Hostal Manuela by gaiarooms

The location is great, and it was otherwise okay for a couple of nights. The bathroom needs attention, and some towel racks or hooks would be useful. It feels disconnected when there's no human contact, not even through messages.

A building next door was being completely renovated, with jackhammering and drilling day and night. After days of being unable to work in my room, I contacted their WhatsApp support. They replied only, “Thanks for your information, and we'll see what we can do,” though they knew they couldn't do anything. I eventually called customer service to speak to a person. Natalia offered a 20% discount on my stay, which cost over EU1500 for the week and was exorbitant. I thought that was a fair concession and agreed, along with a room change to a higher floor away from the noise. The refund was only EU25, because they changed the offer to 20% off one night. When I called again, they sent me in circles and then said they wouldn't do anything more, claiming that was what they'd offered. Absolutely abysmal service. Liars and cheats.

There were BED BUGS all over the mattress, and they were HUGE. We woke in the middle of the night and didn't sleep again. I had a severe allergic reaction and had to throw away half my belongings. The next day, the cleaners went straight in, which gave me the impression they don't take bed bugs seriously. We left the following morning. They cancelled our stay so quickly that we couldn't post a warning on Booking.com, so I'm putting it here: don't stay here. I won't even get into the tiny rooms and lack of windows. This ruined Madrid for me.

The place is good for the price, but the room was so hot that it was hard to sleep. I couldn't find a remote for the air conditioning, and nobody answered my email about it. When I called, they said I'd have to wait until the next day to get one. By then I'd already spent two of my three nights in the heat. I was told it wasn't an emergency. That's true, but air conditioning is a basic service I expected, much like hot water. As the owner, I would have apologized and offered a discount for this major service failure.