Martin Reed
🌟 Honest Review of Grand Luxor Hotel – Benidorm (18–22 June 2025)
While the Grand Luxor Hotel boasts beautiful facilities and immaculate gardens that are clearly well maintained, I left feeling more disappointed than delighted — especially given the price point and my own background in hospitality.
What I appreciated:
The cleaning staff were warm, friendly, and always greeted us with a smile. They genuinely made us feel welcome and cared for in terms of housekeeping.
The chefs deserve applause — the food was consistently delicious, with a wide selection and good quality throughout our stay.
It was also a lovely surprise that our stay included free entry to the nearby theme park, which was a nice touch.
Where things fell apart:
Unfortunately, the rest of the service left much to be desired. Coming from a hospitality background myself, I may have had higher expectations — but I believe the basics of good service and respectful communication should be a given at any establishment.
One of the more painful experiences was at the hotel bar, where I waited patiently to place a drink order. Despite greeting the barman in Spanish and asking politely if he spoke English, I was continuously overlooked while guests after me were served. Eventually, I had to ask a kind group of Spanish guests to place the order on my behalf. This made me feel invisible and unwelcome — as though I was being dismissed because I spoke English. That’s incredibly disheartening for an international guest.
Another issue that truly frustrated me was access to drinking water. Upon check-in, we received two 500ml bottles in our room — and that was it. I asked if I could take a bottle to my room and was met with rudeness and a firm “no,” with no effort made to explain why. I later discovered that the hotel has a refill system — which I would’ve happily used if anyone had communicated that clearly. I even brought my own water bottle to ask for a refill and was flatly denied again. Meanwhile, I noticed other guests sneaking drinks to their rooms — and I now understand why.
Trying to follow the rules and respect the hotel’s policies only backfired, and it left me feeling that the hotel has far too many rigid regulations for the high cost of staying there — especially in summer when having water in your room should be a basic necessity.
One evening, a group of us dipped our feet into the overflow pool just to unwind quietly, but the security guard aggressively chased us away. We weren’t disturbing anyone, just enjoying the peaceful garden space. I understand pool hours, but the treatment was excessive and devoid of hospitality or kindness.
Overall, I felt more like a number than a valued guest. The hotel is so large and commercial that the personal touch is completely lost. While the grounds and meals were great, the lack of guest care, rigid enforcement of rules without compassion, and the cold service from most staff have left me with no desire to return.
This was my first experience with a Marriott-affiliated property, and sadly, it’s also likely my last. Hospitality should be about making people feel welcome and respected — not just about policies and profits.
Cesar Correa
Well, it was probable unfortunately time. The hotel was running a big restoration while staying at. Some spaces were dirty, messy and uncomfortable, momentary. Pay attention to service, written or verbal communication is such a reflection of the corporate image, take care of your costumers. I would say it is great place, gorgeous decoration, massive event rooms and enjoyable outdoor facilities. Traditional and International food, fair price. The town is host of many events, so its beaches are amazing to hang out. Definitely, it must be a deal if you come to their water parks during summer.
Fawaz Alotaiby
It seems that Marriott via Sheraton just started to operate this asset. It was a mess from check in to check out (they gave us the wrong room), at check out it was also a mess as I’m a gold member and deserve a late check out there is a miss in communication internally as I have informed them but we started getting people knocking our door at noon to say check out. When at checkout they were planning to charge me extra per hour for late check out. Also, the food oh don’t get me started, no it was terrible from breakfast to dinner, the in their Mediterranean restaurant the only Mediterranean is the olives. Anyway Marriott needs a lot of work as this place has a nice location and amenities.
Danielle Louise
Absolute chaos! We came last year when it was still Grand Luxor… it was much better then!!! Being taken over by a large company I thought it would of been better here.. how wrong was I. Long long queues for check in, staff have no idea what they are doing and as for the restaurants , long waits no service , tables are filthy , what I was expecting to be a nice family holiday has been ruined because of lack of service , cleanliness and queues, Sheraton should be appalled at themselves for this type of service.
Yvonne Walker
We have just left the hotel at lunchtime.
Only booked Friday night for 2 nights so last minute.
We have lived in Spain over 20 years and we love Benidorm.
I have always wanted to stay at this hotel, as it was my Birthday on 23rd my Husband said book.
We arrived , checked in.
Booked room only as we like to keep our options open.
Went down to see cafeteria, bar area and lounge area.
The food looked dreadful the atmosphere even worse, we went into town.
My Husband likes his T . V. And sport, and likes to relax in the room , there was list of T . V. Channels, looked in English section, about 10 Channels to choose from so plenty.
After our trip out we went to room, hoping to watch a bit of T. V. with a night cap.
The minibar was empty.
Then we discovered none of the channels coincided with the list. English was in ltalian
So we searched all of them might as well have been none.
Anyway, in the morning, we thought we would make a coffee, there were 2 cups, each with 2 sachets of tea, 1 coffee, 1 sugar and no milk, it's outrageous really that this can happen.
When we go away, we like to have a read and relax with a glass of wine in a nice comfortable chair.
It's not possible at this hotel.
As we are here permanently the weather is not important to us it was raining but didn't matter.
Did not relax or enjoy the experience which is meant to be a top hotel, we wish we would have stayed home.
Will never visit this hotel again and strongly recommend that the readers of this review don't do either.
I cannot complete the up and coming questions because none of them are appropriate from our experience.
My Booking
