I have travelled to many countries, on business and for leisure. This is a spa hotel and oozes relaxation and good service. The reception staff were helpful without the normal "sucking up" of other 5 star hotels I have visited. - The room was spacious, very comfortable bed - The spa was one of the best I have ever seen, Food was good and well presented, expensive of course but look at your environment. A stay here will not disappoint. Added value for horse lovers - a well kept stable with Andalusian horses to visit

I can't complain too much, as we got a good deal on Travelzoo which included entry to the spa (which apparently normally costs around £50 per person!!!) and breakfast, however if I had paid normal '5 star' prices I would have been pretty angry about a number of issues that you just do not expect from a 5 star hotel.

This is a strange hotel, seemingly focused more on the conference / wedding business than holiday-makers. Due, no doubt, to our visit during low season, there was hardly anyone else staying in the hotel which, given its vast size, made it feel quite eery and souless. Not a problem in itself, but if you want a hotel with a good vibe, look elsewhere.

After exploring the grounds and the hotel itself, we went to visit the spa, where we were told that they were having problems with the water temperature, and the water would be only 25 degrees, rather than the normal 30 degrees. This didn't deter us, and we ended up having a fantastic hour or so ducking between the sauna and steam rooms, and the various pools with different types of spa jets; nonetheless, 25 degrees is a trifle chilly for a prolonged period in water, particularly when you are expecting spa-conditions, and if I had paid £50 for the privilege I wouldn't have been happy. I also enquired about getting a treatment, and they said that due to their current change over to or from Hilton, they didn't have any treatments worked out.

To warm myself up after the spa, I wanted to take a bath in the lovely whirlpool bath in our room, only to find that the hot water issue that we had been told about in the spa was obviously affecting the whole hotel. We had not been told about this on check in. The next morning, the water was even colder, and we both had to have fairly lukewarm showers before breakfast. When we checked out later on there were two different parties complaining about the lack of hot water (one very passionately), and whilst the staff were apologetic, they seemed inexperienced in dealing with complaints and did not seem prepared to offer any compensation.

The breakfast was good, with a good variety of cold meats, cheeses, fresh fruit and cakes, however when I opened my yoghurt I realised that it had expired a few days previously, and indeed all of the yoghurts that were on display had the same use-by date. Again, not what you would expect from a 5 star hotel.

However without a doubt the worst part of our stay was the two and a half hour wait we had for room service. I called to place our order at 8pm and finally, at 10.30pm, after two follow-up calls and visits from staff to clarify our order, and two visits by my boyfriend and I to reception to find out where our food was, it arrived. To the hotel's credit, they did discount our meal and wine by a significant amount, which was appreciated, however the whole thing demonstrated a general lack of competence.

In summary, this hotel is fairly luxurious on the surface, if lacking in soul, however if you're paying good money to stay here, you should prepare to be disappointed with some of the detail. And if you're going for a spa weekend, check whether they've got their treatments (and water temperature!) sorted before booking.

We had such high hopes after reading these reviews. However we were sorely disappointed. Really the only good points is that the building beautiful & the rooms nice (the bed is very comfortable). It is not a 5*. The breakfast is average at best - cold meat, cheese & bread. Reception was not helpful - when we had issues with our room (the safe didn't work) they just said sorry & did nothing to fix the issue. The outside pools are out of work, there is no tea & coffee in the room as stated (or when we asked). The spa didn't have a beautian so we couldn't have any treatments. We were not given any 'extras' promised on our booking deal (upgrade, free drink) - they just pretended they couldn't understand our Spanish. From what you expect from 5* service - this is not it. However for a relaxing weekend break it is a nice hotel - it just didn't live up to it's reviews. Seville is a fantastic city & worth visiting. This hotel is within easy driving distance (15 minutes) from the city centre & is in the middle of the country side. You will need a car.

Our one night offer price was amazing enough in itself for a five star hotel, but our expectations were surpassed when we discovered it included a circuit for the 2 of us in the spa, the best hotel spa I have had the pleasure to experience. From the driveway, past the equestrian centre with its fine carriages museum and working horses, to reception, the impression is that this is somewhere grand and the hotel construction, built around 7 years ago in traditional cortijo style, continues that with rooms set around courtyards with a modern annex addition for the outdoor pool (there is a large heated indoor saltwater pool too).There were slight disappointments, such as no olives or peanuts served with our pre prandial in the bar area, and no cocktails on the list, but the delightful and knowledgable Bea served us an excellent wine which she recommended to us, and later in the restaurant introduced us to a superb olive oil which she described as one of the best in the world, and we could not agree more. We stayed in low season and there were only 20 guests in total, so the place felt a bit empty and as it was almost mid December a few Christmas decorations and music would have helped create a warmer ambience, but a walk round the fish stocked lake in the winter sunshine part compensated for this. The room we had was very good, with hugely comfortable beds and a gigantic wall mounted TV, while the water pressure in the bathroom, where there is a whirlpool bath and shower, was pretty phenomenal.The hotel was in the throes of becoming a Waldorf-Astoria property, having been Hilton, but this transition was relatively smooth, although we learned that the free shuttle bus to Seville (a trip of around 17kms) was no longer operating, though this could change. A taxi for this journey is around 35 euros one way, but preferable to facing Seville traffic. I would say that all staff could take a leaf out of Bea's books, in particular one uniformed chap who dashed away when he saw me struggling through the front doors with my luggage. Food in the restaurant was ok, though the portions were very small, breakfast however was good with plenty of choice. On the whole, this was a wonderful stay.