The First One Madrid Preciados

The staff were kind and friendly, and the location is amazing. But the rooms are so dark that even turning on all the lights doesn’t help. The hotel calls itself four stars, yet it charges €4 for every bottle of water instead of providing complimentary drinks each day of the stay. Do they do that at other four-star hotels?

The location is excellent, right in the heart of everything, with restaurants, bars, and shops nearby. A Bolt or Uber from the airport is about 25/28 euros, respectively, and a taxi costs 30 euros. I’d stay here again, though I’m not sure I’d call it a four-star hotel. It doesn’t seem to have enough facilities and amenities for that, but I don’t know European hotel standards well. The staff I met were all professional and polite. The hotel’s entrance and lobby are surprisingly small, but that didn’t bother me. I emailed from the plane with an approximate early arrival time and got a quick reply saying my room was already ready. The Deluxe Double Room was quite comfortable for one or two people, and I liked it. It was clean, with a good bed, hot shower water, plenty of power points, a self-explanatory safe, a large TV (I just need to learn Spanish 😂), a coffee pod machine, and a few hangers. There are no drawers. I could hear a man talking in the room, so the walls might be thin, although I heard nothing last night and maybe he arrived today. One small issue: the bathroom light is motion censored and switches off while you’re in the shower, then comes on when you walk near the bathroom. I wear glasses, so the sudden change startled me at first. Now I leave the room light on, which makes things dimmer but lets me see. There’s no bright central light anywhere, so doing makeup is difficult. There’s also no toilet brush. I understand why they don’t provide one, since nobody wants to see a dirty brush and replacing them would cost a lot, but I can’t stand leaving the toilet dirty. I feel sorry for the staff who have to clean it. Sorry 😔. If two of you have hard cases that open wide, they may take up too much space. A fabric case could help. I’ve only had breakfast once so far. The area is small, classy, and cute, with a little of everything. The woman replenished the food quickly and efficiently. I’m not sure what happens when the hotel is full, because there definitely won’t be room for everyone. I suppose people have to wait.

The location is very central, and the service was attentive. My room was clean and comfortable, but I couldn’t set the air conditioner to cool. The hotel has a central AC system, and because it was winter, I could only choose heating or fan mode.

They refused to honor my reservation, even though I’d paid for a room with one king bed and upgraded to a suite specifically to avoid problems. They said it was all “subject to availability.” When I asked for a refund a month ahead of time, they refused that too. My stay here was extremely disappointing. The place feels like a complete scam. Think twice before booking and save yourself the trouble.