Alcázar de María

We had a little confusion at check-in because staff aren't there after 1 p.m., but they were kind and helpful, and it wouldn't make me take off a star. The room was clean, the bed was great, and breakfast had everything we needed and tasted delicious. A great base for exploring Sevilla.

The cooked breakfast, served at the table, was a lovely way to start the day, and the hotel itself was clean and quiet. The staff were friendly and helpful, and I slept well in the comfortable bed. Its location is especially useful for visiting the Alcazar, just a five-minute walk away. We hadn't booked tickets and found none online for our day, so I went to the ticket office at 6:30 in the morning and was among the first in line. That let me get the same-day tickets we needed from the 300 sold there each day. Since there isn't staff on site after a certain time, contact the owner soon after booking to make sure you have the check-in instructions. I strongly recommend the hotel.

This was a terrible experience, and we lost both our booking and the full amount we paid through Booking.com. The property charged us in advance for two nights, but we didn't stay in the room for even a minute. We eventually found kind hosts and a good place to stay in Seville, but a month later I was still waiting for a fair decision to return the prepayment. I said I'd do what I could to have this place declared illegal and closed. The double room was tiny, like a closet, with a built-in bed and shower. The pipes smelled awful, the hygiene and quality were very poor, and it looked nothing like the photos. They had tried to cover the smell with household chemicals, leaving the air so full of them that it was hard to breathe. Getting around the bed to reach the window was a challenge even for a slim woman like me. And the advertised window turned out to be a street-level opening blocked from outside by a wooden barrier, so it couldn't be opened for fresh air. Within minutes of trying to reach the hosts, we were itching, sneezing, and coughing, even though we're healthy. Our luggage was still by the door because there was no room to bring it in. We tried to cancel right away. At first nobody answered; then someone said they knew nothing and had to contact the host. After we contacted Booking.com support, the hosts came online and said everything was fine there and they didn't want to hear complaints. They told us to leave the key in the box and go if we couldn't stay. After that, calls, emails, and messages went unanswered. We left, found somewhere else to sleep, and washed all our clothes to get rid of the awful smell, which was still strong two hours later. Guests from several other rooms told us they felt the same, but were afraid to leave without another reservation in a foreign city, so planned to stay quiet until morning. Neighbors later told me the property had been dealing with guests this way for years, cheating them and taking their money, and posting fake reviews through fake bookings of its own. Don't believe them. I felt completely unsafe. This isn't a hotel, and it had nothing like what was described for accommodating guests.

The location was excellent, breakfast service was good, and the domestic staff were incredibly polite and kind. The frustrating part was the construction next door. On our first morning, loud noise and vibrations through the wall woke us at 6:30 a.m. We reported it to management on WhatsApp and got no response, so we asked the domestic staff for help changing rooms. We were given two choices and picked a ground-floor room, but the helpful staff member warned the noise could still be heard there. It seemed they knew about the issue and were still taking bookings. We eventually moved to another room and could sleep undisturbed. It's a shame management didn't address our complaint, since otherwise I would have rated the hotel five stars.