Review of Melia Alicante 4*

The room was fine (though not very quiet), and the location is good for the city center and the beach. However, the hotel is extremely poorly managed and run, to the point that it can ruin the experience — so much so that I would recommend against staying there. There are plenty of other options in Alicante. They have it set up such that you have to go to the reception desk to get anything done — even things like getting a towel for the pool, which isn't even anywhere near the reception desk. Of of many trip to the reception desk, the typical wait time in queues was on the order of 30 minutes or more. This includes check-in. Imagine standing in line, travel-weary, and holding all your luggage (they don't have a secure place to leave it, for example if you get there early and want to go out and about) just to check in. We also had a simple problem with our room (the safe was broken). After they diagnosed it and determined that they need to just replace the safe (it isn't bolted down). They said on a couple occasions something like "wait 30 minutes, " only to never come. We spent nearly a whole day of our short vacation waiting for staff to do their jobs. The reception staff was not only unresponsive to guest needs, but they were also misinformed, which is worse than just being uninformed. For example, they told us the wrong opening times for the main tourist attraction (the castle), which, as it turns out, we could have done. They also were wrong by a factor of two when telling us how long it takes to get to the airport by taxi. What else. The pool closes too early — long before sunset. Breakfast was uninspiring. They put us in a smoking room without asking if that's ok with us. The building layout isn't very nice. There's a serious lift supply/demand issue.