Have just returned tonight from a wonderful four day trip to Madrid, Spain, We stayed at the Senator Gran Via Hotel situated on Gran Via. Very central location, wonderful staff, clean, well managed, free minibar (albeit soft drinks/water/beer a wonderful added extra) safe in room, tea/coffee making facilities, television (though we ourselves had problems with obtaining any english speaking channels!) glass elavators looking on a central atrium, all in all one of the best hotels we have stayed in. We cannot comment on the food as breakfast was not included and we wanted to sample the local Spanish eateries, but if everything else was to go by, that was probably good too! The overall price for a three night stay in a four star hotel was quite unbelievable! Look at the website and see!

This hotel looks nice but it is located in an area
filled with prostitutes and other related "bas fond"
types.

As soon as we arrived we tried to connect to the hotel
wireless system which for some reason was not working.
So we called the reception and tech staff was sent
promptly to our room to fix it. He could see we had a
new Vaio.

The next day when we were away someone entered our
room and stole the Vaio plus its charger and a Nokia
cell phone charger.

The safe was set to lock and unlock with the plastic
magnetic band we used to lock unlock the room door, so
we decided to put some stuff in the suitcase and lock
it. The suitcase was forced. Luckily our credit cards
were with us.

After noticing we were robbed we told reception and
showed them the damaged suitcase. However nothing was
done by hotel management so we called the Police and
declared robbery then went to the Police station to
sign the papers.

We were expecting something fabulous based on the previous reviews. The location of the hotel is about all it has going for it! The rooms are very small and basic and didnt live up to the standards we were hoping for. I have stayed in Madrid many times and this is certainly not one of the best hotels.
Did we enjoy our stay? = Yes
Was the hotel clean? = Yes
Was the hotel in a fabulous location? = Yes
Would you stay there again? = No - choose a H10 hotel

Judging by the reviews and 11th best in Madrid I was excited and expecting great things from this hotel. It just doesn't live up to its reputation. Basic furniture, smallish room and bathroom , curtains shabby, nothing terribly wrong but not that lovely feeling when you know you've walked into a really good hotel room.
Yes, the breakfast's nice but it's served in a dreary basement area with sullen staff. Why can't a sunny light room be used to start the day?
What we did like was the cold Cava available in the reception area, a lovely generous touch, far better than the free mini bar.
So, I would say that this hotel is ok, but there are better places to stay in Madrid.
I love Madrid, and I'll be back, but not at this hotel or the Gran Via. Back to the nice, interesting hotels tucked away somewhere.
Don't be lured by 'location' , Madrid is so easy to navigate, or by the free mini bar, there are too many great bars to explore to have time to use a hotel mini bar.
Enjoy Madrid, it is a fantastic city, full of life, good food and wine.- and it truely never sleeps!!