Work starts on new hotel in El Cotillo

Work has now begun to build what is believed to be a new hotel in El Cotillo on the site in front of the Marfolin Apartments (Update: It is an apartment complex. See the bottom of the article).

The hotel will extend from the main road to the lagoons beaches, just past the Coral Cotillo Beach Hotel, down to the road along the seafront.

Currently, they are using a huge pile hammer to break up the rock to excavate a very large hole to be a basement (car park?) area, generating a great deal of noise from 8am until around 6pm every day.

I imagine those that own the apartments on the main road will not be happy as, not only do they have to contend with the noise, but their current sea view will totally disappear.

It is not yet known whether the hotel will be all-inclusive, like the Cotillo Beach, or not. Hopefully it won’t as that is not good for the village as it just brings in more people who will spend very little in the bars, restaurants and shops but who will make the beaches busier.

All-inclusive hotels

I know it is a contentious topic as some say any hotel, even all-inclusive, is good for business. I disagree though.

I remember sitting at a cafe one afternoon and I got talking to the couple next to me who were staying in the Cotillo Beach Hotel. We talked about all-inclusive and I said that it wasn’t good for the village as generally the guests spend very little in the local businesses. They agreed but said they liked to support the local businesses so “Quite a number of afternoons we walk out and have a coffee somewhere.” “Wow! That’s so magnanimous of you!”, I thought.

One thing is for sure if too many all-inclusive hotels are built it will totally change (spoil) El Cotillo. That will probably mean that the majority of the current visitors who rent apartments and love it, because it is relatively quiet and retains its village feel. will no longer come back, to be replaced by those who have to have their holidays served up to them on a plate.

But let’s face it. When have developers ever cared about the area they build in? All they care about is money.

Having more hotels will probably also bring more families with small children too, rather than the average visitors being older couples. Consequently, I imagine the beaches will become more crowded and the naturists will be driven away too. Yet another change for the worst.

There are a few rumours that it will be an apart-hotel or even just apartments which would be better however, the planning permission was for a hotel. See previous post – Proposed new hotel.

I will keep up to date with the progress. In the meantime, I have made a new video where I walked through El Cotillo and ended up at the site of the new hotel:

UPDATE

The board shown below has now gone up at the site which shows it will be 54 apartments with underground parking and a swimming pool.