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A new Hilton option recently opened in Madrid, Spain – the Atocha Hotel Madrid, part of the Tapestry Collection. This 46-room boutique property is located near the Atocha train station, which is a perfect location for art lovers, with the Prado, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza and Museo Reina Sofia all within 10 minutes walking distance.

I decided to check it out (for journalistic purposes) and pick up a Hilton Honors “stay” in the process (for travel hacking purposes). 🙂

Entrance and Lobby

Blink and you might miss it. Because most hotels near the train station have “Atocha” in their name, you would probably be looking for some Hilton Honors branding. And because the hotel is quite new, taxi drivers might not be familiar with its location…

The hotel lobby is decorated quite nicely, with rattan furniture and a small meeting room located next to the check-in desk.

Check-in was straightforward. Despite the fact that the hotel had only been open for a couple of weeks, the agent managed to thank me for my loyalty and to ask whether I wanted breakfast or 1,000 points as my Gold amenity, even though my Honors account is set to earn points.

I struggled to pay complete attention, as the interior patio looked very appealing for a respite from the Madrid sunshine.

The Room

As expected, I didn’t receive an upgrade of any kind. The standard room has a partition separating the King-sized bed from a small work table.

The room comes with a coffee maker and a kettle, although the tiny paper cups provided for espresso would do you little good if you wanted to use the kettle to make yourself a cuppa tea.

Although I wholeheartedly agree with attempts to reduce plastic waste, the hotel does need to do better than to provide a glass bottle that says “tap water is potable”, along with a warning not to steal their glass bottle…

I decided not to make a fuss about something that would cost me 1 euro at a corner shop. And besides, the tap water was surprisingly drinkable – perhaps the hotel has installed a filtration system.

Bathroom

The bathroom was cozy, although not excessively so. The shower provided the option of a handheld nozzle or a rainfall shower.

As is increasingly common, there were large bottles of shampoo, conditioner, shower gel, etc. attached to the wall (until they fell off due to the water / humidity). The brand was “the Lab Room”. Of course, I’m not an expert…  hotels can refill these bottles with any no-name product should they choose.

Breakfast

Although the hotel’s QR coded link suggested that, due to COVID, breakfast would be a sit-down affair with table service, the only option was a continental-style buffet. Guests were provided with latex gloves in order to serve themselves.

There was only one server present. Although she did her best to provide coffee, clear tables, etc, she was clearly overwhelmed by the number of guests. After a while, I decided that I would be better off having another espresso in my room and to save some room for tapas.

Room Rates and Spending Points

Although I used my magic to find a Best Rate Guarantee to claim (surprisingly successfully), room rates appear to have stabilised in the 100-150 euro range (£90-120):

Because the hotel is so small, however, you are definitely going to struggle to find 5 consecutive award nights offering standard room availability – in order to get the fifth night free.

Overview

Apart from the breakfast chaos, the Atocha Hotel Madrid, a Tapestry Collection by Hilton is a fairly solid option for visitors to Madrid. This is especially true if you like staying at smaller, boutique hotels whilst still enjoying elite status credit/benefits, points, etc. And you can’t really beat being able to walk to most of Madrid’s best restaurants and museums…