Room Mate Macarena, Madrid Gran Vía — Hotel in Madrid

My first time staying at this hotel and probably my last. The hotel is conveniently located for the tourist and shopper. Price per night is reasonable. The reception is on floor 9, so a long ride in the elevator. I’m not feeling the design of this hotel - the decor generally is really unusual and I don’t like it. The bedroom was very dark as a result of the blue colour, and the reception was equally dark in green. Another thing I don’t like and “cheapens” the feel of the hotel is that when you exit the elevator, to enter the reception you walk across a stair lobby, and it’s an ugly area. Also the change of surface levels and particularly the carpet is difficult to use with a suitcase. Actually the elevator lobby on each floor is the same, the elevator is disconnected from the main part of the hotel, it feels so strange, that you exit the elevator, walk through the unpleasant stairs, then enter a corridor through an industrial looking door and after that you find the bedrooms. I didn’t try the restaurant or terrace or anything else so I can’t comment on them. The room is quite small but okay for one person. If two sharing them the bathroom layout will offer zero privacy. The layout is a little bizarre. The operation of water taps aren’t user friendly. Nice welcome pack of popcorn and water, the next day there was a note from the housekeeper with some cookies. Unlike other hotels, I didn’t see any water or fruit for guest in the reception. The housekeeper did a good job each day cleaning the room. Shower gel and other things are provided. Not sure about iron is available. Heating works well and the room is comfortable. The mattress is great. The shower is great too. I didn’t use the TV so I can’t comment. Annoyingly if you wish to charge your phone etc then there’s no close or convenient socket to plug things into. I resorted to moving some furniture to get access to a hidden socket…..this shouldn’t be needed. WiFi works well. One day I was in my room and the door opened. It was a housekeeper who tried to enter without knocking, so I shouted hello and the person quickly closed the door, but judging by the laughter I heard they must have thought it was funny that they walked in on somebody who wasn’t expecting them…..and I thought the whole saga was very unprofessional. As for the access card, the words printed on it summarise the quality of this hotel!! Is it really necessary to be that vulgar??// I’m beginning to think it’s a “love...

After staying here for my honeymoon, I simply cannot recommend it. The "trendy" room design was actually just really non functional, I had to move furniture just to be able to open the closet doors. It was also so dark in our all blue room that even with every single light turned on it felt like a cave and was hard to get ready. The bathroom has zero privacy, like none at all. A glass door to the toilet with the sink outside of that which is directly open to the room. Expect to hear all bathroom activity of your room partner(s) the entirety of the trip. We had a room view of a wall with other rooms windows for our honeymoon- really, just an empty interior courtyard looking into other people's rooms. How romantic, right? When checking in, the receptionist asked "you are here for your honeymoon, right?!" We had thought maybe we would come to the room to find a nice view or little surprise (as we had experienced at the hotel we had just left in Barcelona) but no, just a view of a wall. You couldn't even open the window properly because it would hit the curtain track. The icing on the cake, the hotel rented out the rooftop bar for a private party one afternoon & evening and we were kept up all night from the exceptionally loud music. Seriously, blasting club music on the 10th floor so loud on the 6th.floor we could hear people screaming along with it like it was outside our door. We slept through our alarm the next morning because of it and missed a prepaid car rental reservation, as well as the day trip experience we were supposed to be embarking on. The hotel said "yeah, sometimes we rent out the roof for parties, sorry for the noise." No prior heads up and so much disregard for the comfort of their guests in this regard. So we're out all the money we spent on that, not to mention the experience we planned on a day of our honeymoon, but I guess we did enjoy the 2 free glasses of cava we were given for the inconvenience. Long story short, does the place suck? No. Is it great? No. Would I willingly stay...

Updating review after our second check in:

When we checked in we were greeted directly by Mario and were given the lighter colored room and also a free room upgrade. Mario was very friendly and attentive and it was obvious how proud he was of this hotel and it showed through his exceptional customer service.

This room is more spacious and includes a terrace and a brighter color scheme making it a lot brighter.

We were not expecting much but we were pleasantly surprised by the staffs efforts to make our second stay more enjoyable. That's rare to see.

I'll definitely visit again if I am back in Madrid. One recommendation I have for the staff is, it would be helpful if it was possible to choose the type of room design when booking through Expedia etc. As I do agree some people would like the darker colored room and some people, like me would not.

First review below:

We were disappointed with how dark the rooms were. It felt a bit suffocating.

As it is in a great location I had anticipated a small room but the room we got was painted in dark blue without enough lights to offset the darkness. The lights outside help when the windows are open but unrealistic to keep them open due to neighboring windows.

The room also had a tv which was right in front of the bed. Because of the size of the small room the power button illuminated in the entire room all night to the point where we had to put a Band-Aid over it to get some sleep.

Overall not a bad stay but I wouldn't stay here again if I had a choice. Unfortunately I already have another three night stay booked here...