New La Linea hotel mix-up with Gibraltar
by PANORAMA reporter
Is the new Iberostar hotel in La Linea or in Gibraltar?
A major mix-up has ensued, with the hotel being described as “Iberostar Gibraltar hotel” even by their owners.
Anyone who does a search on the internet will find one travel agency after another giving the impression that it is in Gibraltar. ‘Iberostar City Hotel (Gibraltar)”, says one. “Iberostar City Gibraltar Hotel”, says another.
One travel agency gives the address as Avda Principe de Asturias S/N, Gibraltar 11315, Gibraltar.
Another does say that it is located in La Linea but still calls it the Iberostar City Hotel Gibraltar.
Under City of Gibraltar, the following appears: Your gateway to city of Gibraltar and travel…Iberostar City Hotel (Gibraltar).
And when we entered one of the sites, we found that the La Linea hotel is listed as if it were in Gibraltar… along with Gibraltar hotels!
The whole thing can only lead to maximum confusion.
You cannot expect people making enquiries distinguising from one place to the next. Some might book the hotel thinking it is in Gibraltar.
So, we entered the official hotel website: Iberostarhotels.net described as “owned and operated by Global Travel SL official agents for Iberostar Hotels.”
It starts with the following: “Iberostar Campo de Gibraltar Hotel. La Linea de la Concepcion.”
But the next line says: “The Iberostar City Hotel Gibraltar is located in La Linea de la Concepcion…”
It adds that the ‘Iberostar City Hotel Gibraltar’ is an elegant, functional hotel…
And under useful information it says: Iberostar Gibraltar Hotel. Malaga airport (120km) and 5 minutes from the frontier with Gibraltar. Gibraltar airport five minutes (EU passport or visa needed in order to cross the borders).
So there you are, maximum confusion that should help the La Linea hotel being filled up!
Everyone seems to think that La Linea is in Gibraltar and that the Campo de Gibraltar is Gibraltar. And it doesn’t help when the owners themselves describe the hotel as “The Iberostar City Hotel Gibraltar.”
Is this part of the work of the tripartite talks on cooperation!
From Panorama, Gibraltar’s Online Daily Newspaper
Editor’s Note:
In fact, this is a bit of a ‘glitch’ which many Internet Hotel reservation systems suffers from. They all have problems in situating Gibraltar in their databases, from a geographic point of view. It’s to do with the indexing.
This report by Panorama, is a little confusing in itself though. If you look up the website quoted, Iberostarhotels.net, you will find that it is actually “under construction”! So… I’m not sure how this information, on this particular hotel search was actually found. There is a link on the website’s front page, pointing to another Hotel Reservation system; The Internet Travel Club
You will find the same thing happens on other Hotel Reservation systems.
Hotel.com is a very widely used system and has similar problems. On the other hand, it is a very good cheap Hotels/Room finder system. One just needs to be aware that these systems suffer from ’slight idiosyncracies’ in their databases! Annoying maybe for a Gibraltarian, and as the Panorama report says, can be very confusing for those who perhaps don’t know the area. In some instances, when looking up Hotel availability in Gibralar for instance, you are even offered Hotels in Jerez!! Quite a surprise for a Tourist wanting to visit Gibraltar, who takes advantage of what appears to be a cheap option, to find he is in fact based in a hotel, 2 or 3 hours drive away! But then… the Americans are used to that! 
Here’s a couple of good recommended Hotel Reservation systems to find Hotels… in Gibraltar, Southern Spain… or anywhere in the World:
Expedia Hotels and Flight Booking Search
Opodo Hotel, Flights and Travel Search
But… again, you will need to make sure you are booking a Hotel which IS actually in Gibraltar. At least these two systems, when doing a search for Gibraltar, only offer Hotels in Gibraltar or at worst, in San Roque and Sotogrande.
I have come across Hotel reservations, that when searched for Gibraltar, have even offered Hotels in Morocco for consideration!! Best advice… always get this sort of advice as offered here, from someone who knows the area!
You could also use our Travel Info Pages here to look up your requirements - including Free Search Tool.
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