The Hostelz.com Review
Cat's Hostel is a beautiful little place tucked away in an unassuming street in the centre of Madrid.
The Location
Cat's is in a small side street off Calle de Atocha but is not difficult to find at all -- the closest metro is Tirso de Molina or Anton Martin. It's very close to Sol, Gran Via, and Plaza Mayor, as well as the smaller but prettier Plaza de Santa Ana, and only a ten-minute walk from the Rastro on a Sunday. Despite being within walking distance of Atocha train station, if you've got big bags, Metro is probably the best plan. The neighbourhood itself is not particularly nice or lively in terms of nightlife, but there are lots of cheap Chinese shops, a couple of small supermarkets (Dia, just down the road, is great), and it is only a short walk to the good bars and shops.
Rooms and Bathrooms
The rooms themselves light and airy but are fairly cramped -- this is fairly inevitable in most hostels. There's still enough room for maintenance of personal space! When you arrive at the hostel you are provided with a magnetic wristband -- which is the key to the hostel, your room, and your locker. Although good in principle, these are actually quite difficult to master when trying to open the door to a room in the dark and quiet. Many people often ask others for help! However, the lockers in the room are very spacious, with easily enough room for a medium-sized rucksack. Showers are colorful, clean, and powerful, with space for towel or clothes as well as room within the shower room to change, and fantastic floor-length mirrors!
Common Spaces
The one downside to this fantastic hostel is the lack of a kitchen or even a fridge. There are, however, vending machines for drinks and all manner of snacks, most unrecognizable. However, in terms of common spaces, this hostel is great. There is a beautiful indoor courtyard with large cushions and sofas that is very peaceful and full of people sleeping or reading. However, this area is cleared at about 1 a.m.
The bar is another great space to be in and meet others -- the upstairs bar provides an adequate breakfast of croissant and coffee/hot chocolate, whilst the downstairs, "cave-themed" bar is always buzzing. The hostel hosts regular parties, which are very loud and go on until about 3 a.m., but are a great way to meet other people. A two-pint glass of sangria can be had for a very reasonable price! The bar also hosts four computers, which are quick and reliable.
Summary
This hostel is fantastic for someone looking for a fun, lively, sociable experience. Be prepared to chat with others, as well as put up with noise (although there are bouncers from about 1 a.m. onwards trying to keep noise down, especially when you arrive back at the hostel). The hostel is in a very central location, with easy access to most of the places worth visiting in Madrid. The only negative point is that the staff themselves are unfortunately somewhat surly. However, don't let this put you off staying in this great little hostel.
The Location
Cat's is in a small side street off Calle de Atocha but is not difficult to find at all -- the closest metro is Tirso de Molina or Anton Martin. It's very close to Sol, Gran Via, and Plaza Mayor, as well as the smaller but prettier Plaza de Santa Ana, and only a ten-minute walk from the Rastro on a Sunday. Despite being within walking distance of Atocha train station, if you've got big bags, Metro is probably the best plan. The neighbourhood itself is not particularly nice or lively in terms of nightlife, but there are lots of cheap Chinese shops, a couple of small supermarkets (Dia, just down the road, is great), and it is only a short walk to the good bars and shops.
Rooms and Bathrooms
The rooms themselves light and airy but are fairly cramped -- this is fairly inevitable in most hostels. There's still enough room for maintenance of personal space! When you arrive at the hostel you are provided with a magnetic wristband -- which is the key to the hostel, your room, and your locker. Although good in principle, these are actually quite difficult to master when trying to open the door to a room in the dark and quiet. Many people often ask others for help! However, the lockers in the room are very spacious, with easily enough room for a medium-sized rucksack. Showers are colorful, clean, and powerful, with space for towel or clothes as well as room within the shower room to change, and fantastic floor-length mirrors!
Common Spaces
The one downside to this fantastic hostel is the lack of a kitchen or even a fridge. There are, however, vending machines for drinks and all manner of snacks, most unrecognizable. However, in terms of common spaces, this hostel is great. There is a beautiful indoor courtyard with large cushions and sofas that is very peaceful and full of people sleeping or reading. However, this area is cleared at about 1 a.m.
The bar is another great space to be in and meet others -- the upstairs bar provides an adequate breakfast of croissant and coffee/hot chocolate, whilst the downstairs, "cave-themed" bar is always buzzing. The hostel hosts regular parties, which are very loud and go on until about 3 a.m., but are a great way to meet other people. A two-pint glass of sangria can be had for a very reasonable price! The bar also hosts four computers, which are quick and reliable.
Summary
This hostel is fantastic for someone looking for a fun, lively, sociable experience. Be prepared to chat with others, as well as put up with noise (although there are bouncers from about 1 a.m. onwards trying to keep noise down, especially when you arrive back at the hostel). The hostel is in a very central location, with easy access to most of the places worth visiting in Madrid. The only negative point is that the staff themselves are unfortunately somewhat surly. However, don't let this put you off staying in this great little hostel.
— Exclusive Hostelz.com Review
June 2008
Their Description
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Excellent!!! Well, I came from there today, and there is only one thing I can say, I loved it! It was the best hostel where I have stayed, it was clean, secure and has very nice staff always ready to help you , and I got excellent room mates too. During these days I spent we had awesome parties with a lot of people from different countries. For me, the BEST!!! — Ricardo , Portugal (2010-04-03) Try somewhere else I would rate Cats hostel a lot higher were it not for the way we were treated by the staff upon checking out. Having got back from our night out in the early hours of the morning, we missed check-out by approximately an hour and were refused the return of our key deposits. The receptionist was only able to say repeatedly the system won't let me. When we were leaving our room, there was not a cleaner in sight so there is no way we were depriving the hostel of the opportunity to clean (there were other empty beds which could have been cleaned if we really were holding things up). And it wasn't like we had broken or lost the keys. The disappointing thing was that we had enjoyed our stay, but this pointless, unnecessary behaviour on the part of the reception staff left a slightly bitter taste in the mouth. My mates and I have stayed in hostels all across Europe and none of us have ever had an experience like this. Clearly a money-making system without any sense of reason. There is a lot of competition for hostels in Madrid, and so with plenty of other fun hostels to stay at I would recommend you try somewhere else lest you be penalised for having the cheek to sleep a fraction longer than allowed. — Ben (2009-10-24) Pretty good I visited in the summer of 2008. There wasn't a kitchen, but that's alright. the hostel is nicely situated and security seemed fine. I would not hesitate to come back to this hostel. — LP , Canadian (2009-05-23) Bordering on Good I was there six days in June 2008. Female on staff rude, but prior comments warned me of that. Rooms a little crowded, but I'm low maintenance and there are large lockers. Very large bathrooms with multiple showers and sinks and hot water. Pretty hostel with stain glass. Decent size common room. Washer/dryer on site. Clean and quiet at night. Huge bar, internet room downstairs with ability to get on net easy enough. Good breakfast with croissant, coffee, and juice. Convenient location to get around city. Buy your own map, they are not helpful and their map is really poor. — Dinah , USA (2008-01-19) Good Location and Very Social Hostel This hostel has a very good location, clean dorms and bathrooms, free lockers, and it is a very social hostel, where you can meet a lot of travelers at the bar every night. There are too many beds in the dorms, but it is ok for me. — Ale , Brazil (2008-01-01) Terrible I didn't like the way the rooms were kinda dirty. No Ac, which was terrible for the weather in Madrid. On my last day someone stole everything from me, credit cards, money, passport inside the hostel. The people at the lobby don't check who comes in or not, there is no security whatsoever. They did not want to help me when I took this information to the police (they had it all in video and refused to give it to the police) and they still charged me an extra night that I had to stay there even through I was robbed in their own hostel. — Susi , Mexico (2007-10-31) Great intro to spain Personally, i really liked this hostel. It was the "coolest" one i stayed in in my three-week tour, the courtyard was great to relax in, and lovely and quiet, and beautiful as well. It had great facilities, the free breakfast was a godsend, as was free internet. The bar was great to meet people in before going on a night out, and the parties were pretty good! It was the first place i stayed in, and one of the best. Bad points -- in a bit of a rough area, like the madrid equivalent of chinatown in london! Also, the staff were just so unfriendly, and wouldn't tell you where anything was! No kitchen as well meant extra expense from eating out. But i would definitely recommend it! — Alice , Glasgow (2007-09-10) Eh. the staff here is extremely rude. if you ask how to get somewhere, their response is "look at the map." they will not help you and don't enjoy being asked questions. that aside, the bar in the hostel was cool -- we got free sangria and free paella. however the rooms are very cramped and you have to manually turn on the air conditioners which is fine because they are there but you have to actually do it because the staff refuses. it's not in a great area, it's very shady and a lot of people get pickpocketed. I would never go to madrid again itself for this reason. — Alana , USA (2007-06-19) This place was good. Location was great! the only problem was that even though there was no curfew if you came to the hostel late which is I believe around 1 or later, you were not allowed to talk or make any sort of noise, even if you were in your own room. There would be a guy who would check be walking around the veranda in the night to ensure that everyone is sleeping and no one is making any noises. Even if the light was on, he would ask you to switch it off. That was the only problem since once you got to the hostel late, you were extremely restricted in terms of talking and staying up in your own room. Other than that the hostel was very nicely designed and looked very pretty from inside.The rooms are small but not as small as some other hostels. They were reasonable relative to the price. There were restaurants and bars at walking distance from the hostel, which was great. They offered free internet and the hostel also had a bar on the ground floor! — Doo , Indian (2007-04-16) It can be crowded in some of the rooms, they sure get as many beds in the rooms as possible! Not much floor space. Bathrooms didn't seem to be cleaned that often. Apart from that class place, great area for chilling out in the courtyard, nice bar with free internet and good staff. Really good location as well in centre near sights and close to lots of bars and tapas places. Funny keys though to open doors and lockers, quite a challenge after a few san miguels! — Jonny (2007-02-22) I think Cat's is overall pretty good. The hostel itself is amazing -- as people have said it is an Eighteenth Centuary palace with an inside courtyard and the most amazing stained glass ceiling I've ever seen.
Also, on the plus side, the beer there is dirt cheap, only 3 euros for what is nearly a litre of beer -- nice! They also have great entertainment there and while I was staying had a funk style band from Venezuela playing jazz/funk covers of loads of famous tracks from Dire Straits to Radiohead! The main downside though is the amount of smoke in the bars. While smoking is almost as popular as Catholicism in Spain, it would be good to be able to breathe some clean air in the bar -- whereas I felt as if I was smoking at least twenty a night down there! If they could invest in a decent extractor fan, then everyone would be happy and the hostel would definitely warrent five stars! — Ollie Taylor (2006-09-26) This hostel is actually a former palace, with a beautifully decorated central area. It has a popular bar downstairs with inexpensive drinks and periodic events. The good -- staff was extremely helpful and nice. Towel is free (though you must give deposit). Spacious lockers and comfortable bed. Staff cracked down on noisemakers after midnight.
The bad -- smallest toilet stalls I've ever seen! My knees were against the wall and my feet went outside the stall area because of a lack of space. Though that is not as bad as lack of temperature control for the showers. They have it set to barely warm and you can't do anything about it. The sinks have only cold water. You will not experience the comfort of hot water in this hostel. Also there was only men in my ten-person dorm for my three-night stay. The odds of this happening in a co-ed hostel should be almost zero, but it happened anyway. Overall I enjoyed my experience. I recommend this hostel but next time in madrid I need to find a place with hot water. — Roosh (2006-09-13) When I stayed at the hostel in January I witnessed some seriously disturbing employee behavior. They ran the place like a police state going from door to door looking for trouble. One night while standing outside smoking with friends we heard a scuffle inside and some guys pulled out two male guests who were involved. They told us they were being attacked and they walked away from the hostel without their belongings. When they were almost around the corner, the hostel staff chased down the street after them and sucker-punched one in the temple and maced the other. They proceeded to mace them both and beat them while they were helpless. In terms of the hostel, it was impossible to control the shower temperature and they were so hot I actually got burned -- a first in my life. Don't stay here! — Crystal (2006-04-17) This was the first hostel we stayed at and also the best! Many we spoke to said "you shouldn't have stayed here first, because it's only downhill from here."
It was clean, cheap, friendly staff, safe and importantly in a great location. Right in the centre of madrid, minutes from Sol and the metro. Each bed has its own locker and you get keys to wear around your wrist to open the door and your locker.
What else was good was the actual quality of the hostel. We went to a few which were cramped and crowded, but this one had numerous chill out areas. The main area which was more for chilling, smoke and alcohol free. Then there was the bar area for getting messy and a downstairs area which was just an extended getting messy area, though during the day and chill out area as well with free internet access which was convenient.
There were a few little problems like the showers timing out every 30 seconds and the breakfast being simple, but it's a bit stupid to be idealistic. Basically just stay here, you'll love it! — Liz (2006-02-12) Yeah this was a pretty decent hostel. I found it a little intimidating as a solo traveller, but maybe that's just me being shy, and exhausted from being on the road for so long. It's not the type of place you stay if you want to get good sleep, people will be going in and out of your room all through the night. Decent free breakfast, great location. The bar and basement are pretty cool and the patio common room is beautiful. Seemed clean enough. The staff were very very nice and helpful. — kat (2006-01-07)