The good:
- Nice hardwood floors in the room.
- Relatively quiet in terms of noise from outside the building (no nearby tapas bars rocking late into the evening, although there is some screeching noise from the brakes on trains pulling into the Atocha RENFE station)
- Seemed relatively clean, although there were some stains on the sheets
- Room in the minibar to store your own cold drinks and/or food
- Gym on first floor - never crowded, free bottled water dispenser there
- The room was relatively large compared to any other hotel where we stayed in Spain
The bad:
- No free wi-fi in the room. Only 1-hr of free wi-fi per day in the cramped, busy and noisy lobby filled with tour groups and conventioneers.
- Horrible sound insulation between rooms and between the room and the hallway. You are likely to be awakened early by your neighbors showering, coughing, talking, etc. or by the cleaning crew in the hallway.
- Far from anything. The name makes it sound like this hotel is next to the train station, and it is, but it is a HUGE station, which means you'll still have a 10-15 minute walk to catch a train in the morning. And that walk is through a relatively desolate area which could be uncomfortable for some to walk at night (although we did not have any problems, other than trying to avoid dog poop on the sidewalk in the darkness). Figure on a 25-30 minute brisk walk to the Prado via broad boulevards and traffic circles that are not exactly pedestrian friendly.
The ugly:
Up until this point, I would characterize Rafaelhoteles Atocha as a 3-star property. The price (via Priceline) wasn't too bad. But a hotel tends to reveal its character when you have a problem.
And I had a problem. The first night of a 4-night stay, I found myself struggling to get any liquid soap from the wall-mounted dispenser in the shower. Most such dispensers are clear plastic with a button you push to dispense soap. This one was opaque with a large plastic plate hinged at the top. Pushing on the plate theoretically squeeze an actual bottle of liquid soap within the dispenser. But I guess that soap hadn't been refilled recently because I found it hard to get any soap from the dispenser. So I pushed harder, which caused the top part of the dispenser to break out of its hinge and whack into my thumb. It all happened pretty fast, but I guess the edge or the corner of the dispenser must have hit my thumb, because it caused a nasty gash on the knuckle at the base of the thumb. Really a pretty wide (though shallow) cut that bled a bit and was pretty painful.
Now in the States, a reputable hotel where a guest had been injured by a malfunctioning piece of equipment in the room would probably bend over backwards to compensate the guest. I've received room upgrades, free breakfasts, flowers, chocolate, etc. for much less serious problems.
At Rafaelhoteles Atocha, what I got was a run-around. The dispenser was fixed by a 'technician' (who I assume simply replaced the empty soap container with a new one). I received some empty expressions of concern for my well-being and a reminder that there was a first-aid kit at the front desk if I needed it.
As for further compensation, well it would have to be taken up with a manager. The hotel workers with whom I spoke (and later emailed) could not take the initiative themselves to offer compensation OR to speak with the manager on my behalf. And besides there was no manager on duty for days (Spanish holiday) and then only until mid-afternoon, etc. etc.
It seemed undignified in the extreme to have to beg for some compensation. The point wasn't what I could force out of the hotel, it was whether the hotel would do the right thing and show their regret with more than empty words but by some action. It might have been nice if they had even acknowledged that their soap dispenser design was idiotic since the opaque design made it impossible to tell whether the soap needed to be refilled.
When I checked out, clearly a note had been made in my record, because the desk clerk asked whether my hand was feeling better. He seemed relieved when I told him it was slowly healing -- or maybe he was just relieved at having successfully deflected my inquiries and rebuffed my requests for some sort of fair compensation over the previous days?
Either way, we were relieved to get out of Dodge too without further injury. Who knew I needed protection in the shower?
ps - The ancient room safe is very dysfunctional. Here too, the design is opaque. You have to put in a 6-digit code, but there's no way to see the numbers as you enter them. This can lead to heart-stopping fun later on when the safe refuses to open, leaving you to wonder whether you'll need a hacksaw to get your passport back. (If you do resort to a hacksaw and you cut your finger in the process of trying to crack the safe, don't bother trying to get any compensation from the hotel. Not going to happen.) read more
