San Lorenzo

We have made a reservation at this hotel for ten nights directly through their own website, trying to avoid using middle men. There was no mentioning of the city celebrations taking place outside our balcony for five of the nights we have reserved anywhere on their website. The confirmation email did not inform us about it either, and yet, the nightly price was significantly higher than usual, meaning that the hotel management clearly knew about the event. Well, it has been five nights, and we have not had more than two hours of sleep each night (I am not exaggerating) due not so much to the nightly celebrations as to the city's clean-up (or some kind of work) in the square outside EVERY SINGLE NIGHT, from about midnight to six in the morning. Tonight, there were no special events outside, and yet again, there are heavy machine/truck noises outside. Clearly, this is going to continue happening for the rest of our stay. There is a noisy parking garage right outside the window as well, and random people outside seem to enjoy the acoustics of the cement square, screaming and even singing until the wee hours of the night. The hotel itself is very clean and conveniently located, the room windows are cutting off a lot of noise, but not enough. I am usually a sound sleeper, but by now I am super irritable from sleep deprivation. Since we arrived by plane and spend the whole day walking around, we wanted to stay closer to the downtown; however, this hotel is not a good option. If you like getting more than two hours of sleep each night, do not stay here. It is too bad because it is a cute and clean place with mostly pleasant staff. We have spoken with them about this problem more than once and either get a shrug or told that we should have known that it would be like this. How I don't know as it is our first visit to Madrid. Avoid.

The USP of the San Lorenzo is its location, being almost exactly between the arts area and the royal area of Madrid. Both are about 15 minutes walk either east or west. South is Plaza Mayor, a ten minute walk. Alternatively you can get the metro, as the hotel is less than 5 minutes from the convenient Gran Via metro station. There are also lots of good eateries close by and a minimart, coffee shop and great taco store a minute away. Generally the staff were quite friendly, the breakfast simple but adequate and there were some nice architectural features like exposed bricks and a feature window in our room. Bed was firm and comfortable. To respond to some reviews that spoke about single beds, we, a married couple, were also given these. On check in we were told that unless explicitly stated you are a couple you get a single bed each. We were told we had a larger room, but to be honest for the price it was still quite small. The hotel could move up a notch or two by a few simple steps. Rotate breakfast items, add a kettle to the room, include a fridge as these are commonplace nowadays and just give everything a bit more care. For example, the towels were in some cases threadbare, with one even having a large hole in it.

This hostal / hotel has mixed reviews. On balance I would give it a positive review. It's true that the room we had was on the small side but as we were out and about for most of the day it wasn't a great inconvenience. Our room facing the street was quiet (two sets of double glazing). Even in November the room was too hot (can't adjust the heating from the room). The reception staff were always pleasant and helpful. We didn't have breakfast, preferring to use local cafés etc. However a kettle in the room, like in many other similar establishments, would have been a nice gesture. As would a non-paying safe box. Apart from using the metro to get to Moncloa bus station for a trip to Segovia (highly recommend) and Atocha for a trip to Toledo we walked everywhere - the location is excellent for exploring lots of different districts of Madrid. I had read that the Chueca area was a bit iffy but with so many people around at night we didn't feel uncomfortable. After having our back packs opened by an opportunistic thief when getting off the airport bus at Cibeles we decided to take a taxi back to the aiport. Reception organised this an the taxi was very reliable. I would probably use this hotel again if I had another visit to Madrid.