“Hotel Zen NEVER again”

My sister and I have just got back from a lovely weekend away in Torremolinos. Unfortunately the Hotel was awful. We booked and paid for a Superior room and chose the Hotel Zen because it stated only 5 minutes walk from the beach and pool is open all year round. It had a free shuttle bus service to and from the airport and to the shopping centre which we thought was good too.
We got to Malaga in good time and rang the number we were given to call the shuttle bus But the number was not valid saying This number has not yet been allocated an account. So we went to the Taxi rank and a Taxi took us to the Hotel at a cost of 19 euro's apparently standard charge!!

On arriving at the Hotel we were greeted by a young man by the name of Victor whose customer services skills were zero! We explained that we had tried to call the shuttle bus and that the number was not working. Victor tried the number and it did not work. He said it sometimes happened. We said we had had to pay for the taxi and he just shrugged shoulders then asked for name we booked under and then he said room not ready yet ready at 2.00pm. We explained that we had emailed the hotel the week before and agreed to pay 20 euro's extra for early check in to which he replied "No" cannot do this as you have booked a superior room and all superior rooms have persons in at the moment, fair enough comment we thought...................but we had email saying early check in would be available. He told us the Hotel was full but he did agree to try and sort something out as quick as possible so we said we would catch the shuttle into town and do a bit of shopping and have a good look around. Victor showed us a cupboard to leave our luggage in which was good and we changed in the toilet into something more suitable for the weather and Victor took us into town which was kind of him to do so.

On our return to the Hotel by taxi (10 euro's) we were greeted again by Victor who immediately told us, I check you in now. He then took ages on the phone another 20 minutes later we asked is our room still not ready? Yes, Yes, your room is ready and we were told room 204. We asked Victor to book us on the shuttle for 8pm that night to take us into town.

Now, there is no lift at the hotel and room 204 was right at the top of 4 flights of stairs and not an offer of help with our luggage. The room was very clean but very small and when we checked with Victor we were told yes it is superior room. The balcony had two sunbeds that had definitely seen better days as had the table and chairs on the Balcony. The air conditioning didn't appear to work either. There was also a metal gate which lead to access to the roof. This gate was hanging off its hinges in a very dangerous manor. Also, the electric light switch by the bed was hanging off. We found out on the 2nd day of our stay that Victor was lying and that it was not a superior room but a comfort room, NOT, what we had paid for but too late to change as we were only there for 2 nights and it was now day 2. A superior room should of had a fridge and was a lot bigger and tea and coffee and milk provided we had to buy our own milk!!

In the night we went down for a drink at the bar before we got on the shuttle. We were greeted by two very nice and polite young men Adrian and Javi they were very helpful about telilng us about the restaurants to eat in on the front. We waited for the shuttle......at 8.10 we asked Adrian if the shuttle was coming and he said that our names were not down for needing it, Victor had not booked it. Adrian made a phone call and sorted it and could not apologize enough which was fine mistakes happen.

On the Sunday we wanted to use the pool but it had been covered on the previous day but it stated in the handout that if we asked at the reception desk the pool cover would be removed so it could be used!! So we went to the reception again Victor was there and he said we could not use the pool as a member of staff had taken the key home with them and they could not unlock until later.

So again we decided to take the shuttle into town and walk along the beach hoping that they will sort the pool cover out by the time we got back. We also asked Victor to book us on the shuttle for the airport the next morning 7.00am and for that night to go into town at 8pm!!

When we came back from the beach Adrian and Javi were on the desk and we checked that Victor had booked the shuttle for the morning which he had, but he had not booked us for the shuttle into town again. Again Adrian sorted it.

We did not get what we paid for and we were only there for 2 days. Victor was rude and unhelpful and Adrian and Javi were the ones who were picking up Victors mistakes. We were very disappointed by Victors attitude towards the guest and how unhelpful he was and we never did get to use the pool although we did see one guest standing on a sun chair and climbing through a hatch in the cover to have a swim in the pool!!!

Cannot believe how guests are treated by one member of staff who lied blatantly to us!

All in all, not a good experience but it was made better by Adrian and Javi whose customer service skills were excellent and tried very hard to please everyone not just us!

So Thank you Adrian and Javi for your help it was a pleasure to meet you.