Hostemplo

It is located 450 meters from the Sagrada Familia and it is an ideal location between 2 and 4 subway stations from the main tourist sites of the city. Comfortable, quiet hotel with parking in the immediate vicinity. Very well maintained and clean, sufficient comfort and contemporary style room. The staff is efficient and responsive. You are greeted at the entrance with a smile and also a coffee machine and a water fountain, which is very useful during these heat waves. The breakfast is varied with a sweet or savory choice that will suit everyone, I think. This is the second time we have come here.

As 2 older women traveling together, we asked for twin beds. Somehow that request did not make it through booking.com and we arrived to find ourselves assigned to a queen bed in the smallest room imaginable. Everything was full so we were not able to change rooms for 2 nights and we were charged a cleaning fee (+/- 45 euros) to change. In all fairness, I will say that the cleaning fee was originally supposed to be 70 euros and was lowered when we protested that we should not have had to pay for the error that was made. Additionally, the first room was uncomfortably small with a diagonal wall that left only a 2 foot space between a corner of the bed and the wall. There was 1 dining chair, no table or desk and the positioning of the bed left the sleeper on the left (me) with a large orange exit light only about 10 feet from my eyes and I found it disturbing all night long. The bathroom offered very little privacy. Based on our stay in this room, I would have given Hostemplo a very bad review, but we moved to a twin beds room, not much larger but laid out in a much better fashion. My only complaint with the 2nd room was the large, clear glass window between the bathroom and the bed I slept in. Aside from obvious privacy issues, whenever someone turned on the bathroom light, and it was very bright, it lit the whole room and awakened whichever of us was sleeping. The designers of both rooms don’t seem to have realized that some travelers like both privacy and darkness in a hotel room. The breakfast provided (at an additional fee) at the neighboring Hostemplo was good with a nice variety of offerings, snacks, coffee and tea were available in our lobby 24/7, housekeeping missed us 3 out of 9 days, but the desk staff were amazing, kind and helpful and made up for many shortcomings.

Spacious, pristine room and bathroom with well-judged lighting and décor, just steps away from Sagrada Família, and yet wonderfully quiet. The breakfast was very good, and the guy at reception recommended a local restaurant to us (Zed) which proved so great that we went there for both of our main meals during our too-short stay.