Hotel Emblemático Agáldar

Algaldar Hotel is stylish and in a perfect location within this really lovely authentically Spanish town. However, the lack of information/communication from Agaldar Emblematico Hotel for those arriving by car, especially for those guests who are not Spanish speakers caused us enormous stress and ultimately cost us a €100 parking fine. Cars cannot pull up to the hotel as there's a no-entry barrier to the square where the hotel is located next to the church. Guests are not told this. It's therefore very difficult to unload luggage and get it to the hotel. In order to unload our luggage we reversed in to a nearby disabled parking bay and left it for less than 5 minutes. When we returned there was a ticket fine for €200, which reduces by 50% if you pay immediately. This was very upsetting and seriously spoiled our arrival. Reception told us "yes, they target hire cars". We pointed out we'd contacted the hotel about parking and there had been absolutely no mention of arrival, how challenging it is or how there's a 30 minute waiting/parking bay we could have used. We were told the manager would speak with the police "to see what they could do" and hours later surprise, surprise "there was nothing they could do". We were then directed to a local ATM to pay the fine. We did this but could not understand how to pay the fine this way. We again returned to reception and asked for directions to the local police station. We then spent an hour of our only night in Galdar finding the station and paying the fine. The police ironically were apologetic. Hotel management never once contacted us directly to either see how we were or offer any advice. When we asked a member of staff is this happens on a regular basis they were silent and their face revealed that it does indeed happen time and time again. The town parking policy is obviously not the responsibility of Hotel Algaldar, but guest hotel arrivals are . A simple email when making a reservation or information on the Algaldar website would help guests avoid unnecessary and very expensive fines. Another tip for would-be guests is when enquiring about parking you'll be directed to a nearby paid car park but guests can park for free on blue zone streets where there are no lines or white lines.

Classic case of Faulty Towers: beautiful building let down by incompetent management. Beautiful historical building renovated with taste and respect for the original structure, in a great location in a main square of the old town. The result is visually pleasant, but little by little shortfalls emerge: the doors are not soundproofed, which means you hear all the noise from the interior courtyard, including people having dinner and breakfast; no handle on the bathroom door; no minibar. The real problem happened in the morning when someone opened our door at 8am - without even knocking, which we’d expect the cleaner to do. A little later a loud alarm went off in the interior court however not in our room. I went out to find out if we should evacuate and the staff told me they ‘didn’t know if that was the fire alarm or not’. ??? So staff had no clue about essential safety procedures - and we notice there were no fire safety plans in the room. When my girlfriend mentioned this at reception upon leaving she wasn’t given apologies or an explanation but rather excuses. A shame as the building is great, but we wouldn’t come back.

Absolutely beautiful hotel. We did choose what they class as their best room which had a huge bed, a chaise lounge and in the corner so we had a great view of the square and the church. It was so lovely we stayed two nights instead of the one we had intended. We ate in the restaurant both nights. The food on the first night was phenomenal but not quite to our taste on the second night. I had the lasagne and I found it a bit sweet. The receptionist was a great help with advice for parking and other things. The breakfast was lovely and the rooftop area was wonderful. Gorgeous little town too. Give it a whirl.