Sleep in the Middle of Malasaña for Guest-House Money
Step out of the door at number 22 and you are already there. Calle Velarde runs straight into Plaza del Dos de Mayo, a hundred and fifty metres away, where Madrid drinks its vermouth on a Sunday and the barrio's whole social life happens under the trees. Turn the other way and Tribunal metro is three minutes off, with Lines 1 and 10 running to Sol, Atocha and everywhere else.
CH Velarde is nine rooms on the third floor of a traditional building on that street. The rooms are small, honestly small, at around twelve square metres, but each one is private, freshly done out in warm neutrals with a backlit headboard and a mustard throw, and each has its own bathroom, its own air conditioning, a kettle, a desk and a flat-screen. Guests keep reaching for the same comparison in reviews: it feels less like a hostel room and more like having a very compact apartment of your own in Madrid.
What you are buying is a clean, private, quiet-hours base in the neighbourhood everyone actually wants to be in, at a price that does not belong to this postcode. What you are not buying is service. Read the next two blocks before you decide.
Photo: Francisco Anzola, CC BY 2.0
Three Names, One Address, and Why That Matters
Search for this place and you will find it under three different names, which is why so many listings for it contradict each other. Until around April 2022 it traded as Pensión Enebral. Until around March 2024 it was Le Petit Palü-Velarde. Since then it has been CH Velarde. Same third floor, same nine rooms, same door on Calle Velarde. It is run by Le Petit Palü, a small Madrid group with houses on Fuencarral, Barco, Flora and by the Ópera, plus one in Seville.
The confusion has consequences. Aggregator pages recycling old data claim this address has parking, a garden and a twenty-four-hour reception. It has none of those things. Others show eight rooms or ten; the regional register says nine. The listing you book through still carries the original Enebral name in its web address, which throws people who think they have landed on the wrong property.
You have not. It is one small guest house, refurbished, with a corridor of numbered doors, brass sconces and a backlit panel at the end carrying the operator's name. That panel is usually the first thing guests see, because it is what faces you when you reach the top of the stairs.
There Is No Reception, and There Is No Lift
Nobody works on site. After you book, the property contacts you, takes payment by bank transfer, and sends an access code plus a WhatsApp number. You complete a short registration online, turn up, key yourself in and walk to your door. Guests who expected a desk find this disorienting for about ten minutes; guests who read this paragraph will be fine. Save the WhatsApp contact before you fly, because it is the only way to reach anyone quickly.
The stairs are the other thing. The guest house is on the third floor, there is no lift, and in Spanish buildings a third floor is commonly four flights up from the pavement once you count the entresuelo and the principal. Reviewers who arrived with a big suitcase say so plainly, and they are right. Pack light, or plan on doing it in two trips.
Two practical consequences. Arriving after 23:00 carries a late check-in surcharge, so tell the property if your flight lands late. And there is no luggage room here, but after check-out you can leave bags at the group's staffed guest house on Calle Fuencarral, about five minutes away, which is a genuinely useful thing none of the big listings mention.
Why Book CH Velarde?
This is a nine-room walk-up in the middle of the best-located barrio in central Madrid, and it works brilliantly for the right guest and badly for the wrong one. Here is exactly which you are.
You are 150 metres from the plaza
Plaza del Dos de Mayo, the green heart of Malasaña, is a two-minute walk. Tribunal metro on Lines 1 and 10 is three. Chueca is ten minutes on foot, Gran Vía about the same. You will not need transport to have a good day.
A private room, not a dorm bed
Every room here has its own bathroom, its own air conditioning unit, a kettle, a desk and a flat-screen. Guests keep describing it as having a small apartment in Madrid rather than a hostel bunk, and that is the honest comparison.
Clean is the word reviewers use
Cleanliness and the Wi-Fi are the two things that come up over and over in the reviews, and both sit at the top of the score card. Towels get swapped mid-stay. For a budget room in the centre of Madrid that is not a given.
Three flights up, and nobody on the desk
The guest house occupies the third floor and there is no lift. There is also no reception: you pay by transfer before arrival, get a keycode, and let yourself in with WhatsApp support if anything sticks. Both facts are deal-breakers for some people, which is why they are up here and not buried.
Check Availability at CH Velarde
Interesting Points About CH Velarde
- One property, three names: Pensión Enebral until about April 2022, Le Petit Palü-Velarde until about March 2024, CH Velarde since
- The regional register lists nine rooms, and the regulatory category is pensión rather than hostal, which needs at least ten rooms
- The building sits on the street named after Pedro Velarde, one of the two artillery officers who died in the 1808 uprising a hundred and fifty metres away
- There is no on-site luggage room, but bags can be left at the operator's staffed sister guest house on Calle Fuencarral, about five minutes away
- The listing's facility list shows a patio: it is an interior light well, not an outdoor space guests can use, and there are no balconies
- Several aggregator listings claim parking, a garden or a 24-hour reception at this address. None of the three exists
Rooms & Accommodation at CH Velarde
Standard Double Room
About 12 m², en-suite, sleeps two
The only room type in the house, and there are nine of them at slightly different sizes. Expect about twelve square metres: a double bed against a backlit headboard panel, a slim desk with a kettle, an open wardrobe and an en-suite with a corner shower. The operator says their double beds run between 1.20 m and 1.35 m wide, so this is cosy rather than generous for two. Best for couples and solo travellers who want a private room and a private bathroom in the centre of Madrid and will be out most of the day. Ask for a street-facing room if you can: some windows look onto an interior light well and go dark by mid-morning.
Check PricesIs CH Velarde Right for You?
Best Suited For
- Couples and solo travellers on a short city break who will be out from breakfast until late
- Anyone who wants a private room and private bathroom instead of a hostel dorm, at close to hostel prices
- Visitors coming for Madrid Pride or the Dos de Mayo fiestas, both of which happen within a few minutes' walk
- Travellers arriving by plane and train who were never going to bring a car anyway
Worth Considering Alternatives If
- Anyone who cannot manage three or four flights of stairs with their luggage
- Guests who want a reception desk, a concierge or someone to hand them a key
- Families needing a cot, an extra bed or more than about twelve square metres
- Drivers: the street is inside Madrid's strictest low-emission zone and there is no parking here
Amenities and Facilities
In Your Room
- Private bathroom with bath or shower
- Free toiletries, towels, linen and a hairdryer
- Fresh towels and sheets mid-stay
- Air conditioning, one unit per room
- Heating
- Flat-screen TV
- Electric kettle
- Desk and chair
- Wardrobe or closet and a clothes rack
- Iron
- Free Wi-Fi
Getting In and Getting About
- Keycode entry, available at any hour
- WhatsApp support before and during your stay
- Online registration completed before arrival
- Express check-in and check-out, invoice provided
- Not available: Reception
- Not available: Lift
- Not available: Luggage storage on site
Security
- 24-hour security
- CCTV in common areas and outside the building
- Smoke alarms and a security alarm
- Fire extinguishers
- Quiet hours from 23:00 to 08:00
Food, Drink and Outdoors
- Not available: Breakfast
- Not available: Restaurant or bar
- Not available: Guest terrace or garden
- Not available: Swimming pool, gym or spa
Policies and Payment
- Payment by bank transfer before arrival
- Visa, Mastercard and Maestro accepted at check-in
- Not available: Cash
- Photo ID and a credit card required at check-in
- Not available: Pets
- Non-smoking throughout
- Children of any age welcome, charged as adults from age three
- Not available: Cots and extra beds
- No parties, events, hen or stag groups
Location and Getting Around
Malasaña, officially the Universidad barrio and historically the Barrio de Maravillas, is the counter-cultural centre of Madrid. Its identity was fixed on 2 May 1808, when residents rose against Napoleon's troops and the artillery officers Luis Daoíz and Pedro Velarde, whose name is on this street, died defending the Monteleón barracks that stood where Plaza del Dos de Mayo is now. In the late seventies and eighties the same streets produced the Movida Madrileña.
Today it is dense, walkable and full of independent shops, vintage stores, speciality coffee and tapas bars along Espíritu Santo, Calle del Pez, Manuela Malasaña and Fuencarral. CH Velarde is inside that, not on the edge of it. Chueca, Madrid's LGBTQ+ quarter, is a ten-minute walk south, which makes this address one of the most in-demand in the city during Pride.
Tribunal metro, on Lines 1 and 10, is 230 metres away, about three minutes. Bilbao is 450 metres and Alonso Martínez 600. Line 1 runs direct to Sol and Atocha. The Prado, the Reina Sofía, the Royal Palace and the Retiro are all between 1.4 and 1.6 miles off, which is a walk if you fancy it and two or three stops if you do not. Do not bring a car: Calle Velarde sits inside the ZBEDEP Distrito Centro low-emission zone, cameras read every plate, and unauthorised entry is a fineable offence.
- Plaza del Dos de Mayo: About 150 m, a 2-minute walk
- Tribunal metro (Lines 1 and 10): About 230 m, a 3-minute walk
- Museo de Historia de Madrid: About 300 yards, a 4-minute walk
- Calle Manuela Malasaña: About 400 m, a 5-minute walk
- Bilbao metro (Lines 1, 4 and 10): About 450 m, a 6-minute walk
- Sociedad General de Autores: About 800 yards, a 9-minute walk
- Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Conde Duque: About 850 yards, a 10-minute walk
- Plaza de Chueca: About 10 minutes on foot
- Puerta del Sol: About 0.8 miles, a 17-minute walk or two stops on Line 1
- Madrid-Barajas Airport: About 13 km, 15 to 20 minutes by taxi
Getting to Key Locations
Within a 15-minute walk: all 3 places below.
Plaza del Dos de Mayo
2 min walk
A 2-minute walk up the street brings you to the square the whole barrio revolves around, built round the surviving brick arch of the Monteleón artillery barracks and the monument to Daoíz and Velarde. It is a playground and a dog run by day and a vermouth terrace by evening, and it is the closest thing Malasaña has to a living room.
View on Map
Photo: Ricardo Peironcely, CC BY-SA 4.0
Museo de Historia de Madrid
4 min walk
A 4-minute walk down Fuencarral gets you to the most extravagant Baroque doorway in Madrid, carved by Pedro de Ribera for what was once a poorhouse. Inside is a free museum of the city's own story, including a superb scale model of Madrid as it stood in the 1830s. Twenty minutes here will change how you read every street outside.
View on Map
Photo: Javier Perez Montes, CC BY-SA 4.0
Sociedad General de Autores
9 min walk
A 9-minute walk east takes you to Calle Fernando VI and the strangest façade in the city, José Grases Riera's 1902 Modernista building for the authors' society, which looks as though the stone melted and then set again. Madrid has very little Art Nouveau and this is the piece that makes up for it.
View on MapHow to Get to CH Velarde
- From Madrid-Barajas Airport: Take Metro Line 8 to Nuevos Ministerios, then Line 6 one loop to Bilbao and Line 1 one stop to Tribunal. Leave by the Calle Fuencarral exit, walk north a few metres to Calle Velarde and turn towards Plaza del Dos de Mayo; number 22 is on the left. A single Zone A ticket runs €1.50 to €2.00 plus the compulsory €3.00 airport supplement. A taxi is a flat €33 to anywhere inside the M-30, at any hour, with no luggage or night surcharge.
- From Atocha station: Take Metro Line 1 towards Pinar de Chamartín straight through to Tribunal, about eight stops, then the Fuencarral exit and a three-minute walk. No changes needed.
- From Chamartín station: Line 1 runs direct from Chamartín to Tribunal. Allow around twenty minutes plus the walk.
- Getting around once you are here: Buy a reusable Tarjeta Multi for €2.50 at any metro machine and load a ten-trip Metrobús ticket at €7.30, which works on the metro and city buses and can be shared between people. It does not cover the airport supplement. Do not drive: the street is inside the ZBEDEP Distrito Centro zone, entry is camera-enforced around the clock, and unauthorised access is a €200 fine.
Malasaña, Straight Out of the Front Door
You will not need a plan. Espíritu Santo, Calle del Pez and Manuela Malasaña are all within five minutes and carry most of the barrio's vintage shops, speciality coffee and tapas bars between them. Velarde 13, a specialist bar with a Guía Repsol Solete for its lacón sandwich, croquetas and bravas, is literally next door on this street.
Two dates matter enormously for this address. The Fiestas del Dos de Mayo take over the plaza a hundred and fifty metres away at the start of May, and for 2026 the council is capping the square at 8,000 people behind fenced access points for the first time. MADO, Madrid Pride, runs from late June into early July with the main parade on the first Saturday of July, and Chueca is ten minutes away. Book far ahead for either.
Otherwise, spring and autumn are the good months. August is very hot and a lot of local businesses shut. Winter is quiet and cheaper, but the hot water here is shared between rooms, so pick your shower time.
Watch: A Walk Through Malasaña
A local walk through exactly the streets you would step out onto, from Plaza del Dos de Mayo two minutes away to the cafés and shops of Calle Manuela Malasaña. It is in Spanish, but you are watching it for the streets.
Is CH Velarde worth it?
Yes, if you travel light and plan to be out. You get a private, genuinely clean, twelve-square-metre room with its own bathroom, a hundred and fifty metres from the best square in central Madrid and three minutes from the metro. You do not get a lift, a reception, a breakfast or much floor space. Save the WhatsApp number, pack a bag you can carry up four flights, and it is one of the best-value beds in the centre of the city.
What Guests Say About CH Velarde
Scores and review counts are aggregated from verified guest bookings on major travel platforms.
Good
The reviews are unusually consistent, and they split along one line: whether the guest knew what they were booking. Everyone agrees on the location and the cleanliness, and Wi-Fi comes up again and again as better than expected. The lower scores come almost entirely from three things, and all three are on this page already: the room is small, the stairs are real, and there is nobody to talk to in person. Guests who arrived expecting a private, spotless, compact room in the best-placed barrio in Madrid got exactly that.
A short, positive note from a couple who had nothing they wanted to change.
Rated the setting highly: central, close to everything, and a spotless room. His reservations were the size, really only somewhere to sleep before heading out, and a shower that ran cold at times because the hot water is shared with the other rooms. Worth bearing in mind for a winter trip.
Found the room smaller than expected, and noted that reaching it means climbing to the third floor with no lift.
Praised how clean and cared-for everything was, with towels swapped during her stay. Check-in confused her at first, but the WhatsApp contact walked her through it. She had the smallest room in the house, so the bed sat against the wall with no bedside table on her side, yet she thought it fair for what she paid and said it was like having her own Madrid apartment. She loved the location.
A good pick for a short trip where you mainly need somewhere to sleep. Singled out the cleanliness, and was grateful for the air conditioning in the summer heat. The downside was that the window looks onto a wall, so the room felt boxed-in and dark during the day.
Short and positive: a comfortable stay, an excellent position and good value, with nothing he wanted to complain about.
Liked the room and the location, and found the staff quick to reply. The catch on their day was heavy building work nearby that made things noisy from morning on. They also wished the room had a full-length mirror.
Rated the location as excellent but flagged real gripes: a persistent bathroom odour that room spray would not shift, a dusty kettle, and a three-flight climb that is tough with a suitcase. Asked that the stairs and the online check-in be spelled out clearly before arrival.
Rated it good value overall. The one thing that bothered them was a stuck bathroom filter.
Enjoyed the position among plenty of bars, and a clean room that matched the photos, ideal for a short break. Noted the room was a touch small and that having no reception or direct contact person can be a drawback, since replies to messages can take a while.
Good to Know Before You Book
Third floor, stairs only
The guest house occupies the third floor of a traditional building and there is no lift. In Madrid a third floor commonly means four flights up from the pavement once you count the entresuelo and the principal. Reviewers are consistent that it is hard work with a heavy suitcase, so pack light or plan on two trips.
You let yourself in, with a code
Nobody is on site. After booking, the property sends an access code and a WhatsApp number, and you complete a short registration online before you arrive. Save that WhatsApp contact before you travel: it is the fastest way to reach anyone, and replies are not always instant.
Pay before you arrive, and bring a card
Payment is taken by bank transfer ahead of the stay, and you will need photo ID and a credit card at check-in. Cash is not accepted anywhere on site. Arriving after 23:00 carries a late check-in surcharge, so tell the property in advance if your flight lands late.
Do not bring a car
Calle Velarde is inside the ZBEDEP Distrito Centro, the strictest of Madrid's low-emission zones, enforced around the clock by number-plate cameras. Only DGT 0 and ECO vehicles move freely; B and C labels may enter only to reach an authorised car park; foreign-plated cars must pre-register with the city before entering. Unauthorised access is a €200 fine. Come by metro or taxi.
Cancellation terms depend on the rate you pick
Cancellation and prepayment conditions vary by rate here, and the exact policy shows before you confirm. Separately, and regardless of rate, the property takes payment by bank transfer ahead of arrival, so read both the rate conditions and the payment note before you book.
Call CH Velarde
Ring the house line if you need to check the arrival code, flag a late flight or ask which rooms face the street rather than the light well.
+34 914 474 724Photos of CH Velarde
Frequently Asked Questions
Stairs only. The guest house is on the third floor and the building has no lift. In Madrid a third floor usually means four flights up from street level, because the entresuelo and principal sit below the first. It is a genuine climb with luggage, and it is the single most common thing guests say they wish they had known.
You book, then the property contacts you to take payment by bank transfer and send an access code along with a WhatsApp number. You fill in a short registration online, arrive between 15:00 and 23:00, key yourself in and go to your room. There is nobody on site at any point, so save that WhatsApp contact before you travel.
Not here, unfortunately, but there is a workaround the big listings never mention: the same operator runs a staffed guest house on Calle Fuencarral, roughly five minutes' walk away, and bags can be left there after check-out. Ask on WhatsApp before your last morning.
There is no parking at the property, and you should not drive here at all. Calle Velarde is inside the ZBEDEP Distrito Centro low-emission zone, enforced around the clock by plate-reading cameras, and unauthorised entry is a €200 fine. Only DGT 0 and ECO vehicles move freely; B and C labels may enter only to reach an authorised car park; foreign-plated cars must pre-register with the city. Public car parks around Tribunal and Plaza de España typically run €25 to €33 a day.
No. Breakfast is not offered at all, and there is no restaurant or bar. Every room has an electric kettle, and Malasaña has as good a concentration of cafés as anywhere in Madrid, several of them within two minutes of the door.
Tribunal, on Lines 1 and 10, about 230 metres away, roughly three minutes on foot. Bilbao is 450 metres and Alonso Martínez 600. Line 1 runs direct from Tribunal to Sol and on to Atocha, which makes arriving by train very easy.
Around twelve square metres, with one double bed. The operator says their doubles run between 1.20 m and 1.35 m wide, so it is comfortable for one and cosy for two. All nine rooms are the same type, though they vary slightly in size, and the smallest have the bed against a wall with only one bedside table.
Standard check-in runs from 15:00 to 23:00, and arriving after 23:00 carries a late check-in surcharge. Because entry is by keycode there is no practical barrier to a late arrival, but the property does need to know in advance, so message the WhatsApp number with your flight details.
Malasaña is a nightlife barrio and the house keeps quiet hours from 23:00 to 08:00, which helps inside but not outside. Rooms facing the interior light well are quieter but darker; street-facing rooms get daylight and more noise. Say which you would prefer when you message about your arrival.
Yes, all three are the same nine-room guest house at Calle Velarde 22. It traded as Pensión Enebral until around April 2022, then as Le Petit Palü-Velarde, and has been CH Velarde since around March 2024. The booking link still carries the original Enebral name in its web address, which catches people out. It is run by the Le Petit Palü group, which has several other houses in central Madrid.
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Ready for Malasaña?
Nine private en-suite rooms on the third floor of a building 150 metres from Plaza del Dos de Mayo, three minutes from Tribunal metro, with a keycode instead of a front desk. Pack light and check the dates.
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