Thank you! I'll hope to stay there early March. I was just now researching all albergues along the route from Malaga, and saw your post. Great timing for me to see this. Thanks again. Are you by any chance blogging/posting your walk, and listing places you've stayed?
Glad to hear! For sure, I'm happy to list the albergues so far. I expect my list to be similar to what others have posted, but here goes a January 2023 version. All the albergues I stayed at had blankets. I used my (light, summer) sleeping bag and then put the blankets on top of it, wore my fleece vest if necessary and wasn't cold at any moment. I have been lucky with the weather, though.
Junta de los Caminos: no albergue
Hostal Jose Carlos
Almogía:
Albergue de peregrinos (La Noria)
Microwave. One person wrote in the guestbook that they have been cold at night in this albergue, maybe handy for some to know.
Alonso the policeman arrived in 10 minutes, very kind man too.
Villanueva de la Concepción:
Albergue de peregrinos
Microwave, fridge. (Maybe more, I don't remember).
I was unlucky here - waited for 2 hours until someone could open the door for me. Maybe everyone was busy on the 5th of January in preparation for the 6th. Anyway, from what I've read, others have had more luck and were able to retrieve the key from the lady living opposite the albergue (she wasn't home when I arrived and nobody else seemed to have the key).
Antequera:
Hotel Manzanito (there is a pilgrim's albergue, but I happened to have already booked).
Antequera was beautiful and could make a good rest day town.
Villanueva de Algaidas:
Albergue de peregrinos
Very large. Has kitchen: microwave, fridge, freezer compartment, electric stove.
Side note: I left this town when it was still completely dark, which I don't recommend for this etapa. More comfortable to have at least some beginning sunlight, since you have to go through sandy / muddy / bushy parts.
Encinas Reales:
Albergue de peregrinos
Microwave, a bit more basic generally (but lots of beds).
Located at the 'terrace' of the chapel, go through the gates and immediately look to your right. Given the gate-like door that lets air through, this albergue risks being colder at night, I think (I used two blankets and was fine).
Lucena: no albergue yet
Stayed at an apartment, which was sadly the cheapest (but not cheap) option.
Bar Junior B for breakfast, if that's near where you stay (opened at 7.30 when I was there, at this time of year it's light around 8AM so may be early enough).
Cabra: no albergue yet
Pensión Guerrero
Baena: no albergue yet?
Ruta del Califato
This is supposedly the only albergue (not a peregrino one), but I seem to remember having seen info on the Baena albergue de peregrinos somewhere - worth finding out. I was recommended this albergue by María José from Pensión Guerrero, who is tremendously helpful (!).
A handy resource I used for phone numbers and addresses of the albergues is this:
caminosantiagoandalucia.org
E.g. for Villanueva de la Concepción:
IDENTIFICACIÓN DEL ALBERGUE Denominación : Albergue de Peregrinos Dirección : calle Almería Tipo : Albergue Pago : Donativo Gestión : Municipal Llaves : Policía Local – Ayuntamiento Teléfono …
caminosantiagoandalucia.org
The site isn't always easy to navigate, so I usually just googled 'albergue peregrino [name of town]' and looked for this website to come up.
In general, for info on whether a town has an albergue or not and whether it is open (or how soon someone can open it for you), usually the phone numbers listed are from the policía local / guardía civil, so you can also just look those up and call for info. I've also found it handy to ask the local Oficina de Turismo about albergues. In the coming time (months, year?), the plan seems to be to open new albergues, so for those travelling in the upcoming time it might be worthwhile checking with the authorities if they're open yet. Calling seems to get you to more reliable information than some of the websites do, which are not always up to date (same for the opening hours of restaurants in e.g. Cabra, sad face).
You haven't walk Levante from Alicante - that might be Sureste 
