Sol Pelicanos hotel in the Rincon de Loix

Ask any Brit back in the UK to name a hotel in Benidorm and I bet many will come up with "The Solana"!
It is amazing how many believe that the Solana is actually a real hotel, made famous by the hit ITV comedy series "Benidorm".

"Pink House" - just past Benidorm Palace

Well it IS a real hotel - it´s the "Sol Pelicanos", but only the pool area is now used for filming. In the first series the reception area of the sister hotel next door, the "Ocas" was used, but it proved too disruptive for the hotel guests and difficult for the film crew, so since then the pink house has been used as the set for the reception area of the fictitious Solana.

With Lola on a sunny but rather breezy day!

I met with Lola Jimenez, the General Manager of the Sol Pelicanos to find out her thoughts when the cast and crew descend on the hotel like a whirlwind - as they will do again this year. There are 783 rooms across the two hotels, with 476 of those at the Sol Pelicanos - so at full capacity throughout the Summer, there can be somewhere in the region of 1500 guests staying! Currently in the low season around 85% of the clientele are Brits but in the Summer this drops down to around 60% - traditionally the Spanish from Madrid arrive in force throughout the month of August. For your information, the rooms shown in the series are not actually the rooms in the Sol Pelicanos - they are from the apartment block overlooking the tennis courts behind the hotel.

She said she found it rather funny that some of the British guests ask where the "Blow n´ Go" hair salon is - somewhat confusing the hotel staff who have no idea what they are on about as they had never seen the program. I asked her about mobility scooters, probably the most iconic thing associated with the series - it seems like everywhere you look you see one.
What gondolas are to Venice, mobility scooters are to Benidorm is one way of putting it! They have a special parking area to the side of the hotel - none are allowed into the hotel itself unless it is for someone who really cannot walk - but then once in the reception area there are stairs so you couldn´t get any further than that on it anyway.

I found it rather a revelation when Lola told me that the Spanish are just as guilty of hiring out the scooters when not strictly necessary and are almost taking over from the Brits! They see it as cheap transport - in their mind why pay 6 euro for a short taxi ride when for less than 50 euro a week you can have a scooter at your disposal. In the Summer there can be up to 40 mobility scooters parked outside, creating a real issue.

Lola at the iconic pool bar

The pool at the back is where all the action takes place - surprisingly she hardly ever has any complaints about it being out of bounds for the hotel guests. In fact, quite the opposite - many phone specifically asking if they will be filming before booking. They have in the past had many tourists walking in off the street trying to get round to the back, so now have a security guard at the door - it´s not fair on the paying hotel guests she said to have people traipsing through the sun loungers to try and get a look.

Broadcasting "This Morning" from the poolside with Jake & Sherrie

The pool bar is only open throughout the Summer months and everyone wants a picture taken there, sipping on a cocktail - Mateo has a lot to answer for. As well as the Benidorm series, two morning programs have also been broadcast from there - "This Morning" in 2012 and "Daybreak" in 2011.  I asked her whether she had thought about re-naming it the "Solana Bar" as that is what many associate it with but she is not sure whether they would be allowed to by ITV and Tiger Aspect... I feel an email coming on! Wouldn´t that be great for the hotel....

Don´t forget that you can catch the latest shenanigans at 9pm every Thursday on ITV of the current series.