Room Mate Alicia Madrid

Very lovely & modern hotel, great location

Stayed at the Room Mate Alicia for 3 nights in February 2007. Loved the hotel, very modern and clean. Shower was a bit strange as it was linked to the room with a glass wall (toilet was closed off separately), I was staying on my own so no issues, but if I were staying with a friend it would have been interesting!

I took the Metro from the airport. I arrived at T3, so had to catch the internal train to T4 and then a short bus ride to the metro station. The trip, door to door, was approx. 1 hour but it was nice to use public transport (I always use when abroad) + it only 1 Euro.

The route I took was as follows:

Aeropuerto T4 pink, line 8, to Mars de Cristal, then change on to the brown, line 4 to Goya and then on to the red, line 2 to Sevilla. There are escalaters at all stations except Sevilla, total of approx. 30 steps to carry your bags up. When you come out of the station walk down Sevilla and then into Principe. The Hotel is on the corner of Principe and Prado. You can't miss the all white interior and glass exterior.

Location was perfect to walk to Plaza Puerto del Sol, Gran Via Shopping and all the museums. Metro stations surround the hotel within walking distance, so getting around is no trouble.

Breakfast was great too...loved the scrambled eggs with ham and cheese. Continental available too (usual pastries).

Would stay here again for convenience.

Very nice Madrid location

I had the pleasure to be in Madrid 6-8 January 07. It was my first time, it was only for 2.5 days, I was traveling solo, so I wanted to stay someplace very central, which this hotel is. I read other positive reviews of the Alicia and Expedia had an offer for about 20E off per night (so about 140E, which included a good breakfast, served until noon). It's an upscale boutique hotel, nicely decorated, very clean, with pleasant helpful staff that spoke English well. The rooms are standard to a bit larger than many other small European hotels I've stayed at. I asked for an interior room and it was dead quiet (and the first night I was there was Three Kings Day, so it was a very festive weekend). I had to work some so quiet was good, as was their free high speed internet connection. The room looked recently decorated, good closet space, desk space, typical double futon-style bed was comfortable with good bedding. Toilet in a small closet, separate from shower, the sink area is open to the rest of the room. If you ask for a hair dryer they will loan you one.

The hotel is right on Plaza Santa Ana, a block away from the pedestrian only Calle Las Huertas, which takes you right down to the Prado walk and the Royal Garden in 10-15 minutes. I walked to the major three museums (Prado, Thyssen, Reina Sofia), the Plaza Mayor and Puerta del Sol, the Palace, walked around just people watching on Saturday and Sunday nights, which made me appreciate the location of the hotel all the more. It was in a great neighborhood of homes, shops, restaurants. A bit pricy but I'm glad I splurged.

Excellent choix

Le Room mate alicia est un veritable petit bijou au coeur de Madrid. Des chambres modernes, bien décorées et bien agencées. Un excellente insonorisation. Un personnel sympathique, un petit déjeuner sympa et un prix tres convenable. Nous y retournerons...

Beautiful Contemporary...

We almost stayed in this hotel! We were there and checked out their rooms. The double room is small with nice contemporary decorations. The small bathroom is part of the room divided by a glass door. There is no bathtub. Some of the rooms have view of a square.

Location is very central and convenient. Prado museum is walking distance. Many cafe's and restaurants in the neighborhood. The room rate is reasonable for the quality of room you get. Buffect breakfast is inclusive in the room price.

Furthermore, eventhough we didn't stay in the hotel, we had a nice chat with the reception, Antonio, very nice and friendly person. For the next trip, we shall definitely book this hotel!

Cracking hotel

We spent four nights at the Alicia & had a wonderful time.

The hotel itself is perfectly located, with all the major sights and nightlife being within easy walking distance.

The staff were extremely helpful, assisting us with a number of enquiries, and a real credit to the hotel. We were also delighted with our room - considering the hotel's on the corner of a busy plaza, we didn't have any problems with noise from our 3rd floor room.

Tidy, clean, well-located, friendly and with a good breakfast thrown in, we thought the Alicia was a cracking find. Madrid's a great city & the Alicia was a great base.

Fantastic Alicia

This was a real 'gem' of a small hotel. We booked a suite (fantastic) and because of the quadruple glazing the room was lovely and quiet at night, a plentiful and varied breakfast was available. It was well positioned for easy walking access to museums, Royal Palace and shops etc plus there were plenty of good Tapas Bars and restaurants in the vicinity. This hotel deserves a higher 'star' rating. We would recommend it to all whether for a romantic break,a serious 'Art/Museum' fix or just to enjoy Madrid.

K & A Bunn - Devon

A pleasent stay

Since my first stay in Italy (the hotel that was given to me was horrible and old...) that I take care personally for the hotel every time I travel. Usually I stay in a 4 star hotels and try to find a new and a design hotel. This time I did the same and thought to stay at Bouzá Hotel. But then Room Mate Alicia appeared in my computer screen and was looking just fine for what I want. Since I and my husband would be in a conference or sight-seeing most of the time, we just would need a nice room. In did, we need to remember a few times that this was a 3 star hotel but this is an excellent choice if you want to save money but don't want to prevent yourself of staying in a nice room. The modern rooms had very comfortable beds and pillows, a LCD TV and minibar (but no hair dryer in the bathroom) and the location is just one step from the museums and Puerta del Sol. Breakfast is similar of what you get in a 4 star hotel with fresh fruit, a selection of breads and croissants, yogurts, cereals, cheeses and meats. However, the service is very limited. Most of the mornings, just one person taking care of the breakfast, and there is no person to carry your lugged to or from the room (for an older person this can be a problem) since there were just one person at the reception each time. Except for the small lobby, you also don't have any other area to go since the restaurant where you have the breakfast is apart from the hotel itself and works as a normal street restaurant in the rest of the day. However, if we remember that this is just a 3 star hotel....this is excellent!

Fantastic hotel

I would highly recommend this hotel to just about anyone. The location is perfect, being near the museums, Sol, etc. I love the sleek, modern rooms with very comfortable beds. Cute little touches include green apples at the bedside and a message telling you the weather forecast for the next day, so you can plan accordingly. Breakfast is superb--lots of fresh fruit, a selection of breads and croissants, yogurts, cereals, cheeses and meats. The Plaza Santa Ana, which the hotel is situated on, is teeming with terrazzas (outdoor seating) for bars, which makes it very lively and great for people-watching. It also means you might want to request an interior room--I'd imagine the rooms with windows on the plaza are pretty loud at night.

Perfect Madrid Hotel

I used to live in Madrid near Plaza Santa Ana so when my boyfriend and I went there I really wanted to be based around there. When I booked, I didn't realise it actually looked onto the square, which was perfect.

It's fantastically well placed. There's nowhere you can't walk. It's obviously 0 mins to Plaza Santa Ana, 5 mins from Plaza Mayor, 2 mins from about 3 Metro stations (Sevilla, Tirso Molina and Sol), about 8 mins from the Reina Sofia art gallery, about the same to the Prado and Thyssen, about 15 mins from the royal palace and the cathedral. The only thing probably not walkable is Las Ventas (the bull ring), but Metro Sevilla is on the same line as Las Ventas if you want to see it (about 20 mins, 1€ each way). Some of the best tapas bars and restaurants are just across the square (around C/ Espoz y Mina).

If you're on a budget, the best way to work Madrid is to have a 'menu del dia' for lunch, and tapas in the evening. The menus, if you pick well, mean 3 courses plus wine and bread for one price. The best we had was at Anonimatto on C/ Alvarez Gato - it doesn't look much from the outside, but on the inside it's really nice and the menu is 8€ - the best three-course meal I've had for less than £10, and really filling!

The hotel: When you walk in to the completely white lobby you know it's going to be a nice, classy place. Actually, when we were walking up to it the first time my boyfriend said 'oh, I wish we were staying there, it looks ace...' then we realised we were! The staff were great, really friendly and helpful and ready to recommend places to eat early/late and things to do. They speak English pretty well but are also pretty happy to have you practise your Spanish on them.

I'll warn you, the rooms can be small - if you're American you'll probably think they're very small - but that didn't bother us (all rooms in Europe tend to be small!). It was really well stocked though - mini bar, flat screen TV, wifi connection, safe, desk, super comfy beds, pretty modern layout and decor. You know how sometimes you walk into hotel rooms and think 'Hmm, oh well,' and sometimes they make you think 'Oh yes! I'm on holiday!' this was definitely the latter.

Buffet breakfast downstairs is great - tea, coffee, juice, croissants, pastries, cheese, ham, cereal, plus hot bacon, omlette, scrambled eggs with mushrooms and they serve til about 11 and it looks out onto the square which is lovely.

Some things you should know:

Views

Some rooms look out onto the Plaza. Ours didn't, but I'd guess that makes them pretty noisy but also nice and exciting. People drink in the square until about 2am, later in peak season and from about 10am. It's well lit and busy so if you like quiet dark rooms make sure you ask for one at the back (you'll have a view onto a kind of ventilation area) and if you don't, get one at the front!

Loos

The bathroom is basically part of the main room, so make sure you like your room-mate a lot. You can see their head and legs through the door of the shower when they're in there and the loo has a sliding door that is not massively private.

Plaza Santa Ana

Prices for the cafes in the Plaza are very high, but it's such a lovely setting you might not mind splashing out since you're on holiday. Also, when we were there they were redecorating the beautiful, historic old Reina Victoria Hotel and making it into... a Hard Rock Cafe. Which might wreck the place royally, I don't know.

Sorry to go on, but figured since this is the ONLY review so far it was better to give too much info that too little! We love, love, loved this hotel and it was prefect for a romantic and cool city break to this fab city.