Westin Palace Hotel - Madrid, Spain 

The hotel really is overrated and overpriced. The room was ‘fine,’ nothing more, nothing less, I had a ‘premium’ room and certainly the prices were certainly ‘premium’ at $400.00 a night. Furniture, although dated was kept clean and dusted, the fixtures and fittings are certainly dated. The carpets were stained, and in the communal hallways the wallpaper was coming away from the wall. There are no welcoming flowers, fruit or anything in the room to welcome you as a new guest, there is no night turndown service, so be warned, if you have a shower or bath in the morning, do not expect any clean towels for you in the morning. There was no bath gels in the room, just cheap shampoo and conditioner and a bar of wrapped soap which was not replaced throughout our 5 day stay. The prices of everything were very inflated, do not even think of taking anything from the minibar! For example a Kit Kat was almost $12.00, a small bottle of water the same price. There is no wifi in the room, only in the hotel lobby and at a cost of $28.00 for the day. The television only had CNN and Euronews for English speaking channels, you have to pay $12 to listen to a CD which will be played through the speaker system of the rather antiquated television. We were there when there happened to be some ‘VIP’s’ staying, which meant that the public seating areas were sealed off and only to be used for the security staff.. The breakfast buffet was nothing out of the ordinairy, lots of cellophane wrapped individual portions of cheese and butter and yoghurts, if you are lucky you may find some greasy bacon, but you need to be early to get it. The bathrobes were grey and well worn, the bath amenities were of inferior standard. The ceiling in the toilet had an old cobweb with its dead owner still in it. The staff were friendly and helpful, but unfortunately the surroundings that they had to work in certainly had seen better days. Some days you get a newspaper left outside your room, some days you do not.

A friend and I just got back from a 3 night stay in the Westin Palace in Madrid. Unfortunately the last 2 days I came down with an intestinal infection. The concierge brought an English-speaking doctor to our room (after we had checked out already) and even got us a taxi while we went to the pharmacy. Their service was wonderful and I was very impressed.