LaNave

The staff were very friendly and worked hard cleaning rooms and serving breakfast, though the breakfast was very basic and the coffee wasn’t tasty. The location is perfect. If you can’t afford somewhere better, you probably won’t regret staying here. I won’t be back, though. I had a blackout when I booked, didn’t read other people’s warnings about the bathrooms, and still regret it. The toilet is open in the room, with no wall separating it, and the shower is in there too. You can hear everything, and there’s no separate bathroom light, so getting up at night means waking your partner. Soundproofing is very poor: you can hear people talking and snoring, even someone plugging something in next door. The building entrance is noisy too, especially because one side has no door handle. An extra wall could help. Someone clearly put a lot of effort into decorating the shared spaces, but I didn’t need them. At an affordable price, you can get a beer and tapa at the bar down the street, and I didn’t come to Madrid to hang around the hostel. I’d tell the owner to hire a new interior designer and make the rooms work for privacy, relaxing, and especially quiet in such a big city.

The location was excellent, with metro access and Plaza Espana, restaurants, and sights within walking distance. The bed was comfortable and the room fairly spacious. Still, I probably wouldn’t stay again because the rooms were a turnoff for us. It was loud at all hours, with people coming and going, and we could hear talking and music from next door through the thin walls. The room had a strange smell and was very dark. The bathroom’s sliding door had gaps above and below, so there was no privacy at all. That was fine for my husband and me, but you can hear everything.

We spent five nights at LaNave and had no problems. It’s a good low-budget option in central Madrid, and the rooms were very clean and renovated. The rooms are tiny and barely soundproofed, but if you’re planning to spend little time in the room and most of it walking around, it works well. Every worthwhile sightseeing spot in the city is within walking distance. The metro and bus station are a five-minute walk, and there’s a pharmacy and mini market almost right outside. It’s more hostel than hotel, though it has private bathrooms.

The owners were very friendly, and the room was clean with a fairly comfortable bed. But it was much smaller than we expected for two people, and sometimes smelled odd. Bathroom privacy was minimal, just a sliding door and a curtain. Breakfast was okay, but very simple. There were lots of families staying at the hostel, and it got so noisy we couldn’t use the communal area. Other guests woke us several times during the night.