We requested an apartment for one night only a few hours before arriving on Saturday early evening (after staying in a remote villa for the week before), and thought we might be left with the 'dregs'. What a lovely surprise when we were shown up the marble staircase to our rooms. A double bedroom (with air-con), kitchen, bathroom and living area (with a small balcony), all fitted out brilliantly and spotlessly clean, at an incredibly reasonable price.

Check-in and check-out couldn't have been more straightforward. The owners/managers/family were also flexible enough allow us an extra late Sunday checkout for only a few additional Euros, and one of the brothers helped us to find a parking space nearby - even offering to park our hire care into the tiny spot for us!

We wish all city/town based self-catering accommodation was like this.

We got there late at night which wasn't a problem as a friendly staff member was waiting for us. She explained that the toilet in the one bed apartment we had booked was broken so we had to take a bigger apartment down the next street. This was fine except she didn't bring us to it only pointed in its direction.
When we returned to the main building to pay for our stay it was hard to find anyone available. When we did find someone on our 3rd day we were asked would we mind moving to a smaller apartment as the one we were staying in was meant for a family. We didnt mind and agreed to move the next day and also to pay then.
At 11 o'clock the day we were supposed to move a member of the staff knocked on our apartment door and when we didnt answer she unlocked the door herself and proceeded to open the bedroom door. It was very rude and i'm sure not proper conduct. In broken English she indicated that we were to leave immediately but to make sure we cleaned the whole place properly.
We found this very rude and yet another staff member was waiting for us outside the door, she was friendlier and brought us to our new apartment which was much smaller but fine.
On our last night the lady who let herself into our apartment stopped us on the stairs and pointed to the clock indicating that we had to be out by 9 am the next morning. We then had to go to an internet cafe and print off their hotel policy in Spanish indicating that check out time was between 7 and 11 am. However she did not come the next morning as she had indicated and so we let ourselves out of the apartment. Also when we paid her our money she put it straight into her back pocket without counting it and as she only had English in certain circumstances it was impossible to ask for a receipt.
All in all it is a good hostal in a good location. The only things that may disturb people were the loud motorbikes outside all the time and the very small balcony.
The behaviour of that staff member would stop me staying there again

What a Hostals, we where offer a 4beds room or 1bedroom appartnemt,we took the 4bedsroom,wauw at the toopfloor. No hiss but okay.
The room had what we want.
Clean and nice. You can make the,coffee,only you have to buy coffe first,but supermarked is on Calle Miguel just across the policestation.
We will stay there again.

A few things. There is another Hostal Abril just five minutes walk away (owned by the same people) from the Calle Pintada one so do not mix them up. Second; the street outside often has fast moving traffic using it so if you have young children, make sure they do not rush outside. It is not near the centre of town as Nerja has no centre as such.

No lift. Like many Spanish hostals, the room is like a hotel room, but at 23 euros a night, it is approaching hotel prices. Large double bed, separate bathroom, WC. Air-conditioning, small radiator. Kettle, 2 cups, tea-bags, sugar. Tiny balcony. TV with Spanish programmes only. Daily maid service. Traffic noise, mostly in the daytime, especially from loudly whining motorbikes (literally over a hundred a day).

5 minutes walk from the “bus station” (actually just an ALSA hut where you can buy tickets) and from a Mercadona supermarket (09:15 to 21:15. Mon - Sat). Bazaar for odds and ends across the road and others close by. Eateries close by too; Try roast chicken and chips (wedges) about 100 yards downhill on corner. Chemist five minutes downhill. Balcon de Europa about 20 minutes walk downhill (you could not run it in the 5 minutes some claim it is away), but that is not a beach. Beaches are ten or more minutes walk away.

I picked this hostal because it had wifi but it has serious problems as in being without wifi for many periods every day I was there (17 days) including 2 days without any internet. Even though the hostal finally got someone in from Telefonica (after promising to many times) to look at the line and sort things out, the problems continue unabated, with sudden losses for minutes or hours and often speeds below 20 kbs.