We stayed here during the first fortnight in October 2010 and enjoyed so much that we booked again for the same period in 2011 - BIG MISTAKE!!!

We weren't paying 5-star prices and knew not to expect 5-star surroundings, food or treatment but what seemed charmingly dated last year had become down right dingy in the interim.

The towels were changed daily but that is as far as the cleaning of the rooms went - a piece of paper on the bathroom floor stayed where it was from day 2 until day 14 of our stay - and we got one "guest size" bar of soap, one sachet of shower gel and one sachet of shampoo each for the fortnight.

The lift - decidedly slow at the best of times, last year - broke down constantly during our stay so goodness knows how the many less mobile guests got back and forwards from their rooms as there are none on the ground floor.

The chairs in the outdoor/pool area, no longer maroon but that pale pinky-white that too much exposure to the sun causes, were depositing at least one guest per day flat on his or her back as the sun-weakened plastic legs gave way.

The food was terrible. The cuts of meat were the cheapest of the cheap but hadn't been given the long slow cooking they required to make them palatable and anything "bone-in" was more bone than meat. You couldn't even just have a chip butty if everything else was inedible as the chips were, as often as not, half cooked or lukewarm because they had been "held" too long in the hot cupboard.

Entertainment had been curtailed almost to the point of non-existance - Bingo run and called by the "Animation Co-ordinator" (who's English is a helluva lot better than my Spanish but nevertheless hardly fluent) was all that was on offer on the majority of evenings.

With the exception of the Restaurant Manager and a couple of the women in the restaurant, all of the staff seemed to have forgotten how to smile and, even the ones whom I regarded as quite friendly last year were downright surly.

We love the area and will be going back there but we will most definitely NOT be going back to the Planamar.

I’m just back from another visit to this hotel.
It is not everyone’s cup of tea, but this hotel feels like a small family hotel. It is only 3 stories high. I think that who you end up with as fellow guests has more to do with how your holiday is perceived than anything this hotel does. Yes it is a cheap and cheerful 3* hotel but if you have a few families rather than 100 European school kids, your holiday experience will certainly be better.
This hotel is situated on the main street, opposite the beach, with the railway line running between the road and the beach. It is in one of the best locations in Malgrat.
On arrival, at around 10am the check-in was very quick, but we were told our rooms were not ready (as expected) but to put our cases in the baggage room –they have separate rooms for arrivals and departures- and return to get our A/I cards and room keys at 11.30.
Our rooms were very clean with a sea view. The rooms at the back of the hotel do seem larger than most of those at the front
The TV (with BBC1), toilet and a/c all worked fine. There was a fridge in the room but I forgot to ask how much they charged for it. No hairdryer in the rooms. You no longer need to leave a deposit on the remote for the TV, just ask for one at reception if they do not give you one on check-in.
The rooms and hotel in general were all kept very clean, with maids working all hours.
One of the best features of this hotel is the very green outdoor area at the front of the hotel. There are various plants and trees on the patio which provide very welcome shade. The pool is not huge, but was adequate for the hotel.
The food was well cooked and there was the usual variety. The one thing I did notice was that there were more vegetables available than I’ve seen in other hotels and that you did get different types of potato –not just chips. Most of the meat and fish dishes were cooked with veg and used very cheap cuts of meat. You could not fault the actual cooking –the standard was very good, but the very bony/fatty meat was not really very good. However, the fresh fish was excellent every day. The AI snacks were the same all the time –ham and cheese sandwiches, crisps and cake, although I do believe that more is provided in peak season.
The coffee is still lousy, but if you choose cortado that probably is the least offensive. It is also worth paying for a coffee at the bar as that is much better quality than the free stuff.
The bar was fine with the usual daily cocktail and the staff were friendly enough and treated us very well; so well in fact that we got proper glasses to drink from at night instead of the plastic ones.
HTOP have introduced a silly system where you get a separate card from the normal AI photocard which you are supposed to hand over when you get a drink, and you get this card back when you return your glass!!!!! If you lose this I was told you don’t get any more drinks without paying €3. I can understand them trying to cut out the amount of waste and the stock piling of drinks, but this system is just stupid, time consuming for all and unworkable. Thankfully we are well known to all the staff so never saw this card after getting our first drink.
The only problem with this hotel is that the size of the bar where they have the entertainment is very small, although you can see and hear from the patio. The entertainment itself was nothing special with the usual mix of karaoke, quiz, bingo and live music.
With regard to the noise nuisance etc that keeps being reported, beyond the normal “goodnight noise” after the bar shut I heard nothing at all on any night and saw nothing to cause me any anxiety throughout my stay.
I thought this was an excellent break in a clean hotel, and for the money paid it was great value.

This hotel has seen it's best and is very 70's. Be careful when booking as if the hotel is not 50% full it will shut and you will be transferred somewhere else, even if you arrive the day before. Our party of ten arrived on a Tuesday to be told the hotel was closing on the Saturday, no one at Low Cost told us this might happen. We were transferred to another hotel in the group, our choice after many arguments as they were sending us to doomsville. The Chef was told not to buy any food and reconstitute what he had, it was disgusting. I would not recommend you book this hotel late October as along with many others the resort of Malgrat closes, a fact not told to us by either Low Cost or Ice Lolly.

After booking this hotel with Low Cost Travel for a week in Oct we were told upon check in(Tuesday) that we would have to move hotels on the Saturday as the hotel would be closing for the season!!!!.The staff had no manners did nothing to help with any problem which arose , and there were plenty...where do i start... The food i wouldnt feed my dog it was cold and whatever wasnt eaten that day was brought out again the next day ,no variety the english were not catered for at all .The hotel rooms were very old fashioned the water in the bathrooms ran brown and stunk of sewage the whole hotel needs pulling down it was dirty and constant flies around the pool area.Whilst having a drink in the bar we were told to drink up and go to bed at 1am.We have stayed in Malgrat on several occasions and the place itself is lovely but this was our 1st time at the planamar and would not recommend this hotel to my worsed enemies, we were thankful in the end to be moved to Lloret and had a nice hotel for the last few days of our holiday.Overall bad hotel,ignorant staff .food crap .