Hospitality: Boldness and more boldness

Among Spain's best-known international chains, Melia Hotels launched the first hotel in its ME by Melia urban range in Madrid in 2006. Since then, other ME establishments have sprung up in Barcelona, Mexico, and soon in Vienna and London - in a building designed by Norman Foster. Housed here in a magnificent white palace dating from 1811, where Ernest Hemingway - among other famous residents - passed through, the ME Madrid dominates the Plaza Santa Ana. Inside, the first thing that catches your eye is the naturalised bull's head hanging over the lobby bar. "The old Hotel Reina Victoria used to be a meeting place for bullfighters, explains Oliver Benalal Quintana, Associate Sales Director.. We wanted to pay tribute to this tradition through a highly visual and contemporary element..

 

" From the huge terrace perched at the top of this 192-room hotel, you can see the whole of Madrid. Just next door to the ME and a stone's throw from the Plaza Mayor is another beautiful building, the Palacio de Tepa, converted into a hotel by the Spanish chain NH and opened in October 2010. This 85-room, sober and elegant hotel draws its splendour from the 18th-century palace in which it is housed. The hotel is also home to star chef Paco Roncero, who recently opened his second tapas restaurant, Estado Puro. The place is instantly recognisable thanks to a very Spanish decorative element: a mantilla comb, an essential flamenco accessory and the main theme of a resolutely kitsch-chic ensemble. Truly magnificent.

 

 

Alongside Melia Hotels and NH, players of European or even global stature, other chains have concentrated on their own market, such as Hospes, which brings together around ten luxury hotels, the only foreign version of which, the Lancaster, is on rue de Berri in Paris. Housed in a building dating back to 1883, the Hospes Madrid is a 41-room boutique hotel where details from the past have been preserved and beautifully combined with more contemporary touches. Heavy wooden doors, ashlar patios and elaborate iron pillars meet glass and velvet, shades of parma and silver.

A soft scent of violets wafts through the corridors, delicately enhancing the colour of the sofas and cushions. It's a comfortable place to relax - you can't miss a trip to the beautiful spa - or to work.

Indeed, of all the meeting rooms, the most striking is the one housed in the former library, whose windows open onto Independence Square and Retiro Park. So it's impossible to forget that you're in Madrid.

The spirit is similar at De Las Letras, housed in a 1917 mansion house. Anima Hotels, this Spanish mini-chain of three establishments, has adopted a very contemporary philosophy, combining modernity with respect for the past. Located on the Gran Via, this charming four-star hotel combines wooden ceilings and old azulejos with strong colours and original objects: pure whites, oranges and reds, as well as Japanese paper lamps and literary quotations on the walls. Here too, the city is omnipresent, especially from the terraces of the suites and the rooftop lounge where you can sip mojitos and relax until the early hours. Unless you decide to hold a corporate event there.

 

 

Another chain, another style. For its part, the Urban hotel has given itself a completely new building, despite its central location just a few minutes' walk from the Puerta del Sol. Although it is part of a Spanish group, Derby Hotels, represented internationally by the Caesar in London and the Banke in Paris, this 102-room hotel has abandoned all notions of tradition and opted for boldness. Glass, iron, alabaster... Beautiful materials, then. But also works of art from all over the world, collected by its owner. Furnished with unique pieces from India, Egypt and Papua, each room has its own soul, suggesting the spirit of a particular continent. There is also a bar overlooking the rooftops of old Madrid, complete with swimming pool.

 

But the most daring of them all is undoubtedly the Puerta America, owned by the Silken chain, whose thirty or so hotels, most of them in Spain and in the four-star category, have allowed themselves a totally extravagant concept. "The challenge set by the owners was to give complete freedom to around twenty architects and designers, for a project that was absolutely unprecedented".explains Valeria Knop, spokesperson for the institution. This gigantic space of almost 34,000 m2, from which architectural and artistic invention springs, will ultimately have cost its sponsors more than a hundred million euros. As you visit each of the thirteen floors, you enter the inner world of the world's leading architects and interior designers, including Zaha Hadid, Jean Nouvel, Norman Foster, David Chipperfield, Marc Newson and Ron Arad. Even the iconic Oscar Niemeyer, who designed the city of Brasilia in the 1960s, came to the park at the age of 100 to contribute his recognisable aesthetic with a sickle-shaped sculpture.

 

At Puerta America, there's no question of being allocated a room at random, since by definition each one is unique. On arrival, guests can use their iPad to choose the floor and room that match their state of mind. Each floor opens onto a lobby, which sets the tone for a smooth entry into these worlds of delirious beauty: light projections, corridors worthy of a space shuttle, organic shapes, outrageously red-lacquered doors, leather sculptures, rounded stalactites... And to all this must be added the 13th floor, where Jean Nouvel's swimming pool is located, as well as its glass footbridge, perfectly suspended above the void.

 

 

You might think that such a work of art - for that is what it is - would attract leisure visitors. But you'd be wrong: "90 % of our customers visit us on business".says Valeria Knop. Because the fifth floor is almost entirely given over to conference rooms; because the IFEMA convention centre is only one metro stop away and the airport two stops; and because, contrary to popular belief, business clients don't just like to sit under fine gold panelling. It's a shame, for business-express travellers, that the location is a little out of the way. But how could such total creative freedom have been allowed right in the heart of the historic centre? After all, this is a 315-room hotel...

As you can see, Madrid's five-star establishments rival each other in creativity, personality and quality. But alongside them, there are still establishments in the Spanish capital that are a little simpler; in other words, more affordable. This summer, for example, opposite Retiro Park, in a former 19th-century palace, opened the Petit Palace Savoy Alfonso XII, a four-star 87-room hotel belonging to the High Tech chain, which is present only on the peninsula and owns around thirty hotels. This is a different tone, almost a different lifestyle... In Madrid, in this metropolis that always plays a bit of provocation, there are establishments that are 'only' stamped with three stars, and yet they are grandiose. A few years ago, the Room Mate chain was launched on the basis of a friendly concept: the name of a friend who means well and invites you to discover his or her city. While there are now four Room Mate Hotels in Madrid, with Mario, Laura, Alicia and Oscar, New York now has its Grace, Mexico City its Valentine, Barcelona its Emma... Luxury bed and breakfasts that, like the real Madrilenians, know how to remarkably combine comfort and style. tranquilo to theestudioso.

Click on the following link to find all the geolocated addresses in this practical guide:
http://g.co/maps/9kcd7