Hotel Marbella

Our Members Say

 Hotels in Manzanillo seem to be clustered downtown, along the beach or on the peninsula. I was glad that I decided to stay along the beach because the downtown area, while fun to visit, seemed a bit congested. The peninsula would have also been a poor choice since it is isolated with no stores or restaurants of its own. I was worried about choosing the Hotel Marbella though, because the quoted price was about half of most of the other hotels I had arranged during my Mexican vacation. Still, the reviews I’d found were positive and it was located on the beach. How bad could it be? It turns out... not bad at all.

The hotel has three distinct structures, so I can only comment on the central (two story) structure. On arrival, I was given a choice of a room on the ground floor with a king sized bed or a room on the second floor with two double beds and my own balcony. As I hesitated to make the choice, the clerk asked the security guard to show me the rooms to help me decide. When I saw the second floor balcony looking out over the bay, I was sold. There are some restaurants nearby along the main street (one block away) and there may have been a convenience store closer, but I was drawn to the large grocery store four blocks North. Some of the waves crashing on the beach below were loud enough that they noticeably rattled the windows. I thought that this noise might keep me awake, but I was tired enough that it wasn't an issue for my short stay. You could also hear people on the ground floor patio beside the pool but fortunately they headed indoors shortly after sunset. Drinking water was supplied in the form of a two medium sized individually sealed bottles. The view was gorgeous. You can see the entire bay extending from downtown to the peninsula. Most of my days were taken up with walking around exploring and taking pictures but I made sure that I was back in time to sit and watch the sun go down from my balcony. The room had air conditioning, but I preferred to open the balcony door for a breeze from the ocean. The tile floor seemed to be less than perfectly clean (which seemed standard in Mexico) so that I didn't really want to walk barefoot on the floor. A remote control for the TV was provided upon check-in (for a deposit).

The best price I found for February 2008 was on Hotel-Rates at US$46. After taxes and service fees this ended up costing US$55. The site, Hotel-Rates, indicated that half of the fee would be taken as a deposit immediately, but this charge never showed up on my credit card. At check-in, they took an imprint of my credit card which they returned when I checked out and the actual charge was placed on the credit card. The morning I left, they phoned for a taxi to take me to the bus station and the taxi charged less than when I went from the bus station to the hotel (35 pesos instead of 40 pesos). 

4 members live in Manzanillo