Hotel Europa

Thanks for the additional information!

Definitely you should have received a warning. I stayed in Wroclaw last summer at a hotel with construction going on across the street and was notified about potential noise in case I wanted to change my reservation. It was very thoughtful and much appreciated! (In my case, I didn’t change and it wasn’t a problem - but it was nice to have the choice!)

Of all the Rick Steves recommended hotels I've stayed in I disliked this one the most. The food was substandard and the hotel is in need of total update. The noise from the plaza goes on all night during the summer. I generally like the RS hotel recommendations but this one I would avoid.

I could be wrong, but seems that whenever I see people recommend this hotel they stayed there many years ago. You may already do this, but I like to check recent reviews on google and booking.com before booking and usually again when it gets closer to the trip.

I agree Mary. When I do recommend a hotel I will add the month and year we were there. I always check out booking.com reviews because you cannot comment on their site unless you have stayed at the hotel.

We stayed with the RS Spain tour in 2016. Our room was shabby and the noise from the plaza kept us up despite ear plugs. The breakfast was horrid. We had to stay again for one night prior to our flight home. We looked at changing that but decided we could suck it up for one night. This time the room had obviously been renovated and the furnishings were much better. It was away from the plaza and quiet. We had an early flight so left before breakfast. My take is if you have to be picky about your room. Still, we would not return.

I stayed at the Europa on the RS tour in 2019 and liked it fine, though I've had better breakfasts. Obviously a renovation project would have changed that equation -- and the tour probably wouldn't have used the place anyway. The hotel should have advised customers about the project on its website.

Returning to Madrid after the tour, I stayed several nights at the Moderno a couple of blocks away, also facing the Puerto del Sol. It had a better breakfast, my lightwell-facing room was quiet, and it worked well for me. But the Europa would have also. I chose the Moderno to save money and get a different experience.

I learned the hard way regarding not checking current reviews on a lodging at which we had previously stayed.
Won't name the property, ( in Italy) but loved it precovid, it was a b& b above a restaurant, with a fantastic view, and everything closed down promptly at 10:00pm, and all was quiet. Well we returned in 2023, and that quiet restaurant was now a bustling night spot, and the noise continued until 1:00am. I couldn't block out the noise by any means because there was frequent shouting and singing. The manager understood and released us early from our stay, and we found a beautiful view and quiet room nearby. Lesson learned!

We stayed at hotel Europa in November of 2018. The room had been recently remodeled. The windows must have been tripled paned, as we overlooked the square and couldn't hear anything when the windows were closed and latched. Front desk staff very helpful and friendly. Breakfast was not included in our room rate and we had instant oatmeal in our room.

There is no excuse for not warning potential and booked guests of any construction projects.

Side note: A half a year ago or so, someone was on the forum looking for a place to stay in Italy that fit her budget (though they never indicated what the budget was) After no one responded I provided the name of the place we stayed at and described our experience. Well, I heard back when they stayed there! They were pretty unhappy. Part of the issues I wasn't very sympathetic to. You can't get the Ritz on a Ramada budget. . .However, one comment was the room was very small. Ours had been quite large.

Rooms can vary in size and how recently they'd been renovated. There can be variations in rooms that the reviewer wouldn't know anything about. So, I'm not sure what the solution would be other than trying to get the same room that the reviewer stayed in? It does sound like RS tours gets less desirable rooms at the Europa?

I didn’t catch this thread before booking my room, so I’ll be there this Wednesday and will report back as to the current status.

I'm heading to Spain in November. In which city is this?

This was in Madrid.

Thanks, SamA!

CWsocial - Safe travels and enjoy Spain. Let us know how the renovation is going.

bj_gator1, safe travels and I look forward to hearing from you re: the current status of renovations and the overall conditions at the Hotel Europa. We are planning a trip to Spain this year, so any insights and observations that you could share would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much!

We stayed at Hotel Europa April 12 - 14th. Compared with SamA, when we got there, they were working on the 1st floor for their renovations. Our room was on the 4th floor, tucked away from the elevator. We had a beautiful view of the plaza. We also had breakfast included in our hotel rate. I thought breakfast was quite good. They had bakery items (white/wheat bread, croissants), and a few individually wrapped gluten free muffins (1 or 2, my husband is gluten free), coffee, orange and peach juice, milk, eggs, bacon, ham and a variety of cheese. Because we stayed there Friday & Saturday night, the noise level was unreal. The police do patrol the plaza often, which is great.

However, Friday night people were still hanging out by 3 am. Saturday "night", I don't think anyone had gone home by 4:30 am. Not to mention, since the police patrol the area, they would hit their sirens to deter people in hoping they would leave. So, it felt like I heard police sirens going off every 45 minutes. Yes, IT IS a great location. No doubt about that. It's so convenient to take the metro. Just outside the hotel, there's an amazing gelato shop. I would totally recommend going there. We stayed 2 nights and then got on the train to Cordoba to start our RS tour.