damon88

It's true. We get bored of perfect weather. We actually find 50s-60s a comfortable temp to explore a city in. We walk a lot in Europe and that makes you hot-- plus we spend time in museums etc. We like being in a foreign city when there aren't many tourists-- it makes the city feel more genuine. The bonus is, it usually costs less.

Just as I'm a weather wimp, I'm an upgrade wimp. I rarely completely trust the luck of upgrades and usually try and guarantee the minimum room I'll be happy in. I may book a junior suite on TofL (still under 400/night with the special) and then hope SPG50 or specialty select comes online.

AlxStevens

I am an SPG gold and currently holding both SPG and Amex Plat FHR reservations for the Alfonso in late May. SPG is E269 and FHR is E289. Seems to me that chances are better for an upgrade with the FHR, and they throw in a lunch (of questionable value to us). So - is it worth paying the extra E20 for the better upgrade chance?

damon88

I've actually wondered about this myself. I don't think I've ever used Amex for a Starwood booking (C FHR)

Does anyone have experience?

BTW-- just booked 5 nights at this hotel.


and an interesting note about the hotel-- the courtyard of British Headquarters in the film Lawrence of Arabia was shot at this hotel.

GoCanes

Well, since I created this post and stayed at the Las Cases del Rey de Baeza I'll put in my 2 cents.

First off, the Las Casas was a very good deal. Charming hotel, good amenitiies and overall a nice experience. Some rennovation during the day was annoying, but that should be done by now. Some rooms are small, others larger. Kind of hit or miss. I was happy with our small room... although a little dark, there were some nice touches. Evening bottles of sherry waiting in our room with hor douvres. Candles lit in our windows as well in the evening. We did not eat at the hotel, but heard was very good. It is on a quiet street as well. Here is my complete report: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...ferrerid=10459

We had debated staying at the Alfonso and are glad we did not. Although a beautiful hotel, the Seville subway upgrade is going on right in front of it. Made what would be a beautiful area completely miserable. I would avoid the Alfonso at all costs during the subway upgrade. Adn when I mean subway upgrade, I mean the streets are non-existent and there is red clay everywhere. When it is raining, it is like walking though mud around here. Not fun at all. And the Alfonso has not budged in price given the conditions out front.

entrada

According to the hotel, the subway construction near the hotel was completed in April (about one month ago), just in time for the Santa Semana holy week.

ericj

I stayed there twice last year (OK, on February) on a 149€ rate including breakfat and both time was upgraded to a gigantic suite with a welcome bottle of wine on top of the amenity points. This hotel is sweet to Plats

FormerLurker

We will be staying at this property next month and I am looking to arrange a car for 2-3 days to explore the region. Is there a car rental desk at the hotel? If not, are there any companies nearby? All I've found through various online booking sites are car rental desks at the airport. (If that really is the only option, how difficult is it to get to the airport? I'll be arriving via train.)

3Cforme

There are all the typical major international rental agencies right at the main train station. I have used Avis.

SanDiego1K

I'm curious as to recent experiences are at this hotel. alanw and GK are hosting an FT Do in Seville at the end of October. So far, it seems the majority of us are staying here - and most of us are platinum. It's definitely going to be colliding plat cards on the front desk.

In reading thru the thread, I read lots of accolades - great upgrades, daily gifts for platinums - and some criticism - worn furniture, snooty front desk staff. What is the story in 2008?

sc flier

I'll answer some old questions and some new ones.

Car rental:
I don't know of rental car options downtown. You can rent at the train station that is accessible by a short taxi ride. In September 2007, we arrived by train, rented a car, got a little lost on the way to the hotel, toured the region by car for a few days, turned our car in at the train station, and then took a taxi back to the hotel for our remaining couple of days. The train station is a little far to walk from the hotel, though you theoretically could.

We were there on a Fifth Night Free award stay that was booked prior to the category increase to Cat6. We had a great stay, but we did not get a suite. It is my suspicion that paid stays get better treatment than cash stays at this hotel and at the Westin Palace Madrid, but it is difficult for me to back up that feeling with any facts. I could be wrong.

Butler service was nice when we were around to take advantage of it for a complementary evening drink and snack brought to our room. But we were usually out and about. I don't recall any daily gifts.

While based in Seville, we took day trips to Jerez and Gibralter. Jerez could have been done by train, and Gib could have been skipped without much regret.

If you want to go to the Alhambra, you should arrange for tickets in advance. This side trip takes careful planning. OTOH, Seville's Alcazar stands on its own.

We toured the Cathedral and downtown Seville with English-speaking guide, Concepcion Delgado -- recommended by Rick Steves. Excellent tour guide! We would highly recommend her for touring the Cathedral and/or the Alcazar. Check the website to see which tours are on which days. http://www.sevillawalkingtours.com/

We had an excellent dinner at the restaurant in the hotel's courtyard. If I remember correctly, the hotel gave us an offer for a free bottle of wine with dinner. The very next night, there was a huge party in the ballroom that was horribly noisy. If we'd been planning to dine there that night, it would've been awful.

It's an old but beautiful hotel. Good and bad things about it, but it was our favorite among Barcelona, Seville, and Madrid.

There's a free computer with internet on the first floor. If the concierge's computer isn't in use, they were good to allow free use of it, too.

Our stay in Seville was in the middle of a two-week trip. There are two places within walking distance (1/2 mile?) which offer laundry service. I think it was 6 Euros for overnight fluff & fold. (IIRC, 6 Euros would not get a single article of clothing washed through the hotel's laundry pricing.) I could look up the laundry name/location info, if anyone's interested.

FormerLurker

I am here now... great upgrade, even for a Gold. They are partnered with a couple of rental car services that will drop the car off and pick it up right at the hotel. Or, as another poster suggested (and as we did), you can easily collect & return your car at the train station.

thorthor

Non SPG blasphamy perhaps but we really liked the Casas de la Juderia with its great courtyard and secret passageways.
Another good option is the parador in carmona

CO FF

We're just back from 2 award nites here in late July. Our other hotels, FWIW, were the Parador de San Francisco in Granada (hey, everyone has to pay cash for something -- how else do you earn CC spend points?), the (Westin) Palace in Madrid, and the LM Barcelona.

LOTS OF PLUSSES: We got upgraded to a suite, and escorted to it personally by a "back of the house" staff person. Huge corner suite on the 2nd floor -- we could have moved in. Classic decor, but comfortable; I agree that it showed signs of age, but wasn't "worn". Bathroom was old-fashioned, but the only real negatives were that the toilet & tub aren't in separate rooms, and the showerhead is a bit low for my 6'0 liking.

When we do awards in 5-stars, I always do a few things on arrival, to make sure that we don't get branded as "cheap Americans on award stays": (1) tip generously to the bellman who brings up the bags, and (2) if we don't have a reason to do otherwise, eat dinner the 1st nite at the hotel restaurant. This restaurant made me glad I have that rule!!!

Both Mrs. CO FF & I have some dietary restrictions that can make travel in Spain very difficult -- we don't eat meat or shellfish. So, it took some conversation with the waiter (made easier by his impeccable English, to compensate for my weak Castillian), but he told us that one dish (revueltos) based on the menu description we wanted was generally cooked in lard; he then went and asked the chef, and found out that they could cook it in olive oil "but the oil didn't crisp as well, so it might be a bit soft". We are glad we tried it - because I will never look at a dish of eggs as being less than gourmet again. This meal ranked as one of our best vacation meals ever, due to a perfect combo of food, service and decor (the interior courtyard, open to the night sky, with the heat offset by cooling mist generators operating every minute). The full dinner (apps, bottle of wine, entrees, dessert - but no coffee) was just over 100 euros.

We tried to use the HSIA to check email; it didn't work on our computer. Less than 5 minutes after calling the desk, a technician arrived; after a few diagnostics, he opened his bag and took out a splitter cable and tapped us into the 'net via a cable that ran to the TV -- and told us that because of this, there would be no charge for using the internet!

ONLY ONE MINUS: I got an email, in advance, from the Majordomo (Head Butler) asking if we needed anything. My one request was for a copy of that week's Sunday New York Times, to be delivered any time between our arrival on Sunday and our departure on Tuesday morning. He replied that it would be taken care of, but it was not available and there was no explanation (and, unfortunately, he was on vaca on Tuesday when we left). Oh, well -- something always mars perfection!

TOURING: We also used Concepcion Delgado's service for tours, both the general walking tour and the Cathedral. (We had to leave too early to do the other tour too) We highly recommend - a great guide, fully fluent in English for our group of 4 Americans & 1 Canadian (BC).

Granada for a day trip is too much, IMO. Unless you want to leave REALLY early, and get back REALLY late (even by Spanish standards), the Alhambra is too much to rush thru and a day trip doesn't leave you enough time to see the rest of the city.

I Claudius

A long time since the last review...

My wife and I stayed here recently (mid Aug) for 2 nights using our free weekend stay nights. Arrived by train and took a taxi to the hotel (10 euros or so and 15 mins drive). Warning, there are two Hotel Alphonsos in Seville - make sure you tell them it's the Alphonso XIII the other is the Alphonso X.

There was a short queue on check in. The desk with the Starwood sign on it had no queue but this turned out to be the concierge who sent us back to the queue. We were told we were upgraded and taken up to the room by the check-in lady. We were on the top floor (3rd) and were shown a very large, tiled floor room with a tiny and dark bath/shower room. We didn't realise that the room cleaning had not been finished until the check in lady left (no duvet covers, hair clips in the loo!). We got this sorted out whilst we popped into town. Profuse apologies but no offer to switch rooms. We did get a nice half bottle of sherry that night, which may have been standard or by way of apology.

Whilst the room was large, it was definitely on the shabby side of 'shabby chic'. Skirting boards all loose and peeling away from the walls, ancient air co which groaned throughout the night and was fairly ineffectual at cooling the room. The hotel seemed very quiet so I suspect a suite would have been available - perhaps I should have asked at the start.

We had a meal in the courtyard, which was very nice though expensive.

The pool area was overcrowded on the Sunday (non-guests there, maybe?) but a towel on the grass was fine for me.

Overall, this is a beautiful hotel, at least in the public areas. Seville is a beautiful city and well worth the visit. But service is very slow check in/out and dining. They clearly don't have enough staff, front desk (very friendly), F&B or cleaning - we saw the same small bit of scrap paper lying in the middle of the main hallway all the time we were there. Based on our hotel room (rack rate 500 euro+, online rates 200 to 300+) it's not worth the money. Fine for a couple of free nights, though.

Robbo1

My wife and I just stayed here Sept 13-16, one free weekend nt and two paid nts to celebrate our tenth anniversary. I had sent them an email to mention this and request that our reservations be linked so that we did not have to change rooms and requesting a quiet room with a nice view. At checkin they did not have our room ready nor one with a king bed but offered to show us three rooms that were ready. That was fine, and we chose the largest room although it had no view at all.

As everyone else has commented, the common areas and the building are absolutely beautiful. They also appear to be relatively well maintained. The same cannot be said for the rooms, or at least for our room. We had peeling paint on the ceiling, large gaps in baseboards and trim around doors, holes in the wicker in the bedsite tables, one of the bathrobes had a large pink stain and a 1 inch hole in it and on the last day one of the bed sheets had a large L shaped tear in it about 1 inch by 1 inch. Not what I expected in a Luxury Collection hotel.

While these were not what we expected we took them in stride. However, we had some service issues that were the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak. As mentioned by I Claudius, the pool area was overcrowded on Sunday with every lounge occupied. On Mon and Tues however, very different with only about 1/3 of the lounges occupied. For some reason staff did not place cushions on the lounges on Mon. People were taking cusions as soon as others got up from them as the lounges were not comfortable without them. However, not a huge problem and we did the same. Same thing on Tues. so my wife thought she should look for staff to make a simple request to get all of us some cushions. She went all the way to the front desk and got a very unhelpful and snotty reponse. The front desk staff dismissively told my wife that the front desk is not responsible for the pool and that she would have to find housekeeping to make this request. My wife thankfully, was persistent, and said no, I am guest and you should call housekeeping and get them to place cushions on the lounges. I would have thought they should have been apologizing to my wife and gone out of their way to rectify the issue, particularly since it would have been so easy to make the guest happy in this situation.

My wife mentioned it to the front desk manager who gave us a half bottle of sherry on departure and promised to give us some form of credit on our bill (although no credit has posted yet).

It is such a beautiful building in a wonderful city and hopefully, they will renovate the rooms and solve some of these service issues. However, based on my experience I wouldnt rush back