My two friends and I traveled to madrid for the first time in september, we stayed for 5 days. We are women in our mid-30's and have all traveled extensively through europe. We choose this hostal based on the reviews on tripadvisor, price value and location.

Location: The hostal is located on a major avenue and is only a couple of blocks from Puerta del Sol. It is located on the third floor of a building with other hostals. The elevator is small and the decor is simple.

Room: We reserved a room for 3 people which was spacious with 3 single beds and a bathroom. It faced the inner courtyard, so there wasn't much of a view but it was quieter than facing the streetside. The walls are very thin, so you can hear everything from the hallway and the adjacent rooms. For the price we paid (80 euros) a night we thought it was a great deal.

Customer service: This is where we had some problems. The gentleman at the front desk named Jimmy was who I reserved the hostal through. When we arrived he showed us to our room and seemed nice enough. He actually lives in one of the rooms in the hostal. The following morning we slept in because we were jetlagged. At noon we started getting phone calls from Jimmy at the front desk, he said the room needed to be cleaned. I told him it was unnecessary to clean our room that day (considering we just got there the night before), but he insisted that it "needed to be cleaned and that we needed to leave the room immediately so the maid could clean it". Even though it seemed odd to us all, we decided to get up and leave the room to go exploring. When we returned later that evening, our room was cleaned but our suitcases, books/papers and our toiletries were moved from there original places, which we did not like. This continued to happen everyday that we stayed there. Also every time we arrived or departed our room Jimmy would be there. At first he just seemed overly attentive but as the days went on, it started to bother us a bit. There were several times when we arrived back to our room around 12pm or 1am and each time we'd arrive to our rooms (trying to be very quiet) Jimmy would open up his door and stand there watching us go into our room. It was a bit creepy and unnecessary. The last straw was the morning we were departing, we had an early flight out of Madrid. We had 2 friends we met during our trip help us with our bags. As we were leaving, Jimmy rushed out of his room and started talking loudly to our two friends in spanish saying he was going to call the police "because he had to protect his customers". I tried explaining to him that these were our friends who offered to help us with our bags to the airport but he would not listen. We eventually gave up trying to explain this to him and decided to leave since our cab was waiting for us downstairs.

Overall it was one of the most horrible customer service situations I have ever experienced. I know that we paid a cheap price and shouldn't expect much, but Jimmy just made us feel uncomfortable and he was very unprofessional. Besides all this, we really loved Madrid - the food, the people and the culture. There really are so many nicer hostals or hotels to stay in (esp. the ones by Plaza Mayor) for about the same price, so please stay anywhere but here and you'll have a great time.