Detailed Review
In the heart of Madrid, The Westin Palace, Madrid is just minutes from the Prado and the Thyssen museum. A monument to elegance, our hotel combines turn-of-the-century grandeur with new amenities and high-tech touches of a modern world-class hotel.
A full-service business center and 18 ultra modern function rooms make our hotel ideal for meetings and conferences. Spend your day working out in the 24-hour fitness centre or simply relaxing in the sauna or solarium. Complete your evening with elegant dining at La Rotonda, offering regional and international cuisine.
Independent Reviews
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Westin Palace Hotel Madrid
By Matthew BarkerPopular hangout for well-heeled Madrilenos, the Westin is an elegant, regal Grand Dame opposite the Neptuno Fountain and just across from the Prado. The swanky reception sits under a glass ceiling, but there’s plenty of content to back up the style; the rooms are plush and now come with something called a Heavenly Bed. The Bar del Palace serves up a mean Martini. Chic and buzzy, this is where Madrid comes to spoil itself.
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"Was once the queen of Madrid's Grande Dames, now severely Westin-ised"
The Westin is an elegant, sumptuously furnished Grand Dame opposite the Neptuno Fountain and just across from the Prado. It feels slightly like "Disney does Old World" but it does what it does very well.
Westin Palace Hotel
By Jamie Dunford Wood
The official name for this hotel is now the Westin Palace, and with that you know exactly what to expect - for some an advantage, for others a turnoff. For purists it is saddening to see yet another grand old hotel renovated to death with such an homogenized, branded makeover, but for a largely American market security, familiarity and reliability are all. The public areas are certainly grand, and no expense has been spared, and highly efficient staff , in their Westin mulberry waistcoats, are constantly on tap like hot running water. While we were there the apparently per fectly good old marble flooring was being ripped up to make way for a new marble flooring in the same style. The ground floor is dominated by a magnificent domed tea room, with chairs and sofas in spotless Westin fabrics and cushions plumped just so, all lit with the ubiquitous Westin table lamps in a variety of tasteful styles. Ice buckets with bottles of champagne and more glasses than you’re likely to need are waiting on tables, along with an all day buffet - all very very comforting. Off to one side is the obligator y dark wood library bar, while towards the back is a ver y serious looking, dimly lit restaurant called La Cupola with a wine cellar on display behind glass as you enter. Mixed in amongst the interior design are the odd antique tapestry or oil portrait of, or by, someone long forgotten, but they are drowning in a sea of corporate good taste. Upstairs, the first three floors have been renovated. The corridors are richly decorated in flock papered walls and busy floral carpeting over rich green marble. Inside the lighter rooms, colourways come in mulberry and white, beige and white, with plain or striped beige/yellow walls. Prints are positioned strategically on the walls, like a show home, and the best rooms have Bang & Olufson TVs and separate showers in the travertine bathrooms. Loos are partitioned off with frosted glass doors engraved with the Westin Palace logo - at least you know how long he’s likely to be in there without having to ask. As usual with the Westin style, this is sumptuous hotel decor by numbers - guests know exactly what to expect, and service is faultless. The deluxe rooms are bigger and more ornate, with odd bits of good looking china, and a variety of matching lamp styles. For those without the stomach for too much interior design, floors 4 to 6 are more restful.
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Condé Nast Traveller 2008 & 2007 Gold List
