The Westin Palace Madrid
Executive Suite – Fountain View
We rolled outside the airport with our baggage and hopped a 30€ flat rate taxi to the city center. Madrid has now fixed the rate from the airport to the city as a flat rate. Despite this, there were lots of advertisements for Uber inside the airport.
It sounds silly but after watching years of SPG TV and seeing the promotion for the Westin Palace Madrid and it’s breakfast, and reported excellent treatment of Platinum members at this property, the repeated messaging made this hotel onto the list as a place to visit and stay. Unfortunately, we were here for only a short stay thanks to train schedules so most of the pictures are nighttime photographs.
After about 15 minutes in the taxi, we arrived out front of the Westin Palace Madrid. It is truly a striking building that was tastefully lit up at night.
The bell assistance was prompt and immediately assisted with unloading of the bags from the taxi. As I was getting out of the taxi, the bell man happened to notice that my wallet had slipped from my pocket into the seat of the taxi as I was trying to pay the driver. The bellman pointed it out to me to make sure that I didn’t forget it. I thanked him for this and he replied simply “it’s my job”. It was thoroughly professional and a great first impression for the arrival.
We headed inside and checked in at the front desk. I had applied a Suite Night Award to this reservation and it had cleared into a Deluxe Suite at the 5 day mark. On check in, we were able to get a further upgrade to an Executive Suite with a fountain view. At the counter, there was also an iPad showcasing up sell opportunities to suites. As with all the public spaces at the hotel, the lobby area was a grand place.
We were assigned room 624 and led ourselves up to the room, leaving our larger bags with the bell staff. The bell staff were able to bring the larger bags were up promptly. The hallways and elevator areas were nicely appointed as you’d expect for a world class historic hotel.
The room itself was very nicely decorated. Usually in historic hotel rooms, the rooms tend to show a lot of wear and tear thanks in part to their smaller size. Our suite was in impeccable condition, without scratches, wear or any scuff marks on the wall. There was a burnt out bedstand light but who’s complaining; only the guy taking review photos!! (Laughing).
The suite had a separate sitting area with television, bedroom and separate bathroom.
The room had daylight windows and a direct view of the fountain.
The bathroom was large and spacious for a European bathroom. It featured a separate shower and bathtub. Toiletries were the usual Westin White Tea Aloe.
I snapped a quick photo of the floor map for those that are interested to see the layout of the hotel.
We were a little peckish and hungry after the flight, so we immediately dropped the bags and headed out for some tapas. We walked one block from the hotel to La Dolores where we had previously been on our 2012 trip to Madrid. It’s a light and bright tapas’ bar with large outdoor windows and drinking glasses from Germany on display behind the bar. We were able to easily get a seat at the counter at 11:00 PM for several tasty glasses of Rioja & along with several scrumptious tapas of smoked salmon, Roquefort cheese over baguette, beautiful olives and pickles.
We crawled back to the hotel after a quick walk around the fountain out front at 12:30 AM. We jumped into the massive Westin bed for a great but short sleep.
We woke up at 8 AM and headed downstairs for an optionally included SPG Platinum Breakfast benefit. The breakfast was one of the reasons for coming here, as it is offered under the large “historic glass cupola”. The brunch was normally chargeable at 38€ per person. It is set in a beautiful space with lots of natural light. MrsWT73 commented that it was gorgeous for a breakfast, but that “I wouldn’t want to have dinner here”. She prefers contemporary spaces. It is indeed a beautiful old world breakfast room that was a great place to start the day.
The breakfast itself was tasty, offering a full egg station, prosecco and other delicies. It was indeed as good as reported and was among one of my better all time Platinum Breakfast offerings; perhaps second to the Westin Europa Venice where breakfast can be taken on the deck outside listening to gondoliers.
The Westin Palace Madrid is an absolutely beautiful property that has been wonderfully maintained and resorted. It would be really spectacular to experience a long stay here in an exceptional suite. Our stay was all to short. I would even come back for the Platinum Treatment which was excellent. In summary, a highly recommended property worthy of a visit.