Hotel Gran Versalles — Hotel in Madrid

As someone who has stayed in hotels across the world, being able to approach staff is an important part of the stay. We felt very uncomfortable and after the guy at the front desk started shouting at my grown family last night - most definitely unwelcome.||The trip to Madrid was a treat organised by my grown son. He’d been before and had had a good experience of the city opting to return, this time with his parents. Note: we are something of an international family, with lots of travel under our belt, for work, leisure and family visits. Both my son and daughter were schooled internationally, have extensive experience of hotel stays from being babies to adulthood. Occasionally as part of their travels they have opted for B&B, guesthouses and lodges etc. The point of this is that we have lots of experience with hotels, accommodation, adjusting to new places etc. ||For our most recent stay the tone seems to have been set at the point of checkin. There was some confusion over the number of nights we were expecting to stay; there was a definite sense of condescension in the conversation; one that my son managed by being gentlemanly and saying that he would pick up with the web service he’d used to make the stay. ||It also became apparent what the hotel did not provide. Oversight on our part was that a complimentary breakfast for four travelling adults was not included as part of the stay; we were happy to do as we have done previously, combine our dining experiences both at the hotel and in the city. Best of both. We have stayed in some grand hotels and carried in pizza and fruit or opted for our own bought items instead of the bar service. ||The slight surprise was realising that the rooms did not have a kettle so we decided again that we could skip having a cup of tea/coffee (reasonable routine for many before going to sleep) and instead have a wind-down hot drink either in the hotel coffee shop or whilst out and about in the city. Timings were a little awkward, and not quite the same as experiencing this in our rooms, but broadly understood. ||There were two nights that this did not happen after we got back from our city excursions. On both occasions we asked the front desk if it was possible to arrange for some hot water, so that we could make up drinks in the room. Note: we bought our own green tea etc and paper cups. ||On the first occasion, the chap at the desk (D____) - somewhat begrudgingly - offered us two small pots of water. Bearing in mind that there are 4 adults on this trip, we managed to muster up courage and ask for another pot. It obviously ruffled feathers, because when a similar request was made again some days later, it resulted in a very unpleasant exchange. I happened not be there at the beginning of the conversation, and came in some moments later. However, the following we all (including D_____) agree on:||D_____ pushed his chair (in frustration, apparently distracted by from his phone entertainment) and then launched into an angry speech about “giving a hand and then taking the arm”. He implied we were abusing the hospitality. This took everyone by surprise and whilst there were a few other staff members present; no one intervened. Fortunately, it was late and there were few other guests in the lobby, but both the tone and volume were not acceptable. To manage the situation and minimise embarrassment, I asked my wife and daughter to go up to their rooms and stepped into the conversation. ||D_____ continued to mutter under his breath and I pointed out that this was not something he should do before his guests. I did ask him to self reflect in terms of the volume and tone of how he was addressing people and that if there had been an oversight on our part; this is something we would be willing to accept and apologise for. This did manage to calm him down and he seemed remorseful towards the end, but I ended this with asking him to reflect and how neither for him nor our family was this a pleasant way to end the night.||I said that we had come to understand that tea/coffee in the room was not a cultural thing but bearing in mind that the hotel advertises itself as four stars, we thought if push cam to shove, we could ask the hotel front desk for hot water. As stated, there was no kettle - and we had provided our own cups - so we would not have been infringing too much. ||The upshot of this - the morning after the night before - is that I don’t want to see the front desk. I don’t want to join the other guests for breakfast and I would like to completely forget about the unpleasantness of the staff. The unpleasantness of the night before hangs over us. I have a couple more days stay, but want to avoid further interaction with the front desk.||When dealing with international guests over a busy summer period, surely, there has to be an understanding that small requests for comfort may be made.||Minimum services such as cups and hot water for tea/coffee just may come to you. If a family was staying with a baby on formula milk, is it not possible they not also need to make a request for hot water?||Perhaps these are requests that the hotel continues to ignore, despite the front desk acknowledging this need. The statement about “giving a hand and then taking the arm” genuinely makes us feel like we should not ask. ||Unaccommodating and...

Alvaro friendly at check in and actually upgraded us without knowing. When we got to room toilet didn’t flush properly. I spoke with Catalina who brought a staff member to check twice and she said well there is no one to fix it until Monday abd it was a Friday. When I asked her to change the room, she said no but then said let me check. She did and it was the basic room, refusing to give the sane room saying they were full but I could pay for upgrade in morning abd to talk to the staff then. I was so tired since that took 2 hrs alone. The room 105 was horrible, noise all-nighter and could hear things being dragged and footsteps. In morning I spoke with Irene and she was not willing to change the room nor honour the upgrade. I was upset given the room we were given was bad. No consideration. So I left a review on tripadvisor and still decided to give them a chance later that day. Alvaro again was so nice and said I had to talk to the manager on the morning but I was not given that option by any other staff. I was told I should have called them I. The middle of the night to complain about the noise but their phone ms diner work. I told them I left a review. Day 3 morning Irene was surprisingly nice and said so sorry for the inconvenience and upgraded me to 5th floor. I said it shouldn’t have taken so long and she says she didn’t have all the info. I told her I was the customer and I was giving her all the info. The room was upgraded but the shower head was busted . I was not wanting to move 4th time. And I forgot to mention the noise in the hotel is sooo loud, I even recorded it to show them. Save your money, don’t stay here and location is not great to downtown, although metro convenient. A hotel should be nice with good customer service. This was not worth it. Don’t stay and the staff need to learn courteous service without being condescending . I took down my tripadvisor review because it was only partial story but here’s...

Our experience was really bad. We came to Madrid at my husband’s birthday to celebrate and reserved the room for 3 nights 5 months ago. With flight delays and birthday celebrations we arrived to the hotel at 11.15 pm to check in. There was a young receptionist who is not approachable and uninterested. That is not a problem to be fair. The problems started later. The room he gave us was a twin room it turns out. We wanted to change it and he gave us room 112. He already said there is no available room but this one. So we had to accept. The room was looking dirty and small in the first floor, just on the street level with a historical air-conditioner which does not make the work done but gives a constant noise. So we had to open the windows and all the street voice was in the room. The furnitures in the room was like to a student house vibe, so old and there was no decoration, but old brown mirrors everywhere. Curtains became yellow because the visitors had to open it often. They are not a hotel who offers slippers or kettles, for the ones we plan to stay there as well. So we had to wear shoes to go to the bathroom. I could not even blink for the all night and next morning I went to the reception to tell our not pleasant at all stay. The receptionist only asked me which room we stayed in and I gave a wrong answer. We had to change the room at the nighttime because of their fault and I simply did not remember. He even did not asked my name but he knew which room we stayed in and corrected me rudely. He kept repeating you gave me the wrong room number as if that matters. This was a middle aged man. Both of them did not say sorry at any point even just for saying. That afternoon we have given a different room just as you could see in their gallery photos and what we paid for. So stay away if you are not Pierre and Claudie. You will not be...