Meliá Madrid Princesa — Hotel in Madrid

I wish I could give this hotel & their staff more than 5 stars. This was my first ever trip to Spain & I will never, ever be able to extend my joy & appreciation in my experience in this review, but I will try my best. The hotel is surrounded by a mixture of old & new buildings lending to rich history & progressive futures. The entrance is surrounded by beautiful greenery, clean windows & walkways. Upon entering, you are greeted with welcoming faces & greetings, in both Spanish & English. The desk agents are prompt in getting you sorted out, collecting bags & getting you set up. My husband, daughter & I had been able to purchase The Level Experience, which I will say is worth the money, tenfold. Your bags are taken care of, while you are brought to a separate reception desk, again greeted in both Spanish & English, offered something to drink before settling in to finalize some details about our room. Our wonderful hostess then showed us around The Level Experience area, showing us how to use the coffee machine, going through the food items, beverages & the times everything is set up for guests. She went over where our rooms were & gave us keys after walking us to the elevators(lift). Once we got to our room, the experience continued with crisp, tidy beds, bright airy rooms that overlooked the city, spacious bathroom with amazing toiletries to use. A few moments later, the doorman brought up our bags, big smiles & warm greetings, asking if he could get us anything while he was there. We had thanked him for his offer & his service, to which he wished us a wonderful stay & headed on his way. Then, a few moments later, another staff member arrived with fresh bottled water with glasses for us, as well wishing us a wonderful stay. Throughout the whole stay, each staff member treated us so kindly & welcoming. Any time we had questions or needed to know how to get somewhere, the hostess at the desks showed us on maps or cleared confusion for us, no matter what it was they were doing, they made it a priority to make sure you knew the answer to what you were looking for. At first I thought that maybe it was just the hotel, but when we went to explore the city, we found that it is simply how the Spanish people are. I have never in my life, been somewhere that the entire population is this way. From our taxi drivers, to store employees, information desks, wait staff in restaurants, even the pharmacy (chemist) clerk were friendly & kind to us when we had questions. The Level Experience in the hotel, is one of a kind. I have never experienced such a beautiful display of hosting. The food was fresh, the drinks cold & everything was always stocked up. We got to experience flavours & foods we've never had, but also got to have familiar favourites but the taste was unmatched. Our experience in the hotel restaurant was our favourite. Jesus is one of a kind. He is fantastic at his job, but also the kindest individual I have come across in a very long time in this industry. While jobs can grind away at people's integrity, it definitely isn't that way for him. There is standard held high for anything he did. Every table was looked after, the wait staff supported, restaurant goers spoken with. Always a smile on his face, worked quickly but never rushed. You never felt like he was hoping to get away from you to do other things. Our food there was stunning. Absolutely, stunning. The presentation clean but modern, the food cooked perfectly every single time, the chefs let the natural flavour of the food speak for itself on that plate. And the consistency?! Perfection. I ordered the same meal twice & it was the exact same flavour each time. You certainly have created a standard that should be set for any hotel around the world & should be incredibly proud of your staff for representing themselves, the hotel & Madrid they way they have. Thank you, to each & every single staff member at the hotel for an experience that my family & I will be talking about for the rest of our lives. We can't wait to return to your beautiful...

This is the final review of our experience at Melia Madrid Princesa Hotel where we stayed for three nights while on a three-city tour of Spain which took us from Barcelona to Seville and finally to Madrid.

The team at Melia Madrid Princesa took the extra mile and went above and beyond to ensure that our stay at the hotel is as pleasant as possible.

PROS: (1) Location - The hotel is located right in the heart of Madrid and is walking distance to major attractions of Madrid including the Royal Palace (2) Public Transport - If you dont like walking, the Metro (subway) station is almost right next to it and across the street is a bus station. (3) Cleanliness - Though not new, the hotel is clean and well-maintained (4) Large Lobby - Even though the hotel gets busy check-ins, the expansive size of the lobby helps in making sure the place is not crowded (5) Security - There is always at least one or two men stationed in the lobby to make sure the place is safe and only valid guests get to enter the hotel (6) Size of Room - The room has adequate size typical of American hotels - not small with adequate space for luggage (7) Computer Desk - There is a office or computer desk in case you need one next to a fridge and the safety box (8) Safety Box to keep your valuables safe which you can code to lock and unlock (9) Luggage Space - There is an elevated place to open and spread your luggage so you dont have to put it on the floor (10) AC Thermostat - Placed next to your bed by the side table which helps so you dont have to stand up in case you need to adjust the temperature (11) Bathroom - Modern and upgraded bathroom, clean and spacious (12) In-room Hallway - Brightly-lit hallway provides extra space if needed (13) Main Hallway to the Rooms - Brightly-lit with light-colored carpets (looks clean) and large numbers indicating your room number (14) Hotel Breakfast - If you availed of the breakfast option, they have a very large breakfast area with lots of selection including local Spanish breakfast option.

CONS: (1) Tech Charging Ports|USB Ports - Inadequate or absent not even next to your bed so make sure you bring your adapter (2) Drive Way to Hotel - Limited almost one-way traffic to the front of the hotel. If you take a cab from the airport or train terminal, typically the cab will drop you by the roadside then you'll have to walk to the hotel (about 50 to 80 feet) (3) Hotel View - My hotel view was not that great mainly because of the room I got (4th floor). Pretty sure the higher floors will give you a better view of Madrid. (4) AC Thermostat limitation - At first our AC could not be set below 19 °C but this was immediately addressed by the hotel and we were able to set it lower. If you have this issue, give the front desk a call.

Overall, we enjoyed our stay here not just because of the hotel but mainly because of the staff and the hotel manager. They called, talked to us and made sure we had a great stay for 3-4 days. Huge compliments to the hotel manager who exceeded our expectations of what a personalized service is.

Dates of Stay: Jan 19 (Sun) to...

Several things transpired upon arrival and after which made me give the Hotel such a low rating. Although the accommodations were everything I hoped for. I made several attempts at contacting the hotel to request certain accommodations for the group i was traveling with, mainly early check in. Coming from out of the country I was unable to coordinate the flight from America to correspond with check in time. The flight (which was 9 hours long) and took us from Monday (USA) to our arrival in Madrid on Tuesday. We were dropped at the Hotel shortly before 10am. I spoke with the front desk staff in an attempt to explain the situation and to see if we could check in early as requested prior to our arrival. That did not happen, not only could they not accommodate us and we had to wait until 3pm for 2 of the rooms to be ready, while the other 3 were ready until closer to 4. On Wednesday we went to have cocktails at the bar, the drinks were amazing and although we continued to get the impolite stars from the night shift staff and the standing by watching us as if we were going to commit a crime, the drinks and the Bartender were good we laughed talked and he gave us a recommendation for a restaurant, until he wasn't! After finishing the drinks we left the bar and upon returning i placed an order for another drink and ordered from the kitchen, while waiting for me my travel companions had food they purchased from another restaurant, they pulled the food out to look at it, when the bartender who we had been having great conversation with walked past us and went to the front desk to tell them there was outside food at he table.

The front desk sent the SECURITY Officer to our table where i was waiting for my drink and food and told us that we could not have food that wasn't from the hotel at the table although it was being eaten. i explained that i was waiting for my food and they were waiting with me, but that did absolutely no good. We were stalked and watched like criminals until we finally got up and left. Being an African American the racial tension at night was unnerving. Being a person of color, we were made to feel as if we did not belong in your establishment and the hotel made us feel as though they thought we were less than. I did not appreciate being made to feel unwelcome in a place where i paid good money to have a room from August 19 - 25th. There was only 1 gentleman from the night shift staff who was excellent, he didn't make us feel unwelcome and he assisted as much as possible even helping us make dinner reservations our last night. Fir this Hotel to be such a beautiful Hotel, we were made to feel like it was not intended for people of color to be there. I am disappointed and i feel like the color of my skin played a major part in how i was treated on the night shift during my stay. No Bueno!!!! This could be such a fabulous place to stay when visiting Madrid were it not for the fact that we were made to feel like criminals by being watched every move we made or made to...