Hello seorg! Welcome to our message board.

How many would be in each room? I'd guess 2-persons per room, right? That's about 7 rooms. Some rooms might even take 3-4 persons.

You'd DEFINITELY want to make these reservations as soon as possible, far in advance to be assured that you can get ALL 7 rooms for the dates you'll be staying. Nothing worse than having ALL the rooms for, say, 5 days and only SOME of the rooms for 3 or 4 days because of other previously made reservations by other patrons.

You might consider Hostal La Perla Asturiana (alongside Plaza Mayor), Hostal Martin or Cervelo (same building on Calle de Atocha - not far from Plaza Mayor). These two are a bit larger and you'd have a better chance to fit them all in for your hoped-for dates.

Of course, Hostal Chelo , just north of Gran Vía, has one room with 4 beds and at least one other with 3 beds and most of the rest will have 2 beds. Hostal Chelo is definitely one of the cheaper "hostales" in Madrid which has a website. The photos of the place on their site really DO do it justice too. (especially since I took most of them myself! hehehe..) I've spent one night there myself and can easily recommend it.

Anyone else have ideas on which places could keep 10-15 youths?

Your students won't likely be used to these types of lodgings. Many will whine that there isn't a TV or the room or bathroom is too small or that there isn't a candy or soda machine in the lobby. We Americans are SO spoiled. Oh, and the waiters in Spain are rude too! (hehehe... just kidding)

Good luck and have fun. Oh, and keep a CLOSE eye on those kids. I'm sure they'll want to sneak out after your imposed curfew to have a few "tapas" ( wink! wink! ) with the locals and come back ready to pass out from all the food. I'd hate to read that one of them fell off the balcony.

Saludos, MadridMan