Aa City Center Apartments Barcelona

( 3 stars , Barcelona , Spain )

Perfectly situated,with everything you would need nearby.

Difficult to find a starting point... Upon arrival we were guided to the apartment. Has been booked on the hotel.com website where we received the confirmation for apartment 3a which - once you look on their apartment layout site - means spacious balcony etc. Once in the apartments we received apartment 2a which had no balcony and was way smaller..Great start...Asking for the booked apartment was answered by " Whatever they show on the reservation we don't care. We book people in on how we want and how we think it fits best"..Just what you want to hear. Further we were told that after 4 days we have to move apartments which is also much appreciated if you have a 2 year old with all the toys and baggage. But for now let's stay with apartment 2a....do not trust the pictures you will find on various websites.the pictures are from either different apartments or mix and mingle from various apartments where always the best part has been used - and someone worked with professional lightning and photoshop on the pics. So in 2a what we found is...very small, 2 separated beds that can be pushed together,resulting in you redecorating and having a gap between yourself and your misses. A shower that only has 50 liters of hot water-so be quick and make sure your wife is as well. Socket in the bathroom is way beyond health and safety regulations,the shower is way too small, not enough water pressure and mildews spreading. We do not agree on the "clean factor" as we opened the blankets and found pubic hair,sticky floors and kitchen tools that were dirty. The television is more a laugh as well...it is like maybe 15" on a wallmount and has only aerial via the built in antenna...so crap picture quality for a start and further only Spanish channels... Kitchen, not really a kitchen as not complete in tools and also more designed for students than for families. All in all the whole appearance looks a bit worn out - and would need some proper redecoration and paint job...stains on the walls, massive stains on the ceiling. Then moved into 4a..that one now had a balcony so slightly closer to what we expected and booked. Into that one then and the first shock was there already....the big split air condition is broken and was replaced by a small portable unit that was way underpowered for the apartment - so the apartment is always sticky hot- ..and so noisy that you can't use it while sleeping and the tube where the water runs out of the machine was full of black mildew - and as it was clear plastic you could have a lovely view of the mildew in that tube which might give you an impression on how the air condition itself must be. The portable air condition also resulted in a space loss as it somehow is always in the way. Bathroom again mildew growing up all the walls and the sink installation is beyond anything you can imagine. The couch in the living area has some broken slats so that once you sit on it you nearly drop on the floor. The fridge is way to noisy as well and all the kitchen tools have been so dirty that you do not even want to use them. Cleanliness...non existing...sticky floor, dirty table, pubic hair again, long dark hair of the maid (or whatever...but for sure not ours), cut off toe nails on the floor and in general the floor is so dirty that once you walked around for a few minutes bare feet your feet are pitch black. All in all not very enjoyable and compared to other apartments in Barcelona and the price you pay here....total rip off and not to be recommended at all. Actually so annoying that we considered leaving earlier, having said that the downside on that one is that it is paid in advance. So they have all your money already once you get there and not like a hotel where you pay on your way out....otherwise we would have been gone after the first night for sure.

Fantastic location for visiting all the sites in Barcelona. We had a studio apartment which was big and clean. Michael (the meeter and greeter) was fantastic and very helpful. Beware the pictures on the website do not match the rooms. The room also needed sprucing up with paint flaking and things not fixed e.g. PC, TV, mirror, etc.