I often stay in Novotels and have found them to be pretty good. However this one is an exception.

The hotel is not situated in a good area of town. There's nothing worth seeing for miles, and it's a long way from the downtown area. You can't walk anywhere, except to walk to a rather distant bus stop. There's a shopping center visible from the hotel, but to get there you have to risk your life crossing a six-lane highway.

Given it's situation, you'd expect that the hotel would make a special effort, but it doesn't. The food is quite poor (I can't believe that someone on this site found the breakfast to be good) and the standard of cleanliness is just about adequate.

There's no airport shuttle, even though it's really a kind of airport hotel. Worst of all, the staff in my experience were quite surly. A waitress who brought me cafe con leche when I had just asked for cafe at breakfast seemed quite angry that I wouldn't accept it. Front desk people were no better.

All in all, if you're going to Malaga, this is not the hotel for you.