It's a Madrid hotel if you define Madrid loosely (Travelodge Las Rozas (Madrid, Spain))

Member Name: Immlang

Product:	Travelodge Las Rozas (Madrid, Spain)
Date:	03/06/09 (26 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Clean, bright, modern, cheap

Disadvantages: Not really in Madrid at all

Madrid Travelodge, Las Rozas
My wife and I were tempted to stay at the Las Rozas Travelodge by a combination of bargain room rates and cheap flights. We were also curious to see how the Travelodge concept would translate to Spain.

Location

It is located on a business park just off a busy motorway, some distance out from Madrid. It took about half an hour to drive from Barajas airport, passing through lots of traffic lights, hold-ups and general anxiety related to getting lost. There is a train station in the town of Las Rozas itself but, true to Travelodge form, the hotel is a mile or two away from the town and it would have taken a taxi ride to make the last step of the journey.

Similarly, travelling from the hotel to the centre of Madrid took about half an hour by car, driving down the Paseo de la Castellana, a very busy urban multi-lane highway. There are trains from Las Rozas to Madrid so the journey would have been possible with a combination of train and taxi. I don't know about buses.

In spite of its location near a motorway the hotel was quiet. You could hear the traffic going by but it was not intrusive. There was plenty of parking at the hotel and it was a couple of minutes walk from a big Hipercor supermarket.

Even though it is marketed as a Madrid Travelodge it is well placed for visiting the area north of Madrid if you have your own transport including the El Escorial palace, the Valley of the Fallen, where former dictator General Franco is buried, the fantastically preserved town of Segovia with its magnificent Roman aqueduct and the gem that is the royal palace of La Granja, not to mention the Guadarrama mountains.

Rooms

The room we occupied was no different from a standard Travelodge room in the UK. The hotel is new and this showed in the excellent sparkle to all the furniture and fittings. The TV picked up Spanish channels only. There was no kettle or tea-making equipment in the room. We'd guessed that might be the case and in true Brit style, had come equipped with a travel kettle, some tea bags and some mugs. We bought milk in the Hipercor supermarket.

Other facilities

There was a pleasant lounge/bar/cafeteria area with café and comfortable low seating. This area never got crowded and it was always clean. We didn't try the full breakfast. The barman was happy to sell us a cup of coffee and a couple of mini croissants each for a couple of euros and that suited us fine. They even provided newspapers to read in the bar - strictly only in Spanish, of course!

Staff

The reception and the bar staff were both friendly and efficient, speaking enough English between them to ensure that English speakers would get what they needed with minimum fuss. The human aspect of the hotel was faultless.

Conclusion

The Las Rozas Travelodge is not really set up for foreign tourists or any tourists at all. As with all Travelodges it only has basic amenities and like many British Travelodges it is not in a terribly convenient location. If you accept these limitations it provides very good value for money, especially if you catch one of the special offers that are frequently posted on the Travelodge website. We paid Euro35 a night for room only.

Summary: Could be just right if you accept the limitations