I had the opportunity to stay at the Westin Palace a few times during my stays in Madrid in the last few months.The Intercontinental left me partiallydissatisfied, so I went in search of a credible substitute.
A few blocks away, ideally located in front of the Prado museum and 10 minutes walk from the Puerta del Sol, I turned to the Westin Palace.
The Westin Palace: a historic hotel in a remarkable location.
Very well located, but also emblematic. Formerly the Palace Hotel, it has gone through the years changing brands but remains one of the city’s historic hotels, one that several generations have known.
A preserved setting
You can feel it as soon as you enter the lobby to do your check-in.
A check-in that will go remarkably well. The ceremony is well done, I am thanked for my loyalty to Starwood, I am given an “improved” room (I wonder in what way…) and in less than 10 minutes I am all set. At each of my stays the staff will make the effort to speak to me in French, to remind me of the date of my previous stay and to thank me for my loyalty.
An opinion that I temper, however, having observed the process during peak hours… The registration counters are in the entrance hall which means that there is no depth for the queues. If at the same time a group of people is crowded in the hall (to wait for their guide for example…) it quickly becomes unmanageable and the place becomes a real mess.
The room is of course in the same vein. Not really big but comfortable.
The bathroom with bathtub and closed toilet is of correct size.
You can see that these rooms have been recently renovated. They tried to preserve the spirit and the style of the hotel and the result is good even if I personally have a little trouble with the “old new”.
In short, we managed to keep the hotel “in its juice” without looking old-fashioned or irrelevant as we see too often in old establishments and that’s good.
The Westin Palace is a monument in itself, so let’s visit it before going to visit the city.
The corridors are of course in the spirit.
Lounge in front of an elevator exit
And what about the common areas…
The central lounge where, depending on the time of day, you can have breakfast, an aperitif or dinner…
If the colors are a little too “Ladurée” for my taste (in terms of dusty connotation … even new it’s old), the beautiful glass dome that overhangs it and deserves by itself that one ventures to make a picture in the property.
The bar has an impressive class, yet sober.
I’ve stayed at the Westin Palace several times in the last few months, but I didn’t end up spending much time there, with a lot of outside constraints. So I won’t tell you about the bar or the restaurant that I couldn’t try.
A breakfast in the purest Spanish tradition
At Travel Guys we love beautiful breakfast buffets and we recognize the Spanish know-how in this field as we have seen at the Westin in Valencia,W Barcelona or Castillo Son Vida in Palma de Majorca. Well, the Westin Palace in Madrid honors this tradition.
Quantity, quality and variety. A real treat.
A restrained atmosphere
In the end, a very strange impression emerges from all this. As if the weight of history was collectively borne by the clients as if in a form of recollection. So much so that I almost expected to see people in tuxedos and evening dresses at breakfast.
The place is beautiful (provided you like the style), the service high level and yet I remain a little unsatisfied in terms of experience for two reasons:
- a “museum” / tea room side that is a bit unnatural
- a ” station hall ” side that is really unpleasant at certain times.
I would add a relatively small and under-equipped fitness room for a hotel of this size and standing.
For the first point it is a matter of taste. The second one is more embarrassing. Regulars of the hotel had warned me: at “peak hours” the lobby is unbearable and the check-in/out is not very accessible and quickly overloaded. So much so that I was advised to anticipate my check-out. This was the case for one of the stays, the second having gone remarkably well.
Not very accessible counters, line of customers at the counters which mixes, for lack of room, with groups of tourists giving using the hall as meeting point. Impossible to find one’s way around and one loses a lot of time. During one of my stays I still hadn’t checked out after 30 minutes of waiting. At the end they came to propose me an express check-out form…. a procedure which would gain to be more put forward as the problem seems to be recurrent.
The Westin Palace Madrid: luxury without passion
It took me a while to put into words how I felt about the Westin Palace. Everything is close to perfection and yet I remain unsatisfied.
In fact, it is an excellent high-end hotel but one that seems to put such a distance between the client and itself that one doesn’t make it his own. One visits it more than one lives an experience there. One likes the setting and the standing but one does not feel at home there. One has the certainty of a quality setting and service but there is something missing that makes us “love” this hotel and fall in love with it beyond the promise kept.
The quality of the relationship implemented by an efficient and attentive staff is not enough to erase this impression.
It is the characteristic of this kind of historical establishment to be often cold and distant. This added to the vintage style ends up producing an effect that will not please everyone. Even if I have nothing to complain about, there is something missing. I can’t feel anything in this hotel. As full of history as it is, it is hard to feel its soul.
This is of course only a feeling and subjective but obviously quite shared by many people I know who have stayed in this hotel. A place where we return without the slightest worry but more by habit and routine than by desire and passion. The hotel is a passage place, not a destination that you live in and make your own, and that’s a shame.
