I arrived in Santander needing a hotel for one night before catching the ferry back to the UK, and called at the first on my list the Chiqui, sadly they were full (it looked a super place) and directed me to the above, saying it was an excellent hotel.
The situation isn't ideal, being surrounded by main roads on three sides and a school on the other, but the reception staff spoke good English and directed me to a suite overlooking the distant view of the sea.
At first I thought "Wow, this is nice!" but soon problems appeared.
The suite consisted of an entrance hall with a fridge, a large living area with table/chairs and settee, and then there was a bedroom with two single beds pushed together and a marble bathroom with separate loo and bidet. The shower was over the bath .
Within five mins I realised my bare feet were filthy , and after checking the floor saw it hadn't been cleaned with a damp mop just swept roughly. I ended up washing my feet three or four times during my stay.
The door frames on places like the toilet cubicle had dark coloured hairs sticking inthe dirt and there were numerous old stains on the woodwork (yuk)
The wastebin in the bathroom was filthy on the outside and places like the wardrobes clearly hadn't been cleaned in weeks.
I settled down to watch some tv only to find the control had a mind of it's own, sometimes working sometimes not.
I abandoned that idea and went dow to the cafe for some food.
Now I don't know who's idea the decoration was but it's without doubt the vilest I have ever encountered in a hotel.
Real animal heads stuffed on the walls, so you had bison, goats , a life sized elephant and worst of all a cheetah or leopard skin displayed. The overall effect was of a rather creepy animal mortuary!
The salad was fine, the barman helpful, so I walked back through reception to see they had famous matadors' costumes on display, complete with the rather nasty looking barbed spikes they stick in the bulls.. Each to their own I suppose.
By this time I was quite tired so decided to watch some tv on the bedroom set and go to sleep. The channels were all Spanish including a bull fighting channel (surely an International Hotel could have one English channel?) and turned the tv off to go to sleep. On again it came.. I struggled every whichway to turn the thing off but it refused to stay off. Eventually at 11. 30pm I requested reception help and a chap arrived (I got dressed again) and dismantled three drawers before finding the source of the plug in an obscure wardrobe.
I settled down only to hear loud music and "Ouno douay, tres!" shouted by someone to the beat of a live band.
I tried to ignore it, and in fact tried to ensure the windows were closed tightly (faulty on both sides, neither would close as they should) and eventually climbed wearily out of bed, got dressed and went down through some fire doors to find the source of the noise. It turned out to be a really packed bar with salsa lessons in full swing...
I went back to bed and tried to sleep, but the last thing I recall was seeing the clock read 2.52am and it was still jumping downstairs...
I felt really cross they didn't warn me or ask if I wanted a quiet room.
So my overall impression? Don't bother staying. I have emailed the head of the chain but no reply as yet. At 88 euros plus tax a night it isn't worth the money, dirty, noisy and lousy situation.
head for the Chiqui instead, I will next time!