You know what , Denise . I stayed in some seriously downmarket hostales in Madrid , Bilbao and in Portugal .. but they had clean beds and decent showers . That´s all you need right ? I was 3 weeks in an hostal here in the centre of Madrid .. The noise was incredible .. But Madrid is a night time town . You have to forget about sleeping sometimes .
Barcelona is also a party town but more quiet .. I´ve been there many times .
Torremolinos .... OMG .... get ready for a party !
But you´re right Denise , you´ll love talking about your experiences ... I´m sure you´re going to have a great time !
¡Bienvenido a España !

I'm sure you'll find it convenient and perfectly acceptable. The price was probably right too. You shouldn't have any problems there.

My shock is simply that Tripadvisor can call this the number 1 hotel in Madrid when there are so many far more deserving possibilities. That is obviously ridiculous. Some of the reviews were a little too gushing for what's offered here. It just makes Tripadvisor look suspicious. Their number one for Seville is a little weird too.

I've also stayed in plenty of downmarket accommodations in Spain many of which are no longer in business now. I'm not saying that the Atlantico is not an acceptable or comfortable hotel for this woman to stay in or that you need to stay in luxury to have a good trip. I'm just saying how it does not make sense on any level to have this place listed as the number one hotel in Madrid. It's just a Best Western tour package style hotel. There's nothing wrong with that, but it's not number 1 in Madrid. What are they thinking!

Donna .. you´re far more informed than I about all this . But since i´ve used tripadvisor before ( not always successfully ) I think the rating system is based on client feedback .. not professional feedback .
So , for example , here in Madrid without doubt the Ritz and the Wellington are the best hotels ... 5 star luxury . Whilst I would love to stay in one of those , I wouldn´t just because I think the prices are ridiculous .
I´ve stayed in luxury hotels before , in London , Bahrain , Kuwait etc ... but paid for by my company .
I would never pay out that sort of cash for a hotel room unless I was a man of substantial means .
But Donna , I do agree with you . Tripadvisor can be useful but can be confusing . I took advice to stay in a hotel in Istanbul and it was awful .. I dealt with it because I love that city .. but the hotel was "recommended " .
I would recommend using MadridMan´s site to get information .. It´s always honest comments .

You're probably right about MadridMan being a better source of information than TripAdvisor. On MadridMan there are people who really care about the city and probably have stayed in a number of hotels there and know the neighborhoods well. On TripAdvisor they have some guy who was only there one night before a tour, stayed in a package hotel and says it's the best one in the city. It also drives me crazy on TripAdvisor when one review raves about the place and the next one says it's terrible and it goes on and on alternating like that for 500 reviews.

Madrid used to be a city of boring hotels up to around ten years ago. At that time I just stayed in whatever hostal had a convenient location, since there wasn't much worth spending money for. I stayed in dozens of them, and they usually worked out fine.

Nowadays so many interesting Madrid hotels have opened in recent years. I would love to afford the Urban or the ME. (I stayed at the ME years ago when it was the Hotel Victoria before that went upscale. I paid about $29 a night. A bunch of crazy bullfighters were having a loud all night party in the room next to mine which was amusing to listen to).

The Roommate hotels, the High Tech hotels with laptops in the rooms and some of the apartment rental companies offer so many other more interesting options now. If you shop carefully, you can get a good deal at a nice hotel for not much more than you'd pay at a hostal where they rarely reduce their rates or offer promotions.

Right now I'm planning a one week visit in November and I'm trying to decide between the Posada del Peine where I got an excellent rate that includes breakfast or a really nice apartment in Chueca. I'm not sure I want to deal with all the tedious chores of renting an apartment for only a week, but I'm still deciding.

I just noticed I'm a full member! Break out the manzanilla!

In Madrid I have stayed in the Vincci chain of hotels, touch more on the espensive side but found it to be nice.

In Barcelona we stayed in a 4 star hotel (3.5 ... ) but nice not to far from the Arc de truimph, called the Ayer Casp, it was away from Las Ramblas but within good walking distance to most things there.

Course my reply is way to late....

Which Vincci did you stay in?

Donna - congrats on being a full member. MadridMan mentioned something about a gold rolex, but mine has not arrived yet *LOL*

I think the gold Rolex's are giving out once MM returns from China. Not that I am suggesting that they will be fakes.... ;-)

A friend recently returned from Barcelona. Do you want to know where she and her husband stayed?? She said it was four star and really luxurious (and expensive)!