my husband and i stayed here for one night during our short trip to sevilla. we found this boutique hotel on expedia, and after reading some decent reviews and agreeing that the location was quite central to most tourist sites, we booked a room for €39/nite....at the time, the usd equivalent was $52, pretty good for a room for 2!
upon entering the hotel, we met the concierge who spoke really good english. he used the word "sure" a lot which i had not heard at all since setting foot in spain. i usually heard "yes" or "ok" in all of the other cities that i'd visited.
he immediately checked us in, but since we were quite early, our room was not yet ready, so he allowed us to store our luggage in the secure locker compartment in the lobby, which was locked up, and manned 24/7 (since someone was in the lobby at all times).
we also inquired about a flamenco show that evening since one of the things on our wish list was to see a flamenco show in sevilla. he gave us several options, and ipon choosing the package we wanted (show with no dinner/drinks, just general admission seats), he immediately phoned the venue and booked our tickets for us. piece 'o cake!
he then gave us a map of the city, pointed out several highlights, and gave us a list of top tourist destinations which included the days and hours when each site was open. this was definitely very helpful as we planned our 1 1/2 days in sevilla!
we headed out to play tourist and have lunch, and returned to our hotel later in the afternoon to collect our room key, luggage from the storage room, and get settled. our room was on the ground floor, toward the rear of the hotel. the walls were thin, in my opinion, as we could hear the chatter from the hallway and courtyard which was right next to one of the walls to our room. it featured a long hallway, a standard-sized bedroom, and a large bathroom. unfortunately, the room had two separate beds that we could not push together to form a double/queen bed due to the furniture in between the beds and the layout of the room. so we had to sleep apart for that evening....oh well.
the actual room was pretty clean, but there was no carpet, so we had to wear slippers to walk around. there was a dresser, but we didn't really use it since we were only going to be there for a day. there was a small-medium sized tv with remote, which featured a variety of channels, all of which were in spanish, of course! we actually watched a few american movies to see if we could pick up some spanish phrases! no bueno as they spoke too quickly!
the bathroom had towels and some basic toiletries, as well as a shower over the tub with good water pressure. the only odd thing was that the small window opened into our hallway, so any steam leftover from the shower would just circulate into the hallway and back into our room....a bit strange, i thought.
before we headed out for the evening, another staff member gave us directions to a few other tourist attractions as well as suggestions for dinner. this gentleman also spoke good english and was very friendly.
the next morning, i took advantage of their buffet breakfast for €5. i wish i'd remembered to take photos b/c everything looked so good! they offered croissants, sliced bread, freshly cut fruit, tortilla espanola (spanish omelet), ham, sausage, fruit juices, milk, coffee, and tea. everything was delicious, and i ate until my tummy was full, also b/c i knew that we had a full day ahead and it would be several hours before we would take lunch.
before we headed out for the morning, we packed our bags, turned in our key, and put our luggage in the storage room since we wouldn't be returning until after the official checkout time. when we returned, we retrieved our bags, and asked our concierge to call a taxi for us, which he did. the cab arrived in a matter of minutes, and we bid farewell to hotel abril.
this was great budget hotel to stay in and i would definitely recommend it to couples or pairs of traveling buddies as most of the guests appeared to be traveling in pairs. the breakfast buffet alone would entice me to book a room at this hotel in the future! read more