Old Town Cuenca Vacations from $626

For what you go in for (low $, flexible arrival, hostal stay), it was ok. Very convenient to have codes to access keys rather than restriction arrival time check in. They provide an excellent video to support written instructions. The crate-style pods were sized for anyone under 6ft but really hot inside. The mini fan kept shutting off after a minute or 2. It was an aweful attempt to sleeping. Shared kitchen and bathroom facility were fine. You put your luck into whom you're sharing with. We were lucky. What I hated were the dirty sheets. Dark long black hairs (not mine) between the sheets.

Location near the train station was great. Room was as well. But, the water in the hotel was turned off for 5 hours. Had to brush teeth using bottled water. And the room was very warm and no climate control. Only option was to open window, which is ok except quite noisy

Welcoming staff and an upgraded security for lobby entry. Great idea.

Room was clean and acceptable for the one night we stayed there before leaving Madrid, but we had issues with our door lock that took way too long to resolve and involved us having to climb 3 flights of stairs 6 times before staff would come up with us to fix the issue. Was also hard to lug all the luggage up and down the stairs, and was not previously told this was how the accommodations were. Walls were very thin and could hear all of our neighbors all night as well as loud street noise from the busy area surrounding.