Gran Hotel Conde Duque - Madrid, Spain 

Hotel was chosen as the base for a business trip to a North Madrid location offering excellent connections with public transport. Booking the room via an international hotel reservation website, I was positively surprised about the special attention given already at the registration, including a personal welcome letter by the manager. Registration was very friendly and efficient. The room was specially calm (back yard, 7th floor) although the hotel location was already a quiet place for a city location as it is off the big roads at a large square with much green area and resting facilities. The room was luxuriously furnished, compactly spaced but rather convient with an excellent bed. Public spaces were very warmly arranged and invited to a longer stay. Breakfast buffet was excellent, especially and but not only in comparison with normal Spanish standards. Distance to metro is very short (less than 5 min by foot). The part of the town is very inviting with many small bistros and short walking distances to the very city at Plaza de Espana. In summary, the hotel offers perfect value for money for any business trip and potentially for touristic stays (as far as can be judged from a 1 night stay).

The Conde Duque obviously tries to come across as a quite fancy place to stay. There is no denying that it has some nice touches, and it is quite proper and tidy, everything is in good repair and works as expected (well, it was the cool season, so I wouldn't know about the AC). Really nothing much to complain about. Yet the absence of any ugly spots combined with an elegant lobby and fine stationery is not quite enough to make the luxury class. The neighbourhood is quite decent, but not very interesting. On the other hand, it is only a twenty-minute walk to some more attractive parts of town, and metro stations are found within five minutes from the hotel. The rooms are well kept and quiet but not very spacious or especially pretty. The desk was small and most of it was occupied by the TV set. There was no easy-chair for comfortable reading or watching TV, so unless you get a bigger and better room than I had, be prepared to spend all your time either lying on the bed or sitting at the desk. Not quite my idea of a comfortable stay. Some rooms offer a very limited view from the window, others may be better. The staff is not very fluent in English. Routine matters such as checking in and out present no problem, but the staff can not answer more complicated questions in English. There is Internet connection, but only for a fee and through a peculiar TV interface (yes, the television set is involved somehow). And whatever you do, do NOT use the fancy cast-iron letter box in the lobby to mail anything important. Despite assurances from the staff that this was a good option, it seems from the date stamp that it took over two weeks before the letter was handed over to the postal service for delivery - I suspect that this letter box is emptied very infrequently. But by and large, it is a reasonably good place to stay, as long as one does not expect anything out of the ordinary and spends most of the time doing other things elsewhere.