Hotel Zen, Malaga, Spain

How does one fairly judge a hotel? Given that I found it nearly impossible to sleep in the hotel for several reasons, one might be inclined to be harsh on a hotel that was hot and stuffy, even with the window left open, and where my attempts at sleeping were hindered by the thin walls which lacked soundproofing. A cynical reviewer might suggest that this hotel’s marketing as a place of quiet zen-like reflection is a way to play to the weaknesses of the hotel, to encourage people not to make noise that would wake up their fellow guests, and to make the somewhat austere nature of the hotel rooms into virtue. Certainly, if one judges a hotel’s job to be to allow and indeed to encourage sleep, failing that that task is a heavy failure indeed.

There are, however, other ways to judge a hotel, and when looked at a whole, this place is by no means a contemptible or horrible hotel. With quieter neighbors not inclined to set their alarms at 5AM, I might have been able to sleep more last night, which I would have enjoyed. Had I known about the ramp, my mother and I would have been saved from half to two-thirds of the stairs we had to climb to get to our room early in the morning, which would have been a good thing. The hotel is itself immensely beautiful, the staff is friendly, and it had an excellent breakfast as well which included turkey, cheese, croissants, fruit juice, and eggs, among other items that I was unable to eat because they had pork in them. Still, I would have liked to have slept more.