Hotel Don Pepe Gran Meliá

Everything. We stayed for a week in February - family of three with a three year old. Very family friendly hotel with lots of activities to keep kids entertained - great indoor pool. And great entertainment provided by Dani in the kids hut - pizza making, cake decorating, movie night, crafts (painting hats, T-shirts, fans) and lots of sporting equipment. Amazing breakfast - very friendly breakfast staff, particularly Angel. Comfy rooms - good amenities. Red Lounge worth the upgrade - good selection of food and drinks and lovely sun terrace. Perfect location - right on the beach front. 15 min walk to Old Town. Easy access to bus stops if you don’t have a car - only €1.18 to travel to PB. Overall, amazing stay.

Lovely property. Wonderful staff. Very clean

The only disappointments were the beach. Not the hotel’s fault but beach is narrow and rocky. The sand is coarse and steep sloping. We were also disappointed with Tahini restaurant. Annoying that it is used as a cut through by people using Cappuchino restaurant. Only patrons and staff should be allowed in. Otherwise it is like dining in an airport arrivals hall. Totally destroys the ambience. We asked to be moved but the staff failed to act, even though the restaurant was virtually empty and we had the first sitting so we walked out. The first time I have ever done that.

what can I say - this hotel is fabulous and the staff are amazing - a quick mention to Rafa the pool guy - so welcoming and had plenty of advise . Also Silvia, Patricia amd Irene also were fantastic. We up graded to red level when we got there and had plenty of snacks and drinks although the room looked the same but was higher up..You could not wish for a better breakfast, I always judge a hotel on the fruit and this was plentiful and changed daily. We ate in town most nights which is about 25 mins walk. We had paid for half board but only used this twice so I wouldn't bother with HB next time, there are so many restaurants in marbella and we had some lovely meals out. It was 25 degrees in mid march which was fab and unexpected . We will be back. The hotel manager was always around making sure that things were going alright.

Nothing

Excellent location, service spot on. Staff wonderful. Bars and restaurants in the hotel and near by which makes for relaxing and fun stay. I really liked the clarins bath products and offered a glass of cava or water on arrival and complementary cava and strawberries in the room. Turn down service excellent too. It’s these kind of touches that the hotel apart from others. Thank you to all the team for a superb 3 night stay 😊

The sun beds need cushioning - it was available on request but they weren’t available unless you asked. Made all the difference to the comfort of the lounger. The bathroom in the room needs a bit of an upgrade - totally fine for me but could imagine that other guest might expect more.

Location, staff, distance from the beach, distance from the old city, distance to the shopping center, distance from the restaurants. Breakfast is very good

Not what I call beachside, but you only have to cross large pool area and very popular cafe outside the hotel, but eventually even this has become a pleasurable thing as they have amazing cappuccino!

The bed, pool area and breakfast

Every day more than 3 times a day I had to recharge my room card to access my room. this was really annoying. You expect that in a hotel like this, doesn't happen. It was after housekeeping entered the room, my room card was useless and I had to go to the reception. This happened every day 3 times a day. Management of Don Pepe, you could do more than sending me a bottle of champagne to change this especially for new hotel guests....

Wonderful well maintained property with beautiful garden and convenient facilities, great choice of buffet food for breakfast, excellent location

The initial booking stated a twin bed for my child, however when we arrived it was a very uncomfortable flimsy and old sofa bed. Luckily the staff rectified the inconvenience and provided a better accommodation.

We were on red level, good location and good food, easy access prominade red level offered extra comfort the staff were very helpful

The room was very small the bathroom was a tight squeeze with 2 people getting ready for dinner in one sink and the towels were on this mobile unit that got knocked over every time you used the toilet

it is a lovely hotel in a good location between the old town Marbella and puerto Bannus . Unlike Nobu and Marbella Club it is a large building with easy reach to everything rather then a holiday village concept of the other 2 competitors.( also better value for money)

I did not like the beach arrangement with Cappucino ,which is a separate company serving a a mediocre quality food with a very bad service .They also charge 25 euro to use their sunbeds ,next door DIblue has an excellent food and service and only charges 10 euro.The beach has a lot of stones and is very difficult to get in and out of the water.If you walk towards MC say 400m then you can get in and out much easily without the stones and all sand.Also coffee at breakfast and at the room service was very poor from a machine bitter taste should have better coffee.

Everything! (Well, almost everything - see negatives below). In particular, I want to call out the staff who were truly exceptional and committed to making my stay as good as possible. This is an extremely well run hotel and it showed in the way the staff all worked together seamlessly as a real team. I loved the strong customer focus. Well done! It was very hard to leave as I could easily have stayed an extra few days. Next time......!

If I had to be critical (and that’s very hard), the only thing I would say is that the entire spa/wellness/indoor swimming pool area could do with a good facelift, modernisation and some TLC. It was looking a bit tired and sorry for itself so I was left feeling slightly underwhelmed with that part of the hotel. However, in the context of Covid and everything else going on right now, it is a very minor observation in the grand scheme of things.