A Slow Stay
Tótem stands on Calle Hermosilla, in the heart of Salamanca — Madrid's most elegant quarter, a grid of nineteenth-century apartment blocks, embassies and the boutiques of Calle Jorge Juan. The building is a neoclassical residence of that period, opened as a hotel in 2016 and run since as a member of Small Luxury Hotels of the World.
It is a city hotel that behaves like a private club — discreet from the street, warm within, gathered around a glass-roofed central atrium that draws the daylight down through the building. Sixty-four rooms; a restaurant and bar the neighbourhood treats as its own; and the particular calm of a hotel that knows exactly where it is.
The refurbishment, by the Barcelona studio behind Corium Casa, stripped the building back to its bones and kept what mattered — the original pine staircase with its ironwork, the generous proportions, the parquet. Over it they laid a quiet, tactile palette of dark wood, deep green, brass and stone, with the planted atrium at the centre beneath a pergola-style roof. Nothing is grand; everything is considered.
Sixty-four rooms and suites rise around the atrium, soundproofed against the city and finished in muted tones — oak floors, linen, soft lighting, marble bathrooms. They range from snug Cosy rooms to Deluxe rooms and suites that look over the Salamanca rooftops. None shouts; all are made for sleeping well in the middle of a capital.
The heart of the hotel is its atrium — a covered courtyard of greenery and low seating under a pergola roof, where morning coffee gives way to cocktails as the day turns. The restaurant leans Mediterranean and unfussy; the bar is one of Salamanca's quietly fashionable corners; and the whole ground floor works as a living room for the neighbourhood as much as for guests.
Salamanca is Madrid for walking. The boutiques of Calle Serrano and Calle Jorge Juan are at the door; the Prado, the Thyssen and the Retiro park a short stroll south; the tapas bars of the old centre an easy walk west. The metro at Velázquez and Serrano puts the rest of the city minutes away.
Indicative rates — vary by season and availability. Breakfast typically extra. Confirm directly with the hotel for current pricing.
Reserve at Tótem Madrid
