Axel Hotel Madrid — Hotel in Madrid

An Exercise in Absurd Design and Misleading Advertising

Our recent stay at the Axel Hotel Madrid was a masterclass in how to prioritize aesthetics over basic guest comfort and legal compliance.

The Sky Bar Fiasco: A Masterpiece of Misdirection

Let's start with the amenity that truly defines this hotel's commitment to guest experience: the "Sky Bar." Advertised prominently with beautiful photos of a rooftop terrace and pool, it sounds like the perfect urban oasis. The reality? Upon inquiry, the front desk confirmed the truth: the "Sky Bar on the terrace" is open. But there is no bar service. Instead, the bar service is located on the ground floor during this period. The bar on the ground floor being called 🥁🥁🥁 “Sky Bar”. This is not a Sky Bar; it is a Sky Terrace with a "Bring Your Own" policy. For a hotel to advertise a high-value amenity so misleadingly is not just poor service—it is a clear example of misleading advertising, which carries legal consequences in Spain and constitutes a massive breach of consumer trust. We booked a hotel with a Sky Bar; we received an inconveniently located fridge.

A Design Paradox: Where Functionality Goes to Die

The room design itself seems to have been conceived as a conceptual art project dedicated to user dissatisfaction:

We were provided one standard towel hook outside the shower. The second hook? Strategically placed inside the shower cabin.

The kettle came equipped with a power cord so comically short that operating it required rearranging the room's furniture — just to reach a suitable outlet.

Shower vs. Toilet Geometry: The toilet area is generously sized , while the shower cabin is cramped, about half the size of the toilet space. Clearly, the designers anticipated guests spending more time contemplating their life choices on the porcelain than showering together.

The Illusion of Privacy: Speaking of the toilet, the door features a significant gap between the frame and the wall. Paired with essentially non-functional ventilation, this means that you can hear and smell everything your partner is doing. The lack of acoustic and olfactory privacy in an adults-only setting is genuinely absurd.

The Massive, Sticky Door: Moving the heavy room door is a workout, as it sticks stubbornly against the floor, requiring a physical shove every time you wish to enter or exit.

The Soundproof Wall, or Not: While the street-facing window is massive, it offers virtually no sound insulation. Expect to enjoy the full, unadulterated symphony of Madrid's busy street life, regardless of the hour.

User Experience: Details That Define Disdain Finally, the hotel's attention to user experience feels like a series of passive-aggressive jokes:

WiFi: Connection is provided via a QR code, which works well for phones but offers no user name or password for connecting a laptop. Apparently, business travelers and digital nomads need not apply.

Amenities: We found condoms in the room, but no paper tissues.

Wiring Woes: Adding to the list of maintenance issues, there was noticeable poorly insulated or exposed electrical wiring, a safety concern that suggests a severe lack of attention to basic upkeep.

The Eco-Contradiction (Policy Failure): The hotel displays "Eco-friendly" posters encouraging guests to reuse towels. Despite our intention to follow this policy by hanging our towels, they were still replaced daily, demonstrating a clear, frustrating disconnect between their advertised environmental standards and actual operating procedure.

Service: During check-out, the receptionist didn't even bother to ask how our stay was. A final moment of apathy that spoke volumes.

In conclusion, the Axel Hotel Madrid is a triumph of superficial style over substance, comfort, and honesty. If you enjoy solving spatial riddles, performing furniture reconfiguration for a cup of tea, and paying premium prices for non-existent amenities, this is the place for you. For everyone else,...

We were so excited to finally stay at an Axel property since we had such a great experience during our last trip to Barcelona and visited it’s rooftop bar and had a great experience. Unfortunately, our experience at the Madrid location has been the complete opposite and are regretting choosing this hotel for our first trip to Madrid.

It all started when we got in the lobby and had to wait for 15 minutes to gain access to the check-in desk due to only one person checking guests in at 3:45 (peak check-in time) and he working with another guest. During our wait, we were greeted by a local artist that was hanging his artwork in the lobby and invited us to come to the evenings drag show at 6:30. It was finally time for us to get to the desk and start our check-in process we were cordially greeted by the agent and he started the process. Within 2 minutes a group of 8 people came up to the desk and rudely interrupted our checkin process - as they needed keys and another room. We were finally checked in after another 15 minutes and was given our room key, room service QR code, Wi-Fi information and a free drink voucher for the rooftop bar.

We got to our room and was shocked to find no luggage rack in the room, and that is nothing like the pictures on the website. We thought that we could deal with the room - we apparently had the wrong expectation and thought we would visit the rooftop pool to see the view and to use our drink voucher. The view is/was spectacular however I will not be able to use the pool during our visit as it was extremely cold even thought the website stated it is “heated”. This brings us to the bar and us trying to use the “drink voucher”. The Bartender was helping a client so we sat at the end of the bar and waited for him to finish . As he was finishing with the original guest, another couple came in and proceeded to order their drinks. I politely interjected and he finally took our drink order - an Aperal Spritz and a Coke. He made the other couples order first and made ours last and gave them to us. dropped them off. I had the drink voucher in hand and asked how much I owed him, it was at this point that we were informed that the voucher is only good for red/white wine, a glass of Prosecco or a soda - Turning what we thought was a positive( a free cocktail) into another negative for the hotel. While we were drinking our beverages we watched the bartender interact with other guests that had the same voucher, but he was at least informing them of the restrictions before they placed the order. I have worked in customer service and this was nothing of the sort - watching him work made me feel like I was on a bad Southwest flight and he was the flight attendant.

Finishing our drinks we stated we weren’t going to let that ruin the stay and decided to check out the gym and spa area. All I can say is what a joke the second floor and the gym is technically non-existant - an elliptical machine and a stack of dumbbells . I was expecting the spa to maybe be a hottub or sauna - it has neither, it is just a room to get a massage.

We had plans to go walking the city so on our exit we asked the front desk about the drag show that was happening in the basement club at 6:30 - we were informed that the club would open at 6 and close once the show was over - what a waste of time, why come back to the hotel to watch a show and then need to find something else to do elsewhere for the rest of the evening???? We went out and came back to the hotel at 12:30 and found that our room had not cooled down to the 19 degree Celsius we had set it to prior to leaving. We called down to the desk and was informed someone would be up to look at it - it never happened.

What a waste of money and a...

We stayed when Madrid had a high number of covid cases so we were shocked to find our room had phlegm on two walls. This is vile and disgusting especially when case numbers were rising. When we complained the staff acted as if it was normal. The room was filthy, so much dust everywhere. They have posters saying how they clean thoroughly but this is a blatant lie.

This wasn’t the only issue with the room we were given. In the middle of summer, the aircon didn’t work. It was after complaining about the disgusting cleanliness and aircon that they moved us to another room which also had issues with aircon. Thankfully they managed to get an engineer out and they resolved it but the lowest your room will ever go is 19 so if you’re staying in peak summer then good luck.

The rooms are poorly designed. Despite the hotel trying to make it seedy it really is anything but. If you’re staying as a couple you best hope you’re comfortable seeing your partner using the toilet cause you can see everything in the bathroom as it’s all glass and in front of your bed. There is no privacy so if you’re with family or friends be prepared to see them naked and taking a dump.

The rooftop pool is a mess. The only good thing I can say is that the music was good on one day. Because it is one of the few hotels in Madrid with a rooftop a pool, the hotel sells day passes to the public so on a hot weekend it is packed full of people so paying guests of the hotel can never secure a lounge at the weekend. The pool is super narrow and nobody can swim in it because it’s full of people standing.

The drinks are ridiculously overpriced at €16 euros for a cocktail. The staff, bar one guy, are not friendly. They’re also useless, one guy slapped a woman and they watched it happen but did nothing cause they were too scared so I told them they need to kick him out and they did but it shouldn’t have needed me to tell them to do it.

The bar also makes up a policy that you cannot eat food or drinks that haven’t been bought at the bar. Even if you got drinks from your minibar or a coffee from your room. Nowhere does it say you cannot do that but the skinny guy at the bar with a face like thunder goes around enforcing it despite it not being a rule.

But the worst thing about this hotel and bar is that when you check out they try to force you to pay more for drinks that you never consumed. They have a policy of allowing guests to charge drinks from the bar to their room with a signature. But it turns out anybody can charge drinks to your room and the staff don’t care. We had three drinks charged to our room and when we said show us the signatures or CCTV they said no because they don’t have the footage and the receipts had someone else’s signature on them. I had to bluntly tell her I’m not paying for her to take it off.

The only reason I am giving this a two star is because some of the reception staff were helpful in sorting out my issues...