Hello all,
I have read many postive posts about the Hostal Lopez , but when I made my reservations, they made an odd request. Please let me know if this is a common practice...

Even though their website says they accept cash only, they requested my credit card info (through email)in order to confirm the reservation.

This seems a little shady, and I am leary of being taken... If this is just their way of making sure that we don't back out of a weeks reservation (which I understand would be very costly to them) can anyone think of a more secure way to confirm our rooms? Thank you all in advance!

They use the credit card for assurance that you are not going to no-show. If you do not show, they will charge your account. If you do, you will need to pay in cash. It is just the way that they do things. Don't be concerned.

jomon, this practice is becoming quite common. As sel says, it's to assure you'll either call to cancel or won't simply not show and then they lose filling the room for the night as you said yourself.

You can imagine many people try to take advantage of the smaller establishments by making multiple reservations at different hostels and then choosing to stay at one of them and not cancel the reservations at the others. Many hostels only have 8-10 rooms so the loss of one room for a no-show costs them dearly.

Saludos, MadridMan

OK. Thank you much! We leave in 2 days!! I'll be sure to post our impressions. Can't wait. I hope the weather is sunny, I'm tired of all this snow in northern Japan!! :p

I just got back from Madrid on Sunday March 14 and we stayed at the Hostal Lopez and they never took my credit card information to hold my reservation.

Alberto, And how was Hostal Lopez? Thanks

Stayed with Hostal Lopez for 4 nights in early April.

We booked a double room but the previous occupant had problems with their flight & couldn't leave Madrid as scheduled.

Nuria was worried that we wouldn't be pleased with separate beds. She showed us the twin room & called another hostal to help us get a double room for us at the same price.

Nevertheless, we stick with them. Can't imagine the loss that Lopez will suffer if we decide to move on to another hostal just becos of the separate beds.

Anyway, we got our double room the next day.

Clean & basic room. Great value for money.
I had an "interior" room, with windows, hence didn't hear much noises coming from the bars/pubs downstairs, which was very much alive late into e night.

Although there were no stairs up to the hostal, it didn't matter as I was backpacking.

However, might be a slight problem for those carry those trolley luggage. Its not easy to lug it up the stairs.

I too, stayed at the Hostal Lopez this month. I was terribly disappointed with the room, the service, the noise and left one day early. The room was REALLY SMALL, they did not give us clean towels on the second day, the noise on the second night was annoying and could not sleep. When we asked for help with our car rental they sent us to a internet club...
Their advise on how to get there was useless;on their website they say it should cost about 20 euros from the airport to their hostal and add:
"Although most of the taxi drivers in Madrid are very professional and completely honest, the Airport seems to attract a small number of scamp drivers. We have heard of cases where tourists were asked to pay 2 or 3 times the usual fare. Simply pay and ask for an official receipt (un recibo)."
We of course were charged too much and followed their advise only to be told by them that the receipt was uselass and we had no recourse with the cab and taking it to the police station
was a waste of time!

I just received a distressed email from the fine people at Hostal López .

Apparently they had read jg1's review of their stay at Hostal López and wanted to tell me (or have me tell you all) their side of the story.

So here goes....

Hostal López says the statements made by jg1 above are not true.

1) The room they had was large or at least average size (MadridMan's comments: I've stayed at Hostal López and many other hostels in Madrid and the room at Hostal Lopez is at least "typical" size as compared to others. Maybe jg1 was accustomed to hotel rooms??)

2) The couple had an "inside room" so street noise should not have been a problem. They aren't sure to what noise jg1 is referring.

3) The couple never mentioned any issue about a rental car but that they were looking for an internet café nearby and Hostal López directed them to the nearest one.

4) Regarding directions to the hostel on their website : There's a location map on that page as well as their address at the bottom of every page. I'm not sure how much more detailed one can be. The taxi driver should only need the address to find the place.

5) Regarding being overcharged by the taxi driver and the receipt given by the taxi driver, Hostal López states that when the couple showed them the taxi receipt it was incomplete and having it would not help them to make a claim for being overchanged. This angered the couple but Hostal López says that they, while sad and unfortunate the situation, cannot be held responible for this. Claro.

6) Finally, Hostal Lópes say the couple arrived angry after the taxi experience and having no recourse for retribution, getting the bad news that the taxi receipt, being incomplete, was useless, they were predetermined to NOT be satified with their room and also to shared their ill-feelings regarding Hostal López.

Okay. You all whom are reading this, we can't possibly know which of the two stories is correct and which is falsified. But now that we have both sides we can, if we choose to do it, can make our own judgements.

All I can say is that I had a positive experience at Hostal López as have, seemingly, hundreds of others whom have posted positive comments and recommendations of the hostel here on the message board. But the fact remains that never will there be a hotel, hostel, youth-hostel, or camp-site which will have satisfaction from 100% their visitors for whatever reason. That's the business.

Saludos, MadridMan

I have stayed at the Lopez 8 or 9 times and have always been happy with the rooms and help on offer there.

The Airport does definately attract some bad taxi drivers who will overcharge if they can.Best off using the Metro.If i ever use a taxi,i always ask approx how much the journey will cost.
If its more than 15 or 20 euros,then i refuse to get in and ask another.

I suppose this may seem quite daunting if its a first trip or you speak little or no spanish.In which case Aerocity should work just fine.