General information on renting apartments in Marbella

So you want to go on holiday. You have heard that Marbella is nice. And now you are looking for a nice place to stay. What are the pitfalls you might ask?

First of all Marbella has been the top location from the very beginning of tourism in Spain (and has always remained so). In fact, tourism in Spain, basically started in Marbella. So at the best locations all the buildings are old. This in itself this is not a problem providing it has recently been refurbished. So check when it was last refurbished.

Many hotels choose not to refurbish but to sell and move on to a new location. This is where all the apartments for renting in Marbella came from. People bought apartments in these ex-hotels to rent them out or to stay in their apartments themselves during the summer holidays.

Many owners, who rent out to tourists, believe that there is no need to refurbish their apartments. This because they believe that it won't actually get them any more tourists. For tourists check only a few things: the price, does it have swimming pool, how far is it to the beach, does it have air-conditioning and does it have a sea view. Whether or not is has been refurbished is not on the checklist of most tourists.

We have a different strategy. We want our tourists to come back every year. So our apartment is completely refurbished and we have put in all the luxuries one might like.

Also, when we bought our apartment, we did not just think about the tourist's checklist. There are many apartments that check all the boxes but that are not very nice to stay in. They were hotels designed to check all the boxes while at the same time being as cheap as possible to build.

So for instance. Many have the swimming pool on the roof. This saved a lot of space so more apartments could be built on the same piece of expensive ground. A swimming pool on the roof does however limit the size and depth of the swimming pool. A big pool on the roof is far to heavy for a building to bear and it would collapse.

Our swimming pool is on the ground and is really big, as you will have seen from the pictures.

Another thing the hotel designers economised on is natural ventilation. Most old buildings in Marbella are built to fully exploit the cool sea breeze. This means windows in the front and at the back.

However, you could build a hotel with twice as many rooms, if you put rooms at the front and at the back with a corridor in the middle. Air-conditioning would solve the problem of the greenhouse that was inadvertently created. In reality though. A cool sea breeze is much nicer than air-conditioning.

You will be happy to hear that our apartment does have windows at the front and at the back. In fact we even had an internal window put in to fully exploit the nice sea breeze. We have had, off course, also put in a powerful air-conditioning for the few days in the year that the sea breeze stays out.

All these pitfalls are based on our personal opinions. But then, we also bought the apartment to stay in ourselves, and not just as an investment. So, we made many choices that make the apartment a lot more fun to stay in, but that are not the best commercial choices. They are definitely to your benefit though.

Finally we wish you luck and a good stay wherever you decide to go. Have fun and explore. We didn't choose Marbella for nothing.