Hotel Albucasis

Difficult to find but once you have navigated through the narrow streets it's a calm oasis perfectly placed if walking distances is hard. The facilities are minimal, no tv (great) a bar with some refreshments and very friendly and helpful staff. The rooms are a standard size and bathrooms adequate with plenty of pressure from the over bath shower. Air conditioning only works if the room shutters are closed, but then it is fine. Car parking on site is recommended, it's tight getting the car in, the staff are aware and very helpful with getting in and out of their garage. It is the tranquility and peace that hits you as soon as you walk under the arch and into the courtyard. The centre of the old city is hustle and bustle as expected and you are really only metres from it. Lovely lovely hotel. Rooms mostly overlook the courtyard, these I think are the nicest.

The hotel is centrally located and is close to major places of attraction. Very friendly and helpful reception staff. Lack of double bed which can be the area of improvement. As a whole it is a pleasant place to stay.

The hotel is well situated, quiet, clean and has the typical athmosphere of the buildings of the Jewish and old quarter of the town, patio included. Alejandro is one of the nicest and most helpful employees of all the hotels I have been staying at during this wonderful vacation in Andalusia.

Pros - This hotel has a fantastic location and is very clean, well maintained and soft music playing in reception. It has a nice courtyard for relaxing between sightseeing. Having traveled in southern Europe quite a bit, I can say this hotel was no harder to find using GPS than any other hotel where we have stayed in the historic areas of cities. Parking in their garage is expensive but that is par for the course in any historic area of a European city. The parking is very secure too so we didn’t have to worry at all about our car during our stay. Though we could have easily gotten our car out to drive it during our stay, we didn’t find it necessary due to our great location. The WiFi was good, dependable and relatively fast. Cons – This hotel seems to be overly concerned about limiting operating costs and seems to do so at the inconvenience of their guests. 1) Some examples include; The hallway lights turn off automatically and quickly. Some don’t have motion sensors so you have to grope for the switches in near darkness to keep from injuring yourself. 2) The air conditioner would only work at certain times of the day. Basically, it may have worked when we were not in the room during the day. When we really needed it at night for sleeping, it was never operational. We were in Cordoba during the Easter Holy Week celebrations so the noise outside continued till at least 1am and then the street sweepers came out for another hour, then the delivery trucks driving through those very narrow streets started early in the morning so the noise basically continued most of the night. This wouldn’t have been a problem if we could have closed our window and turned on the air conditioner but, with no air conditioner, the window stayed open and we didn’t get much sleep. The staff doesn’t smile very much but they are helpful when asked. Also they speak very, very little English and we speak very, very little Spanish (I realize this is our problem. After all, we are in Spain so we should be speaking their language). This wouldn’t have been much of a problem except that it made communication very difficult when addressing the problem with the air conditioner. Finally we were asked to wait until 3pm for the one staff member who spoke fair English. He explained to me that the system was central heat/air and some of the guests were requesting heat so they couldn’t provide air conditioning and heat at the same time. With no cross-ventilation in the room and the evening temperatures hovering just under 80 F, I can’t imagine anyone requesting heat but even if other guests were cold, why didn’t the staff ask them to add one of the available blankets to their bed instead of depriving my wife (who is always hot these days) of needed air conditioning? There was no TV in the room but we knew that when we booked the reservation. This hotel has many good features so it was difficult for me to give it an average rating. This lower rating is mainly due to the staff’s less than helpful nature and their willingness to let me walk away from a conversation without an acceptable answer and without proactively trying to solve my problem.

This hotel was recommended by friends and we were a bit concerned about booking it because of the somewhat unenthusiastic recent reviews here. However we were very glad we did. We felt it was excellent value for the price -- our previous room in Seville was 10 Euros more and 18 for parking for a smaller room with a poor bed. This hotel has its own garage and included parking in the price. We had no trouble finding it with our GPS, it took us right to the door, which is as stated accessed by a series of narrow lanes. Great location, minutes from the Mezquita and the Fort, loved walking over the Roman bridge each evening, lots of good restaurants nearby. Our room was simple, but large with a casement window opening on to the courtyard. Bed was nice and firm and we slept well. The street is well outside but quiet at night anyway. Alejandro, the young man on the desk in the afternoon had reasonable English, and though very shy made a big effort to provide information. The woman on the desk during the day spoke no English and had a very dour manner, but managed to show us the route out of the hotel through the little streets when we left, no problems. The only negative was the very high price for the breakfast -- my fault for not inquiring beforehand, but it was a surprise to be charged 7 Euros each for the standard 4 Euro breakfast -- so just walk up the street a few metres and have yours at a cafe to avoid that extra charge. This is not a luxury hotel, but we were not paying for that. It definitely was an experience we enjoyed.

First of all a great location.... but to find it by car GPS will not solve your problem, eventually we paid a taxi driver to lead us there. and we are not stupid with street maps. the owner or manageress had not taken part two of the 'How to smile at customers'... I can appreciate it is hard if you have a language barrier, but a smile can take you a long way. As the majority of hotels we stayed in they turn their air con off at night...which gets my goat. If you advertise air con it is up to the customer when to use it. Room was OK... not yet sorted out the need for plugs for modern travellers. Breakfast was very basic... would suggest using a local bar. In summary...great location, OK rooms ...could do better for the money charged.

when we got here and checked in they asked for a passport for 2 minutes, we have been here for four ours and have not gotten it back. when we got into the room we wanted to charge some stuff, we couldnt find anything until after 20 minutes of looking, and there were only 2 plugs. so we went on the wifi. after about 20 minutes of horribly slow loading, the internet gave up and shut off. When I went to go take a shower the water was tepid at the hottest setting. when someone went down to ask for someone to turn up the water they came back with a coke and said the water would be turned up. still waiting. the coke was put on the shelves five years ago. cant wait to see what is next!

Although a good location, and around quiet courtyard, and with parking (€14 a day).We found, all but one staff member Alexandro, to be very off hand, especially the manageress. After reading some of the comments we can't agree on many points.so I will now add our comments. A/C was switched off one night as the management thought it was not required!!!, the rooms very basic, pillows resembled a pile of boulders, not very comfortable, No hairdryer, had to ask for one, the lighting in the room was very poor,breakfast was a real rip off €7 each for a cup of coffee, a orange juice from a carton( not fresh) a slice of toast, and a grim looking croissant, again the staff totally disinterested, needless to say we didn't have breakfast here again. We suggest if any one is thinking of visiting Cordoba there are many many places that must be much better.we would nor recommend.

The Hotel Albucasis is a very clean hotel. The service was also excellent. However, the walls are a bit thin so we could hear people talking in the room next to us and also the breakfast was not good. Orange juice and a croissant and a piece of toast. Every other hotel we stayed at in Andalucia gave us fresh squeezed orange juice since oranges are so prevalent in the area. It is in the city center but just far enough away from the Mezquita to avoid the crowds. I would recommend this hotel to someone on a budget.

We found Hotel Albucasis on line when we were looking for accommodations after several nights in Granada. We arrived late at night, but the staff person was very helpful and showed us to our room. The staff throughout our stay were helpful and accommodating. In fact, as clean and serviceable as our room was, the highlight for us were the people who worked there. For the price our room was very good: clean, comfortable, accessible and the hotel was in a great location to see what we wanted to see in the older parts of Cordoba.