Old and majestic outside but funky and modern on the inside: that's the surprise packet that is the ME Madrid Reina Victoria (usually more simply known as the ME Madrid). With a great location on Santa Ana Square and nightlife, restaurants and sightseeing all within a stroll, the ME Madrid starts off on the right foot.
Then add its colorful history. According to a recent NYT review it used to be a hangout for bull fighters, and it still boasts four big bulls' heads in the nightclub. For a while, the hotel nearly became a Hard Rock, until the joint venture partners parted ways. Now it's just full of cool stuff. Free Wifi, i-Pod connections, plasma TVs and a safe just for your laptop, a 24-hour gym and reasonable rates (around $300 for a basic room with a view) make it pretty enticing.
If you're Eurailing it through Madrid soon and want a really nice hotel that won't totally break the bank, the Catalonia Las Cortes Hotel isn't bad. Situated in the Plaza de Santa Ana, right in the heart of Madrid, you can get to all the main sightseeing highlights with ease, and hit the nightlife too. And tapas bars, of course. A lot of guest reviews describe spacious rooms and well-equipped bathrooms, along with friendly service.
And while we're talking Madrid, here's somewhere not to stop, at least until October 2008: the Hotel Villa Magna Park Hyatt is about to close and spend $55 million on renovations, increasing the room sizes and adding hi-tech stuff like I-pod ports. Interestingly, Spanish law means they have to keep all the staff on during the 14 month refurbishment so they're being sent on courses to increase both their English and their hospitality skills. Not a bad job!
We were as perplexed as we were tickled last month when we heard that the NH Alcalá in Madrid was going to allow qualifying individuals to demolish hotel rooms to make way for a renovation. The hotel, in the Salamanca section of Madrid, is part of the 335-property NH chain.
One one hand, the idea was unabashedly gimmicky. On the other, it tapped the rocker-trashing-hotel-room fantasy in many of us, with, at least for U.S. television viewers, a little Flip That House catharsis action thrown in for good measure.
Now that the event has transpired, this past Tuesday, with considerable media coverage, we're left wondering a few things. Some inquiring questions, with ever-incisive answers, after the jump.
Soon, the pristine room pictured above will be reduced to rubble -- by its guests.
No, they're not irritated by a crappy view or those chintzy shampoo and conditioner combo bottles that leave our hair all tangly. They won a contest to trash the place. The Hotel NH Alcala in Madrid is allowing 30 people, recommended by their shrinks, to take out their frustrations on the 11-year-old building.
Each person, whose therapist has clearly breached his doctor/patient confidentiality, will be given a mallet and hard hat, and instructed to have at any part of the 146-room building, including walls and windows.
The demolition will take place on July 3. Renovations to the entire place start up soon after. Either this is a lame publicity stunt to plug the hotel's facelift, or a Machiavellian genius maneuver to cut labor costs.
The New York Times actually does us a favor this week with a helpful review of a stylish hotel--with rooms under $600 a night. It's the Hotel Alicia, which is part of the Room Mate Hotel chainlet, a minimal-service, stylish hotel group for the done-staying-in-hostels set.
Reviewer Andrew Ferren gives his room high marks, as does his friend:
We've often paid three times as much for rooms in which we constantly bump into each other, dodging faux wenge-wood consoles and manqué Mies Barcelona chairs. The place is comfortable and functional with a loft aesthetic of open, flexible space, with pictures propped on broad shelves rather than hanging in gilded frames.
Though the bathroom suffers from that boutique hotel affliction of being smack in the middle of the room, it isn't a deal-breaker, as the toilet's enclosed in its own room. Just don't hold your breath for room service--there isn't any. Then again, that gives you an excuse to binge on churros.
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by amandak
