Pestana CR7 Gran Vía Madrid — Hotel in Madrid

My wife and I were very excited to stay at this property, I read the reviews beforehand and booked well in advance through a travel agent. I wish the stay matched the anticipation we had. Check in was slow and a bit difficult as the front desk agent was a bit rude (similarly as noted in other reviews). He also noted “I see you booked on Expedia”, as we used a travel service I’m not sure what or why this would be mentioned or matter. We were a bit early so we dropped our bags and grabbed lunch. Upon arrival back to the property our room was ready. We were put in room 411 (fourth floor). This is where the nightmare began. We were given a handicap room that did not match any pictures from the room that we were presented with online. The bathroom was an “open concept”, which made it very difficult for one person to do anything else while someone was using the toilet, showering, etc. The shower would leak all over the entire bathroom, making it slippery and unsafe throughout the day as it took many hours to dry. We tried putting towels all over the floor, but that didn’t help. I have included pictures to describe the room and bathroom. There was no closet, or anywhere to hang clothing. We were very tired from our flight and decided we would mention this to the front desk after a nap. As we tried to sleep the air conditioning unit did not work (it was 87° in Madrid this day). We were then greeted by loud banging and people speaking very loud in the room next to us. After a brief investigation I noticed that we were put in a room next to the staff room. These loud noises were a theme for all three days we stayed, from 7:00am - 5:00pm or later. The cleaning service or other employees were constantly on cell phones in the hallway outside of our room, it honestly made it very difficult to feel like we had any privacy at all. Our room door was also constantly blocked by a trash cart (I have included pictures) that I would have to push out of the way by hand. After 5:00 pm when these carts were moved trash and cleaning supplies would be scattered throughout the hallway. We tried to inquire about our room, if anything else was available to no avail. We were also under the impression that the pool would be open, the website states it opens May 11, we checked in May 12 and I was told it would not open until after we left. The front desk agent gave me a smug answer saying I could use the pool at the hotel next door. I asked if this was included in the stay in a partnership between the two and he laughed and condescendingly told me “of course not, you have to pay.” I am sure everyone has different experiences, but I could not recommend this hotel to anyone, I would honestly say stay as far away as you can.

I am sure the hotel will reply back to this post as they have many other negative reviews, but the words and replies do not matter if they are not holding employees accountable, and treating guests...

Hotel is lovely but for some reason we were allocated a disabled room which meant that the toilet was next to the open shower and got soaked every time we turn the tap on. AC was not very effective and wardrobe door dragged on carpet. Wardrobe itself was tiny and half height so only good for Tee shirts. Reception staff poorly trained and when we asked to change room they said they would call us back in 5 mins. Only one lift working so having 80 year old parents with us was very difficult as it could take up to 15 minutes for the lift ! Reception said this would be fixed within an hour ( it never was repaired). After 30 mins I went back to reception and said if they can’t move room to let me know as we wanted to get on with our holiday. Again they said they would get back in 5. They never did. The next day we left at 10:30 and left the sign asking for the room to be cleaned. Arriving back to the room at 22:30, it was still dirty so we asked for some clean towels at reception. The girl who checked us in was working again and told us we made an error with the sign (untrue) so we left them to send towels up while we went to the bar for a nightcap. Another gentleman on reception offered us complimentary breakfast for the issues we had and we said that was a nice offer but breakfast was included. He said it was an extra. We explained that the girl standing there who checked us in told us it was included. We actually questioned this on arrival as when making the reservation we were asked if we would like breakfast @20€ per head and we said no.but the girl On reception insisted it was included. The girl had no idea and made no effort to apologise for her error so we were given two tickets for a free drink at the bar which were labelled “welcome drink”. Bar/restaurant staff were lovely but the doors always say “cerrado/closed” so unless you actually try the door, you would think it was closed. Oh and the chap who did apologise on the reception desk said he tried to call us all day on our second day to say we could change rooms and that is why the room was not cleaned. He did not call us as he did not have mobile numbers nor did he email despite have our contact details - he called our room number ! Staff need training, lift needs fixing and there is far too much choice in Madrid for us to return...

Avoid this property, there are much better hotels in Madrid. We had so many issues during our one week stay.

Firstly, the air conditioning doesn’t work properly, that’s a major no-no in a city that gets very hot. The AC worked but we couldn’t turn it off ourselves, so the room was completely freezing. The hotel couldn’t find a solution except move us to another room at almost midnight. They barely apologised or offered any commercial gestures. So we were moved to a room with a twin bed, instead of the original king we had - another bummer! The air conditioning could be turned on and off in the new room but the thermostat still didn’t work, can you believe that in a brand new hotel?

We also had many issues with the room keys that just stopped working for no reason. That meant several trips to the reception and plenty of time lost to get things sorted out.

One morning there was no hot water to take a shower. Another morning there was only hot water coming from the sink. You can forget about getting a glass water after you wake up. Crazy!! Again this a brand new hotel…

On top of that, the light switches in the room are absolutely not user friendly. You will get a headache trying to switch off the lights. That’s why the cleaning staff leaves the lights on after they do your room, they probably also have no idea how to use the light switches.

Besides the table lamp in our room didn’t work.

I also found a dirty cleaning rag in our room, disgusting (see the photo).

On top of everything, the cleaners threw away one of my earplugs.

As you can see, we had to face a lot of issues, which we weren’t expecting in a brand new hotel. You should also be aware that the rooftop pool is very tiny (whoever took the photos for the website really did some magic to make it look that much bigger!) and the whole layout of lounge chairs is bad.

On the positive side of things, the bed was really comfy and the the sound insulation is good.

The bottom line is...