I am visiting Madrid for 3 days starting June 19 and did some research and calling for the hostals after going through this message board. Please provide some comments on which hotel/hostal to reserve. Here is the list of places that have the availablility for the dates:
1. Hostal Castilla 55 Euro
2. Hotel Plaza Mayor 80 Euro + tax
3. Hostal Persal 75 Euro
4. Hostal Hospedaje Madrid 55 Euro ( I think)
5. Hotel Europa 90 Euro + tax

Let me know which one should I reserve, All I am looking for is a decent inexpensive place with private bathroom, possibly A/C and near happening area, and yes safe too

Biryani,

As the Madridman suggest, always do a search on the bulletin board for information about specific hotels. Now, I've stayed in Hostal Hospedaje Madrid, but I stayed in an apartment that they owned and was two doors down. The apartment cost about $90 and was just fabulous for my wife and I, and it had a kitchen and laundry so it was fabulous. It looked pretty old, but was extremely functional.
I visited the office were Hostal Hospedaje Madrid was, that is the Hostal, but unfortunately, I did not see any of the rooms. The staff was very friendly and you couldn't ask for a more happening place since it was within 100 feet of Puerto del Sol. It was a little noisy, but not too bad after 10 or 11 p.m. There is an elevator, thank goodness for that. Good service, friendly staff, pretty clean for Madrid standards, I would recommend it.

Have stayed in the Persal during summer. The rooms with aircon are tiny. The bedroom was the same size as the bathroom!. We moved to a non-aircon room within a couple of hours of arriving.

For my money, the Hotel Plaza Mayor is the way to go. Great rooms, wonderful location, very safe, etc. I´ve posted on other threads about it, so you can search there for more specific details.

Thanks all for the replies, It is very helpful, Plaza Mayor seems nice and planning to stay there in case I don't find any other good deal. Also available is Hostal Marlasca for 51Euro, includes everything. Now I am confused in these two, Is Hostal Marlasca any good?

Also anyone know any good hotel in Barcelona near airport. We are arriving pretty late (11:15pm) on Monday night and thinking of staying near the airport to avoid getting into a unknown city late night. Any suggestions on where to stay?

Thanks all for this forum especially Madridman and making our first trip to Spain wonderful.

Madrid was fun and wild. We'd stayed in Hotel Plaza Mayor, few steps from plaza mayor. Hotel room was bit small, but reasonable, bathroom was nice. Only issue was the TV volume, which was controlled so low that if the AC is on, we could hardly understand. Staff was not very helpful. We had done mistake of booking inside (less noise) room, whose window opens to a pit, If you are planning to stay at Plaza Mayor, ask for outside rooms, there is hardly any street noise in the night. We'd paid 80Euro plus tax (no breakfast) for a double room.

Seville we'd stayed in La Casa de Juderia for 130 Euro (incl. tax and breakfast). Which was very nice. Booked it from Hotelclub.net. Staff/location was exceptional.

Barcelona we'd stayed at H10-Gravina for Euro90.00(incl. tax and breakfast). Staff was very helpful and location couldn't be better, only couple of minutes walk to the Plaza Catalunya.

Ajay

Another vote for the Gravina in Barcelona, we
stayed there twice and enjoyed it both times, helpful, friendly staff. Once we were traveling with another couple and got a 2 bedroom suite, it
was very nice and less expensive than two seperate rooms. Some of the outside rooms are
directly above a popular restaurant & could be noisy.