Occidental Granada

Hotel parking was full, had to park at the mall. Very difficult to drive and find parking, the streets are very narrow and crowded with pedestrians. Breakfast buffet is €15 and was quite disappointing that they don't have hot items out for self service, had to order off limited list of items (eggs, bacon, churros). Their hot chocolate tasted like cheap powdered hot chocolate. The room looks somewhat dated with 2 double beds, A/C is very weak, had to open the windows and the street noise was quite loud. ~15 minutes drive to Alhambra.

Good: Staff are kind and helpful. The actual hotel is situated in a great area. However……. The hotel during the winter time does not permit AC. I was not aware of this as it was not mentioned during check in. When I went inside, I turned on what I thought to be the AC (as there were no signs that indicated otherwise). I went down and the staff kindly assisted me and moved me to another room (facing another direction) which helped the heat situation. I understand it’s the winter, however, restricting it to solely heat can impact many people. I felt like apart from this, it was a really good stay. Amenities are good and it’s in a good location.

The hotel is well located and is within a 10 minute walk of the city’s centre and main shopping and restaurant district. Our room would have been fine except for the terrible air conditioning. There was an antiquated controller, which was hard to decipher, but even at its coldest setting it did not cool the room which remained stifling night and day. It was only by opening the windows that you could get some ventilation, but because the windows opened inward you had to have the curtains wide open. The sliding cupboard doors were also hard to open while the key operated safe did not have a key. You had to ask the staff for one and I don’t think this offers the best form of security. Staff also seemed to be not concerned about the air conditioning problem. They were dismissive and said there were no options as every room was the same. Surely if this was an ongoing problem it should be addressed. Breakfast was also chaotic with lots of people milling around the food stations making it difficult to move. I was part of a tour group that were allocated an area up a small flight of stairs but at the furthest point from the food stations. My wife and I did not have a pleasant experience during our 2 night stay.

This is a warning for Priceline.com users (evidently a part of booking.com and unknown in Europe). We made a reservation about 10 days before our stay. We did it with the option of paying upon arrival, which we did at several other hotels on our trip. Evidently, this hotel either wants you to confirm your reservation you just made by email before you arrive OR have you pay in advance--I don't mind the paying in advance, but no other hotel of the dozens I've used around the world has wanted me to confirm a reservation with them by email after making it. That goes for about 10 to 12 hotels in Spain. So I never thought to check my email (during vacation) since Priceline.com's app and their messages all said I had a reservation up to the time we arrived. I admit I should have checked my email, but I have never had this experience before. Anyway, when we arrived, they told us we had no reservation, that it had been cancelled out a few days after I had made it.

How here's where I have a problem with their service. I undersand that your coroprate whoever sets the stupid policy above--the people checking guests in and out don't have a say in that. But when we arrived the people at the desk were simply not interested in helping us reseolve the situation--they just kept repeating they couldn't help us. I had to suggest 3 times, before they even tried, that they just see if there was a room for us and then we could make a new reservation. I don't know why they didn't suggest this to be begin with or simply look the first time I suggested they do it. When they finally did reluctantly check and--BOOM--hey they found one for the kind of room we needed for slightly less than I had originally booked it for. That 30 minutes of trying to make us go away and makiing us feel like we were some kind of idiots or grifters trying to get a free hotel room from them were for nothing. I understand that some guests are jerks, but, hey, maybe just try to help people out until they become jerks or unreasonable? We were being very polite, which only seemed to make them entrench themselves more against us. Very negative experience. The other people working there we met the next day seemed nice and helpful enough.

So we then checked in. The room itself was great--large, good AC, quiet. The hotel has a great underground parking garage that they have to let you into--it seemed to have a lot of space. The hotel isn't in a bad location, but you do have to walk a bit (through a nice shopping area) to get to the Centro. All in all a great hotel I would easily give 5 stars for if the service would have been better and their hotel not had such a terrible policy regarding reservations.