Hostal Miami

The room was large enough for three, very clean, and had a view. It's what you'd expect from this kind of hostal, and the location is excellent. The lift was the problem: we were on the 8th floor, and it didn't work very well.

We arrived around midnight, but nobody was there to open the door, even though reception was supposed to be staffed 24 hours. We called the number posted on the door again and again and got no answer. We were nearly left outside, until some other guests arrived and let us into the lobby, where we could at least wait indoors instead of being out on the street at night.

Don't book here. We reserved this hostal because of its location, but on arrival the woman told us our room had no electricity and said we had to move to another hostal. She didn't tell us it belonged to the same owners, or that it was Santa Barbara, just that it was the only one available. That was far from the area we wanted, so we refused and went to hostal valencia in the same Gran Via 44 building, which was very good. The owners have other hostals farther from central Madrid, as their website shows. The next day we went to hostal Miami to ask about the room, but the woman wouldn't let me into the lobby or show me the room, and wouldn't give me a complaint form. I believe she lied to us. She only spoke Spanish, Cuban Spanish in particular, which we found hard to understand. The service was awful. It seemed to us that she thought we couldn't speak Spanish or didn't know Madrid, so we wouldn't question what was happening. She slammed the door in my face. We were on holiday and didn't have time to go to the police, though we could have. Don't book any room here unless you want to risk being left without a place to stay in Madrid.

The location was the one thing I really liked. It's in central Madrid, close to all the main attractions. Wi-Fi was pretty slow, and the sheets looked very old. Those things didn't bother me too much because the location was so good and the price seemed reasonable for what was offered.