Ramada Hotels and Suites by Wyndham Costa del Sol

Do not be lured in by all the wonderful photographs of the ‘multiple’ pools advertised online. This is completely false advertising. You are allocated a pool on arrival and you are ONLY allowed to use that pool.

Your key will not work on the gate to any of the others and if you do get in, once you give your room number you are asked to leave immediately by the staff and sent back to your own pool.

We booked a superior two bedroomed sea view apartment as it was the best possible option for our family of 2 adults and 3 children.

We were assigned the Pueblo Marina swimming pool. It was honestly awful. It had murky water, dirty floor, rubbish and cigarette ends strewn everywhere and not close to any amenities to get a drink or snack for the kids (see photos).

After complaining we were told we could use the pool at Zac’s bar. This pool was the size of a postage stamp, massively overcrowded and had broken steps which was not suitable for my autistic daughter.

We were informed by reception there was nothing more that they could do as they can’t control what photographs travel agents use on their websites. We even offered to pay extra to change rooms so we could get access to a clean and safe pool for the children to use but again we were told that the whole resort was full.

As a last resort they advised us to try and ‘sneak’ in to one of the pools attached to the private villas on the complex as they were unmanned and we were less likely to be questioned. Not exactly what you want to be doing during your holiday that you paid thousands of pounds for!

Although our room was modern and newly decorated we had ONE towel change in 10 days for 5 people and ONE clean. The bedding wasn’t changed but merely left on the end of the bed for us to change ourselves.

The crockery in the cupboards was dirty, the bedding had stains all over it. The air conditioning unit outside our room was broken and was dripping all over the floor making the floor slippery and dangerous.

We didn’t sleep once in the 10 days we were there as the walls are paper thin and as the hotel is located on a really busy dual carriageway the traffic was really noisy.

We were constantly being woken up in the middle of the night by other guests coming and going as reception allowed them to use our parking space next to our door as we didn’t have a car. We had people ringing the doorbell in the early hours and packing and unpacking their cars at 2.30am right outside the children’s bedroom window.

This is not a hotel. It feels more like a glorified campsite. There were people pulling off the dual carriageway and relieving themselves in the bushes at the bottom of our road.

After losing days of our holiday trying to sort this mess out we contacted our travel agency and desperately started to look back through our emails to see where in the small print it had said you were confined to one pool in one part of the complex and how we could have missed this. We of course couldn’t find anything but what we did find was an email from Ramada Hotel and Suites sent to us a week prior to arrival offering us to enhance our stay by booking a VIP family pool package for 50 - 100 euros a day where you could use the amenities at the Safari Restaurant and pool area at the Wyndham Grand which is about a 20 minute walk away over the other side of the resort.

For this price you could get a Balinese bed for 4 people, water, fruit platter and waiter service. We booked it and it was honestly an amazing experience. The staff were so wonderful, a complete contrast. Nothing was too much trouble. The area is so beautiful and finally the kids had clean and safe water to play in (see photos).

We were extremely lucky that the bed was available to book for the remainder of our stay though a huge added expense to an already expensive holiday.

We also ate most nights at the Grand Italia restaurant which was at the Wyndham Grand complex. Again the staff were amazing and very accommodating for our autistic daughter who needed a quiet space to eat and the food was always delicious.

We honestly felt that this holiday was one huge miss sell. You cannot advertise amenities that you simply do not have access to.

Easy booking check in was quick they have mini vans that take you to the room got a upgraded room so 5 stars from me !