Introduction
We stayed here in early July 2018. I had booked this on points – 25,000 points per night, but the cash rates were running close to 1000 EUR, so it was a no-brainer to use points. Beware, this is the ONLY US based points hotel in San Sebastian, so it’s either this hotel or maybe use some Hotels.com GC’s at 85% or Airbnb.
Getting to hotel
The San Sebastian airport is really small. It seemed everyone was taking a taxi. I saw a bus come by and didn’t think to ask the bus driver where it was going. You see, Google Maps was telling me my bus stop was a good 10-15 minute walk away. DON’T BELIEVE IT! Literally right outside the baggage claim is the bus stop. Take the bus for ~5 EUR or so vs the 40 EUR taxi ride we took to get into town.
Checkin
We got to the hotel at sun down. My suite night award request was denied earlier in the day. I believe my Platinum upgrade was to the view of the river, which wasn’t even a direct river view; it was more of a courtyard/river view. The checkin agent was very friendly and gave us a map of the surrounding area and explained all of his favorite pinxto places. The most odd thing however was he then gave us a brochure of all the things we can spend SPG points on, and one thing that stood out was something like 4PM late checkout for 2,000 SPG points or so. I’m not sure if that was meant for non-Platinum members, but I had never seen a menu of things to spend SPG points on before. Needless to say, I didn’t look too much at that brochure.
Wifi
It was fine; no big issues.
Room
Nothing too extraordinary.
Breakfast
As a Platinum member, I chose the free breakfast buffet. There was an art exhibition going on in one of the rooms, and so on the 3rd morning, the breakfast was moved to that room. It wasn’t a big deal; however, there was one guy on an omelette station, and the queue was so long that I had finished breakfast and I didn’t even get to my turn. They definitely need a second burner for that guy. Other than that, the breakfast buffet was typical – a few hot dishes, some Iberico ham, some fruit, etc.
Conclusion
I mean, this is your ONLY points option; at least it doesn’t disappoint. Great location. I had heard others getting upgraded to a suite, so maybe it was my bad luck (sold out) when I went. By the way, the hotel is SO FANCY that when I asked what bus to take to the airport, both the concierge and front desk clerk didn’t know and had to look it up. They just assumed NO GUESTS took the bus, which like I said, cost about ~5 EUR OW to the airport (and the bus stop is one street over; a 5 min walk)
Pictures
My favorite hotel in Spain!