was a luxurious/large apartment compared to others we have stayed in previously. It came with hairdryer fitted in bathroom, iron, and iron board, dishwasher and washing machine also with airconditioning. After reading other advisors reviews I do think this year that the complex has had some considerable work done like the entire complex painted. The BAD things we found were the sofa bed to us was really uncomfortable, it was no good as a sofa to sit on either, we were not given any pillows for the two people sleeping on them. (Perhaps we should have asked housekeeping!) Maintainance staff were good. The fridge door was not closing properly and had to push it at the bottom, (minor problem) and the reception we feel should have been open longer hours and THEY WOULD NOT CHANGE OUR EURO TRAVELLERS CHEQUES, we had a real problem with trying to change them, please be aware there are some issues with cheques here, this is because of so many forged one's around in the area at present, so without our credit cards we would have been stuck.. Other pool areas were clean and pleasantly set out but in the height of summer possibly a shortage of sunbeds. Tried all three pool areas even the childrens one which mine loved with the two slides as they were too cold for this time of year. Security to complex was good. Security guard on duty in his little cabin on entering the car park behind gates and a barrier. Excellent security and all locked by key operated gates to complex again a good thing. There are a couple of supermarkets, pharmacy and banks a walk away. You would definately need a car in this resort, as not much very close you would need taxi if you dont hire a car, and be aware the LaJardin bar is open till about 4am, so you can hear some laughter well into the early hours. We had a good week stay overall..

We have just returned home after spending a week in Aloha gardens and what a memorable experience it was! we were a group of 8 girls celebrating my sister's 30th birthday. The apartment was fantastic with a washing machine, dishwasher and most important hairdryers, the only downfall to the apartment was that there was enough hot water for only 5 of us! The apartments are situated in a good location as it was very convenient to get to the port as well as the main clubs by taxi. If you fancied a quiet one then you can go downstairs to the El Jardin Lounge Bar or walk 2 minutes down the road to our favourite (where we spent many afternoons) The Paparazzi Bar. The complex had a mixture of all age groups staying there and it felt safe, even made friends with our neighbours that consisted of 10 men. Will definately go back.