Have you ever considered Hotel Madeiro Centro ? It sits on Calle Esperanto at the edge of the Old Town, just at the beginning of Avenida Mediterraneo. It usually attracts very favourable reviews:

http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/reviews/spain/costa-blanca/benidorm/madeira-centro-hotel/

David

We walked past Mar Blau hotel several times when we were in Benidorm in December (stayed 17-24 Dec). We did notice they were digging up the promanade in front and doing a lot of restoration work around the area.I don`t know wether its any thing to do with it not being in the brochure.

We love the old town and have stayed in the Avenida apartments twice, their good clean apartments situated in a excellent place and you can use the hotel facilites across the road(Avenida hotel)

Christine W

Thanks for the replies. I like a small hotel and have seen the Madeira Centro, too big and I also don;t like self catering but thanks for you help anyway. I have seen the Avenida and it belongs to the same group as the Mar Blau does. Will give Portland a call and see what the story is.