HI - Madrid - Santa Cruz de Marcenado Hostel

Not nice
This hostel is damn cheap, but not comfortable. The common room is ok, but you dont feel very welcome. And the rooms are just crappy and in summer extremely hot, not even a locker is inside. You can use a locker downstairs but have to pay 2 Euros each time you open it -- a nightmare for people with many stuff. Security is not high, the staff doesn't speak english at all. Just go there if you can't afford anything else!

The hotel was cheap and clean but the nightwatcher is very bad. Whatever we do he was angry about us. He hurts my spanish teacher and many schoolmates. i think he should pick a job as a toilet-cleaner. the workers at the day were friendly. I will never visit this hotel. it was cheap and clean but the nightwatcher is unfriendly and brutal.

It's a very cheap hostel, especially if you have the international hostel card! It's very clean and it's central. It's big, so you can meet other travellers in the common area. If you are looking for a fun hostel though, I wouldn't stay there. If you don't want to miss breakfast (included in the price) you have to get up early (I think 8:30) and at night they tell you to be quiet in the common area downstairs. (And we were definitely not partying, just talking and laughing!) Men and women have to sleep on seperate floors. The staff isn't very friendly or helpful. Before I was there, things were stolen from a girl in my room while she was sleeping, but I guess that can happen in every hostel.

CRAPPY hostel. The cleaning staff treated us as though we were an inconvenience for even being there. It has poor security (we had our cell phone stolen there), sh*tty stale buns for breakfast, and men and women are put on separate floors. The common room is more like a hospital waiting room. The only thing this hostel has going for it is the fact that it is by far the cheapest place in Madrid.

Very good location, but the staff are inconsistent in their degrees of helpfulness and manners. The breakfast is basic but filling. The bedrooms are over-crowded, with too many beds in some rooms. Security in the rooms is dodgy, with only one key for twelve berth rooms, but lockers are available in the hostel. The reason for the bad security, according to a member of staff, is to encourage the use of lockers. So, therefore, I felt that the owners did not have the hostellers as their first priority. Money obviously was a motivation for the hostel managers, though the price of the accommodation is quite reasonable. The lack of tolerance for English speakers is quite noticeable, i.e. brush up on your Spanish or you will get your head eaten off.

Very good for the money. It's cheap, clean and has a good breakfast.

Very good location and very cheap. The staff is not very kind, but it's not a big problem. You can use the microwave to make your dinner and in the common areas you can get to know a lot of people. The bathroons are clean and have hot water. I had a great time there.