AVOID unless you want to stay in a noisy resort next to a motorway with bad service and poor quality food and pay highly inflated prices for the privilege!

I am a freelance consultant advising large firms on service delivery so I am very passionate about good service. I travel a lot, both for business and pleasure and only stay at the best hotels. Sadly my 10 day stay at the Kempinski hotel in Estepona was not a pleasurable one -this is not a 5 star deluxe hotel by international standards.

I arranged to be met at the airport by the hotel limo service (£160 for a 35 minute journey). It was an old Mercedes S Class, with no water, no cold towels plus the service indicator on the car was flashing (not well maintained!). The miserable (non-English speaking) driver had the football commentary very loud on the radio and broke the speed limit several times getting me to the hotel.

The hotel is next to a noisy motorway (see pic) in the middle of nowhere (you need to hire a car or catch a taxi). The rooms have been refurbished to a good standard with nice bathrooms and most rooms face the ocean (avoid ones that face the motorway). The beds are narrow and not very comfortable - I spoke to at least 6 people who told me that even after a week they still couldn’t get a good nights sleep. In addition, the vast majority of rooms are either next to the lobby (piano plays until midnight!), directly above the bar (closes 2 - 3am) or directly above one of the outdoor restaurants (close after midnight). So when you sit on your terrace you either hear the roar of the traffic or music and talking. One evening a wedding reception was held in the grounds and had music blaring until midnight – rubbish was still on the grass 4 days later!

The hotel has nice grounds and large pools overlooking the ocean, however it isn’t relaxing as wherever you sit you can hear the roar of traffic. This may not bother some people however other activities may, i.e. the 4 hours of Dixie jazz playing during the Sunday brunch or the house music of water aerobics or the kids club playing water polo in the pool (even though the Conditions of Use state “No ball games or other activities which may disturb guests”). Maybe you like listening to drilling and banging while they refurbish the rooms. Or children screaming, shouting and jumping in the pool. I am amazed that in a resort hotel there is no management for this area considering most guests spend most of their time here.

The sun chairs have dirty mattresses and are old and rusty, the majority have screws or wheels loose or missing. The tables are cheap plastic and in the 10 days I was there neither these, nor the sun chairs were ever cleaned (even ones with bird droppings on!). Full ash trays would sit for days and cats would help themselves to food that was left out from the previous day. In addition, no one came to make-up your sun chair. You had to go to the “shed” hand over your card where they wrote down how many towels you had taken. You only got your card back when you returned your towels (they would count how many towels you brought back!) What service! Don’t they trust their guests? This is the only 5 star hotel (let alone 5 star deluxe) where I have encountered this sort of behaviour.

All the above was annoying however the worst thing was the extortionate prices they were charging for the privilege – ten pounds for a cocktail in a small plastic throwaway cup. I was told by returning guests that prices had increased by 50% since the previous year (probably to pay for the refurbishment). They were charged £13 for a slice of bread with a slice of ham and cheese on! In addition, you only got 2 free bottles of water in your room on arrival, the rest of the time they charged £4 for half a litre. I suggest you go to a supermarket (most guests did) and buy the same brand for £2 for 9 litres!

With regard to the hotel restaurants the seafood buffet night (Thursday) was quite good plus had an excellent salsa band so offered good value. However the others offer terrible value for money. They charged top London prices for lukewarm uninspiring food. The housekeeping is very hit and miss, they didn’t make-up the room several times, they forgot to leave shower gel, hand towels, etc. I had to call-up maintenance twice as the slot for the key card (to work lights and air con) didn’t work. One time I couldn’t get into my room because the key card didn’t work.

I voiced my dissatisfaction to the management, but they appeared indifferent and ineffective. I was promised certain “treats” would be delivered to the room – nothing appeared. I was told that the incident with the limousine service would be looked into – never heard anything again. One night when I couldn’t get the electricity to come on in the room the General Manager told me he would come up and make sure it was done – I waited but he never showed up. The Assistant Manager promised to come and see me before I left –she never appeared.

This hotel suffers from what many service organisations suffer from, that is Over Promise and Under Deliver. This is a cultural issue and changing an organisation’s culture doesn’t happen over night. This hotel attempts to charge maximum price but offer very little service and quality. It was my first time in a Kempinski – I wouldn’t stay in another one! I would suggest that the managers go and spend a few nights in a Mandarin Oriental hotel to see how it is done.