Hotel Casa Fuster — Hotel in Barcelona

Unfortunately the lack of cleanliness was disturbing for what you would expect at even a 3 star hotel, let alone a 5 star hotel in the Gracia neighborhood. We are traveling with our nanny and 2 year old daughter so got a family suite with a common area and 2 bedrooms each with their own bath attached. There is 1 main front door separating the space from the main hallway. Housekeeping came when our daughter was still sleeping, so was asked to come back around 1pm while we would be out, and that we'd be back around 4. We went about our day, got to our room at 4, and housekeeping had just barely started on the master bedroom. The sink was filled with water, no soap in sight, and our espresso cups from yesterday morning were soaking with our used yogurt spoons. We were on a schedule to get to several reservations throughout the rest of the evening, and had to pay extra to move some back and cancel one so my husband and I could shower the pool and afternoon off us after not being able to shower at 4pm as planned because housekeeping was 3 hours late. That's a big miss for a 5 star hotel. Did not meet expectations. That evening, my husband and I continued with parts of our planned date night - only those we could still have despite the huge inconvenience of not having a usable room at 4pm (over 24 hours after we had checked in) but it led to then not being able to make our final reservation either, so we figured we would just go to the roof top bar for a drink or 2 before heading back to our room. We didn't want to wake the baby, so wanted to avoid going In and out. I forgot my sweater as we were rushing because we were already behind from housekeeping, so I asked if we could have a blanket sent up to the rooftop bar, to whichhousekeeping, the department that ruined our baby free date night in Barcelona, said they had a policy against blankets from the room up there. I could understand that, IF they hadnt been the reason we were aettling for the rooftop bar in the firat place. Again, just not accomodating for a 5 star hotel and did not meet expectations. We ended up going inside to Cafe Vienes for dessert and drinks, but the kitchen was closed, totally understandabke, but when we asked if we could have room service (24 hours) to the cafe (on floor 0 in the lobby of the hotel) they again, could not accommodate. It again would not be so upsetting if they hadn't caused the chain reaction of our 1 child free night in Barcelona. I asked for a late checkout the next morning (by 1 hour, not even 3) to which they told me they couldnt guarentee bith rooms of the apartment a late check out. Again, so unaccomodating for a 5 syar hotel. The icing on the cake was when at midnight, tored amd frustrated after an evening if ruined plans by their 3 hour error, I attempted to express my frustration with the situation, but wasnt abke to get even 1 sentence completed before the man at the front desk cut me off and was rude and condescending to me. I do admit my initial tone was emotional and angry. After he cut me off, I did raise my voice and i could have handled that better. But jetlagged and after the entire evening being ruined by such a stupid error, and paying $1K+ per night, wouldnt you be emotional too? I wanted to be heard, listened to, and even just had a feigned display of care amd concern. We regret not sticking with Hotel Majestic for our Barcelona stay this time. They have apartments there as well which have always been properly & punctually cleaned. The doormen were superb and did all you would expect from a 5 star accommodation. There were some ladies at the front desk during the day that were helpful and sympathetic when it happened, so maybe it was just one rude person that needs to be trained on client interactions. Overall extremely...

The Hotel Casa Fuster is a beautiful and very nice hotel, but given that it is a 5 star hotel some of my (very high) expectations were not fully met. Starting with the strong points, the hotel is a beautiful and well-maintained building in one of Barcelona’s nicer neighborhoods. The rooms were quite beautifully furnished, the beds were huge (they seemed like oversized king beds), and the rooms and bathrooms were appointed as one would expect / hope in a 5 star hotel. The hotel has a very nice rooftop bar area, a lobby restaurant which had jazz one night while we were there, a Michelin star restaurant on the first floor, and a very nice breakfast buffet on the floor below the ground floor. The reception, door, and concierge staff were all warm and welcoming. In our room we had some nice chocolate, fruit and wine treats to welcome us upon our arrival, and turndown service includes leaving a couple of chocolates in the room nightly. All quite nice. It’s also worth noting that the hotel, at the end of the Paseo de Gracia, has great views of the nicest street in Barcelona and is quite centrally located. However, centrally located doesn’t mean that is very close to the main attractions! The Barcelona Cathedral (one of the closer points in the old city / Gothic Quarter) is a 1.5 mile walk to the southeast (and the start of La Rambla is slightly less than that), the Sagrada Familia is 1 mile walk to the east, Park Guell is a 1.4 mile walk to the north, the Christopher Columbus statue / monument a 2 mile walk to the south… so we found ourselves taking cabs most of the time and Barcelona traffic isn’t great! (The metro is another option, if you are inclined..)

On to some of the drawbacks. While service was friendly there were a few occasions where things weren’t quite as expected. On three different occasions, something that was expected (based on what we’d arranged at booking or a request that was made during our stay) was missed. When I called the front desk it was promptly addressed each time, but I do expect more from a hotel of this caliber. When we checked in the room was very warm. When I lowered the temperature in the room it probably took about 6 hours to hit the target temperature. The hair dryer in the bathroom is attached to the side of the vanity and the cord isn’t long enough (or flexible enough) to allow a person to comfortably use it while standing in front of the mirror. (They do provide a small metal stool you can use, probably because they realize this). You need to keep your room key in one of those key slots to turn on the lights in the room, which is a bit annoying if you want to run out of the room with someone staying behind (in fairness I don’t know if this is a city requirement but if not then it’s something that maybe the hotel might wish to consider - perhaps providing guests an extra key on check-in). The room service staff were a bit overzealous in getting rid of extra papers (like the one we got on check-in that had the WiFi password written on it!) and unplugging and putting away my wall charger daily. We had no way to physically connect a laptop or iPad to our TV and the technology to wirelessly connect wasn’t working. Breakfast was great but you couldn’t serve yourself coffee, and ordering and receiving it could take a while. No one thing that big a deal, but in aggregate I ding them a bit for it. Maybe we’re overly picky… but at a hotel of this caliber we feel that the details matter, and honestly many of them were better addressed at the hotels we stayed at in other cities in our stay, none of which were 5 star properties…

With all that said, when it comes to the fundamentals, it’s still a very nice and quite comfortable hotel with helpful, responsive, and...

The Hotel Casa Fuster is a beautiful and very nice hotel, but given that it is a 5 star hotel some of my (very high) expectations were not fully met. Starting with the strong points, the hotel is a beautiful and well-maintained building in one of Barcelona’s nicer neighborhoods. The rooms were quite beautifully furnished, the beds were huge (they seemed like oversized king beds), and the rooms and bathrooms were appointed as one would expect / hope in a 5 star hotel. The hotel has a very nice rooftop bar area, a lobby restaurant which had jazz one night while we were there, a Michelin star restaurant on the first floor, and a very nice breakfast buffet on the floor below the ground floor. The reception, door, and concierge staff were all warm and welcoming. In our room we had some nice chocolate, fruit and wine treats to welcome us upon our arrival, and turndown service includes leaving a couple of chocolates in the room nightly. All quite nice. It’s also worth noting that the hotel, at the end of the Paseo de Gracia, has great views of the nicest street in Barcelona and is quite centrally located. However, centrally located doesn’t mean that is very close to the main attractions! The Barcelona Cathedral (one of the closer points in the old city / Gothic Quarter) is a 1.5 mile walk to the southeast (and the start of La Rambla is slightly less than that), the Sagrada Familia is 1 mile walk to the east, Park Guell is a 1.4 mile walk to the north, the Christopher Columbus statue / monument a 2 mile walk to the south… so we found ourselves taking cabs most of the time and Barcelona traffic isn’t great! (The metro is another option, if you are inclined..)||On to some of the drawbacks. While service was friendly there were a few occasions where things weren’t quite as expected. On three different occasions, something that was expected (based on what we’d arranged at booking or a request that was made during our stay) was missed. When I called the front desk it was promptly addressed each time, but I do expect more from a hotel of this caliber. When we checked in the room was very warm. When I lowered the temperature in the room it probably took about 6 hours to hit the target temperature. The hair dryer in the bathroom is attached to the side of the vanity and the cord isn’t long enough (or flexible enough) to allow a person to comfortably use it while standing in front of the mirror. (They do provide a small metal stool you can use, probably because they realize this). You need to keep your room key in one of those key slots to turn on the lights in the room, which is a bit annoying if you want to run out of the room with someone staying behind (in fairness I don’t know if this is a city requirement but if not then it’s something that maybe the hotel might wish to consider - perhaps providing guests an extra key on check-in). The room service staff were a bit overzealous in getting rid of extra papers (like the one we got on check-in that had the WiFi password written on it!) and unplugging and putting away my wall charger daily. We had no way to physically connect a laptop or iPad to our TV and the technology to wirelessly connect wasn’t working. Breakfast was great but you couldn’t serve yourself coffee, and ordering and receiving it could take a while. No one thing that big a deal, but in aggregate I ding them a bit for it. Maybe we’re overly picky… but at a hotel of this caliber we feel that the details matter, and honestly many of them were better addressed at the hotels we stayed at in other cities in our stay, none of which were 5 star properties…||With all that said, when it comes to the fundamentals, it’s still a very nice and quite comfortable hotel with helpful, responsive, and...