My wife and I stayed at Hostal Martin & Cervelo on April 2 of this year. We arrived early in the morning and were showed a room which would be ours once it was cleaned. We left our bags and went out. Upon our return later that afternoon, we were told we would be given a different room on a different floor. No explanation was given. The problem is that we had asked many times over for a quiet room. Our new room was on a floor on which construction was being done. When we tried to take a nap before dinner - it was impossible due to the noise. As there is only marble on the floors on this floor - every sound echoed beyond belief. The young man in charge - he said he was the owner - told us he would move our room - but since we had already used our room - trying to take our nap - we would have to pay for two rooms. As this was ridiculous and defeated the purpose of a less expensive hotel - we just gave up the battle and went to dinner early. Imagine our shock - when after promises that there would be no noise after 7:20 pm we were awakened at 4:30 am with more noise of moving furniture through the halls and more construction. Please beware of the less than helpful staff who doesn't really care if you get a night's sleep - which I thought was the purpose of a hotel. Not to mention - OK I will - the small bugs in the bathroom. Caveat Emptor.

Hello cesena in New York! (now THAT'S a noisy city!) So sorry to hear about your bad luck. I was at Hostal Cervelo the night after you! While I don't know what happened, I'd have to say it's surprising that construction and furniture moving was taking place at 4:30am! Are you sure it wasn't a noisy patron checking out early or the dump trucks which make their rounds about then? I've been rudely awakened by these noisy things at almost every hostel at which I've stayed.

I did take a late nap during my night at Hostal Cervelo, from 6pm-8pm, and slept pretty soundly and my room was near the reception area too.

Again, it's impossible to know what happened with your room, moving furniture, and construction. But bugs in the bathroom??? I didn't see any of those! Still, hope you enjoyed yourself in Madrid and Spain!

Saludos, MadridMan

Cesena - I know what guy you are talking about. I stayed at Hostal Martin in November 2000 and he would not let us into our room for about 4 hours, until early evening. A different excuse every time. "the room is being cleaned", "we can't get the other people to leave", etc. I had made a reservation with them so that we would have a place to take a nap immediately after a long plane ride. I posted this a long time ago, so I won't elaborate but I won't stay there again. Most people have good experiences with that hostal, though, it seems very popular.