Stayed at Las Letras in September 2006 for 4 nights. Room was very spacious, modern and clean. Large bathroom with huge sink, huge shower and also a bath with another shower over. Lovely toiletries, soft towels, robes and slippers. We found the bedroom very dark though, no central light and no mirror in main room so could only dry hair in the bathroom (which personally I don't like to do) or in the corridor entrance area. Poetry quotes written on the walls, quite funny as ours was in English and had quite a few mistakes in it.

The wardrobe was sufficient but the hangers were annoying as no grooves to allow clothes to hang on so clothes always slipped off and ended up crumpled! Also no shelves or drawers to put underwear, tops etc so had to keep these in our cases which wasn't convenient. First night when returned to room it had been cleaned very well and my nightdress arranged artistically on the bed which we thought was a nice touch. Each day after that however it was just a normal clean through except for on the final night when we received lollipops and a weather report for the next day along with a feedback form, which, we suspect, was the reason for the added little touches!

The rooftop bar was great and had a very friendly young barman, closes at 2 am sharp. Bar downstairs good but pricey. Madrid is extremely lively at night and does not sleep so be prepared to be exhausted if you want to be a part of it! We found the reception staff to speak good English but, although helpful, did not give full information when asked about things to do etc.

Our stay included the Saturday of la noche en blanco (white night) which no one had mentioned to us before that afternoon. We had asked for directions to the Prado and were misinformed by reception that it would be free all day and evening and open until 6am. We made our way there leisurely, stopping off for a drink and snacks as plenty of time, paid 6 euros each to enter (not free) and took our time looking round only to find that it was closing at 8pm. We were so upset as were leaving the next day and had only seen about half of it which was magnificent. *NB* you could take photo's of the paintings so long as no flash was used, wish I'd known this as had left my camera behind thinking they would be confiscated! The museum was going to re open at 9.30pm when all the other attractions began. We asked at our hotel reception for more info re what was on that night but were just told everything is free in Madrid tonight, enjoy!! Not very helpful, we queued up for half an hour at a tourist info booth to be given a leaflet all in Spanish about what was happening, no English information was available anywhere and the chap at the tourist info didn't speak very much English.

The centre was flooded with people and there were queues for miles for attractions occurring in different buildings. As we couldn't find out what was supposed to be happening at each of them it was pointless to queue for hours to see anything. We found it impossible to get in anywhere decent to eat and ended up exhausted, confused and frustrated in a dingy restaurant where we had an ok meal (anything tasted ok by then) but who had run out of bread so gave us white sliced bread toast instead!! Yeuck.

We had tried to get on a tour bus opposite the hotel earlier on in our stay but each bus that came was full to capacity so we gave up after waiting for about an hour!

Went to have a look around the spa area which had only just opened. Used the facilities early one evening. The pool was a splash pool really, no room to swim and had jets for a jacuzzi but they were hopeless as were very weak and only lasted about 3 minutes at a time. You had to press them all individually too so you didn't ever get a proper jacuzzi. The sauna wasn't switched on so we had to ask for that, which they soon put right, the staff were very friendly and kept apologising as said it was new. Be careful of the wooden slats in the sauna as they are very wobbly. There was a steam room too and two shower areas by the pool one of which was a cold shower and the other a waste of space that just was a very fine mist! Couldn't have any treatments as they weren't ready to provide these yet. So a few teething problems. When we were at the rooftop bar we looked over and it seems as though suites at the hotel have their own jacuzzi spas on their terrace so that would be a nice idea, although not sure I'd like to be seen from the terrace bar!!

We found it quite hard to follow the city map of Madrid which we'd been given at reception and often got lost which was dissappointing. The trip was very last minute so if we went again we would definately plan it better to get the most out of the city. I think it is a city definately for the young though and don't expect to eat before 10.30pm unless you have tapas. We managed to stay out one night until 5.30am but were totally exhausted the next day!

If we return we would try to stay in a hotel around the Prado area as it is a much nicer part of the city, Las Letras is on a very busy main road although the noise wasn't really a problem with the windows closed.