Madrid Hotel

What's your definition of last minute?

May 27th to 29th

Don't know what type of hotel and budget you want but don't be afraid to consider "hostales." These are usually smaller, cheaper, family run type of places and not youth hostels. Different family members and I have stayed at Hostal Acapulco several times over the years. It is right off Gran Vía, near a metro stop, an easy walk to Puerta del Sol and the Plaza Mayor. Rates were very reasonable. It consists of several rooms on a floor of an apartment building that has a small elevator. We have stayed in both a triple and a double there. Lots of folks also recommend the nearby Hotel Europa. I have not stayed there but did eat a meal there. It is a proper hotel, much closer to Puerta del Sol. I would not stay in a hotel on the outskirts or suburbs. Also try area around El Prado and the train station. You will get more suggestions if you tell us your budget and hotel amenity preferences. The city is safe, just use your usual precautions.

Ok thank you! It is for my daughter and son in law and they were hoping for something around $100. I am not finding anything at all available in that price range for those dates on the usual sites (Travelocity).

Unfortunately both of those suggestions have no availability. The Hostal Acapulco would have been perfect.

Try Hostal Gonzalo. It gets good reviews. I have not stayed there but it was high on my list of possible places to stay.

Try a different search engine like booking.com or tripadvisor.

I just did a search here on the ricksteves website and there are many personal recommendations for hotels in Madrid. Tap on the five little white bars in the blue heading at the top of the page for the search function. See what catches your eye and then check their availability.

We stayed at Hostal Gonzalo and were very pleased. it is amazingly clean, air conditioned, our quad room had a private bath, and it is easy walking access to Prada and Reina Sofia and other sites in Madrid. Javier was very helpful booking directly through him via email. good luck I hope it has availability!
Erin

I'd see what turns up on booking.com, but Madrid is not dirt-cheap, and 90-something euros for a double room in a convenient area may not be too easy to find. I believe I was in the 70-euro rsnge for a single room near Atocha Station in mid-May last year, and I had booked farther ahead. When I needed to add a night, the price was quite a bit higher. When I decided to loop back to Madrid for three days in late May on just a couple of days' notice, that hotel's rate was over 120 euros and I had to book elsewhere in a lower-class hotel or hostal. I'm sorry that I don't remember the latter's name; I'm in France at the moment and don't have access to last year's travel records. But I found it on booking.com. i find both the photos and the reviews on thst website helpful.

Be sure the couple understands that big-city hotel rooms in the budget range in Spain tend to be tiny. As in very little floor space once the bed is accounted for. But I never had a cleanliness issue, and the air conditioning--which may be essential in late May--always worked.

I once stayed at a no frills, but adequate hotel Buelta that was right in front of the Reina Sofia museum and around the corner from the Atocha metro stop. I just looked and it is now called Sleep'N Atocha (on Calle Doctor Drumen 4). Its rates are right around $100, but I'm not sure if it has availability for the dates you're looking for. If available, it's only a couple minute walk to Retiro Park and the Prado, and about a 20 minute walk to the Plaza Mayor and Puerta Del Sol. Its website if you want to send them an email is: http://www.sleepnatocha.com/en/
I checked, and with an arrival date of 5/27 for two nights, the non-refundable rate was 116Euros and the with breakfast rate was 133 Euros.

100 US dollars to way to cheap for anything decent and near the center of any major European city. Cannot even do that in the US.

Actually, for Madrid it is possible. I stayed at the Hostal Acapulco in September 2015, and paid €57 per night for a single. I would definitely stay there again. I was going to recommend it (it's a great deal), but you said you already looked and found it full.

Yes, hostales are the way to go in Madrid, as long as you don't mind small rooms, and possibly lack of English speakers. (I never did get a live English speaker on duty at the Hostal Acapulco; my reservation was handled by e-mail in English with no problems, so someone does speak English there).

Have a look at the list on EuroCheapo: http://www.eurocheapo.com/madrid/hotels/all.html

The Sleep'N Atocha is the place I stayed in Madrid. And that's the sort of last-minute rate I was unwilling to pay in 2015.

And I disagree with Frank (though I had some really grim rooms in London in the 1970s and 1980s; Lindon and Paris may be ouylyerd.) ). Aside from occasional isues with air conditioning or Wi-Fi, I haven't had a significant problem in a European hotel over the course of 7-1/2 months of travel since May 2015. I'm sure my average cost per night has been under $70 single, and probably under $60. It's all about keeping your expectations in line with your budget. I consider my hotel room just a means of facilitating travel rather than expecting something memorable. I assume I'll be in tiny quarters with low-end furniture. If I get more than that, it's a treat. I hate for people to think that if they don't pony up at least $200 night in Europe, they'll be dealing with filthy conditions. I think it sometimes causes travelers to try to squeeze 3 weeks of travel into 10 days, because think that's all they can afford.