Before booking this hotel I had read up and only wish someone had put a review similar to mine to stop me booking this hotel.

I have read many a good review on different sites for this hotel and quiet clearly while we were there plenty of people were enjoying themselves, many who had been previously and loved it. We didn't !

The hotel is in major need of a refurb, 20 years ago it was probably new and modern, now its just tatty and old fashion, although clean.

There are major road works outside the hotel and although not noisy (didn't see one workman all holiday - so god only knows how long they will take to finish) they were sectioned off by 6 foot green boards so if you sat in the hotel bar or reception you couldnt see daylight, hence no sea-view as advertised.

To the left of the hotel all shops were boarded up making it look more like the east end of London. We are not snobs, nor do we like to moan, I have posted very good reviews on other hotels we have stayed in but this one really wasnt up to our standards.

There was nothing for our 11 and 8 year old sons to do, it was a little too cold for them to use the pool - thankfully as it didn't look too inviting, and there was no evidence of the activities that were advertised.

The entertainment was very poor, even the pool table had 2 white balls and the black ball was an extra ball that had been coloured in black with a marker pen!

The only good thing about the hotel was the food, couldnt complain we all found something each day that we enjoyed to eat.

The hotel was one of a group of hotels (Amigos Hotels now called the Magic Hotels).

The identity card given to you when you arrive gives you access to all the other hotels in the group so that in your travels around Benidorm you can drop into any of them for food, drink and entertainment--- for free!

A free bus service runs around Benidorm for all card holders. This service is unequalled anywhere.

The hotel is very clean and the chambermaid was very cheerful and obligeing.

The rest of the staff, i.e. bar and catering, were very freindly and gave us very good service indeed.

The food was very good, bearing in mind that this is a 3 star hotel. The gala night dinner each Friday were excellent.

The location of the hotel is probably the best in the group as it is the only one on the sea-front. The beach is easily accessed by using an underpass which goes under the coastal dual-carriageway thus avoiding crossing a busy road.

The entertainment is a weak point with only one or two decent shows per week. The resident band (a duo) is musically quite competent but for the last three years they have been painfully loud causing many of the residents to go elsewhere in the evenings to avoid ear damage. I know that many complaints have been made about this over the past 3 years but to no avail.

The general atmosphere in the hotel is very friendly and people go back year after year and meet up with freinds that they have made in previous years.

The worst critiscm we have is that the maintenance in the hotel needs to be improved in that lots of the rooms have defects such as curtains which are difficult to open and close, bathroom fittings inscure e.g. toilet seats,taps,towel rails,bath rails and wash-basins. All minor faults and all easily fixed if there was a resident maintenance team.

Despite these shortcomings the hotel gives good value for money and it's probably cheaper than staying at home.

The hotel was filthy, especially our room, the floor was never cleaned in the two weeks we were there, also we had the same sheets on the beds for the whole two weeks.

The food was fair, although I did have a creepy crawlie in my cold rice pudding on the day before we came home.

The hotel was situated across a busy dual carriageway, which the brochure did not mention.

To be fair it was dreadfully understaffed, but what staff were there, were very rude and offensive.

The lack of entertainment was very obvious, children had 45 mins every night except Fridays of a so called mini disco which consisted of hands, shoulders, knees and toes, or oh ke ko ke

I would never visit or recommend this hotel again.

Villa del mar.

Cleanliness of hotel wasnt that bad.

Hotel food was v.good.

Location wasnt what I expected.

Very short staffed, supposed to be 3 bars in operation but only 1 which was quite bad, as you had to walk through reception from the pool on the first floor to get a drink.

Entertainment was a joke, says in the brochure full entertainment, both for night time and also for kids, in the 2 weeks we were there my 11 year old daughter had kids club once.

Not stated in the brochure dual carraige way to get to the beach, there was a smelly subway to get there.

To say there was 108 rooms there was about only 20 sun loungers round the pool, my daughter who is 4ft 11inch could only just stand up in the shallow end of the pool.

We paid for all inclusive, we had to go out nearly every night to find entertainment, we asked to be moved but were told there were no vacancies anywere else, so we had to make the most of it, we will never go to this hotel again.