Alterhome Plaza España

This is a small en-suite studio with a compact kitchen, and it felt like a modest college student's room. The location right beside the Spanish plaza is prime, with good transport links. It has what you need, but that's about it. Don't expect room cleaning, emptied bins or luggage storage after checkout. I stayed three nights, and the bins overflowed because there were no spare liners and no instructions for where to take the trash. Most of all, I wouldn't have chosen this room if I'd known they don't store luggage after checkout.

The location is great and the room has what you need, but the all-night machinery noise ruined our stay. We had room 102 on the left, facing the inner courtyard, and couldn't sleep at all. The old windows let the noise straight in. We told the owners, but got no useful response. Ask for a different room that doesn't face that courtyard. The noise is awful, and double glazing would help a lot.

Despite the noise, we enjoyed our stay. The location right on Gran Vía is excellent, access was easy at any hour with the codes, and the beds were very comfortable. Everything was very clean. Our room, 117 on the left, looked onto a noisy back street. The windows were old, so we heard everything at night and kept waking up to street sounds and people shouting.

The room was clean when we arrived, but there was no daily cleaning and no change of sheets or towels during our five-day stay. That hadn't been mentioned beforehand. We also couldn't leave our suitcases anywhere when arriving early or departing late. We heard everything from the side street because there was no soundproofing. The room itself was typical of a 2-3 star hotel, modern, with a minibar and microwave. The closet could fit only one suitcase, and the shower was small and not very comfortable. The hot water was good, but if both of us showered, we had to wait a while for it to heat up again. These things could be improved for guests who want to relax on vacation.