I’m live-blogging my SAS EuroBonus SkyTeam Million Mile challenge this week. Click here for background and route information.
After a long two days of flying, it was great to check in to the Hilton Madrid Airport and enjoy much-needed rest.
Hilton Madrid Airport Review
The nightly rate was $161 but I got 20% off via Orbtiz (since I booked flights on this site) and figured it made a lot more sense than trying to go into town (I had an expiring night certificate with Marriott and would have loved a night or two at the Westin Palace).
Airport shuttles often are not worth the hassle, but we were fortunate we did not have to wait more than five minutes for one to whisk us away from MAD Terminal 2 to the hotel, located about 10 minutes from the airport.
I no longer have Hilton status, a preview of what is to come with Hyatt next year. It was different to have to pay for bottled water and be told that my check-out time was at noon…
The room and especially the bathrooms, as I recall, have not changed since my first visit to this property in early 2010. The rooms were quite clean and I happened to like the green marble in the bathroom, but for our purposes, we just wanted a room with two comfortable beds to sleep…and sleep we did.
But first, a little complaint. Why would a hotel pool and wellness area only be open from 4:00 pm to 8:00 pm? Is this a Spanish thing? A European thing? (the Sheraton and Hilton at Frankfurt Airport pull this as well and it is maddening…).
The hotel has a nice sauna and steam room and an even nicer indoor pool… with a padlock and chain on the door.
I do consider it bait and switch: I booked this hotel so that Augustine could swim and I could sit in the sauna…it was what we wanted and I could have stayed at a cheap Ibis if I just wanted a place to lay my head.
The fitness center was open 24/7 and in the same location as the pool and the wellness, so why not leave the steam room and sauna on 24/7 as well?
But nothing at night and nothing in the morning, which I find particularly egregious (especially because you can go into the locker room and the sauna and steam room are there, just off. I mean, is that to save power? How silly is that?
We slept very well…the beds and bedding were great. In fact, we were so tired that I slept through a (thankfully resolved) emergency at home. My wife Heidi has a special ring tone and it rings even if the phone is on silent mode. Well, she called seven times in the middle of the night and I slept through all seven of them…
Agustine slept for 10 hours…but it was sleep we needed.
In the morning, I checked out the breakfast spread (27 EUR for folks like me without status) in La Plaza Restaurant (6:30 am – 10:30 am) and it was very respectable, with Spanish, Continental, and US staples as well as made-to-order eggs.
The hotel’s other restaurant, Reserva Grill, was located on the lobby level and open for lunch and dinner. The hotel bar, Ferrum Bar, was adjacent. The lobby had a nice atmosphere with a fireplace and comfortable seating.
On the other side of the check-in desk were several ballrooms and conference facilities.
We took the shuttle back to the airport, which left on time and took just four minutes to get back (versus 10 minutes going).
CONCLUSION
We enjoyed a nice night at the Hilton Madrid Airport Hotel. I appreciated the clean and comfortable room as well as the generous breakfast spread. What I did not appreciate was the very limited pool and wellness hours, which I believe are non-sensical, particularly at an airport hotel with people staying from time zones around the world.
Would I return? Certainly…it was really easy, even the shuttle. But I’d love it if the hotel would be a little more flexible on its amenities…
The amenities hours are absolutely ridiculous. You should have asked the hotel manager about it just so you know for the future. As for paying for a bottle of water this is part of the nickel and dime mentality of US based hotel companies. Seriously, how much does that cost for the hotel? Why don’t just add to the rate? Most non chain hotels are happy to offer at least one bottle of water for free in the rooms.
I’m looking forward to the post where your kid finally gets sick of it and says something like, “Screw you and your million mile challenge you frequent flying freak! I’d rather be at home talking to my teacher about my gender identity than spend another minute on these planes with you!
Son: “Pappa, next time can’t we just go non-stop?!?!?”
Father: “But we did go non-stop as much as practical.”
Hahaha me too!
Only a fool would take the word of an 8 year old 🙂
I am surprised you don’t have the Platinum Amex. It comes with Hilton Gold status.
And FWIW, Hilton at European airport locations tend to be very good to me as a Gold/Diamond even on big online travel agency prepaid bookings.
Most hotels would fill with filtered water your reusable bottle gratis.
Sometimes the hotel shuttle vans have complimentary water available, but then that may require asking.
The tap water in most of Europe is perhaps no worse than a lot of the bottled water bought at stores, but I haven’t seen anyone run a study of that comparing hotel tap water in Europe to store-sold bottle water in Europe for all the relevant type of contaminants.
The reduced pool hours could be related to wanting to cut energy consumption costs for heating the pool and to otherwise keep the temperature in the pool area down to limit pool-related water consumption and slow down the pace of moisture damage in the building from an indoor pool. Perhaps it could be related to when they have more staff available to monitor the pool via security cameras or otherwise, but I am pretty sure that most such situations of limited hours have nothing to do with that. Also, maybe the hotels want to limit the time during which people in wet swimsuits are running around the building, and this could be a way to do that.
Many business in Spain have split shift hours. Not saying this might be the actual reason but something to consider in the pool hours, as the hours are not for full time staffing? Better luck on the next pit stop!
Do you leave your son unaccompanied in the room when you work out or otherwise are wa going around the hotel premises by yourself? And do you have a protocol for how he is to handle the door and contact you when you happen to be apart in a hotel?
The hotel room deadbolts can be pretty quickly and easily opened without issue from outside the locked rooms if having the proper tool to do so. [Something I learned long ago was that the people who run the fire alarm inspections at some hotels can be very useful with room access info too.]. I have a portable electronic alarmed door stopper, a supplemental lock item that frustrates entry into the room and some other stuff at times, but these are mostly things you wouldn’t want a sleepy kid to do to the door while you are out of the room. 😀
Hi, You must be new here.
Greetings from Madrid! The Westin Palace is a bit of a disaster at the moment. There’s a ton of construction and renovations going on as Marriott moves it over to Luxury Collection. Your best bet in the city would have been the Regency while you’re still a Globalist.
I like the green marble bathroom. It looks elegant. But the rest of the room looks like something from around 2002-2006. I couldn’t tell if there was a single USB outlet anywhere in the room.
Those hours for the pool etc are just insane. If you’re going to only open those amenities 4 hours a day and only in the evening when a lot of people will be getting dinner then there is no point in having them. They might as well shut it all down because they have seemingly designed their hours to make these amenities essentially useless to guests.
While you were yapping away, and your buddy insulted Egypt.
A Filipino blogger has completed & received his millions miles on SAS.
You suck.
You’re banned loser. Now go sashay away.
Thank you! Matthew bans someone at last. Perhaps jerks will reconsider their rudeness if there’s a few more examples.
As far as I know, SAS hasn’t been running its batch queries to credit the 1 million points from this promo to any account as far as I know. They don’t seem to even have gotten around to crediting 10k for 5 airlines or 100k for 10 airlines yet.
Or is going to give us 1,110,000 points for crediting 15 of the eligible SkyTeam airlines to our EuroBonus accounts?
Hilton Frankfurt Airport does not and never had a pool.
I’m talking about the sauna/wellness.
There exists no breakfast worth $30.
I see your point but disagree in some cases. Check out the breakfast at the Grand Hyatt Kuala Lumpur or the Park Hyatt Siem Reap and you may reconsider.