Catalonia Plaza España Hotel & Spa

"The room was lovely and clean and the location is excellent. The checkout experience left a sour taste and the service was not consistent. When we asked about a late checkout, we were told the hotel was fully booked, that’s understandable it’s peak season. What wasn’t great was being offered pool access as an alternative, only to discover that shower facilities in the gym and spa were not available to departing guests, and the pool has no showers either. Pool access without the ability to shower afterwards is odd and impractical for anyone with a travel day ahead especially after using a heavily chlorinated pool. In several years of international travel, this is the first time I have encountered this policy, and it is enough for me to not return. Checkout rarely aligns perfectly with a flight, and in every other situation I have needed one, alternate shower access has always been offered. Madrid is a wonderful city with no shortage of places to spend your final few hours with much better places to spend your money than a hotel you spent your time and money on that wouldn’t even offer gym showers for a refresh before a flight. In addition to this, the service was rather spotty. Check in was great, helpful and great first impression. Cleaning staff when we saw them were also friendly. But it was clear some guests were treated better than others. For example long waits at the pool when recently arrived guests are being served before us. At the restaurant waiting an along time to be seated with empty seats everywhere so we decided to eat elsewhere (Numa is great). At checkout other guests luggage were handled with care with offers of assistance when leaving whilst we were not offered any such service. Perhaps staff think people with dark skin have no money and not worthy of similar service? If that’s how they treat dark skin people in their country they should be aware that some of us are unaccustomed to being treated like second class citizens and we expect the same level of care and service as everyone else. A sad ending to an otherwise okay stay. Would not stay again."

"everything was great. no missing anything"

"Excellent stay all around. Well located within the city center and well connected to transport as well. The hotel was very nice. The lobby was clean and had an attached coffee shop/bar. The rooms were very clean and well maintained. Despite being directly on Gran Vía with a balcony, we could not hear much outside noise at all. The rooms were cleaned every day and the towels and used glasses were replaced. Very nice! We did not eat breakfast at the hotel, but we did enjoy both the lobby bar and the rooftop bar. The price felt a bit high for Madrid, but there were many events happening in the city so I understand why the price was higher. We went for the Bad Bunny concert and it was very convenient to hop on the metro to go to Estadio Metropólitano."