Granada (Spain) - Palacio de los Patos

Hospes Palacio de los Patos
Granada

Every now and then you get a clunker. And the Palacio de los Patos was our clunker. Our Virtuoso TA relied on recommendations from Made for Spain on this one, and while the Alfonso XIII in Sevilla and the Villa Magna in Madrid were amazing, this place was awful... and we couldn't wait to leave. And this was in spite of the fact that we were upgraded at check-in without asking to the Presidential Suite in the old villa.

Where do I begin on this one? First, the location was terrible. Three blocks from the start of anything that looked nice. And if you turn the wrong way, dark poorly lit streets with few restaurants or other redeeming features. No concierge and the front desk staff was of little help with restaurants.

Now the room. At first glance, beautiful old historic suite with a lovely balcony. But upon closer examination, cheap worse than Ikea furniture. Few lights and those that were there had low watt bulbs. No desk. No work space. Free open WiFi rendered virtually useless running at a snail's pace. Filthy carpets. A leaking bidet. Designer bathroom with no place to put any toiletries. A heating system performed a 60 second drum roll every 20 minutes during the night. If looks can be deceiving, this is the place.