My November five day stay was my third at the Palace. The location can't be beat. Walking distance from old town, the museums, tapa bars and posh Serrano Street shopping. Negotiate the hotel aggressively for a good rate that includes (champagne) breakfast and their "heavenly bed". You'll be surprised at the variation in quotes. Get a courtyard room and you can sleep with the window open and hear only silence. The heavenly bed? That's a queen bed with eiderdown duvets over AND under you. Nothing can remove jetlag better.

my wife and I stayed here in early November (we also stayed at the Alfonso XIII in Sevilla)- positives are...... great location near the museums- physically beautiful, including the rooms- restaurants (we only ate at ASIA, so I can't speak for the others, but both the service and food were great)
negatives were...... concierge service was weak (although I did find (1) gentleman out of probably (4) that was friendly and somewhat helpful)- lack of king bed (they only have queens)- rooms can be far away from the elevator-
overall- "above average" but I can't give an excellent rating unless the stay is pretty much flawless

Grossly overpriced. You are looked upon by most of the reception staff who probably make 25% of your annual income - never judge a book by its cover should be told to them. Broken tile in bedroom which was just renovated, but it could not be fixed as it was the weekend (reported it friday morning) and no one was avialable. As a SPG GOLD member, awful recognition and the WARM SMALL bottle of water on a HOT madrid summer day was rather tacky - ever heard of ICE!
Breakfast - big and overpriced. if it was not included in my deal, head to the startbucks for good coffee. This is a hotel to say, 'I stayed here" like all the royalty etc, but NOT a hotel to return to if you ever visit. You can do much better in madrid.

HOW do they ever class these hotels in Europe with 5 stars or even 4 stars compared to the best deals we get across North America & Canada. Only good thing about this hotel - the heavenly beds are to die for!

I stayed at the Westin Palace for 5 nights at the end of October, on the whole I found it an extremely enjoyable experience, with just a few minor drawbacks.
You cannot fail to be impressed by the entrance and the splendid "Rotunda", around part of which is the main restaurant. The food was excellent with an extensive and reasonably priced wine list (1996 reserve Rioja at 32 euros). The waiters became more friendly as they got to know us and their style of serving is very professional.
It is a shame the breakfast staff are not as keen to provide a similar standard of service, a pot of coffee left on the table would have saved alot of irritation, instead of constantly trying to catch their eye for a top up...not a happy bunch.
Overall though, a memorable stay in a lovely city ( The Madrid Vision buses offer a number of routes on different themes..13 euros for two days unlimited travel).