Exe Madrid Norte

The room had no bottled water, just small black plastic mugs, a limited choice of tea and coffee, and no biscuits. There were no English-language TV channels. The bathroom felt dated, and the shower floor was slippery. The pool was out of use, and for a supposedly four-star hotel, the location and standard didn’t match the price. Reception staff were courteous but didn’t offer much help about the area. We left the car at the hotel, walked to a nearby bus stop to get to Plaza de Castilla, then took the metro into central Madrid. On the positive side, many thanks to ISMEL, the head bar attendant. He went above and beyond to help us find a local restaurant, and his English was perfect!

The bar and restaurant were okay and reasonably priced, but the rest of the hotel felt worn and neglected. The furniture and room interior need replacing or refurbishment, and the renovation work that has been done looks poorly executed. It didn’t feel like a four-star stay. I felt more like a source of income than a welcome guest. This was my first and last time here. It might be acceptable at company rates, though they sometimes skip those too and charge up to €450 a night. My room smelled of cigarette smoke when we arrived, and the air conditioning was set to maximum cooling, leaving it freezing. The bathtub wasn’t cleaned once during our week-long stay. The shower curtain was too narrow, kept sticking to me, and was never cleaned either. The garage entry button was almost impossible to reach from inside the car without risking damage. At breakfast, we noticed leftovers being reused. Some eggs seemed to have been served for days, and one had gone bad. The yogurt was served again with cereal remnants from the day before. The scrambled eggs were a soggy mess, there were no beans, and only one kind of melon. On our last day, just before breakfast closed, we wanted to take three bananas and some eggs from the buffet we had paid for. We were told no and had to put them back. I kid you not. The location is far from everything unless you work at BMW or one of the nearby companies. The TV wasn’t set up properly, and without an IT degree we were stuck with Spanish channels. It wouldn’t connect to the hotel Wi-Fi and there was no cable network connection. Nobody seemed to care about fixing the settings. The shoehorn was a joke too, as the picture shows.

The rooms were clean but could use some work, and parking costs extra. Check-in took a while, and the hotel is a long way from the centre.

The rooms are spacious and perfectly adequate, and the hotel itself is nice. Getting into central Madrid takes a while, though. The 150 bus is about a 10-minute walk away and goes straight to the center, ending at the last stop for €1.5. The ride can take anywhere from 25 to 55 minutes. Parking and a breakfast buffet are available for a fee, and both seemed worth paying for.