24-Hour Room Service: Casa de Carmona Andalucia

It's not just appearances that can be deceptive. So can brochures. And websites. Casa de Carmona appears to be a sumptuous Spanish palace. On the website's home page, the gilt columns, forget-me-not blue walls and tapestry runners of the suite bask regally in the sunlight filtering through the window. The image of the hotel's exterior seems to confirm its stature; a broad, sandy drive lined with trees. Dating back to 1561, the hotel has a dreamy swimming pool and four fountain-tinkling inner courtyards scattered with potted plants.

However, winding through the labyrinthine cobbled streets of whitewashed Carmona, it becomes clear that the hotel is not in a leafy clearing or set magisterially just outside the town, but is crammed into the historic centre. The grand driveway is the car park.

Inside, rather than opulence, the decor is more "shabby chic" - with the emphasis on shabby. The library and other public rooms are brimming with antiques but feel musty and unloved. The pool is scattered with leaves and hemmed into a courtyard. Breakfast, served in the loggia, is a haphazard affair with flies buzzing around the uncovered food. A flustered waitress runs out of the kitchen, hastily tying her pinny when, gasping, we go in search of coffee.

Casa de Carmona is a sleeping beauty; a rambling building with character crumbling from its walls, but it needs more than an interior designer's kiss to wake it from its soporific slumber. This princess has panda eyes; her mascara has run and she needs a facelift.

LOCATION

Casa de Carmona, Plaza de Lasso, Carmona, Spain (00 34 954 191 000; www.casadecarmona.com) is in the heart of Carmona, a historic walled town in Andalucia.

Time to international airport: Seville airport is a 20-minute drive away.

COMFORTABLE?

There are 33 rooms; 11 doubles, 12 deluxe doubles, eight junior suites and the blue suite, which appears on the website. The first room we were shown was on the ground floor and smelt of damp. The second, room six on the first floor, had a window opening onto the little alleyway below. It was comfortable but the paintwork was chipped, one of the curtains was hanging down and the piping on the sofa was ripped and hanging off. The blue suite, when we sneaked a peek round the door, had a grand, if faded, elegance. However, the bedroom is tiny and dark, with the bathroom incorporated into it.

Freebies: Hermès shampoo and own-brand soap; there was no sign of the promised mineral water or fruit.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Doubles start from €90 (£64) in low season (July-August) including breakfast. The blue suite starts at €700 (£500).

I'm not paying that: Alcazar de la Reina on the same square(00 34 954 196 200; www.alcazardelareina-carmona.com) has doubles from €68 (£48) including breakfast.