Hotel Condes de Barcelona — Attraction in Barcelona

As a local Google guide, and avid world traveller, I have stayed at perhaps 20-30 different hotels in Barcelona over the years. Today, I can honestly say this hotel has been the BEST experience in terms of service, location and dining. Casa Enric Batlló, is the home to the Hotel Condes de Barcelona's sister property, The Monument Hotel (and is the work of the architect Josep Vilaseca i Casanovas, built between 1895 and 1896) which is located right across the street. This makes the Condes hotel even more desireable than the Monument Hotel, because it has a view of the unique façade Monument Hotel, in addition to all of the amazing sites of.Barcelona. For this reason, it's worth paying the extra premium for the Passeig de Gracia view rooms at the Hotel COndes de Barcelona. ( though each room is immaculately designed and situated - since I asked to see the rooms of different 'price' categories).

The hotel is also a former nineteenth century palace – Casa Daurella® which has recently been renovated to the T. They have create a beautiful hotel in which even the most picky of customers would feel comfortable. Everything is clean and sparkly.

It's also worth paying the add'l fee for the breakfast buffet. Martín Berasategui , who has a Michelin star, is the head of botth the Condes and Monument hotel's restaurants. Therefore, you experience the kitchen that is overseen by a Michelin chef. I would make room for a 'set menu' lunch at the hotel, and also reserve time to have at least a glass of Cava overlookng Passeig de Gracia at the rooftop bar, Alaire. They have a full menu for lunch, tapas and seem to have live music often. Check with reception about that. The hotel is ideally located on Paseo de Gracia, the a beautiful avenue of the city, and is opposite Gaudí’s La Pedrera. A few minutes away is Plaza Cataluña - which is ideal for those landing at BCN airport. You can pay a 5.90Euro fare on the Aerobus that takes you directly to Plaza Cataluña. From their it's about a 15 minute walk if you are lugging suitcases. only 10 if you're traveling light. Alternatively, I would imagine the taxi fare directly from the Plaza would be cheaper than 10 euros. We walked each way and it was easy and safe. In fact, this is one of the safest districts to stay as well. I would also ask the reception/concierge for their recommendations on what to see/where to go on the days you're there. They are aware of all the concerts/events/festivals and will lead you in the right direction. This hotel is fantastic and a hidden 'gem' in the midst of all the hotels in...

Broken and run down hotel. Stinky, dirty, neglected sub-par rooms with dysfunctional ac and showers, lots of wear and tear and very poor maintenance. We paid a 4-star price for a 1 or 2-star room. No compensation was offered. Won’t be back and will warn others to avoid this hotel. We were first given a room on the 6th floor. The room smelled like strong body odor/armpit. We were offered a different room on the 2nd floor which reeked of the same smell. We decided not to switch. As we spent more time in the room, we noticed many, many more issues. After 2 hours with the AC on the room was hot, air conditioning was not working. The bed was incredibly rigid and uncomfortable. There were crumbs and bits of paper on the floor, wear and tear everywhere. I took a shower – which was very confusing to operate and the water flow was abysmal and temperature kept radically changing without my touching anything. There was black mold on the floor of the shower. The water leaked through the gap in the shower door and gap in the bathroom door all the way to the front door of the room. This is clearly a long-term, recurring issue that has been neglected and untreated because there is water damage on the wooden wall around the door exactly where the water went. I called to complain and they sent up a maintenance guy who was like ‘yeah, you’re right’ when I said it’s very evidently an untreated issue. He used a plunger on the shower (which was not clogged), just to show he did something, dried up the water and left. Then my husband took a shower and the same exact thing happened. At that point we opted to switch rooms to the smaller, smelly alternative room. We were offered the option of another room the following day but didn’t want to risk yet another terrible room, better the devil you know. We were not offered any compensation, complimentary breakfast or anything for our terrible experience with them. Other annoyances: One of the elevators does not go to floor 0 (the lobby), another doesn’t go to floor 1 (the breakfast area). Neither has a button to close the doors so the doors take a full two minutes to close. Good luck getting to any floor in a timely manner. We sat in the lobby and a large black tube fell on us from the tall wall fixtures. Luckily it didn’t hit us directly, but very unnerving. Good parts: Maybe the location, and the staff person helping with luggage was very nice. Not worth the disgusting rooms and broken-down...

DO NOT STAY HERE!!!! This is the worst hotel I have ever stayed at with my girlfriend. What looked like a nice hotel quickly turned into a nightmare when I checked into the room to find an ant infestation. At first, there were only a few ants, despite the windows being closed and the room being "clean." We killed the ones we saw upon entering and then we left to explore Barcelona for the day. After hours of being out and being exhausted from an overnight flight, all we wanted to do was come back and sleep. Instead we came back to THOUSANDS of ants in every crevice of our room and in every part of our bags/luggage. They were in our bed sheets, in our bathroom, in every single pocket and fold of all of our luggage. It was DISGUSTING.||We complained to the front desk (it was midnight) and they said they would switch our room. I requested housekeeping be sent to our room to help us remove the ants from our bags and help bring our stuff into the new room. The housekeeping lady came in and told us it was too big of a mess to clean without help. Then she left us in the room to fend for ourselves! So we spent over an hour removing every single thing out of our bags, shaking the ants out, and then repacking. Ultimately we had to clean and take the stuff to the next room ourselves.||As you can imagine, this ruined our entire stay in Barcelona. We were so worked up and grossed out that the sleep we so desperately looked forward to was ruined. I demanded a refund of the night at the front desk. They told me to speak to management in the morning. I told them the time I would be at the desk. When I got to the desk, the manager was "in a meeting" and when I asked how long he/she would be, they did not know of course. I am currently battling with them to get my money back, especially after paying an extra $100 for early check in! But Hotel Condes does not give your money back so choose very wisely when considering whether you want to stay here and risk your vacation to Barcelona being RUINED!||And special shoutout to staff member Esteban, whose attitude comes straight from hell. Even upon checking in before all of this, his cold demeanor and harsh tone were so off-putting. I wouldn't wish dealing with him on my worst enemy. You'd think a smile would make him burst into flames the way he repelled joy. Rethink the hospitality industry please!||And to Hotel Condes: No one wants to go on vacation and clean ants our of their bag at...