Hotel Convento Aracena & Spa

Very friendly and beautiful place. Kind staff. Simple but good food and extensive breakfast. Only the spa was impossible to book. The church turned into a sitting room is a stunning place. I would certainly book here again for a nice walk in the Sierra de Aracena.

Our second stay in the Aracena, and this hotel. Lovely please- great hotel. Located in the centre with parking and a spa and a fantastic breakfast. All in all we had an amazing time.

I wrote a mail with a lot of negative remarks and a proposal to compensate the problems we had during our stay. But the direction / reception do not take the remarks serious. The only answer I got, is : "We will do it better next time" But that is not a compensation for a lot of money I paid to get minor service.

What an amazing property !! We loved it ! The property has so many little areas to just relax. Lots to explore within the property and also within walking distance of loads of amazing sights. We treated ourselves to a spa session, our only mistake is not booking longer. Such a calm relaxing place to stay. Thank you !

We read some good reviews on line but this hotel lacks the character of other convent conversions such as the Paradores and there is little art or artist flair. I think other reviews said ‘dull and boring’ and these descriptive words are appropriate ! Other reviews mentioned the difficulty in finding the car park or even the hotel itself - the staff seem to think that that the one way system and narrow roads of Aracena are the problem - far from it - good signage and good basic instructions from the reception desk would go along way , especially instructions around approaching the car park and the relationship to the checking in process ! The staff tried hard to make up for short comings but for the price they charge they need to up their game with more and better trained staff - staff who can truely imagine a customers experience and journey ! Perhaps use of a secret customer giving them unbiased feedback, as they don’t seem to have learned from feedback on Tripadvisor! Dinner was satisfactory but ot would not encourage a hotel to be just satisfactory - guests should feel to was a great authentic experience and want to repeat the experiences. The redeeming factor was the breakfast which was very good indeed and the overall pleasant surroundings and easy access to the castle of Aracena and of course the amazing local caves. For the manager - first impressions are everything - you make your mind up in the first minute of arrival in a hotel! As regards the Spa - well the Spa wasn’t open on the morning of departure and had no availability on the evening of arrival despite paying extra on our room - this situation wasn’t advised on arrival by reception so if we hadn’t mentioned it a little later we can only imagine they would not have mentioned anything and just kept the extra money! In English this is called ‘being fleeced ‘! As we had indeed mentioned it we did get a refund at reception on departure ( thank you ) but perhaps this was because we also had to mention finding long hairs in the sink - not pleasant! While I gave the hotel 3 stars - personally I would not stay there again but others I imagine will be happy enough to try it and hopefully not be fleeced ;-) let’s hope management will try and improve as this hotel certainly has potential and improvement is about learning and changing the way things are done! I compare my visit to the wonderful conversion of the Convento de la Magdalena in Antequera - the two hotels just don’t compare !

We spent one night in the Hotel Convento as part of a tour group. It is a modern hotel set in an old monastery. The room was large, the shower good. The room was pretty dark, really need more lighting. The air con could not be set below 24 degrees , why no idea. Made the stay a bit warm. The staff were friendly and helpful. The breakfast was very good

Shockingly rude front desk staff! When we arrived, the young woman seated at her computer pointedly did not look up, took a few minutes to finish something, and finally said not welcome or hello, but passports! Similarly ignored by another staffer the following morning when we were looking for breakfast. The old convent must have been beautiful but modern is decor is cold and soulless with no charm ot character. Room was not very clean either. Dead ordinary breakfast with pod coffee. I would never stay here again.

There were good things and poor things during our visit and before we got to the hotel. There are absolutely no road signs to direct you to the hotel, even with SatNav and maps on the phone we passed close by four times before parking the car a locating the hotel on foot. That was difficult too as the phone kept telling us to go along (in reality, up or down) a particular street and a lot of the streets had no street sign. Eventually we drove the car to the parking entrance at the back of the hotel and they let us in. We had to ask one of the maids how to get to reception as the signs were confusing. Check in was quick as there were no other guests around, OK it was an early Sunday afternoon but the rest of the town was full of visitors. At first glance the room seemed fine, more later. We went out to get some lunch at a restaurant about six minutes walk away on the other side of the nearby park. All the other restaurants are in the town centre and given the changes in elevation and confusing street signs only fit for mountain goats. Back to the room. The bed was big and comfortable but there was only one small easy chair and an uncomfortable chair at a desk. One plus is that there were lights in the ceiling, something missing from other converted buildings we had stayed in. But there were no tissues in the bathroom and there was a glass screen between the toilet, bidet and the rest of the bathroom, this squeaked something terrible if you tried to close it. We went to the bar to get a drink before dinner, there was no one behind the bar. After waiting for five minutes I asked the receptionist who was very close to the bar where the barman was. She said she would ring him, nothing happened so she came to prepare our drinks herself. No ice, she went off to get some and and when she came back the barman arrived too. We had dinner in the restaurant as we didn’t want to risk going down to the town. The food was good and the waiter was friendly, efficient and helpful. There were only three other tables occupied, where were the guests? Breakfast was self-service including the coffee which was made using pods, not very good. The rest of the food was fine. We were there for about fifteen minutes before we saw a member of staff. I would not go back to this hotel, in fact if they don’t buck their ideas up I don’t think they will be in business much longer.

It’s a great hotel, spotlessly clean, great staff, and an excellent breakfast. But try relaxing in the beautiful nature by the pool, and you are drowned in awful pop and club music. Totally spoils the atmosphere. We all have headphones if we want to listen to music. Like the place but won’t be back.