Travel
Happy Place Means
a Happy YOU
“We’re known for our service now
and smiling employees,” Portillo
continued. “Anyone in the hotel
business can smile at a guest but it’s
irrelevant if that person is not happy
inside. We have a great team here.
We have lunch together, do activities
together and help each other out.
And we send our guests to places
chosen only by us.”
The staff knows the latest about
leisure, culture, business and
gastronomy in Madrid, a city famous
for its late nights, avant-garde
dining and just plain fun. Their
choices come from an insider’s point
of view, away from common places
with a goal to anticipate visitors’
tastes and preferences and adapt
to them. Management believes
making the difference in a guest’s
hotel stay lies in paying close
attention to detail.
Once the name was settled upon and
amenities intact, laudable interior
designer Lázaro Rosa-Violán created
a style that mixes an English private
club with Chinese-style mosaics and
impeccable contemporary art. “We
wanted to combine art history with
our personal history,” said Portillo.
Colors throughout are a vivid blue
and white, which are the brand
colors of the Palladium Hotel
Group, based in Ibiza, Spain and
the parent company to Ayre Hoteles.
Vintage regional maps of Spain,
and especially Madrid, are
throughout the hotel, with
some etched on glass doors.
“It feels like a personal house when
a guest walks in,” Portillo said,
summing up the reception area that
is inside the hotel, not at the front
entrance. That decision removed the
mental barrier of walking into a
hotel. And what a reception area it
is: small and welcoming, complete
with a back wall of vintage suitcases
painted white. Two small elevators
are disguised behind a wall of blue
and white tiles. The intimate space
allows the reception staff to see
who’s entering the elevators. There’s
no other access to the rooms.
Chesterfield couches and fabricated
mounted trophies, especially the
rhinoceros over the fireplace, accent
the Blue Lounge. The former book
store became the Coctelería El
Padrino bar and kept its original
façade and signage. It’s at the front
of the hotel, perfect for foot traffic
that doesn’t go through the hotel.
Inside the bar the walls are wood,
some lined with books, to create
that inviting ambiance only a great
bar can exude. It’s a buzzing spot
for locals and tourists, especially
with the nineteenth-century Teatro
Infanta Isabel across the street.
Getting the nod from The New
York Times soon after opening, as
a featured bar to visit in Madrid is
an unbeatable accolade, combined
with the hotel’s consistent top
ranking on TripAdvisor.
Dining at Only YOU translates to an
innovative à la carte menu with an
edge, created by a young team led by
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