Asturias Hotel, Madrid

We stayed in this hotel during October 2007 for 4 nights. The hotel is on the edge of Puerta del Sole is very noisy due to the Spanish partying until 6am every night. If you like your sleep this is not the hotel for you or small children. Madrid is a beautiful city well worth a visit but book an hotel well outside of the Puerta del Sol, if you value sleep.

I liked that it was convenient and that it was fairly centrally located for what we needed on the day. It was a little pricey, but it was nice and clean and the front desk was very helpful and nice. Nice neighborhood...in such a huge city we ended up being down the block from where an online acquaintance actually lived and we were able to meet for the first time and had a nice plate of jamon down the street. There are late night restaurants in the area as well. Parking was available nearby as well.

This hotel has a good location, and the staff was nice and helpful. The bed was comfortable. The price seemed reasonable, but in fact was not a very good deal, because aside from the restaurant and reception area, there is no air conditioning, and the elevator is inadequate and so tempermental and slow that it is not unsusual to see sweating, panting tourists shlepping their bags up to the fifth or sixth floor, having given up waiting for the lift. I'm quite familiar with tiny European lifts, and this one is noteworty for its inadequacy. I've stayed in several Madrid hotels and pensiones in the Puerto del Sol area, and for just a little bit more, you can find a much nicer place to stay. I booked at the Austurias via the Internet after having read that the hotel was air conditioned -it is not- and Madrid in the summer is a misery without air conditioning. I had to keep the windows and shutters wide open and a fan blowing, and the boisterous traffic noise is incessant, meaning that it quite literally never ceases. Madrid is the city that never sleeps, and neither will you, if you stay at the Asturias in the summertime! Had it been cooler and had the elevator been more dependable, it would have been a nicer stay, but still, there are many other hotels in the general area at which I would prefer to stay.