Hotel Real Colegiata San Isidoro

I have stayed in at least 3,000 hotels in my life and we are talking everything from Raffles Singapore to the Penninsula Hong Kong to the Motel 6 in Bakersfield and everything in between. I must say that my experience at this clown show of a hotel is the worst ever. The hotel has a beautiful cloister and they were advertising “live music tonight”and we thought it would be a great idea to have nightcap there since it’s OUR courtyard and we are REGISTERED GEUSTS at the hotel! Right? Upon arriving post dinner to the 2/3rds empty courtyard we were informed that we couldn’t have drinks and dessert AT OUR hotel because we had to be dining there. We informed them that we were REGISTERED GUESTS and pointed to the literally dozens of empty tables but we told “no nightcap for you! Well this can’t be right we’ll go to front desk and figure this out where we we informed it was “the managers decision” that REGISTERED GUESTS of the hotel were not allowed to have drinks and dessert in the courtyard of their hotel where they are REGISTERED GUESTS! So needless to say the management of this place sucks and there is no amount of lipstick you can put on this pig. P.s. I have attached photos of the live music advertisement and the dozens of empty tables when we arrived that night.

The hotel is rated 3 star. Can’t understand why. It’s the best 3 star I have ever stayed in and amazing value. Should be 4 star or even 5 star. The place is stunningly beautiful. It was originally part of the adjoining monastery. Our room was on the 2 nd floor with a view over the enormous patio (cloister). The room was beautifully minimalist. Great shower and nice bathroom. Breakfast was perfect with everything we wanted. Staff friendly and professional. Free parking in the centre of beautiful Leon.

Fabulous historic hotel, lovely courtyard with umbrellas so on a nice day you’d think you could enjoy a glass of wine … WRONG! there is no bar and you can only have a drink with dinner which is served at 8.30pm The room, again fabulous, but no refreshments or facilities of any kind 🤷‍♀️

Am still staying here, so maybe a bit premature, but I doubt my observations will change. On the upside: beautiful building and courtyard, receptionists friendly, one with very good English and helpful the other almost none but still tried to help, so muchos gracias. Excellent location, close to the centre but a little more quiet. Now the bad news. The aircon doesn't work. At all. And they gave up fixing it. They don't seem to understand a double room. We had 2 small double beds, each not big enough for two, but occupying almost all the room space, nowhere to relax. And we were supposedly in the superior room. No coffee, no tea. Do they do room service? I very much doubt it. It's a place that echoes a fair bit so can be noisy inside. Worst part is we came back from dinner elsewhere to have dessert here, with a glass of dessert wine, to enjoy in their lovely courtyard. First problem, no dessert wine. Seriously, in Spain? This was easily fixed by a trip to the bar 50m away who were OK with us taking glasses back. Next problem, unbelievably, we were told we were not allowed to sit in the courtyard. Apparently because it might encourage other people to want to do likewise on this beautiful May evening! Mmm, can't be having people doing what they want to do, can we, in a hotel..? And that was all after waiting way too long for someone to even bother to come to take our order. This place has to be government owned. They wouldn't understand hospitality if it bit them on the nose. It is run for their convenience, not yours, even if a few of the staff try. Maybe this will align with you, and you will enjoy it. For me, I can't stand this sort of non customer friendly attitude, when Spain and Portugal especially is full of places that do the exact opposite.

This hotel was once a convent and is behind the Basillica in the old town. We booked a larger room which we found is in the renovated part of the hotel and furthest from the reception. When we checked in they said there was a dinner tonight in the courtyard accompanied by a singer, which we booked. Our room was very large, spacious and looked very new. However no fridge, no tea or coffee facility and 1 small bottle of water (our booking did say 2 guests). After walking around this cute town we wanted a shower. No hot water. Rang reception and we understood had to wait 15 minutes. After running the water for close to 30 minutes still only cold water. Rang reception- no answer. So I had a cold shower and popped down to reception. They came to our room, ran the water for another 15 minutes and in Spanish said it takes 10-15 minutes for the hot water to get to the room. (Given we’d been running it much longer, not true). Had a very nice dinner with wine in the courtyard, thoroughly enjoyed it. However if you weren’t attending and had a courtyard facing room you would have been disturbed. Next morning, instant hot water!