Will be arriving in Madrid by air at almost midnight - imagine it will be close to 1 am by the time we get a taxi and make it into the city. Looking for a hotel that will have staff available to check us in that late - near the center of the city (close to Plaza Mayor or Puerta del Sol are my first choices, but near Retiro is okay too).

Budget would be up to $250/night. Prefer twin beds or King. Non-smoking.

Hope that's not too much to ask for ...

I'm not sure it would meet your requirements, but you might look at the Mercure Madrid Centro: Hotel Lope de Vega. I stayed there before Mercure bought it, and found the location excellent for my purposes. The hotel currently gets some great reviews -- including a few by Fodorites who have stayed there relatively recently.

use booking.com to screen to 24 hour front desk. What sort of dollars are you writing about??

Thanks, I have been looking at booking.com along with other third party sites, but the reviews of most of the hotels listed are all over the place, and I can’t tell which ones are reliable. Thought it might be good to check in with fellow travelers here with first hand experience. .

USD ... sorry if that wasn’t clear.

I second kja's recommendation of Mercure Madrid Centro. We stayed there in September 2017 at her suggestion. Our room was a nice size and very clean with hardwood floors. The location is excellent, about a 5 minute walk from the Prado and Reina Sofia museums. We also walked to Retiro Park and Plaza del Sol from the hotel. We had breakfast at the hotel every day; the price was reasonable and the buffet was varied and delicious.

I agree with you about hotel reviews being all over the place. I noticed that, too, when we were planning our trip so I was happy to hear kja's strong recommendation of the Mercure, and we were not disappointed.

I forgot to add that I am quite sure we paid about $170 per night, excluding breakfast.

Thanks kja and KarenWoo! I have booked it - and while I was on their website I realized in August of this past summer we had stayed in a Mercure hotel in Reims, France, and we liked it enough that I had signed up for their client membership, so we even got a small discount for this booking in Madrid.

I had looked at this hotel with booking.com and hotels.com, but the reviews were somewhat mixed ... so thank you for verifying that it will be fine.

Hotels have staff on at night, even if its only one person. Hostals, B&Bs and the like do not. And note that all hotels in Spain are non-smoking.

That is the trouble with any review system. We as humans are individual, we all like and dislike different things. Even if you ask on here you may find accommodation being recommended that you may not liked. Booking has got reviews written by those who have actually stayed in any location. That is about as truthful as it gets. RE the hotel you have chosen,a score of 8.4 on booking is not so bad.


That is not true. The legislation is complicated but you can find accommodation which allows smoking in rooms.

This may be too late but here's where I stayed to be close to the art galleries:

Madrid 2014
NH Paseo del Prado
Plaza Cánovas del Castillo, 4. 28014 Madrid

• Tel.: +34 91 3302400
• Reservas:
• [email protected];

And here is my trip report from Madrid fyi:

Madrid and London

Some hotels do not staff the front desk after a certain hour. Have found that out the hard way. And as far as smoking - on some of the websites for hotels in Spain, I have encountered info such as "third floor is non smoking." No thanks - overall, venting systems do NOT remove smoke from the hotel.

Jardin de Recoletos , a few minutes from Retiro is our favorite

Just to be clear – I loved the location of what is now the Mercure Madrid Centro, but I stayed there before it became a Mercure property, and so can’t speak to anything OTHER than it’s location from direct experience. That said, I am aware that KarenWoo and others have commented on the Mercure positively in recent years, and I checked the aggregate recent ratings before recommending it. I hope it works for you! For my interests, the location was truly superb. Do, please, let us know what you think!

Should have said that all 4 and 5-star hotels in cities have staff on at night. Haven't stayed in a 3-star in a city in years, only those in the coutryside.

As far as smoking goes, we haven't encounterd a hotel that allows smoking since they passed the law in France and then Spain, and would avoid any hotel that allows smoking. The stench is just too much and as noted, the venting systems just don't work. Remember when they had smoking rooms and areas at Madrid-Barajas? That was a joke. And if someone's wearing wool, forget it. They smell is with them all day.