Hyatt Regency Hesperia Madrid — Attraction in Madrid

I was visiting Madrid with my daughter and I was using free nights for a couple of the nights. I am not quite sure how to rate or how I even still feel about the hotel. It is one of the few major hotels in a major European city that is still a category 4 and so can be used for the Hyatt free night awards- and so felt lucky to be able to do that. The people working are generally friendly (but my reaction was that all Spanish people were and so not maybe uniquely so?) I am trying to figure out how I feel about it and what my reaction is to it and whether my annoyance at check-in is coloring my vision of the hotel or not as well. ||||First, Madrid is amazing. I liked the city even better than I thought I would and want to put that out there first. Great energy, cheap delicious food, amazing feel to the whole place. Great museums and squares and fountains and views and palaces. Just fantastic. I would do anything that allowed me to go and if this hotel with the free night awards is part of that, then it would be worth it. ||||I think one of the main issues with the hotel is that it's just too far away from the main sites/downtown area if you are a tourist. We love to walk (we both have fitbits) and made the hike downtown several times but if we didn't Uber we would have had much less time to do the things we wanted to do. Ubers are very cheap and so that helped. But otherwise, you are in a sleepy kinda business-y boring part of town. You don't get any of the energy or the benefits of this amazing city by staying at this hotel and just have to actively stay away from the hotel to take advantage of the city. It's an ok place to sleep though. ||||On that note, we had club access because of a club award through Hyatt. It was nice but not like amazingly so. I think one of Madrid's main benefits is that there is an amazing plethora of cheap delicious places to eat and to the extent that this keeps you at the hotel (hang out in the club instead of any place else in Madrid), you are missing something. The food was overwhelmingly ok and was pretty much repeated every day I was there. The hot breakfasts were beans, broccoli, and sausages in the little white pots in the attached phot. I mostly avoided those and I had yogurt, fruit and granola every day. The cappucino maker was nice. If I was a globalist (I'm not) I would do the breakfast in the restaurant and skip the lounge and then eat elsewhere through the day and spring for a couple extra coffees and snacks. ||||As noted, my main annoyance was at check-in. Basically I really wanted to check in early after a trans-atlantic flight and they didn't make that happen. I think they didn't know what an Explorist (I'm not sure I do either) but in any case, there were awkward upsell attempts to rooms I didn't want and that I should have been able to get anyway and no seeming understanding that multiple requests had been put in for the early check in. I realize that check-in on a space-available but my reaction was not that there wasn't a room available because they found one for me at the actual check in time at 3 when my original room still wasn't ready but that they didn't know/care/do anything to get me in the room at the right time until a manager began handling it at 3. So after an unnecessarily exhausting day they put me in an only ok room (see attached picture of the view of the ugly rooftop/courtyard) but claimed it was a huge favor/upgrade. I don't know- but most hotels try to get you checked in early and I didn't feel like this one did and then the way they handled it annoyed me and so I was then annoyed throughout the trip- so maybe coloring my view of it quite a bit and am being unnecessarily grumpy about it. Just didn't sit right ||||Overall I am not sure who the hotel is for. I think they are trying for a luxury vibe (they have a 2-starred Michelin restaurant attached) and they advertise that you can rent a Porsche but those felt like unique add-ons to a business-type hotel that isn't centrally located. So didn't quite get the identity and there was nothing that I was left with that made me want to...

It’s a nice place located close to some good restaurants and shops. It’s a bit far if you’re wanting to walk to the palace or Plaza Major. Not too bad, but a bit farther than other properties you could choose.

The property generally is pretty nice. I was upgraded to a suite due to status, so I can’t speak to the typical room. The ceiling in the shower is cracked from exposure to moisture…and I only mention it because I find attention to detail is important and upkeep is important. If this isn’t being addressed in a premier room, what’s an average room look like? I suspect they’re fine, but probably aging.

The breakfast (included for me) was fine. A little light on protein options. If I had to pay for it, I wouldn’t.

I’m terms of service, this place totally misses the mark. They’re obnoxious about COVID protocols for one. Probably a Spain thing. The people here are a bit nutty about it. Generally, the staff feels rude to me. Compare with the Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile where my account was flagged such that the on duty manager came out to welcome me upon my check in and I was made to feel like royalty. These two Hyatt Regency properties aren’t even in the same ballpark on service.

Oh, and for some reason, the front desk told me they can’t do same day laundry. What hotel, especially a higher end hotel likely angling for business travelers doesn’t offer same day laundry service? Oh well. I walked about 5 mins down the road and found a nice old Spanish lady who has a cleaners and she agreed to do my clothes same day for me. Probably saved a ton of money…so, thanks, I guess Hyatt Regency? ;)

Overall, it’s a fine hotel. Frankly, I wish I’d saved about half the cost and stayed at the AC down south. The room here was nicer, but everything else was about the same and the AC was closer to things I enjoyed walking around. This neighborhood is much more modern and not what I come to old world cities to see.

Update: forgot to mention- they’re also obnoxious about cleaning the room. Even with the “do not disturb” sign on they’d repeatedly knock until I agreed to let them clean the room. Then - in the middle of a workday when I’m on client calls - they’d boot me out of the room until they were done. I’ve never seen such aggressive room cleaning. It’s like I couldn’t...

This hotel was a bit of a disappointment from the get go. We are globalists and they tried to put us in a regular room in the first floor and when my husband spoke to a manager his reason was if they put us in a higher floor they would have to move someone else. ??? We understand this is a first world issue but we worked hard on our status and spent a lot of time and money to get it. Specifically to get better rooms on our many, many stays. And we weren’t even asking for a suite, just a higher floor. And it’s never a good look when they argue with you and make excuses. They put us on the 3rd floor right above the entrance. Not ideal. Not terrible tho as it wasn’t horribly loud. And it was a bit of a stir with a door between the bedroom and sitting area and bathroom. Thank goodness because husband was a bit under the weather and we spent our whole time in the room so he could rest. Our drains backed up and they had to send maintenance cuz no. Just no. The man came right away and was not able to fix it but definitely made it better. Standing in water while showering is rather ick not to mention, in a shallow sink, there’s no room for the water to back up. The ’club’ was rather a joke. Just because there’s a curtain, doesn’t make it special. There was little food on offer. The breakfast buffet was not the most impressive. The scrambled eggs needed to actually be cooked. I was so grossed out. No meat on offer except the dried. No potatoes or veg or anything. Lots and lots of breads. The coffee was terrible. Like, really bad. We did lattes. I left it in my cup both days. Not sure why I tried it on the last day. The second we went and found a coffee shop even tho my husband did not feel like walking around, he wanted a good cup of coffee. Thankfully there are several shops within a few minutes.

We definitely would not stay here again when in Madrid and wouldn’t recommend it to...