The Hostal Asunción is in a beautiful old Madrid building, in a very central area, and once upon a time I bet it was a good place to stay. Now it’s a nightmare, a Margaret Atwood, post-apocalyptic nightmare. That’s because the accommodation is run remotely, by video-telephony link, to a central team somewhere. There is no staff on site. You press the buzzer at street level and have to wait for a member of the remote team to answer. Presumably they are managing other places too. Something they appear to me to have missed is that the accommodation is in a really busy part of Madrid, with lots of bars, with outside tables and lots of noise. Because of this it was impossible to hear if anyone had answered our press of the buzzer.
The remote management team informed us that our pre-payment of the room had not gone through and that we needed either to put cash in an envelope and deposit the envelope in a safe they have set up, or start giving card details down the video-telephony link (as if). Fortunately, we had just enough cash. We had to hold each note up to the video camera. Two other guests walked past as we were doing that. It was embarrassing. The voice on the phone line said they welcomed suggestions. I suggested they hire some people to give a proper service to paying guests. The whole thing is nuts. There are chairs in the hall area, just outside the bedrooms. The chairs are linked by a huge chain and secured by a padlock.