Only YOU Boutique Hotel Madrid

Only YOU Boutique Hotel Madrid

Calle del Barquillo runs between Chueca and the Paseo de Recoletos, and the Only YOU occupies a 19th-century palace on it with the particular confidence of a hotel that understands its neighbourhood thoroughly and has no intention of being mistaken for anything else. Designed by Lázaro Rosa-Violán, who has a gift for making historic buildings feel alive without making them feel like museums, the interior moves between the building's original colonial details and a contemporary eclecticism of bold patterned carpets, vibrant art, a former bookstore turned cocktail bar, and a central atrium where à la carte breakfast runs all day. One hundred and twenty-five rooms in blue and mustard tones, individually shaped by the irregularities of the 19th-century floor plan, some with balconies over the street, the Fabulofts with their double-height spaces and mezzanines, and the Penthouse Suite with a 60-square-metre private terrace. Check-out is flexible, the room yours for 24 hours from check-in, which is one of those policies that sounds small and turns out to matter considerably. Instead of a single lobby, the ground floor is a series of distinct spaces: YOUNIQUE, the main restaurant under Chef Carlos Martín with a contemporary Mediterranean menu; Padrino Cocktail Bar, the former bookstore with handcrafted signatures; Celicioso, the city's best gluten-free restaurant and bakery. The Prado is fifteen minutes on foot. El Retiro is ten. Gran Vía is close. Chueca, with its market, restaurants, and the particular energy of one of the best neighbourhoods in Madrid, is immediately outside the door. This is the hotel for someone who wants Madrid to feel like a city they know rather than one they are visiting, and who finds the idea of a neighbourhood base with a proper cocktail bar and a personal shopper on staff more appealing than a grand hotel on the Paseo de la Castellana. Short version: A 19th-century palace on Calle del Barquillo in Chueca, designed by Lázaro Rosa-Violán with 125 individually shaped rooms, a contemporary Mediterranean restaurant, a cocktail bar in a former bookstore, and a location that makes the Prado, El Retiro, and the best of Madrid's eating and drinking all walkable.