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.