Rice Reyes Católicos

My partner and I are staying at Hotel Rice Reyes Católico in a group booking as part of an arts festival in beautiful Burgos, Spain. We have been in Burgos 17 times (but who’s counting?), so we know the town and the hotels. When we arrived at the hotel and went to our room, it was stuffy. We turned on the air conditioning, but nothing happened. No cool air came out of the vents. We left, had dinner, and returned around 11 p.m. Still no air. We asked the night desk clerk about the AC. He said, “Do you have a fan?” We said that we didn’t, but when we entered our room, we saw that a fan had been brought to the room. This fan was our air conditioning. In Spain. In July. On day four of our stay, the fan is still our AC, despite repeated requests to the front disk to have the AC fixed. The response is always, “We hope that the AC will be fixed today.” Hopes and prayers, y’all. Our room, upgraded from a basic domicile, is barely large enough for two people and their luggage. The closet space is minimal, and you can’t hang a suit jacket without it touching the.bottom of the closet. This is a dorm room or a youth hostel, not a hotel. Furthermore, our upgraded room is on the back of the hotel, with a view of a concrete wall. Charming… And then there’s the smell of sewerage that permeates not only our room, but the rooms of our colleagues. Funky and nasty, to say the least. The breakfasts are barely adequate. The soggy tortilla, the most typical dish in Spain, is inedible. Really? If you are planning to visit Burgos, one of the preeminent smaller towns in Spain, with the most impressive cathedral in the country, please do yourself a favor and don’t stay at this sinkhole of a hotel. There are plenty of better affordable options. The hotel has the nerve to call itself a four-star operation. It’s a two-star hotel at best, and given our experience, it’s actually a one-star establishment. Avoid at all costs.