AC Hotel Avenida de America is an excellent choice, though not in the center of the city.

I arrived there late (10:30 PM) and as often when booked with Expedia, they had no room reserved for me.
The employee at the reception then managed for me to have an access to my personal mailbox on Internet on his PC so that I could print out my Expedia reservation.
Then he could give me a room for the special Expedia fare (a low 85 € for this specific night).

Rooms are quite large, bathroom very convenient with a large set of "goodies" such as comb, toothbrush, razor, shoeshiner,...

The mattress is especially good as is the quilt.

There is a free minibar with sodas and water.

Yes, non-Spanish TV programs are vey limited : one English (CNN), one French (TV5), one German.

I did not take breakfast nor diner, so I can't talk about the food.

We were dubious about this hotel as not in the centre and a 3 star. But it turned out to be much better than expected.

We personally felt it to be a 4 star rather than a 3. We've stayed in some European 4 star hotels that are no where near as nice.

The rooms are large and nicely decorated. The bathroom and the shower especially is lovely and of 4 maybe 5 star standard.

It is out of town but it's only a couple of minutes walk from the tube and in total you can be where you want to be within 20 minutes and the tube is very cheap (compared to London).

Yes there are no real english channels so overseas business travellers will find that annoying but as a tourist we weren't really interested in the TV.

The breakfast is a bit overpriced for what you get especially as Madrid is overflowing with Cafe's. There is one around the corner that is priced for locals.

What we found very surprising is that no one really used the restaurant for dinner. The food was lovely and cheaper than the over priced/poor quality food that you get in the tourist areas. Also you get free tea/coffee/soft drinks/pastries all day and the lounge area is lovely and very comfortable.

We would stay there again if going to madrid.

PS some reviews say the staff are not helpful. Their English isn't great but they were helpful, especially with my Husbands constant need for a iron!

Stayed here for a few days recently:

The good:
- large clean rooms
- 10 minutes walk from Avda de America Metro station
- on the east side of town, about 12km from the Airport
- limited free mini-bar (1 beer/day....)

The bad
- staff OK, ranging from reasonably friendly to plain surly
- 25 tele channels (all dubbed in Spanish, save CNN. OK, this is Spain, but a consideration for the overseas guests.....)
- the cost - about Euro125 without breakfast

I expected better for the cost.

My husband and I have just got back from our wonderful stay at the AC Avda de America in Madrid. This hotel is rated a 3 * but I would say it's more like 5, compared to other 3-4 * hotels in England and the US where we've also been.
We chose a hotel away from the city centre because we did not want to put up with the noise in a hotel downtown. The hotel is in a nice residential area, extremely safe (which can't be said for many other places in Madrid, specially at night) and a few minutes away from a main Metro (tube) stop. A taxi to town only cost us around €5-6 so we did that a couple of times.
The staff were extremely courteous and helpful although it did help that I'm completely fluent in Spanish. They suggested a smoking room instead due to their bigger size and we couldn't have been more pleased. The room was indeed of a great size, the bed was extremely comfortable and the bathroom was spotless, completely tiled in green marble. The extras are what made this hotel so great. The minibar, full of soft-drinks, was free, and re-stocked every day, there was a cybercafe and gym on-site and a special room with free snacks and beverages until 7pm. The maids were virtually invisible but still managed to get our room looking perfect, including the bathroom every day. The little details like the free tissues, razors, sponges and toothbrushes we got made it all special.
Overall, I can't fault the hotel even in the slightest thing. It made our whole stay in Madrid perfect.