It has the potential to be a 5 star hotel but it´s not currently meeting the grade nor is it presently providing a 5 star experience.
Here are my reasons:
BEDROOM
I stayed in a duplex junior suite.
Room was poorly lit. Beds have no legs thus the base sits on the floor making the bed very low to the ground. With the morning sunlight streaming through the window one only had to turn over in the bed and the dust was clearly visible as it rose off the bedcover. Found the beds uncomfortable and the pillows practically flat.
As there is only one tiny wardrobe upstairs, it was impossible to store your clothes. You literally have to live out of your suitcase.
The un-tiled bathroom had plaster walls (a cheap alternative to tiles) which showed cracks all over especially in the shower area and around the edges of the bath. Just didn´t feel clean and would not invite one to relax at all.
A very dangerous staircase for children and those with walking difficulties. The gap between the baserails was huge and made it very easy far a small child to fall through. Definitely a hazard that needs attention.
Bedroom wall showed stains from a leak in the roof. The plug sockets were filthy
Ashtrays in the bedroom and lounge only invite people to smoke. Not a great idea I felt.
Pigeons nesting in the roof area could be clearly heard cooing throughout the night.
Only a couple of Spanis channels on the TV - T5, Antenna 3 and TVE. No satellite TV or at least not during my stay.
BREAKFAST
The breakfast is nowhere near where it should be for a 5 star hotel. The products were good but they were sparce, lacked variety and just poorly presented. There was no hot food available. Breakfast in a 5 star hotel should delight you and should be a highlight of your stay. It most certainly isn´t here. The service was slow and not very attentive due to there being only one waiter. Perhaps it´s because we were there in low season but that still isn´t acceptable.
RESTAURANT IS NOT A MICHELIN STAR RESTAURANT
On the hotel´s English website guests can easily be mislead into thinking that this hotel has a 2 star Michelin restaurant. It doesn´t. The hotel has involved with it a well known Spanish chef, Sergi Arola, who does have two Michelin stars at his restaurant in Madrid but this hotel´s restaurant does not have any Michelin stars. I see from other comments on Trip Advisor that a couple of past guests believed they had dined in a Michelin restaurant but that it not the case. I think this could be made clearer on the hotel´s website because they are clearly giving the wrong impression that their restaurant has attained MIchelin stars when it hasn´t.
Another point is that the restaurant does not have a toilet. You need to leave the restaurant and cross the chilly entrance hallway (which is unheated and freezing in winter) to the reception area.
WINERY
I did a tour of the hotel´s winery which was free to guests and 6 euros per person for non-hotel guests. It wasn´t really a winery tour. The tour was given by the hotel receptionist and initially we gathered outside the front of the hotel and were given a brief talk about the restoration of the hotel and the buildings in the complex. We then entered their small chapel for 5 minutes which now stores wine barrels and finally we were brought into the bodega to a tasting area beside the shop where the receptionist put on a video that mainly focused on the other wineries and wine hotels in their small chain. The end of the video was given over to wine tasting and we were supposed to follow it but as the receptionist hadn´t returned we were observing this with empty glasses in front of us unable to follow the tasting. Eventually the receptionist showed up again and had to rewind the video while he hurriedly poured wine into our glasses. It just wasn´t professional. I did actually like the wine which was a Hacienda Zorita Crianza 2006. I enquired how much it costs and was told 7 euros per bottle or 40 euros for a case. In their restaurant it costs more than that. I have a figure of 11 euros a bottle but I might be more. I was going to buy a case but the receptionist told me it was better to wait until the day I was leaving. A big mistake really. They should take the sale at the tasting. As it turned out when I checked out 2 days later I had gone off the idea of buying the case.
Just as well because a little over an hour after I left I happened to stop at the Carrefour near Tordesillas and found their very same wine on promotion for 3.15 euros a bottle, down from the regular price of 3.84 euros a bottle. I couldn´t believe it.
OTHER GRIPES
The hotel is understaffed. On our second evening we returned to find the cleaning lady manning reception.
The hotel´s entrance is extremely pot-holed no doubt due to the winter weather but
they need to fill those holes. It´s like a minefield trying to avoid them.
No porterage was offered.
SUMMARY
The hotel under-whelmed me. I left feeling it was a below-par hotel, not a 5 star experience and with no urge to go back there unfortunately.
