A touch of luxury at a reasonable price (Carlos V)

Member Name: tomc

Product:	Carlos V
Date:	18/04/01 (60 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Comfortable and very clean

Disadvantages: Restaurant only serves food at breakfast

The Carlos V, a Best Western hotel, has no difficulty in justifying its three star ranking in my view. I stayed at the hotel in April 2001 and was very pleased with the overall quality and level of service.

The hotel is located in the pedestrian area between Gran Via and Puerta del Sol, well within walking distance of many of Madrid’s tourist attractions such as the Plaza Mayor, the Royal Palace and the Prado museum. It is located in a good shopping area with the superb El Corte Ingles department store just around the corner (which has an excellent food hall on the sub-ground floor by the way). There are many café’s in the area, and the prices are remarkably low for someone used to English prices. The restaurant on the top floor of El Corte Ingles is an excellent place to eat too.

It is decorated to a very high standard, tiled floors everywhere, and a very opulent style in the public rooms, with huge chandeliers and very comfortable furniture. The standard of cleanliness is very high, the toilets off the lounge etc being particularly noteworthy – whether they were brand new or not I don’t know, but they were positively gleaming.

The rooms are reasonably spacious for a city centre hotel and the en suite facilities were very well equipped with bidets, baths and showers (lots of hot water freely available). Beds were comfortable and the room had a wide range of lighting options, a mini-bar, colour television, and hairdryer as you would expect of an hotel of this quality.

Breakfast was very good and consisted of a buffet with cereals, juices, fruit, and then many cold meats and cheeses. A separate table with croissants, pastries and rolls of course. Very good service from friendly waiters, and the dining room is very comfortable with well padded chairs encouraging you to take your time over breakfast. The hotel does not serve any meals other than breakfast so don’t expect to have your dinner there (no
problem as restaurants abound in the area). The bar is open throughout the day and evening however and is a very comfortable place to have pre-dinner drinks - very good service from professional waiters.

The hotel participates in an hourly mini-bus service to and from the airport, for which the charge is 900 pesetas. This takes about 45 minutes because it is shared with three or four other hotels and may have to stop on the way to pick up other people. Taxi to Baracas airport costs about £15 in the week (traffic jams being a bit of a problem), but its probably just as easy to take the metro if you’re travelling light.

The hotel was reasonably priced – I can’t say exactly how much your stay would cost you but I think two people would pay about £65 per night bed and breakfast. For a city centre hotel, the Carlos V is very good indeed, excellent location and a good standard of accommodation.

Summary: