Axel Hotel Madrid - Adults Only

This place gets only 1 star based on the shape and quality of the rooms and hotel. The room was tiny and you couldnt put your luggage anywhere. The loby smelled like a sewer. The shower water smelled fresh out of a water treatment plant. The rooftop pool area needs some serious upkeep. The fitness center is anything but a fitness center which is surprising since this is a gay hotel and the gays love to work out. The hotel soaps are tiny and the size of a finger. The AC in the room sucked and barely worked. The bed was as stiff as a motel mattress. The only saving grace was the location and the friendly/kind staff that worked there. Im not sure how this place is a 4 star hotel because its more like a motel. This was very disappointing for me because I thought I would support my community and stay at a gay hotel and booked a room here instead of staying at the vincci soho which is the same price for a room. Got there and instantly regretted it. I will never stay here again. Also give your employees a raise because it must be exhausting having to work there.

We were so excited to finally stay at an Axel property since we had such a great experience during our last trip to Barcelona and visited it’s rooftop bar and had a great experience. Unfortunately, our experience at the Madrid location has been the complete opposite and are regretting choosing this hotel for our first trip to Madrid.

It all started when we got in the lobby and had to wait for 15 minutes to gain access to the check-in desk due to only one person checking guests in at 3:45 (peak check-in time) and he working with another guest. During our wait, we were greeted by a local artist that was hanging his artwork in the lobby and invited us to come to the evenings drag show at 6:30. It was finally time for us to get to the desk and start our check-in process we were cordially greeted by the agent and he started the process. Within 2 minutes a group of 8 people came up to the desk and rudely interrupted our checkin process - as they needed keys and another room. We were finally checked in after another 15 minutes and was given our room key, room service QR code, Wi-Fi information and a free drink voucher for the rooftop bar.

We got to our room and was shocked to find no luggage rack in the room, and that is nothing like the pictures on the website. We thought that we could deal with the room - we apparently had the wrong expectation and thought we would visit the rooftop pool to see the view and to use our drink voucher. The view is/was spectacular however I will not be able to use the pool during our visit as it was extremely cold even thought the website stated it is “heated”. This brings us to the bar and us trying to use the “drink voucher”. The Bartender was helping a client so we sat at the end of the bar and waited for him to finish . As he was finishing with the original guest, another couple came in and proceeded to order their drinks. I politely interjected and he finally took our drink order - an Aperal Spritz and a Coke. He made the other couples order first and made ours last and gave them to us. dropped them off. I had the drink voucher in hand and asked how much I owed him, it was at this point that we were informed that the voucher is only good for red/white wine, a glass of Prosecco or a soda - Turning what we thought was a positive( a free cocktail) into another negative for the hotel. While we were drinking our beverages we watched the bartender interact with other guests that had the same voucher, but he was at least informing them of the restrictions before they placed the order. I have worked in customer service and this was nothing of the sort - watching him work made me feel like I was on a bad Southwest flight and he was the flight attendant.

Finishing our drinks we stated we weren’t going to let that ruin the stay and decided to check out the gym and spa area. All I can say is what a joke the second floor and the gym is technically non-existant - an elliptical machine and a stack of dumbbells . I was expecting the spa to maybe be a hottub or sauna - it has neither, it is just a room to get a massage.

We had plans to go walking the city so on our exit we asked the front desk about the drag show that was happening in the basement club at 6:30 - we were informed that the club would open at 6 and close once the show was over - what a waste of time, why come back to the hotel to watch a show and then need to find something else to do elsewhere for the rest of the evening????
We went out and came back to the hotel at 12:30 and found that our room had not cooled down to the 19 degree Celsius we had set it to prior to leaving. We called down to the desk and was informed someone would be up to look at it - it never happened.

What a waste of money and a dissapointment!

The room decor was super, some gold wall trimming and gold bed frame. Cold room (went in December) with heater that did not seem to work. The water heater never really gave hot water, more like warmer water. The chairs/sofas were very uncomfortable, even to just sit and put on shoes. The mini-fridge was not replaced with beverages that were consumed. The staff was nice and the location is great. But for the price we paid I expected more from the room itself. I would not stay here again.

I feel as if I stayed in a totally different hotel than described in some of the reviews. I booked the Axel Madrid for two nights after I saw the exterior of the Barcelona property, thinking it would be similar. This property in Madrid is in serious need of maintenance and updating. I can't imagine how it's considered a four-star property; it's more like a cheap roadside Motel 6 we have in the USA.. The room was beat up with paint scuffs and scratched furniture. The patio door frame actually came out of the wall when you opened the door. Room number two smelled of cigarette smoke and a sour smell like soured laundry. The towels and sheets were threadbare and there was no impermeable mattress cover on the mattress-just a thin flat sheet between the soiled mattress and me. The carpet at the room entry was soiled and had faded spots. I spoke to the front desk clerk after checking in asking if there were any better, updated rooms, but he said there were not. I thought I'd just go with it for the two nights but after I spent one sleepless night, I checked out at 6 am and checked into another property across the street. They did refund my night's stay but what a disappointment, misrepresentation, and hassle. The staff was generally pleasant and the rooftop bar/pool area was nice, but this hotel needs a total update. Beware.