The walls seem to be very thin and you can hear everything. There isn't much to see or do in the immediate vicinity of the hotel. Even with the noise inconvenience the hotel is clean, comfortable and very good value for money.

The hotel is just 1 street into the center of the Old Madrid - Puerto Del Sol, and just in front of the Opera Metro (which comes out to the Opera house). It is just across from the National Palace (must see!). The location is wonderful - minus the noise of the main quarters which is full of shopping (busy, busy place) but near enough to the excitement.

The reception was good, actually helped me look up some stuff on Madrid and let us have a room early. The room was large (~400 sq ft) and well-appointed. A hostel Los Amigos is just above it, however.

Great location, hotel is cheap and cheerful but noisy, very noisy! Street noise, guest noise, make sure to pack the earplugs

The name of this establishment was probably named after the proprietor, who swaggers in the hostal like a grand duke and barks at his staff and customers. Not realising that keys had to be deposited at reception upon leaving (not a problem in other hostals I have stayed in), he barked at me across the corridor to leave the keys. The main problem was the amount of noise. The room allocated was near the cleaner's cupboard which meant constant noise everytime the staff needed to take things out. Worse still, at night, the tv at reception blared past midnight. In the morning, someone, presumably the grand duke himself, walked around the hostal with keys jingle-jangle and occasionally threw them at reception. The hostal is located in a quiet area but the noise within was much worse than having to put up with street noise!