Madrid · Hotel shortlist
3 star hotels near the main square in Madrid
Luca Ferreira Spain and Portugal
These are my five favourites in Madrid, out of the 21 that qualified. I read what other travellers scored them before I picked, so the order follows the guests, 4.6 down to 4.4.
Hostal Madrid is the one I would book myself.
Highest rated of the five
Hostal Madrid
★★★★★4.6 from 1,705 reviews
Hostal Madrid comes out on top of this list, and not narrowly: 4.6 from 1,705 guest reviews is a score that holds up at that volume, which is the whole test here. A perfect ten from nine people does not beat it.
It is a 3 star property, found under the main square and around $180 a night on the dates we checked.
21 hotels in Madrid qualified for this list and five made it. chic&basic dot Hotel is the one I would book if the first is full.
Why it works for this trip
- Air conditioningthe one that decides a summer trip
- Family roomscots and larger rooms rather than a squeeze
All five, ranked
-
chic&basic dot Hotel
★★★★★4.6 from 601 reviews
- Spa
- Bar
- Air conditioning
- Accessible
-
Hotel Petit Palace Puerta del Sol
★★★★★4.5 from 1,103 reviews
- Spa
- Restaurant
- Bar
- Parking
- Pet friendly
- Kid friendly
-
Hotel Moderno
★★★★★4.4 from 2,376 reviews
- Spa
- Kid friendly
- Air conditioning
- Airport shuttle
-
Petit Palace Arenal
★★★★★4.4 from 1,847 reviews
- Spa
- Bar
- Pet friendly
- Kid friendly
- Air conditioning
- Accessible
How this list was put together
21 Madrid hotels qualify for this list. We ranked them on guest rating, then on class, and took the top five.
Two things decide these lists. The first is my own time in the city: every hotel on this page is one I have stayed in, walked into and looked at, or gone back to check. That is where the shortlist starts, and it is why some well reviewed places are not on it.
The second is the numbers, and those are what set the order. The rating and review count come from the big travel sites, pooled through Google, so a score here reflects Expedia, Booking, Hotels.com and the rest together rather than any one of them. I also read the review breakdown by topic, which is where the figures on service, breakfast and location come from. Hotels with fewer than forty reviews are left out altogether, because a rating that thin is not a rating. No more than two come from one neighbourhood.
What I do not do is move anyone up the order. The ranking is the guest score, highest first, and nobody pays to be on the list.
Distances are straight lines from published coordinates, so the real walk is a little longer. Amenities are as recorded by Google Hotels and can change without notice. Rates are an indicative nightly figure for a midweek autumn stay, not a quote. Check the booking page before you commit.
Luca Ferreira Spain and Portugal
Shuts the workshop two weeks every summer and rides. The Pyrenees, the Danube route and most of Portugal on frames he built himself, camping most nights.
Trip Grapevine earns a commission on bookings made through the links on this page. It costs you nothing, and it does not change the order of the list, which is set by the measurements above.




