Obviously love the hotel love Benidorm used to work there in 1988
Phil who passed away some years ago ( just found out ) was a main reason for the last minute holiday
My bucket list is to find old fries and family, absolutely gutted ? Phil has gone , even after all these years I knew he would be there ! So many Spanish club bar owners still speak of him in such high regard, Phil Andy and myself were DJ in Benidorm. Phil gave up the DJ to become pancho Phil the clown. When I took my boys there in 1994. They loved him he had a special place in my heart
So sorry I never kept in touch. Heaven has a funny lovely guy. Wigan’s best ever export. Love ya from the gobby cockney terry xx

The Hotel (Pretend Posh) Don Pancho looks great but for a 4 star the food is poor and under prepared i.e sinewy / skinny chicken etc.The staff pamper those who visit regularly and they have extra privileges i.e around pool and the best rooms are saved for them.

You have to queue at locked doors on a morning where staff have great feeling of power as at 9am they tease with the opening ceremony, except for the privileged ones again who are allowed out of a secret door the maids use. The evening meal time is quite late 7pm for nothing special.

On the day of departure we were up at 6am for a make shift breakfast which was cut short as I spent 30mins arguing at checkout as someone had run a 50 euro bar tab up in our room number and they wanted paying for beach towels which we handed back the previous afternoon. We may have returned as the location is great but the checkout experience was the final nail in the coffin.

We did have a great holiday but only used the Hotel to sleep as even around the pool was un relaxing. We also ate out a couple of times and never once drank in the hotel bar which we were billed for.

Arrived at this lovely Spanish style hotel midday and were promptly checked in. The reception area is lovely.

We were shown to our room on the 8th floor which was large with walk in shower, plenty of wardrobe and drawer space and spotlessly clean. We could not fault the food at all. It was always piping hot and different carvery on every night.

Very friendly staff on reception and maid service was excellent.

We did not stay for entertainment, went out every night as there's plenty to do in Benidorm.

We would come back to hotel again.

We recently returned from a 21 night stay at the Don Pancho, and I have to say over all we had a very enjoyable time.

All staff were very helpful and went out of their way to make our stay as comfortable as possible. The hotel looks as though it was built about 20 years ago, and is situated in a very good position, one block behind the main beach and promenade. It has about 250 rooms over 17 floors and all rooms have a sea view and get full sun most of the day. We were on the top floor and had an impressive view over the town. The central rooms on each floor, those ending in 07/08 and 09 look to be slightly larger and also have a bigger balcony, but even the other rooms are not small by modern Spanish Hotel standards and are very comfortable. All have air con, hair drye, but no tea making facilities. Our room had twin beds which seemed at first to be a little on the hard side, but as it turned out were very comfortable and provided a good nights sleep. The housekeeping and room cleaning could not be faulted, and although some might find the room decor a little dated they were immaculately kept.

We had no complaints about the food. All meals are buffet style and offered something for all tastes. There was also a meat carvery on every night for those who wanted it. We had no complaints about the quality or quantity of the food on offer and heard no complaints from anyone about this.

The hotel has both an outside pool and a nice heated pool under glass, which was very pleasant to use. There seemed to be plenty of sun beds available, although at this time of the year not many residents use them.

I suppose if there was one area that could have been improved for us it was the evening entertainment. The hotel seemed to have had at least 75% British residents and yet on an evening the entertainment was geared very much towards the Spanish way of life, and particularly at weekends the music lounge was occupied by mainly local Spanish people dancing, which I suppose you have to expect when you come on holiday to Spain. This did not present us with any problems because there are many clubs close-by catering for the Brits. We could not work out whether the hotel management did this because they felt they were wasting their time trying to cater for the Brits because they were going to go out on the town in any event, or whether their entertainment policy was because they genuinely wanted to cater for the locals rather than the Brits. In any case the lounge got extremely busy at weeks ends.

One point to mention is that as a resident, it is advisable to charge any drinks to your room, as none residents pay a higher price in lieu of paying anything to get into the dance lounge at nights.

Overall we found the hotel very comfortable and had an enjoyable stay and will defiantly use it again.

Just had a week in the Don Pancho in Benidorm and would recommend it to most people. It is being refurbished gradually so there is a little noise during the day but nothing too intrusive.

My wife is partially disabled and often uses a wheelchair, so she e mailed the hotel to ask for a lower floor but had no reply. On arriving, we found they had allocated us a tenth floor room, but when she explained she could never get down stairs in case of a fire they immediately switched us to a first floor room without the slightest grumble and said they had never seen her e mail. The first floor is the lowest with rooms, the ground floor is reception and bar, above that is the dining room and entertainment room and above that the floor they class as first although we would call it second. The room also had a walk in shower instead of a bath and we were told that eventually this will be the norm throughout the entire hotel.

The staff were great, helpful and friendly. Our first evening we found that a table had been reserved for us with a big "wheelchair" notice on it near the dining room door so obviously reception had contacted them and told them this. They also did the same for two more wheelchair bound guests. The dining room staff were very pleasant and friendly.

The food was good if not great. There was a small carvery every night as well as the normal range of food. It was all well cooked, they seem to have decent chefs. The breakfast choice was normal for a Spanish hotel with pots of coffee and hot milk waiting on every table and satisfyingly decent sized glasses for the orange juice, not those piddling little shot glasses most hotels provide at breakfast.

The evening entertainment was obviously mostly aimed at the Spanish guests, but hey this is Benidorm, and the Don Pancho is near clubland, so a quick stroll and you have plenty of entertainment available. If you liked chill out music though, the regular act, Trio Fashion, were very relaxing, and one guy seemed to be able to play just about every instrument ever invented.

The decor of the hotel is striking, they have adopted a Mexican theme with Mayan or Aztec type art around the place, on pillars and walls and even on the bedroom headboards and drawer fronts. It was striking and looked rather upmarket, which is the general impression one gets, that this is more upmarket than many Benidorm hotels. The guests were mostly middle aged and older, with only a tiny number of children, and mainly looked respectable and middle class.

All rooms face the same way, toward the sea, but don't expect a great sea view, there are several skyscraper apartment blocks between the Don Pancho and the Med and though you can see the beach between them its not an uninterrupted view. Also by mid to late afternoon these buildings shade the pool and sunbathing area, which is not massive anyway. This probably wouldn't be a problem in mid summer when the sun is higher though.

We found there was little noise from the street, but then Benidorm was very quiet anyhow, probably because of the recession.

Overall, a good hotel and we will certainly use it again.

I stayed in this hotel as a last minute holiday because we couldn't get into the hotel with the rest of my family, after reading reviews I decided it would be OK. I go on holidays quite regularly and I love to stay in hotels and I pride myself on my good reviews BUT I have to write a bad review on this hotel as it was the worst I have ever stayed at! The hotel location is very good and it is quite clean. However, THE STAFF ARE TRULY AWFUL and I cannot explain just how awful they were. To be honest I would rather stay in a 2 star hotel with friendly welcoming staff than a hotel that thinks they are 4 star and very unwelcoming as they were at this hotel!
I think it is in the policy on here that I cannot write about staff or incidents etc.... So I will just say that I feel it is crucial to say that the staff are very very unfriendly, unprofessional, unclean, ignorant and I witnessed a few incidents, arguing etc.. that made my mind up to do this review. Think very carefully before you come here, especially if you have family trust me it was awful and my experience here was not very nice and I would never go back. I would go back to Benidorm and plan to in the middle of the year but we have all decided to give the 4 star hotel a miss because it was awful.

just got back from this loverly hotel it was brill very clean rooms good towels chabged every day bed 2 times in a week all staff were brill nothing was to mutch hassle food was the best we have had in benni diffrent meats every night fish, pasts,in fact most things desserts were fab breakfast was good pool was small but adaquit as for people sayin it was for over 40s no way wewere there in august and there was a mix of nationaltys and plenty young folk and children would i go back yes tommorrow if i had the money

Just back last week. Stayed half board but wished I had stayed full board. Rooms were very clean and were cleaned daily. Clean towels daily even though we were quite happy to re-use them. Hotel is spotless, lifts very efficient.

We were on sixteenth floor and never had to wait for a lift. Ask for a high floor, view is amazing. Air conditioning is best we have had anywhere else, just make sure the door is closed before you go out. Hairdryer is adequate, mini fridge is good, TV has some English channels. We got channel 5, not that we were in much to watch it. Couldn't figure out how to work radio. Shower was good too.

The food was amazing. Had a 4 course meal every evening, always hot and plenty of choice. Once a week you get a glass of champagne. Breakfast was good, plenty of choice although coffee in pots on the table was not very good but beside the tea urns are Nescafe satchets. We found this out 2nd last day. Also you can boil your own eggs.

Hotel is one street back from beach, a 2 min walk. The hotel did seem to have more elderly people, but it didn't bother us. We felt like teenagers amongst them and most were really friendly and boy can they eat. Never seen so many heaped plates. Staff in dining room were polite.

Cleaner on our floor, won't mention any names, but she was a bit full on and we always tried to hide from her. Maybe because we were younger than the usual guest.

We didn't stay in for any entertainment so can't comment on it, but I do know that the Spanish come in for it hence the 6.50 euro price for most drinks, but guests staying in hotel show your room card and you get guest rate.

I will definately return to this hotel again.

Of all the hotels I have been to in Benidorm this is the best.The location is perfect one street back from the beach. The hotel has the Wow factor when you arrive as there is a tropicial garden, with waterfalls at the front enterance. They also have a porter to help you with your cases and check in is trouble free from a very friendly reception staff.The rooms are well furnished with TV, air con, fridge, and plenty of both wardrobe and drawer space and they are cleaned daily to a high degree.The food is of a quality rarely seen in most Benidorm hotels with a choice for everyone, a really friendly staff with tables being cleared promptly. This hotel is more for settled people and I did not see any children during my stay, and I'm glad to say any stag or hen parties (which seem to be taking over Benidorm) Thoughout the hotel the staff cannot be faulted from manager to cleaner they provide great customer service.Has this hotel a downside? The only one I could find was the nightly entertainment which was geared toward the Spainish guests, but hey this is Benidorm why stay in the hotel when the outside shows are great.The fact that this hotel gets a lot of repeat guests says a lot and I can assure you that I will be one of them again in September

Stayed at Don Pancho for New Year on half board basis,

However you can have either lunch or dinner if you wish. We chose lunch because we like to try the different restaurants in the evening.

We did not think much of the food, although there was a very good choice for breakfast, found that the cooked breakfast was very greasy and could not get a good cup of coffee.

Hotel and room were spotless, the maid service was excellent as was the service of the staff overall. Hotel is in an excellent position just a very short walk to the beautiful beach and then a lovely walk along the promenade to the old town and just round the corner for all the cabaret bars.

Cannot comment on the entertainment because we did not stay in the hotel in the evening. The New Year gala dinner was very good. some people who had also been there for Xmas said that the New Year was better than Xmas.