25 Hotels Worth Knowing in Madrid
The hotel a king built for his wedding, a 1610 inn with a comb chained to the wall, seven old banks turned into one hotel, and the great towers of the Plaza de España.
A king built the Ritz because his capital had nowhere grand enough for the royal wedding. This list has that hotel and its rival the Palace, a 1610 inn with a comb once chained to the wall, seven old banks turned into one Four Seasons, and two of the great 1950s towers on the Plaza de España.
The list is grouped by character, not ranked. Each hotel’s name links to its own site, where the rate is current and you book direct.
The grand old ones
Mandarin Oriental Ritz, Madrid · Jerónimos
The Ritz opened in 1910 because King Alfonso XIII wanted one: Madrid had embarrassed the court at his 1906 wedding by having nowhere grand enough to put up the guests. Charles Mewes, who built the Paris and London Ritz hotels, designed it. It closed in 2018 for a long restoration and reopened in 2021 under Mandarin Oriental, facing the Prado.
The Palace, a Luxury Collection Hotel · Barrio de las Letras
The Palace opened in 1912, another of Alfonso XIII’s projects, and was one of the largest hotels in Europe at the time. Its central rotunda sits under a huge Belle Époque stained-glass dome. During the Civil War the building served as a hospital and a refuge. It reopened in 2024 after a two-year restoration, as The Palace, a Luxury Collection hotel.
Gran Hotel Inglés · Barrio de las Letras
The Gran Hotel Inglés opened in 1886 and is generally counted the oldest hotel in Madrid. It reopened in 2018 after a full restoration, with interiors by the Rockwell Group. By its own history, early guests drawn to the literary quarter included Virginia Woolf and Matisse.
Santo Mauro, a Luxury Collection Hotel · Chamberí
The Santo Mauro was built in the 1890s as the private mansion of the Duke of Santo Mauro, on a garden plot in Chamberí. It became a hotel in 1991 and relaunched in 2021 as a Luxury Collection hotel. The old ballroom is now the library and restaurant.
Hotel Orfila · Chamberí
The Orfila is an 1886 townhouse mansion on a quiet Chamberí side street, and the only Relais & Châteaux hotel in Madrid. It is full of antiques, with a hidden garden terrace at the back for dining.
Hotel Wellington · Salamanca
The Wellington opened in Salamanca in 1952. During the San Isidro bullfighting fair it fills with matadors, and it has long been the gathering place of the bullfighting world. Ava Gardner was among its guests.
Hotel Fénix, a Gran Meliá Hotel · Plaza de Colón
The Beatles stayed at the Fénix in July 1965, around the only concerts they ever played in Spain, at the Las Ventas bullring. The Plaza de Colón landmark opened in the 1950s and was long a fixture of Madrid society. It runs now as a Gran Meliá hotel.
InterContinental Madrid · Paseo de la Castellana
The hotel opened in 1953 as the Castellana Hilton, the first international luxury hotel in Spain. In those years it was a haunt of film stars — Ava Gardner and Frank Sinatra among them. It marked seventy years in 2023, by then under the InterContinental name.
Palaces, banks and old inns
Four Seasons Hotel Madrid · Centro Canalejas
The Four Seasons opened in 2020, the brand’s first in Spain. It fills seven restored buildings of the Centro Canalejas, put up between the 1880s and the 1920s. Several were bank headquarters, and the conversion kept their old facades, staircases, and banking-hall details.
Palacio de los Duques, Gran Meliá · Madrid de los Austrias
The Palacio de los Duques opened in 2016 behind the restored 19th-century facade of a former palace, near the Plaza de Oriente. Its rooms and garden are themed around the painter Velázquez, who worked at the royal court nearby.
Hotel Palacio del Retiro, Autograph Collection · Retiro
The Palacio del Retiro is an early-20th-century aristocratic palace facing the Retiro Park. The building was known for its early gadgetry, including a lift said to be big enough to carry the owners’ horses up to the top floors. It is run by Marriott, now in the Autograph Collection.
Only YOU Boutique Hotel Madrid · Chueca
The first Only YOU opened in 2013 in a restored 19th-century palace in Chueca. Its interiors are by the designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán.
URSO Hotel & Spa · Chamberí
URSO opened in 2014 in a restored townhouse mansion in Chamberí. The Beaux-Arts building dates to the early 1900s and keeps its original staircase and facade.
CoolRooms Atocha · Centro
CoolRooms Atocha is in the restored Palacio de Atocha, a 19th-century palace near the Paseo del Prado. The conversion kept the grand staircase and the period detail.
Posada del León de Oro · La Latina
The Posada del León de Oro is a former 18th-century coaching inn on Cava Baja, the street that was Madrid’s old stagecoach hub. It was restored into a boutique hotel with a gastrobar on the ground floor. A surviving piece of the old city wall is shown inside.
Petit Palace Posada del Peine · Centro
The Posada del Peine traces its origins to 1610, which makes it one of the oldest hotels in Madrid, and in Spain. The name means ‘of the comb,’ from a comb once chained to the wall for guests to use. It runs now as a Petit Palace hotel, steps from the Plaza Mayor.
Landmarks you can sleep in
Barceló Torre de Madrid · Plaza de España
The hotel is in the Torre de Madrid, the concrete tower the Otamendi brothers finished around 1960, which was the tallest building in Spain when it went up. Barceló opened the hotel in 2017, with interiors by Jaime Hayon.
Riu Plaza España · Plaza de España
The hotel fills the Edificio España, the vast tower the Otamendi brothers built on the Plaza de España in the early 1950s. It stood largely empty for years before RIU restored it and opened the hotel in 2019. On the roof is a terrace with a glass-floored viewpoint out over the city.
Vincci Capitol · Gran Vía
The Vincci Capitol is in the Edificio Carrión, a 1933 landmark of Madrid’s rationalist architecture above the Plaza del Callao. The building is famous for the giant Schweppes neon sign on its front, a fixture of the Gran Vía at night.
The Principal Madrid · Gran Vía
The Principal is in an early-20th-century building at the top of the Gran Vía. It is known for its rooftop restaurant and terrace, looking out over the roofs of the boulevard.
Iberostar Las Letras Gran Vía · Gran Vía
Las Letras is in a protected 1917 building on the Gran Vía. It opened as a design hotel in 2005, with literary quotes painted through the rooms — the source of its name — and later became part of Iberostar. A 2024 renovation kept the listed facade.
Pestana Plaza Mayor Madrid · Plaza Mayor
The Pestana is one of the few hotels actually inside the 17th-century Plaza Mayor. It occupies part of the Casa de la Carnicería, the square’s old municipal meat market. Its rooftop pool looks down over the plaza.
Writers, stars and art
ME Madrid Reina Victoria · Plaza de Santa Ana
The Reina Victoria opened on the Plaza de Santa Ana in 1923, named for Alfonso XIII’s queen. It was long the bullfighters’ hotel; the great matador Manolete is said to have kept a regular room. It reopened in the mid-2000s as the first ME by Meliá.
NH Collection Madrid Suecia · Barrio de las Letras
The Hotel Suecia opened in 1956, just off the Carrera de San Jerónimo. Hemingway was a regular, and the hotel still trades on it through the bar and restaurant. Che Guevara is said to have stayed here too.
Hotel Urban · Carrera de San Jerónimo
The Urban opened in 2005 as part of the Derby group, in a glass-and-steel building on the Carrera de San Jerónimo. The owner, a collector, fills it with his art — ancient pieces from Papua New Guinea, Egyptian antiquities. It is often called a hotel-museum, and opens the collection to the public during the city’s culture nights.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are these hotels ranked?
No. The groups sort them by character, and the order within each group carries no meaning.
What made a hotel interesting enough for this list?
A story. Every entry was a royal grand hotel, a palace, an old inn, a landmark tower, or a writers’ and bullfighters’ haunt. Comfort alone did not qualify a hotel.
Why are there no prices?
Rates change daily and a priced list goes stale in a month. Every hotel name links to its own site, where the rate is current and you book direct.
Which hotel puts me closest to the day trips on this site?
Most day trips from Madrid leave by train from Atocha or Chamartín. CoolRooms Atocha sits by the first; the Gran Vía and Sol hotels are a short Metro ride from either.
Do the small hotels book out faster than the grand ones?
Usually. The small ones — the Orfila, the Posada del León de Oro — hold fewer rooms and fill first. Book those well ahead.