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My wife and I ended our recent trip to Spain with a three-day stay in one of my favorite Spanish cities: Sevilla. We had yet to try a Mr. and Mrs. Smith property and there are two in the city, Corral del Rey and Palacio de Villapanes. Corral del Rey was fully-booked for our dates and but Palacio de Villapanes was available, and since IHG had recently made it’s 40,000 points free night certifcates “top-offable,” we were able to use three free night certs and try it out. The reviews for this property are stellar and we were excited to check it out. While I can understand why some folks like it, for us it was a mixed experience
The hotel has a great location, at the edge of Barrio Santa Cruz. It’swithin a 20 minute walk of the Alcázar, Plaza de España and Seville Cathedral. The property is quite lovely, a restored palace that dates to the 17th century (one of the patios used to be the local starting location of the Camino del Santiago). TThe public areas of the hotel are beautiful with several enclosed courtyards, a blingy but not onstentatious bar and a rooftop deck with an absolutely stunning view of the city.
Sounds great…so why were we ambivalent about it? The room was the most uncomfortable room that we had in Spain, absolutely tiny and very dark. Several features didn’t work as they should, from the outlets to the AC (either on or off, freezing or stuffy). The headboard was literally falling off the wall. They had a lovely courtyard outside our room with a fountain that was on one day (a wonderful nighttime accompaniment) but not again for the rest of our stay…and no one could figure out how to turn it back on. We had a “sitting patio” with no chairs and none available upon request.
There were no coffee facilities in the room (again, the only place in Spain) and the in-house coffee maker closed at 11am. There was no acknowledgement of elite status (which I wasn’t really expecting) and few included amenities. The breakfast was expensive for what it was and the gym was impossible for us to get into.
We love staying in historic properties and just had a marvelous stay in Granada, at the Hotel Palacio de Santa Paula, which is part of Marriott’s Autograph Collection and a great value on points. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Palacio de Villapanes. If I could stay somewhere else and hang out in the public areas here for an afternoon, I would. But I doubt that we would make the effort to stay here again when we return to Sevilla.
Palacio de Villapanes Bottom Line Review
Bottom line: I had conflicted feelings about this property. The public areas are beautiful and it does feel like you’re staying in a 400 year-old palace. We enjoyed sitting and working in a couple of the patios and the rooftop deck has a lovely view. But the lack of amenities, uncomfortable room and high prices made this a mixed bag.
- Points Price: 63,000-72,000 points per night. We used three IHG free night certificates and topped up each one with 23,000-32,000 points. Our total out of pocket after the certs was 82,000 points.
- Cash Price: During high season, routinely €600-800 ($650-$870). When we stayed it was between €600-650/night.
- Points Value: Very good from a cpp perspective. We redeemed three 40,000 point free night certificates for our stay, plus 84,000 IHG points. The cash price for each night was between $650-700, giving a value of ~1 cent per point, well above the current RRV of 0.6 for IHG points.
- Resort Fee: None
- Parking: Valet, €30/night. I wouldn’t want to drive a car into Barrio Santa Cruz anyway, but the parking isn’t terribly priced given the location.
- Turndown service: Nightly.
- Housekeeping: Everyday for all guests.
- Internet: Good. Able to stream, cast and zoom throughout the property
- Dining:
- Breakfast: Served daily in the attached courtyard from 7:00-11:00. It is a buffet and costs €25/person. While this isn’t crazy for a “five-star” hotel, there are quite a few lovely breakfast spots in the area that cost a fraction of that.
- Lunch: Served daily throughout the hotel between 1:30-4:00pm.
- Dinner: Served until 7:30-10:30pm at Los Rincones del Marques. The restaurant is supposedly quite nice, but given the plethora of good options in Sevilla, we didn’t darken the door.
- Spa: Yes, and it’s a nice enough area, but currently closed.
- Fitness Room: Very small. I was never able to actually get inside to take pictures, because it was either closed or taken by another guest. They only allow one party at a time inside for one hour increments and during our stay it was already completely reserved for the times that we were at the hotel
- IHG Platinum Ambassador Benefits (Mr and Mrs Smith): .
- Room Upgrade: None.
- Welcome Gift: A bottle of cava and two crackers.
- Late Checkout: None.
- Would I stay again? Probably not. While the property itself is quite lovely, the room was tiny, dark and uncomfortable and there were was little in the way of additional amenities. For us, it just didn’t justify the points cost…especially in comparison to other options in Sevilla.
- Palacio de Villapanes pros:
- Good location in Sevilla, on the edge of Barrio Santa Cruz, within a 20 minute walk of the Alcázar, Plaza de España and the Cathedral.
- A lovely, historic property, located in a legit centuries-old palace. There are some terrific public areas that we enjoyed spending-time/working in.
- Very nice bathroom with 2-person showers.
- Palacio de Villapanes cons:
- Absolutely tiny room that was dark with interior-facing windows. Awkward to work in
- Uncomfortable bed/pillows
- Room has not in the best of shape: the headboard was falling down behind the bed, several of the (few) outlets didn’t work
- Tiny gym that we were never actually able to access because of reservations.
- Expensive F&B in comparison to other local options of similar quality
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What room number, please? I’m trying to find M/M Smith properties that are really available on points, even in [way] off-season.
Which room number at the property? Or which room type?
Are you now able to use FNCs at Mr and Mrs Smith properties or is it because you were topping off your certificates that you could use them? I had thought that FNC were not eligible at Mr & Mrs Smith properties.
Yes, you can use free night certs at Mr and Mrs Smith. It probably didn’t work before topping up as it’s very difficult to find an MMS property that’s 40K or under 🙂
At least the shower looked nice. But, “rain” heads are just a novelty and something most learn doesn’t really wash the soap out of your hair very well. That’s why I end up never using them and just use the wand. But, maybe they still have their fans who love it. They can be hard to clean if the place has hard water due to the nozzles that tend to reduce water flow more and more. There’s only one or two manufacturers that have made them with better water flow, but it’s just about relaxing and I get that. I would never put one in a home, but that’s just me. A shower with a built-in bench is much more useful if the place has the space. Thanks for this honest review and nice photos. There’s things that place can improve. First of all, the bed and mattress. I’ve changed entire vacations when the mattress was too soft. I don’t need back trouble on vacation! And, they could easily train their employees about the importance of guests who have status. People go through extra things to get to a higher loyalty status, so that needs rectified.
Just out of curiosity, did you ask to change rooms? I used to work closely with a number of hotels and I was always told by my hotel contacts that if you’re unhappy with any aspect of your stay, the time to say something is immediately. They want to make you happy. (Yes, even on points stays, so don’t let that hold you back.)
A polite visit to the front desk, and saying something like “we’re not very happy with our room — is there another room we can be moved to?” can work wonders. Now, it’s possible all the rooms were equally bad, but if you didn’t ask, who knows?
The lack of outdoor furniture on your patio is odd. Did they offer any explanation for that?
The fitness center situation sounds terrible, so if that’s a big factor for a potential guest, this is clearly not the place to stay.
Absolutely, I completely agree. In this case, the standard room type was sold out for our stay and there wasn’t an option to change with points. Most of the base room type are interior facing, but I’d hope that at least some of them are nicer than what we had.
As to outdoor furniture, nope. Just that none was available.
Agreed on the fitness room. We were walking 7-10 miles/day, so no biggie…but if I needed a fitness area, I’d think twice.