Madrid boasts some classic hotels. The Ritz, for example, is one of the great hotels in Europe, while the Palace Hotel over the road is not far behind. A little downmarket from there, you will find rates competitive by European standards, but be aware that many hotels consider spring and autumn the high season, rather than summer.

Many of the three-, four- and five-star hotels included here belong to the Hotel Club online booking service, of which this site is an affiliate, and in this case I link to the Hotel Club page. I do not want to give a sales spiel, but the advantages for you are the convenience of online booking and, in most cases, a reduced rate. For example, the rate for a night in a double room in the 4-star Carlton in September as given on the hotel's web page is €126 plus IVA (value-added tax), whereas the rate advertised by Hotel Club is €105, including tax. And I get a little commission which helps towards the upkeep of this site.

If you have any complaints about the Hotel Club service, I want to know about them - e-mail me at complaints. And if you have a gripe about your hotel, by all means feel free to let me know, though I am not in a position to do anything about it.

Having got that out of the way, let me present you with two hotels which do not belong to the Hotel Club service, but are among the finest in Europe: the Palace and the Ritz.

	© HotelClub.net

The Palace Hotel
Now called the Westin Palace, but if you say that in Madrid, no-one will know what you are talking about. The name is regal for a reason: the Palace was commissioned by Alfonso XIII himself in 1912. To quote from the website, celebrities who have stayed there include Picasso, Mata Hari, Diaghilev (complete with troupe), Ava Gardner, Orson Welles, Sara Bernhard, Rita Heyworth, Carlos Menem, Prince Albert of Monaco and Henry Kissinger (there is always a bad apple). Though luxurious, at a mere €294 for a double room, the Palace is nowhere near as stratospherically up-market as the Ritz, which is probably why the former was Condé Nast Traveller's Business Hotel of the Year, 1999.

The Ritz
The Madrid Ritz is reckoned to be the best hotel in Spain, one of the great hotels in the world and among the top four or five in Europe. It was opened in 1910, again on the King's initiative. Apart from shameless luxury, its attractions include two line phones (bathroom and bedroom) and computer hook-ups in the rooms, its fabulous terrace and garden and the proximity of the Prado, Thyssen Bornemisza and Reina Sofía galleries. The Ritz has a good reputation gastronomically, too. Its Sunday brunches are famous, gastronomic weeks are held frequently and the Ritz breakfast has been "voted Best Hotel Breakfast in 1998 in Spain." None of this comes cheap, of course. For example, discount schemes aside, the most economic option for a couple booking three months in advance for one night in September would cost €427, and a suite could set them back a cool €1900 (but if you are prepared to travel within the next twenty days, try Rates to Go, which can often offer last-minute discounts of more than 50% for the Ritz).

The Ritz is the setting for one of my favourite stories. The hotel used to have a policy of not accepting guests with certain overly bohemian professions: bullfighters were out, for example, being inclined to mount impromptu parties with plenty of booze and ladies of ill-repute, and so were actors. Victor Mature, he of the glistening pectorals and ear-to-ear leer, presented himself at the hotel and asked for a room. It was politely explained to him that this was impossible, because of his occupation. What about my occupation? You are an actor, we do not allow actors to stay here. Whereupon the star produced a press cutting, a review of one of his films, the headline of which read, "Victor Mature Will Never Be an Actor."

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