Some links to products and partners on this website will earn an affiliate commission.

The Hilton Madrid Airport is an interesting if rather unattractive building, with the rooms built around, and therefore overlooking, the ground floor dining hall.

This gives the common parts (particularly on the higher floors) a slightly unusual feel, as you’re constantly staring into this enormous internal well of space. I was going to say the hotel had a tangible 80s feel to it, until I read that it was completed in 2006. “1984 feel”, perhaps.

The Hilton Madrid Airport is around an 8 minute shuttle bus ride from the airport. While I’m never a great fan of this arrangement, the shuttle bus stop was relatively easy to find and the shuttle bus arrived promptly.

This was also a fairly lucrative stay for me on the HHonors points front, not least as I’d recently been made HHonors Diamond which meant in total I benefited from i) the Hilton double points promo ii) the 1,000 points a day “MyWay” Diamond benefit and iii) the 50% Diamond bonus.

Upgraded?

I had booked a standard room, and received an upgrade to a “Relaxation Room” on the back of my Diamond status. This is one up from an Executive room, so was pretty generous.

The room

I have an instant apology to make here. We arrived quite late to Madrid with our two toddlers, so the initial focus was getting the room ready for them and putting them to sleep, rather than taking photos for an InsideFlyer review. With that in mind, the photos you’ll see below have a slightly “lived in” feel…

The “Relaxation Room” is a large, 45 sq metre room, complete with a large bathroom with whirlpool (which was great when I finally found the on button – cunningly hidden under a flannel):

The jacuzzi was great. It’s a seriously big bath, and works really well. The perfect de-stress after a long flight, and definitely takes the “Relaxation Room” concept beyond mere gimmickry.

The bathroom was otherwise well-appointed, with a nice walk-in shower:

The room itself even comes with its own reasonably sized office area:

The views weren’t particularly inspiring, but there were views:

The Relaxation Room ordinarily sells for a little over €200 a night. Given the space, the whirlpool and the lounge access, that’s not a bad price, although (ignoring upgrade possibilities) it probably wouldn’t sufficiently tempt me if another room was available for substantially less, particularly where you have guaranteed executive lounge access through Diamond status.

Facilities

While I didn’t use it, I went on a quick visit to the gym and swimming pool, which was easily accessible and pleasantly laid out:

Given that this is an airport hotel, it’s also worth giving a quick shout out to the very pleasant lobby bar: elegant and well-appointed, the perfect place to gently drink away the evening in the company of travel-minded strangers. Unless, of course, you’ve got two kids under five, in which case you take a couple of photos of it, and go to bed at 9.30pm:

Restaurants/breakfast

As you can reliably expect from Hilton, the breakfast variety was excellent.

There were also a few interesting touches, some with a clear Spanish angle such as the glazed donuts, and others that were a touch showy if fun, most notably the chocolate fountain with fruit skewers.

Lounge

I was booked into an executive room, with lounge access. It therefore pains me to say I didn’t pay a single visit to the executive lounge. We arrived very late, and left early, so there simply was not the opportunity.

Here’s the stock picture:

Quality of service

The receptionists were friendly and efficient, and a clear effort had been made to upgrade me to what was a very good room.

A real nod to the staff at breakfast, too, who were unfailingly tolerant of my two toddlers when I wouldn’t have blamed them in the least had they not been. I certainly wasn’t.

Room details

Rate Paid: €100.80 per night in the recent Hilton sale.

Room Type: Relaxation Room

Summary of stay

Good service, a generous upgrade and a very comfortable night made for a thoroughly pleasant stay at the Hilton Madrid Airport, and I’d use it again.

My overall rating is only slightly let down by the fact that, for me, an “airport hotel” which is an 8 minute shuttle bus ride away from the airport is not exactly an airport hotel. Perhaps I am being unduly harsh, but we’re not just talking a ride through the airport here, we were on main public highways before we reached the hotel.