3HB Golden Beach

The location of this property is superb, you could virtually fall out the door on to the beach. There are pros and cons; first the pros - the staff are very pleasant and helpful. I feel for a three star hotel / apartment complex it at least lived up to its reputation. It is very centrally located with stores of all types although small, within a few minutes walk. It is at the tail end of a very lively group of bars and club’s predominantly frequented by Irish, French, Dutch and English. For such a heavily trafficked area by teenagers I saw no problems, fights etc. It seems as though the GNR (police) handle things very well. The beach area is quite small but not overly crowded. Everyone seemed quite polite. Recommend for families and teenagers as the whole area is quite lively until about 3:30 am. I stayed in the Marbello villa for a week while other family members took another four villas. The Marbello is a three bedroom place and very well equipped suitable for up to eight or as a base for others staying in the smaller villas. Plenty of room. Cleaning was pretty good.Now the cons - they provided multiple access cards for the villas but one manual key to the Marbello! Antiquated and very inconvenient. We asked for more and were told they didn’t have any!! Crazy. The hot tub was an utter disaster. It was not cleaned unless you tormented the front desk (two emails and three visits). The heater on the hot tub was broken and worked intermittently (I know how to operate) and explained to the front desk. I had to ask to have all the bulbs outside replaced as they were out. The fan in one of the bathrooms also did not work and was not fixed. When paying $3,500 for a week stay, I shouldn’t really have to hunt down staff to get the basics right. Small little things would have made a big difference, and the hot tub needs to be completely replaced. The swimming pool (which I didn’t use) was congested and very cold, and all the chairs were reserved (and mostly unused) by the placement of towels first thing in the morning.Would I recommend? Yes I would recommend the Marbello. I would probably also return (hoping the junk hot tub is replaced!). The ladies at the front desk were very pleasant.