You Get What You Pay For

There is a lot of advice that I can share with my readers about Spain. But one of the most important warnings I have is the following: do not stay at the NH Prisma in Madrid. There's a saying which is tossed in my direction whenever I complain about hostels I stay in- you get what you pay for. But when I am with my parents, who paid a significant sum for our lodging, you expect decent service at least. Yet for the first few nights, things went from bad to worse. As the accommodation is for three, the room situation is as follows: a room with a king bed (to be specific, two twin beds pushed together) and a sofa bed in the main room. After the first night, we wanted to return the sofa bed to it's original sofa state, but we could not find the cushions. Upon calling reception to learn their whereabouts, we were informed that since we requested that it be a bed we were not allowed to return it to its original sitting function. It turned out that they locked the cushions away in a closet in our room. So, to watch tv our options were lay on the bed and likely fall asleep, or sit on the one uncomfortable, modern style chair. We were permitted to sit in that one since sitting was the only function it could provide. How lucky. The other issue with the seating situation was that there was one chair for three people. I'm not sure what they wanted to do- sit in each others laps perhaps- but we asked for another chair nonetheless. The one they brought put the other to shame- it resembled one of those chairs in an office conference room. In cheap hostels, Internet is free. However, you try to stay in a decent hotel, and it somehow costs 10 euro every 24 hours PER computer. After attempting to use the provided Internet code on multiple machines it turned out that this was a downright lie, as my father and I were both able to connect. For whatever reason, Internet use was free for half an hour if you were willing to go down to the lobby and sit amid the chilling ambiance created by the glares of constantly angry receptionists. Stand by to hear more oh so pleasant stories of how we were told by reception that we needed to vacate our room to allow the "other Mostek family" who had reserved it to move in.