Review: the new Hyatt Centric Madrid hotel

This is my review of the new Hyatt Centric hotel in Madrid.

I needed a hotel for two nights in Madrid last week. There is no stand-out option in the city and cash rates are relatively low at this time of year which made using points look poor value.  Anika disliked The Westin Palace when she was there, I wasn’t hugely keen on the Grand Melia Fenix and my two previous stays – Villa Real and Hotel Urban – were good but not so great I felt I had to rush back.  I should say that Anika WAS exceptionally keen on the Gran Melia Palacio de los Duques.

A couple of weeks ago I read an interview with the manager of the new Hyatt Centric in Madrid and liked the sound of it.  The Gran Via location was super central, I have a preference for new hotels, it would tick off another Hyatt brand for their ‘Brand Explorer’ free night promo and I had two £60 Hyatt cashback credits on our American Express cards.  The stars seemed to align.

I booked the hotel for cash – this was not a review trip.  I paid €340 per night for a Junior Suite, including breakfast and a guaranteed 4pm late check-out.  This was clearly not a bargain but was offset by 2 x £60 Amex cashback credits and the fact that I would be spending much of my time working in the room.

You can find out more about the hotel here.

What is Hyatt Centric?

That’s a good question and I am still none the wiser!

‘Stylish boutique hotels’ is the phrase used on the Hyatt Centric website.  This is a fair description – whilst youthful, they are not really aimed (or priced) at the Generation Z market.  Madrid is marketed as a business hotel and I imagine a fair number of guests are 40-somethings like me who simpler prefer a modern design ethos.  The hotel is a converted period office building so it also has a number of historic design features such as the staircase which runs through the property.

Whilst it is trying to be cool by putting the reception desks in the bar, they don’t go far as to have thumping music anywhere.  The rooms include desks, rarely seen in any hotel which thinks it wants to appeal to 25 year olds, and the in-room library had fairly high level art books.

The ‘look’ doesn’t always work – I doubt anyone, aged 18-80, actually appreciates having the reception desk in the bar, but overall I liked it.

The location

Gran Via is essentially Oxford Street, but with a lot more hotels.  Directly opposite Hyatt Centric is a huge Primark store.  The majority of buildings are period and I enjoyed the view from my suite at night when many were subtly illuminated.

It is half way between Gran Via and Callao metro stations.  The area around McDonald’s outside Gran Via metro is the hub of Madrid street prostitution and was not the best place to arrive at 11.30pm.  Callao does not have these issues.  Annoyingly you need to change trains twice if coming in from the airport, and with quite long gaps between services on the Madrid metro you have a lot of hanging around to do.

My suite

I was in Junior Suite 614.  These are the curved rooms on the far left of the building as you look at the picture above.

What you have is a lot of windows (with automated curtain closing luckily!), a big bed (with Hyatt Centric Madrid cushions on it), a smart wooden floor ….

…. a desk, a small selection of art books, a table with two chairs (and a free bottle of cava), a slightly annoying pillar painted silver …..

….. and a decent bathroom.  There is shower with two heads (one rainfall) but no bathtub.  Toiletries were from a brand called BeeKind which I didn’t recognise.

There is a small walk-in wardrobe, not pictured.  A Nespresso machine was also provided along with three cartons of water which were replaced daily.  The desk only had one plug socket on it but, as I was travelling alone, it was fine.

It didn’t feel immediately ‘homely’ at first, perhaps due to the pillar and wooden floor, but really grew on me during the 2nd day when I got to admire the view down Gran Via and the illuminated buildings in the evening.

Other facilities

Breakfast is served on the 1st floor.  It was never very busy – the hotel itself never seemed busy – but I ate late on both mornings.  The layout is a little odd and the colour scheme doesn’t help much:

The buffet selection was good, given the relatively small number of rooms:

…. and for no logical reason I liked this wooden display for holding cereal boxes which showed some thought had gone into it:

Adjacent to the breakfast room is the restaurant.  I never saw anyone eating here and, being on the 1st floor, there is no passing custom from outside:

On the ground floor is the bar which doubles as reception:

This little alcove is just off the lobby.  It looks like an abandoned lift shaft.  There is nothing in it except the sofa and it is the oddest piece of design in the whole hotel:

There is also a terrace on the roof, apparently, although I never made it up there.

Conclusion

I enjoyed my two nights at the Hyatt Centric Madrid.  The design ethos was in line with my tastes, although arguably it could just as easily have been a standard Grand Hyatt if it had a more formal reception area.  I’m not sure how Andaz and Hyatt Centric are distinguished.

Would I stay here again?  Probably.  It lacks a rooftop pool, unlike many Madrid hotels, but this wasn’t something I needed.  The area around Gran Via metro is not exactly family friendly at night but you can avoid that by using Callao station.  A hotel which did not require a change of metro from the airport would have been better but that is difficult if you want to be in the centre of town.

Price-wise, it would have been toppy if I hadn’t had the Amex cashback credits.  It was good to earn some World of Hyatt points but, without any current promotion, I only got back around 6% of my spend based on my 1p per point valuation.

Take a look at the Hyatt Centric Madrid photos above and, if they feel in tune with what you like, I think you’ll enjoy it.

The hotel website is here if you want to find out more.

PS. If you are not a regular Head for Points visitor, why not sign up for our FREE weekly or daily newsletters? They are full of the latest Avios, airline, hotel and credit card points news and will help you travel better. To join our 65,000 free subscribers, click the button below or visit this page of the site to find out more. Thank you.

World of Hyatt update – April 2025:

Get bonus points: Hyatt is not currently running a global promotion

New to World of Hyatt?  Read our overview of World of Hyatt here and our article on points expiry rules here. Our article on what we think World of Hyatt points are worth is here.

Buy points: If you need additional World of Hyatt points, you can buy them here.

You will get a 25% discount (equivalent to a 33% bonus) when you buy World of Hyatt points by 14th April 2025. Click here to buy.

Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from Hyatt and the other major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.