We're just back from 10 days in El Rancho, La Manga Club. We rented a 4 bedroom villa there directly from the owner via the web, and it all went very well. The villa was spacious, clean and well maintained. There are 9 pools (each with toddler pool) around the El Rancho complex. We experienced no problems in terms of maintenance/ smells etc - everything was very high quality. The club itself is great for families - junior club was really excellent, we played pitch n putt, went to various restaurants (enjoyed Si for families, La Finca for fancy meal, Los Molinos pool bar for lunch). In May the main oasis pool wasn't open, but it didn't matter, we used our own complex pool or Los Molinos. I would highly recommend it.

Positives: La Manga Club itself is in a good location, near airport and driving distance to a few different areas. If you like sports there are lots to choose from. Service was brilliant, pleasant & helpful. The area was very clean. Most food we ate was better than average & deceptive as area is run down so you assume food inside will not please, La Finca restaurant was amazing food and looked pretty too.
Negatives: VILLA, 2 bed, 2 bath was very dated, very uncomfortable beds, not toddler friendly (son locked himself in a bedroom, amongst other things I cld mention if needed) only cleaned once throughout a whole week. LA QUINTA, hilly, steep, dodgy if wet with buggy, adult pool nice but baby pool on a ledge so again steps to & from making it impossible with buggy on yr own & a definite no no to letting your child out of his reins, restaurant only open 2 out of 7 evenings in Nov. LA MANGA CLUB, have to drive around club itself to get anywhere, the spa doesnt even have a proper entrance and wasnt the serene relaxing experience a spa usually serves tho the treatment itself was ok, the spa pool was freezing which ruined our swim, what is called their beach is most def not one i wld sit on with a very long walk down from the car, I imagine with a buggy this wld not be fun. Park was locked so we had to jump over gate to play or would have been very very long days. The golf was apparently very slow, with fellow players not allowing you to overtake (though this elderly foursoms lack of courtesy cannot be blamed on the course itself.)
OVERALL I did not enjoy myself, nor relax, am extatic to be back in my own bed with things to entertain my child again. Tho am missing a lovely meal in La Finca!

We’ve had good stays in La Manga but this time our holiday was a DISASTER. Never again! Our villa was disgusting we received non-existent service from both lamangarentals.com + Carlton Management. They simply were not interested and wont reply to emails requesting compensation...

The property was not ready when we arrived and had been damaged by previous tenants (kitchen doors hanging off hinges, unusable kitchen pans so dirty and damaged you would not want to cook with them, broken taps etc,) This was combined with the awful smell of pee and the odour from the dampness which was seeping in the walls.

The smell in the house became intolerable so much so that on our last day after heavy rainfall the was the stench from raw sewage. Rain came in through the doors of the children's bedroom so we had to lay out towels to mop it up. The air conditioner in the master bedroom stopped responding at all,...
In fact it felt as if the owners simply did nothing to maintain the villa and did not care to provide a decent level of accommodation for tenants...the whole set up seems very cynical.

Our first stay at La Manga Club. Stayed in 43 El Rancho - an UTTER dive. The villa is FILTHY, dated, crummy, has damp visible on various walls and ceilings, has NO AIR-CONDITIONING in the living areas and is probably worthy (just about) of a three star rating. El Rancho itself STINKS of sewage (there were regular visits by drainage technicians to manholes around the villa) and the communal pool has a number of dangerous suction/drainage covers which when stood on simply give way - our young son almost broke his leg on one when walking around the perimeter of the pool. La Manga itself is fairly tired looking and there was a noticeable presence of football shirt/Sky Sports/tattoos-types on our visit as well as various teenage gangs of local Spanish kids who had hired various villas and were conducting all-night raves (we had to phone security on three separate occasions during our two week stay. All a bit of a shame because the concept of the Club is reasonably attractive (my understanding is that La Manga is currently in administration and that may explain the generally run-down feeling of the communal areas).