My husband and I just stayed for 10 days in the three-bedroom apartment at Huéspedes Jaén , which is a "casa de huéspedes," a notch below an "hostal" in the Spanish lodging classification system. We paid 76 euros a night, cash only, a policy that perhaps applies only to the large "piso".

The people who run the place, the Crespos, are extremely nice and helpful, and that made all the difference. Our daughter was able to visit and there was none of the suspicion-inducing behavior we encountered at the Hostal Madrid on our last trip.

The apartment was clean though somewhat shabby. The kitchen had a range, oven, microwave and toaster. The clothes washer did not work well. As usual in Spain, there was no dryer, only lines outside the window, but two laundromats are close by, not to mention grocery stores, cafés, you name it.

The bathroom had a shower and was supplied with towels but we had to provide our own soap.

One of the small bedrooms had a double bed, a second had two twin beds and the third had one twin bed. There was a separate dining room and a living room with a large, sharp TV.

Our biggest disappointment was that there were no outside windows. One bedroom and the living room had one window each onto an interior shaft full of clothes lines. If you left the window open at night, you could hear the neighbors. Every other room had a skylight. Sunny it was. We saw air conditioning units, but since it was March, and coldish, we never tried them. The heating system was good.

The location was great, within walking distance of the Prado on one side and Puerta del Sol on the other. The metro was two and a half blocks away.

All in all, we felt comfortable at the Jaén and enjoyed our stay.