Market

Fine small rooms, near the metro and in a decent neighborhood. Not entirely clean, bad air conditioning and no mini-fridge in the room (26 degrees with air conditioning on)

This is a complicated review to write. This hotel wants to be loved and has many of the components of what could be a fan favorite. It’s reasonably priced, rooms are spacious enough to accommodate 2 adults and a pre-teen, beds are sufficiently comfortable and they provide plenty of pillows (not always common). The restaurant downstairs has a great Menu-de-día for **weekday dining ** at €15 pp for 3 full courses and a beverage. The water pressure is great and hot water is swift to tap. I read other travelers’ reviews and can understand the comment that the building is “like an old man”…in a way. It will please a certain type of traveler… someone who is ok with perfect imperfection and who sees age as history. As I descended the narrow staircases I could imagine the multitude of families who lived in what are now hotel rooms and who had traversed the same stairs decades before me. It brought a smile to my face. Now for the areas of opportunity. Please note that this property is definitively in a residential area. Think of an area that has been neglected but is now in mid-gentrification. There are a few buildings apear to have been renovated recently, there are a host of local restaurants and sidewalk bistros that are well patronized by local residents, it’s bustling. But the area is dirty. Plain and simple. If you travel to other parts of town there is a noticeable difference in the cleanliness of the sidewalks. Inside, the facilities are* clean* proven by the good old, use your white bath mat to wipe the floors, test. It came up white. The issue is that this old building is DUSTY. In my room I could see the dust in the air of my bathroom as the steam fri the shower and light illuminated it. There was however, none on any surfaces of the room - a credit to the seemingly very small, hardworking housekeeping staff. There is a charming old (working) elevator in the center, the kind where you have to open an iron door to stow in, and where the pulleys and chains are visible from above or beside as upon pass by on the staircase. The top of it is covered in age-old dust … not the swipe your finger across kind, but the dust that looks like grey cotton kind. What seem to be original (and thus charming) floorboards have spaces in between them. The floors are clean as I’ve mentioned, but the same dust that plagues the open-air elevator shaft is plainly visible between the floorboards. Nothing that a good strong vacuum, or a deliberate effort to use a damp cloth and blade in between couldn’t solve. There was dust observed in far to reach but visible places behind the second more modern open air elevator as well. These are not surfaces a guest would touch, but if I can see them… I would imagine so can others. In conclusion, it was a reasonable final stop on a 2 week journey. Solidly a 3 star property, but no more. Would I return? Maybe, if I couldn’t find another in a neighborhood closer to Sagrada Família (a more pleasant walk) for a similar price. For reference, today we walked 8.1 miles of the city. From luxury shops to the not-so-nice area a block away from the San Antoni Market. Lastly, I will add that when we arrived, the hotel had not been notified by our booking site (Agoda) that we were to be a triple room, despite it being clearly noted only Agoda reservation. Santi at the front desk was gracious in asking for our patience as he worked to resolve the issue. Two tiny women from housekeeping jumped into action to haul a foldout bed, linens and pillows to what was going to be our room while we waited in the downstairs area. It took no more than 10 minutes to resolve. He did share that anything over double occupancy should be directly communicated with the property as the wholesalers don’t always communicate those details.

I have been traveling frequently to Italy and Europe for over forty years, and this is not my first time visiting the beautiful city of Barcelona. But this time I encountered a hotel whose three-star rating is truly generous. I checked in on the evening of Friday, June 5, and when I arrived at night, very tired, I noticed that there was a brown cockroach about 2 cm long wandering around in the shower tray. The next morning, I informed the reception and requested that they take care of it with insecticide. On Saturday night, the cockroach reappeared in the same shower tray. On Sunday morning, after complaining, I bought insecticide myself, sprayed it all over the shower tray, and killed the cockroach; after a few minutes, another practically identical one appeared; it met the same fate as the first, and I complained again to the reception. When I returned in the evening, convinced that everything was in order, I went up to my room, found that the cleaning staff had changed the sheets and towels, but the "corpses" of the two cockroaches were still there. This means that the bathroom cleaning was not done. And perhaps this is the most serious and incredible thing! I have never experienced anything like this! On Monday morning, I checked out, stating that having paid about 600 euros for three nights, I would have expected appropriate standards. I left, leaving the two little corpses in the bathroom. A serious hotel would refund me the amount spent.