I travel to the Costa Del Sol on a regular basis as part of my small business and have stayed at a number of hotels in the area. This has by far been the worst!! I normally stay at Las Rampas in Fuengirola, which is lovely, but it is closed until Feb. I also stayed at the RIU Nautilus last week, which is between Torremolinos and Benalmadena, now that is a four star hotel, excellent service, beautiful food, quality rooms and surroundings, and friendly staff who couldn't do enough for you. Now back to the El Pinar, firstly I cannot for the life of me understand how this place gets away with calling itself a four star hotel, I wouldn't even rate it a two star. I have not stayed at a hostel b4 but in my worst nightmare this is how I imagine them to be, although I'm sure that remark is very unfair on hostels! They describe the hotel as being set in 'the heart of the countryside' it isn't! It set right in the heart of a run down, graffiti ridden, dog mess filled residential area, close to one of the busiest and noisiest highways I have come across. It is also described as being set in a 'lush, leafy pine grove' what!!! ok it does have a few trees but that is as far as I would go! 'Stunning views? Ohh now come on you have seriously got to be kiddin me! This is very much a case of over sell, under deliver! Facilties? An even bigger joke when you walk round and look at them! Ok it was out of season but lets look at them, mini golf? Small slabs of broken concrete would better describe this, Table tennis? didn't see this, but there again there were many rooms that were closed, locked up abandoned? so I guess they could have been hiding in any one of these rooms. Main pool?,closed, poolside bar? closed, shops?, closed, gym? closed, sauna? closed. Well you get the picture, everything was closed! Food, it cannot be described as food! I would call it pig swill, but I have to say that wouldn't be fair on pig swill!! The dining areas are dingy, run down and not clean, sorry to disagree with others, but this place is not clean. the dining seats are dirty and stained, and I saw cigarette ends on the sides where food was being kept. Chairs were also stacked, or rather dumped, along walls in the dining room, again I could go on with this but I'm sure you get the picture. I wouldn't call the staff unfriendly, just not interested in anything, the whole place had a feel of apathy. The selection of food is extremely poor, which doesn't really matter as it is so disgusting you will not want to eat it anyway! Eating in this place has a feeling of basic animal necessity, certainly nothing to be enjoyed, and you will not enjoy either the atmosphere or indeed the food. The whole dining experience is disgusting and dirty, and dare I say and put my neck on the line, it has an undescribable feeling of almost being being intimidating. My room was musty and stank of stale cigarette smoke. Very small, it was a single but even so, no room to swing a cat, especially in the bathroom. Dirty brown stains on the bathroom ceiling, walls looked half painted in dirty coloured paint, door frames so rotten that no more filler and thick paint can hide it any longer. The whole place is run down, had it's day and should be put out to pasture, with all the other 70's Carry On style Costa hotels. Any good points? Yes one... checking out. Thank God I was only here one night!! If you haven't booked this hotel yet, DON'T, there are plenty of good ones in the area (not this area though, avoid La Colina like the plague which it probably has) If you have booked it, CHANGE now while you still have the chance, it will be worth the surcharge trust me. If you still go, well good luck you have been warned!

Firsty i would like to say that i can put up with a lot but this was a joke, had i paid full price for this hotel i would have raised an uproar. The first thing that greets you at hotel el pinar is the terrible stench, can't believe it's a functioning hotel, on arrival i went to my room and tried to open and close balcony door- not a chance, the outside door wouldn't close either. I phoned for assistance and after an hour and a half still no hope,, thankfully as there were 5 people in our party i could store my bags elsewhere. One of our rooms had been booked for 3 people- towels and beds were provided for 2 people. restaurant is terrible, staff are very unhelpful, i asked how to get to town and was told it's just down the road on the right- it's about a mile i don't mind walking but she could have told me that there was a free courtesy bus to town. Rooms are about 20 years out of date with fabric headboards with god knows what living on them - scary. DON'T GO

WHATEVER YOU LOOKING FOR PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL>...............
Too far from town,food so Andalucian,its not edible even the coffee and juices for breakfast are rubbish.
I have stayed in 4star hotels in most countries,but this is not even the standard of a British 2star,in fact the hotels in economically deprived countries is far better in every way.
During my stay,the word around Torremolinos is that this Hotel is the worst place to stay,it has a TERRIBLE REPUTATION.
Went once never never never again.
Booked through Expedia.co.uk whom I have comlained to as well as the Hotel and the Spanish(costa del sol) tourist board.

i had read the reviews before i booked so had an idea what it would be like either terrible or ok!!! it was GREAT. however it does depend what u r looking for. we were 2 adults and a 3year old booked HB. flew into malaga and it took 4 minutes to the hotel costing 16euros( fantastic) no hassle whatsoever..
booked in at the reception desk was told i had only booked BB but i showed the receptionist my hotel voucher for HB and he was ok with that. i had asked for low ground floor apartment but got 8th floor!.
the bedroom was quite small with 2 large single beds pushed together and a sofa bed but we were happy with that( we all managed to sleep in the bed).A TV that worked, hairdryer(more powerful than my own!!) bathroom was fantastic! small balcony not ideal for small children but we only used our apartment to wash and sleep in, so that didnt matter..
the place was sooo clean fresh towels everyday- what a blessing!! room tidied and bathroom spotless. the hotel itself was spotless, 2 seperate pool areas both with big swimming pools for adults then 2 small ones for children with a lifeguard on at all times, which was soo clean..
the food was buffet style and with any hotel buffet that u r eating night after night of course it can become a little boring but it was very well varied, soups, salads, meat dishes, vegetarians, chips and spagetti bol everynight so my 3yr old ate happily. oh and unlimited ice cream,yogurts.. breakfast was great too!!
glad we had already paid for our meals with the holiday otherwise it cost 13euros for breakfast 16euros for lunch and same for dinner. the drinks were reali expensive in the hotel. however ther is a supermarket on site which is really cheap so u can buy beer and stuff there!! oh and a hairdresser, laundrette,gym on site. at the bottom of the road is a burger king, aldi, lidle (them 2 cheap supermarkets).
the hotel was a good 15-20 minute walk from the beach but a free courtesy bus runs every 20minutes to and from the beach and main town of torremolinos.
torremolinos we were very impressed with it was also very clean the beaches were fantastic ( alot of sharp bamboo so make sure u take beach footwear) toilets on the beach were spotless too. food and drink is priced roughly the same as it is here 3 euros for a pint and 4-7euros for meal.. but if u dont eat on the beach front and take a step back into the the town its better..
u can walk to benalmadena on the beach front it takes about an hour but its fantastic..
we will def return here because of the location to the airport, the cleanliness of the hotel, we did go out of season so not much on at the hotel (apart from a spanish lionel richie impersonator) singing in the bar on a night but it looked like there is during the summer season.. we spent our days and evenings out in the town so as long as u r prepared to go out think u will be impressed