My wife and I stayed for 2 nights at the hotel between 7 - 9 October. We chose the hotel purely on it's reputation and location. Having stayed at their excellent property in Dubai we had high expectations. To be fair, we literally slept there and ate breakfast so this was not a vacation.

The hotel is in a great position, right on the beach, a large property where a number of the suites are actually owned by private individuals. 30 minutes to Gibraltar and about 20 minutes to Puerto Banus.

On checking in, the receptionists were not overly friendly and we had to wait about 5 minutes before we were seen or acknowledged. There was only one receptionist on duty and she should have called another one out to deal with us rather than blanking us. The room we were given was smaller than expected and the view was not as booked. After some too'ing and fro'ing, we were shown to another room with a better view that we accepted.

The breakfast buffet was OK, certainly not the best but the view was great.

Last time we were in the area, we stayed at the Las Dunas. To be fair we would have stayed there again except the price had doubled. The Kempinski is the poor relation. It is listed as a 5* Deluxe. Personally, I would rate it a good 4* and in our opinion, lacked atmosphere.

Not a 5 star as I understand the term. Only thing that was 5 star was the weather.
Only one restaurant out of 4 open in evening (same one every night), snack bar menu very limited and refused to serve anything not on memu (eg omelette), pool bar closed one day even though weather sunny and hot, turn down service AWOL for 2 days in middle of stay - had to ask for it on the third day,
No entertainment at all. Only organised event was 'Sunday brunch' at E68/person.
Would not pay a return visit.

We stayed in the Kempinski for two nights as we were attending a friend's wedding which was being held at the hotel. We had a discounted rate as wedding guests which was just as well because I really didn't think it was worth the money. Housekeeping didn't come and turn down the bed, although they did enter the bathroom and leave a couple of chocolates and the breakfast room service menu on the sink which I thought was rather strange. Whatever happened to the turndown service I have come to expect from a 5 star property?

Service was incredibly slow at breakfast. We had to ask no less than three times for our coffee, which finally arrived as we were pretty much finishing our breakfast.

We asked the concierge to book a restaurant for us and phone us to confirm that this had been done. We didn't receive a confirmation phone call, so when we went down to the concierge desk to ask about this, they couldn't get through to the hotel so we just had to chance it.

In all, a very average hotel with not much atmosphere. Will definitely book an alternative hotel next time.

My daughter got married here in July 2007.The setting, staff, service, food, in fact everything about this hotel was excellent. We had one point of contact from the initial booking one year in advance to the big day.She was so helpful no request ever a problem. So many of the guests 85 who had travelled from N Ireland stated it was the best wedding they had attended. For food lovers we chose the spanish menu / bbq in the beach restaurant.The quality and the choice was superb.
I would highly recommend this hotel for a wedding venue.