Santo Mauro, a Luxury Collection Hotel, Madrid

Amazing, beautifullly decorated hotel with a classic "old world" vibe. Our room was surprisingly spacious and the staff was attentive, courteous and professional. Only downside is a 55 Euro per person breakfast which seems out of touch.

My husband and I made a reservation to dine in the outdoor terrace of the restaurant on Tuesday, September 12. The tables are placed in a lovely garden setting. However, the service needs considerable improvement. We were seated at Table 607. To begin, we ordered a bottle of Krug Grand Cuvée Champagne listed at 420€ to a server dressed in a dark suit (supposedly the sommelier). At the same time I kindly asked him if there were tulip champagne glasses available. He looked at me puzzled and said he didn’t know what type of glasses I was referring to. But that he would go inside to look for some. In the meantime, he walked past our table with a bottle of Krug Champagne which he placed on the service table without putting it in a bucket with ice. He came back with large stemmed white wine glasses, I tried to show him the shape of the tulip glasses with my hands to describe the ones I was referring to. After approximately 10 minutes he came back with glasses engraved with Laurent-Perrier that more closely resembled the tulip ones I had requested. He then opened our bottle of champagne at the service table not in our presence at our table (it seemed he was serving Lemon soda not an expensive bottle of champagne) and brought it to us to taste. The champagne was rather warm. My husband told him that it needed to be several degrees cooler, and he said let’s place it in the ice bucket and wait for it to chill. Carlos Taboada, the sommelier did not bring the champagne cork, so my husband asked him to please bring it. He said he stopped bringing corks to the table because of COVID, because he has to smell the cork. After looking for it for more than five minutes he showed up with the cork. The cork had not expanded. At this point, we decided that since we hadn’t been able to drink the champagne, and were already having the appetizer, maybe it would be best to ask the sommelier to change it for a different bottle. He flat out refused. Carlos did not offer us any other options. He said: “Once the bottle is open, the client must pay for it”. We were obligated to drink it. Based on our experience , we feel the rating falls short as a five star Marriott Hotel. The Santo Mauro Hotel is beautifully decorated, however the so-called sommelier needs to be properly trained to deliver the level of service that is expected of a luxury collection hotel.