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Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) enjoys excellent location very close to Plaza Puerta del Sol on Calle Preciados (pedestrian street). Tables on both sides of the entrance belong to the restaurant and cafe "Varela" (owned by the hotel).

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) occupies a corner triangle-shape building between calle de Preciados and calle de Veneras. The photo shows the view on hotel from calle Veneras.

Night view on Plaza Santo Domingo (Madrid, Spain) from one of the rooms in Hotel Preciados.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - entrance.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - junior suite, the entrance area. The suite has modern decor.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - junior suite, bedroom. It is located in what appears as the acute corner of the triangle from the outside and offers good views on Plaza Santo Domingo and both, calle de Preciados and calle de Veneras. With double doors and good soundproofing there are no problems with noise.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - in the bathroom area there is a separate space for toilet and bidet.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - bathroom has double sinks.

Visiting Madrid on our way to Sevilla in spring 2012, we decided to stay in Hotel Preciados. Its location seemed to us very convenient being in the center of the old city with the main tourist attractions as Palacio Real, Catedral De La Almudena and Puerta Del Sol within walking distance. Hotel Preciados, (calle de Preciados, 37, Centro, 28013 Madrid, Spain - see it on map)) occupies a refurbished 19th century building. Its triangle shape, so popular in Europe, squeezed between two streets - calle de Preciados and calle de Veneras - and the facade of the hotel is overlooking Plaza Santo Domingo with Santa Domingo subway station gives a convenient access to the hotel and to the historic center of the city.

There are 73 rooms in the hotel; all are decorated in modern style with plenty of wood panels and mirrors. The best rooms with interesting floorplans, balconies and attractive views are situated in a sharp corner of the facade overlooking Plaza Santo Domingo.

Many squares and streets in the area where Preciados is located are pedestrian (including calle de Preciados), but there is way for taxis or visitors' cars to reach it. The hotel offers private parking on site priced €19.26 per day (no need for advance for parking). Nevertheless our taxi driver was not sure how to get to the entrance of the hotel and was rather nervous whether he violated any traffic rules.

The entrance of the hotel is not remarkable. It is just a glass door in an arch lost behind rows of tables with white clothes. The tables belong to the restaurant "Varela" owned by the hotel. Enter the door, you get into a small hall with a huge pearl shall made of glass. It seemed to be an allegorical way for the hotel managers and owners to tell guest how precious their hotel was. From this hall, another glass door, on its right side, leads to the restaurant. Door to the left - to the lobby of the hotel. The lobby turned out to be not big but cozy with marble floor, wood panels, modern furniture and reception desk right in front of you. In the depth of the hall elevators and marble stairs take you upstairs.

The hotel receptionist was very polite and handled English rather efficiently. However, as we noticed during our travel very few Spaniards know the English language even to the extent French or Italians do. Upon our arrival, nine o'clock in the morning, the room was not ready. Check-in is at 12 o'clock and the hotel followed with us its policies precisely. We had nothing to do but to leave our luggage and browse nearby streets and have lunch in a near-by cafe.

The junior suite we booked (€220 per room/night, breakfast and 8% tax included - prices spring 2012) was on the second floor in the sharp corner of the hotel facade. Junior suites usually consist of two rooms. The size of our suite not big - 280 sq feet (26 sq m). Entrance door takes you into a living room with two big floor-to-ceiling windows with small balconies. The room is appointed in modern style furniture with a small couch, a small table, a desk with a chair and a small flat screen TV on it. There are two doors in this area: to the bathroom and to a nicely curved bedroom with three floor-to-ceiling windows opening to balconies and an excellent view of Plaza Santo Domingo. All the windows are sound proof equipped with electric shutters and our fears of noise completely disappeared during our first night.

The bedroom furnishing was simple: reasonably comfortable king size bed, two nightstands with lamps, couple of chairs, mirror on the wall and a moderately sized closet with built-in safe. There was not much space in the room but sliding mirror doors of the closet served to its advantage, giving the room depth and making it look bigger. There was a bench in the foot of the bed and the second flat screen TV set on a small table near the wall. Two wire mannequins serving as hangers happened to be quite convenient in a hot Spanish climate though Preciados and all its rooms and amenities have air conditioning.

The bathroom of the suite had light beige marble, glass and white appliances. It was rather convenient (but not large) with jacuzzi tub, double sinks, toilet and bidet. A good size shower was in the middle separating toilet/bidet and the rest of the bathroom visually and functionally.

The service in the hotel and its restaurant (with part of it used to serve breakfast which was rather good) was polite, friendly and prompt, let aside the difficulty of communicating English.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - one of the best and interesting rooms are located in this sharp corner of the building overlooking Plaza Santo Domingo.

View at night from one of the rooms of the Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) on calle de Preciados. On the left side of the photo you can see restaurant El Asador de Aranda which belongs to the namesake chain of restaurants in Spain (there are seven of them in Madrid).

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - lobby and reception desk.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - view from breakfast area of the hotel towards the restaurant and cafe "Varela" (in the background).

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain), junior suite - view from the entrance area to the suite entrance. The door in the middle leads to the bathroom.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - bedroom, view on closet.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - entrance to the bathroom.

Hotel Preciados (Madrid, Spain) - jacuzzi bathtub is a nice addition to the bathroom amenities.