Hotel Villa Real Hotel

The location and the helpful and friendly staff. The outstanding breakfast buffet. The pleasant bar and the chilled bottle of cava welcoming you in the lobby. The fitness centre on the 6th floor, which you have to find through 4th floor stars. The bikes are of very poor quality, and the TV never worked. Noisy renovation of the 6th and 5th floors. Updating needed of rooms and corridors. Unsafe steps and very slippery and unsafe floor in the rooms. Bathtub needs a shower mat. The air-condition in the room did not work, so we had to sleep with the veranda door open - and cough 'Spanish colds'. The 'view' from our room in the rear was not very inviting, overlooking the courtyard and the roof of the breakfast restaurant. We were a group of three couples, of which we were the only having included breakfast in the room rate. The remaining two couples got their breakfast at half price when checking in. So we ended up paying euro 10 per head more than them, and the hotel would not rectify the matter. Do not ever let the hotel charge you a rate for room and breakfast, it will apparently be cheaper to negotiate the breakfast with the hotel on arrival. Besides that, the staff is so charming smiling and helpful, that it made our stay great.

The old part of the city is very compact, walk-able and this hotel was a great base location wise (we did a free walking tour of the east end of the old city and then paid for the walking Majestic walking tour through the east end of the old town - both were fantastic, very informative and fun). We would walk to Puerta del Sol or Plaza Mayor via Saint Jeronimo or take Calle del Prado to Plaza Saint Ana and nearby cobblestone streets full of restaurants and cafes. Prado Museum and Retiro park are even closer, just across the beautiful Paseo del Prado. The staff is extremely polite, friendly and professional. We enjoyed having coffee or late night drink at the hotel patio, situated in the beautiful Plaza de la Cortes. The hotel is very nicely decorated with the old town charm. The room was specious and clean, with excellent beds and bed sheets. The bathroom was on the smaller side but very functional and well equipped. The first night there was some noise at night from the rooms on our floor but luckily it only happened on that one night. The AC was not the quietest but the temperature at night was below 20 Celsius which allowed us to sleep with the balcony door open which was very pleasant. We did not opt to have breakfast at the hotel as there were much cheaper options at many nearby places, very close to the hotel. We noticed that there was no coffee maker in the room but we preferred to have our coffee outside anyways. Overall we truly enjoyed our stay at Hotel Villa Real and would not hesitate to stay there again should we visit the beautiful city of Madrid again.