We stayed at Huespedes Jaén (a.k.a. "Hostal Jaén") in Madrid from June 24th to July 1, 2003, in the 3 bedroom 'piso'. The rate for 3 people was 70 euro per night, taxes included. I think the rate is more for more people: the web page says 90 euros.

Brief summary:
Great location: quiet rooms and street but very near lively places. Small bedrooms, larger livingroom, dining area, kitchen. So-so air conditioning. Good hot water, and clean. Very nice proprieters.

Longer description:

There are 3 bedrooms, a living room, kitchen with dining area, laundry alcove, and halls. I didn't find a 2 bedroom that I liked, and this 3 bedroom was reasonably priced, so I went for it.

One bedroom had a slightly less than double sized bed, armoire (closet as piece of furniture), skylight, night table, and a minimum of space. Cozy but adequate, especially since we used the third, unneeded bedroom for overflow. I liked the mattress--not too soft or hard, and no lumps. The next bedroom had 2 single beds, window, armoire, night table, and also cozy for 2--but ample for the one person there. The third had 1 bedroom, skylight, and so on, and somewhat more spare space, but it was further from the air conditioner. Madrid in a heat wave....

The kitchen was pretty good. No dishwasher, but given how quickly things dried, storing dirty dishes up for a load might have been a bad idea. Not large enough for two people to work, but one person could sit at adjacent table and chop veg or chat, and a pleasant kitchen. Plenty of plates, silverware, etc. Would have liked cereal bowls and second chopping board. Big pitcher for water--important! Dining area pretty and pleasant.

Bathroom clean, well sized, lots of hot water, lots of towels (and given the heat wave, the delightful attribute of towels that dried completely in a couple of hours).

Living room with TV, comfy couches, and very pleasant setup. Bookshelves to put all those travel papers and what-nots on. Attractive.

Air conditioner, well, I am a wimp about heat, and it merely took the edge off. Whine. On the other hand, the skylights and windows caught breezes beautifully.

Noise: the loudest noise in our bedroom was usually the swallows at dawn. Occasionally I could here faint music, sirens, or so on. The living room was noisier because its window opened on the small courtyard, and if we all had windows open and normal levels of noise, well... much of the time we had air conditioner or fan on, so heard nothing.

Location: excellent. About 5+ minutes walk to Plaza Santa Ana, an excellent place for sangria, tapas, and people watching. About 10 minutes to metro, maybe less--easier to walk to a lot of places than to dive into the sweltering subways.

Finding the place was a little tricky--if it hadn't been close to midnight, with us frazzled, it might have been easier. The address is 5 Cervantes. There are 2 doors marked 5. One of them has a 5" sign saying Hotel Jaén posted on the door frame, and a set of intercom buttons, one marked Hotel Jaén on the other side of the door frame. From there, all is obvious: ring the bell, get admitted, and go up to the third (fourth) floor. There's even a small elevator.

Would I stay there again? Yes, but if it were high summer, I might try for a place with better air conditioning. Of course, determining the quality of air conditioning in advance is hard. Other than that, it was an excellent place, a haven of peace with a location that allowed siestas between museums and strolls.

I just reserved a single room at the H/Jaén for September. Are the pisos in the same building? You didn't happen to get a peek at the hostal rooms did you? I've not known anyone that has stayed there but have read nice things about the place. Am glad you had a good experience. Where do you recommend to get a coffee close by?

I didn't look at the hostel rooms, alas.

We didn't have coffee nearby, so hard to judge. I did get morning pastries from #5 Principe, about 5 minutes stroll from Huespedes Jaén in the (comparatively) morning cool. Don't remember the name of the place, just remember seeing the address on the bag. About .80 euros for each pastry, and the two pastries eaters considered them outstanding pastries. Lots of people drinking coffee and eating pastries at the bar.

There is also a Starbucks: head east on Cervantes (possibly through a street name change or merge) till Paseo del Prado and look around. For one of us, a frappicino in the 95 degree heat of the afternoon was a major pleasure.