Not just for business

Rachel Roberts checked in to one of Madrid’s most popular business hotels, but not for business.

The NH Collection Madrid Eurobuilding. The clue’s in the name: no-frills, corporate, a place where executives come to conduct business in four-star comfort and ease.

You can see why it’s an attractive proposition, located smack-bang in the middle of Azca, the Spanish capital’s financial district, and the midpoint between the airport and the city’s handsome historic centre. Business people flying in can be whisked from the city’s Adolfo Suarez Madrid-Barajas airport to the hotel in just 15 minutes, or those with no breakfast meetings in the diary can take Metro Line 8 and hop off at Columbia.

The smartly dressed clientele pour in and out of the hotel’s 35 meeting rooms; the largest spaces equipped with holographic technology where 3-D people, graphs and objects are beamed, Princess Leia/Star Wars-style, in front of audiences of up to 1000 people.

A €40 million makeover in 2014 has helped the place, originally built in the 1970s, shed its corporate skin a little. Though that eye-watering bill means that the NH Hotel Group (whose portfolio also includes NH Hotels, Nhow and Hesperia across 28 countries) are keen to see a quick return on the investment.

So the unsexy-sounding ‘Eurobuilding’ is being pitched as a destination hotel for city-breakers and spa fans, too.

Still, first impressions of the 15-storey hotel’s exterior are smart and business-like, fitting seamlessly into the office-block-scape of the area. Which makes stepping into the lobby for the first time even more delightful.

For clever Argentinian interior designer Luis Galliussi has managed to express the act of a businessman pulling off his tie or a businesswoman kicking off her pesky pinching shoes at the end of a long day through the medium of interior design.

A palette of vibrant colours, including gold, russet red and violet, have been used to great effect. They flow through the squishy tactile velvets that enrobe the chairs and sofas, and saturate the illuminated marble used in the bar and lift areas. It’s a joyful place to be.

The slightly clashing scheme is saved from being too riotous by the sheer size and airiness of the cavernous space. This includes reception desks, bars, and entrances to Diver XO, the city’s only 3-star Michelin star restaurant and the 99 Sushi Bar. (Bank on a nine-month wait for a table at Diver XO; although VIP Level guests do get preferential booking).

A real talking point is the Dome, an atrium covered in around 3 million LED lights. This semi-transparent curved LED screen is the second biggest in the world after Las Vegas, and comes alive with ever-changing images and audio. It’s particularly dramatic at night when darkness creates further contrast. It all screams ‘Business isn’t boring!’,

The NH Collection boasts an impressive array of technological innovations too. Guests can book into four ‘High Tech’ rooms that have all manner of clever gadgets and gizmos, from tables that can recharge devices to state-of-the-art mood lighting.

And so to bed. We stayed in a twin Superior room (there are 412 rooms in total), minimalist in style and tastefully furnished in a soothing palette of white, cream and taupe. A tiny gripe would be that the glass toilet door stopped several centimetres short of the floor, so you may be a little self conscious when answering the call of nature. We got around it by cranking up the volume on the TV.

We weren’t too crazy about the shampoo and conditioners, either. They seemed to strip all of the life out of our hair and we fretted about scaring the locals with our straw-like locks.

But the beds were beyond comfy and my companion – AKA the Coffee Nazi – fell in love with the Nespresso maker. A cute touch were the little chocolates we found on our pillows every evening, too.

An international smorgasbord of food and drink greeted us at the breakfast buffet, running the whole gamut from virtuous egg-white omelettes and wheat grass shots to ‘sod it, I’m on holiday’ choices of churros and chocolate and pancakes smothered in maple syrup with bacon on the side. We had our own daily business meeting about which of the 30-plus types of tea to plump for.

Guests wanting to burn off some calories can head to the Metropolitan, the hotel’s fitness and wellness centre and work up a sweat in the well-equipped gym or in a class. For those wanting more of a chillax, there’s a solarium with a ‘beach’ and a Spa with a wonderfully rejuvenating hydrotherapy circuit. Just watch out for some ice-cold water jets!

Turns out that for a modern, slick city break, the NH Collection Madrid Eurobuilding is the business after all.