Reina Cristina - Algeciras, Spain     

On the pictures this hotel looks lovely, charming and authentic. But in the hotel we experienced a night of horror. First of all: we were in April i Algeciras when it was 30 degrees celcius (85 fahrenheit I think or more). And the sun was all the time on our room. Guess what? The airco was not put on by the hotel. We confronted the receptionpeople with it, and the effect was that on both nights we stayed there the airco remained off. The room itself was very dated and not too clean. But this was all a joy compared to our experience in the weekend. We arrived and there was a party for really old people going on. Not that I have anything against old people, if they like to party... party on dudes. But the hotel is very old, meaning: the walls are very thing. If your neighbour farts, you could hear it. Well, guess at what time the party ended at night? We went to bed around midnight, and we were still awake at 1 am because of the noise of this partycenter hotel. And at 2 the party was still going strong. Still at 3 I could not sleep, neither at 4 or 5. Finally at 6 in the morning they closed the partycenter. To us this was an outrage. What a horrible experience. Never again we will go to this dump of a hotel. I will not comment more about the breakfast, then that we didn't go on our second morning (not only because we needed some sleep...) If you like to sleep between midnight and six in the morning: do not go to this hotel. Avoid at all cost!!!

and & I stayed in the Reina Christina for 4 nights in early April 2008. We decided very spontaneously to travel and did not have much time to search for and evaluate hotels. We had snapped up a cheap Gibraltar flight from the UK and were looking for clean and affordable 4* accommodation in a convenient location to explore. Algeciras can be easily reached from Gibraltar by car (15 mins or less) and is a good base to explore Morocco (if indeed you feel inclined to do so) or the Spanish enclaves (lovely place, worth the visit; but stay away from the tour operators - forced shopping stops galore, but no time wasted on seeing sights). By car, it is not too far to, say, Tarife or Ronda. Algeciras town is indeed not the prettiest sight ever, but - coming from Portsmouth and having read some of the feedback on this site - expectations were not excessive. A bit like old Pompy, only sunnier. The old town is pretty enough with some shops, bars and restaurants. And the local beaches (again, you need a car) are at least sandy, not pebbly. As for the hotel itself: Staff tend to display the usual attitude so often encountered with hospitality staff in Spain, i.e. utter contempt for the guests. A notable exception was receptionist Julie, who was friendly and helpful. The rest made it clear that it was really truly well beneath their dignity to deal with us, but some higher force made them to. As we had read on ‘Tripadvisor’ about the occasional noise problem, we had asked in our booking for a quiet room and were assigned a room on the side of the hotel away from the big hall used for wedding receptions etc. The room was quiet indeed for the first couple of nights - when there was no-one else staying in the other rooms on either side. What happened on the third night, I have never experienced before: The voice of people talking in obviously quiet conversation next door were as present and audible as they were standing right next to us in our room! The walls between the rooms have all the sound proofing of lace curtains! Unbelievable! We were lucky: the neighbours did not party till the wee hours! If there is one major downside to this hotel and one reason why we will not return and recommend people not to stay there, this is it. Other: We were told we had been upgraded as we had booked for 4 nights, but not sure what rooms 'one step down' would be like. The room was - judging from the escape plan – one of the smallest on the 3rd floor and had a very odd oblong shape. The bath room had recently been renovated, and was tiny but spotless (with separate WC with echo problem). The furniture was very dated, but clean (renovations apparently planned for this year). As mentioned here before, there do not appear to be any double beds; twin beds had been pushed together, but seemed to develop a life of their own during the night!). The room had a large wardrobe, a coffee table with two chairs as well as a little desk area. Decorations were a bit on the cheap side. TV included a wide variety of European channels in several languages. For a 4* hotel I noted with displeasure the absence of a fridge and of tea/coffee making facilities. There is also no room service. The room had a balcony with a lovely view of the gardens and a couple of chairs. The hotel has a business centre with free Internet access. Opening hours are supposed to be 9-22, but rarely kept. Supposedly there is Wifi in the rooms, but when I requested the access code at the front desk, the receptionist questioned my reasons to use Wifi in the room when there was a business centre and would stubbornly refuse to provide the code! That much for all of ye business travellers! Breakfast (included) was okay. We had lunch on the first day, as we had had left home in the UK at 3 AM and had not eaten since arriving in the afternoon. Without going into more detail: the WORST food we had had in a long, long time. Stay away! A la carte dinner in the hotel restaurant was okay, but pricey. Pool opening hours are inconvenient (11-19). The outdoor pool was not particularly clean (lots of leaves, insects), the indoor pool tiny. Rackets for tennis /t/t and mini golf clubs are available at front desk. The gardens are nice enough for a short stroll. The hotel bar has a basic selection of hot and cold drinks and nibbles, bit is pretty enough and has a nice garden/terrace section. All in all, we would rate the hotel 'average/normal', as it was affordable and clean, but oh, the noise problem... Probably would not stay again because of that.