This hotel is in a road near Grand Via and Sol and is hence in a perfect location for the central sights of Madrid. As it is down a side street, there is no noise which means a peaceful sleep at night. The rooms are well appointed, clean and well maintained. The bed was large and comfortable. The only downside was that the room was a bit small and there was nowhere to sit down in the room to read a book / relax apart from on the bed. The staff were very efficient - we initially thought that there was a problem with the air conditioner, and after contacting reception someone came up straight away. In fact, we realised afterwards that the aircon cuts out if the window is open - clearly a sensible idea. Madrid has everything for a short city break - the Prado etc, good parks, restaurants (we ate in an interesting Peruvian restaurant in Cheuca, Theatriz in Salamanca and the cheap and interesting Bazaar in Cheuca), bars and excellent Tapas! We even took a day trip to Segovia on the high speed AVE train, arriving in under 40mins... The hotel provided a perfect location to return to after our various sightseeing trips around the City. It meant that we could drop in and rest before going off again for dinner / shopping etc. Highly recommended.

We stayed at the Maria Elena Palace for 3 nights in May. I was really pleased with our choice. A beautiful hotel in a quite place close to Puerto Del Sol (2 mins to walk). The hotel was realy clean, the rooms spacious and the hotel staff were very helpful when asked anything. We did have the breakfast every morning and although this was expensive it was good, they even made hot boiled eggs to order every morning for my husband! For a city hotel this is excellent, we couldnt believe how big the rooms were. When I booked online direct with the hotel we asked for a non smoking and quiet room. I dont know if it made a difference but it was nice a quite, we even had a balcony overlooking the front of the hotel. I would highly recomend this hotel, it has been one of our best choices over the years of city hotels. If travelling by metro, like we did, we found the easiest route was line 8 to Colombia, line 9 to Principle de Vergara and then line 2 to Sevilla. I would recomend coming off at Sevilla rather than Sol as this is a much quiter station and equal distance to the hotel. The metro was really easy to use and with good sign posting.

This is a marble clad, formal, business-man on expense account, old fashioned type of hotel. Hence to me, boring. The rooms are nicely furnished in a very traditional style and very clean with modern baths. The location is good, on a quiet street around the corner from Puerta del Sol, Madrid's main square. Near pedestrian streets. A couple of sex shops on adjacent street, but they are the upscale type, not the sleezy type. The tourist books refer to this street as a red light district, which is a major exageration. One probably could see more prostitutes near the Holiday Inn! The large fancier hotels are a couple of blocks away, but they are on busy, noisy streets. A couple of notes of caution. The part of the hotel I stayed in had a persistant humming noise, as if high voltage lines were running through a shaft in the hallway. The noise was especially noticeable at night. So if you are a light sleeper, without earplugs, beware of the rooms numbered _0_, like 507 that run along one side of the hotel and face the back. My sisters stayed in 405 that faced the front street and the noise wasn't really noticeable there. The staff at the front desk were minimally helpful day and night and not especially friendly. Seemed irritated to have to help you and their English was only fair (but way better than my Spanish!!) But they were never rude. Breakfast is an ample hot and cold buffet but it is 12 euros a person. My room had a mini bar but no coffee maker. There is room service and a bar and restaurant in the lobby. I would stay here again, but prefer to stay somewhere more interesting and less staid.

Great hotel, the lobby floors and the most of the walls is marble, which gives it great looks. When I booked I was worried that it will look nothing like the images online (just like lots of hotels) but certainly it looks the same. Hotel location was just perfect, if you turn right you are in the old city part and if you turn left you are in the new city. One thing I wasn’t sure about is seeing lots of hookers down the street right next to the police station, which was right at the corner of the hotel. And the “Men’s only spa” which was right by the hotel was little suspicious when we walked in trying to get a message but it was booked. The room service didn’t speak much English and was hard to communicate with them. The receptionist also didn’t speak much English but wasn’t as hard to communicate with. The room that was assigned for us (standard room with two twin bed) smelled so bad and I think they washed the carpet and wasn’t dry enough which made it stink. We requested to change the room, they first tried to spry it with air freshener but didn’t work then they gave us another room on the forth floor which was so much better and bigger then ours, the new one had a large balcony with a patio chairs which was great for sun tan. The front desk was very helpful when we asked them to book us a Flamenco show and we asked them to request a nice seat. We were surprised that they booked us a table right in front of the stage. We felt so special!

We stayed in this hotel for three nights and had a thoroughly enjoyable stay. The hotel is very centrally placed with most of the main attractions easily reached by foot. Our bedrooms were spacious and the beds very wide - although a little hard for my taste. Bathrooms were also spacious and well equipped with plenty of toiletries provided - even razor and dental kits. Bedrooms and bathrooms were very clean. Our experience of the customer service was very good with the receptionist being extremely helpful. We had made a mistake with our e-mail booking but the receptionist sorted the matter out quickly. Hotel was obliging in posting postcards and arranging taxis. Breakfast was very pleasant with plenty of cereals, fruit, cheeses, rolls etc. on offer along with eggs, sausages and other hot items. We had read that a nearby street could be a little unsavoury but this was easily avoided and did not impact on our stay whatsoever. We would have no hesitation in returning to the hotel in the future.