Hotel Indigo Barcelona - Plaza Catalunya by IHG — Hotel in Barcelona

I recently stayed at this hotel for the first time for three nights. Firstly, the positives: the location is fantastic, the building itself has been tastefully, renovated, and the patio, swimming, pool and courtyard area are a wonderful sanctuary from the hustle and bustle of Barcelona. The decor of the hotel is fresh and inviting, very clean and welcoming. The staff on the reception was super helpful since check-in was complicated a little bit by the fact that my friend arrived a few hours before I did. The room was extremely clean, the bathroom was huge with a beautiful Jacuzzi bath, but the pressure of the shower on the third floor was quite weak. It’s nice to have a really powerful, Refreshing massage style shower after a long day of sightseeing and work, but unfortunately the pressure of the shower in our room was quite poor, and that was a shame. We had breakfast on three occasions in the hotel. Now for a little bit of negativity, but these are all things that can be quickly and easily resolved. Firstly, the first morning we had breakfast. It was difficult to find a member of staff in the restaurant to ask for additional items from the kitchen. There was a very friendly guy who was clearing away dishes from tables where people had already eaten, but there was no one on the reception desk into the restaurant and in the end we gave up. The second morning, there was a guy on the reception desk to the restaurant, but he seemed more interested in his mobile phone than in dealing with guests who are coming into the restaurant for breakfast. That’s not a great look. The third morning I’m pleased to say was much better. There appeared to be a manager in the restaurant who was organising the staff and the whole atmosphere of the operations seem to be more professional and better organised. Now we come to the food and drink on the breakfast buffet.. a couple of things, which I thought could be improved: firstly, I don’t think it’s nice to have food open and uncovered. I noticed a few guests pick up bread, pastries and other things with their fingers and then put them back. I know this happens in all hotels, but it probably suggests that there are not enough utensils for people to use to pick up the items. The hot food was also not very hot. I am not sure how long the fried eggs had been sitting on the side, but they looks rather congealed and an appetising. The bacon, although tasty was also not very hot. I think the breakfast room could also benefit from an additional coffee machine. Every morning there would be a line of people waiting to use one, rather slow coffee machine. There was certainly plenty of space to have another one and I think this would be a good idea. Finally, and something which I have seen in several hotels recently, but I find quite unhygienic. Is this Fashion of asking people to open a bottle with their own hands in order to pour a glass of orange juice or other drink. Unfortunately, humans have a tendency to pick their noses, scratch under their arms, and generally be quite unhygienic. They then go over and put their germ covered hands all over a bottle from which one is expected to pour orange juice. Furthermore, the bottles are standing in an ice bucket so when you pick them up they are dripping with water and there are no napkins to wipe the bottles so you end up with water dripping down your arm and onto your clothes. Just put the orange juice in either a chilling machine or a large jug. It’s so much easier and I imagine Extremely more hygienic. So, a little bit of a mixed bag there for this hotel, but on the whole a positive experience. I would recommend it. I would stay here again. Small things to rectify and I would hope that the manager will take this feedback in...

What a bitter disappointment.

My family and I booked this hotel for a short holiday after New Year's Eve and we selected a room that was described on the hotel site as having a balcony and a separate room (without a door, but in a separate space) for the third bed. The room is called "Double Bed Suite Pool View Sofa Bed" and the description on the site clearly states "26 SqM Room with Additional Living area Balcony Stocked Minibar Free WiFi Non Smoking". Pictures also show a separate area for the extra bed.

Upon arrival, we were given a room without an extra area and without a balcony. We complained and their response was that the confirmation email does not mention balconies or extra areas. Sure, but that's because the email simply reports the room name (the one I pasted above), but the Indigo Hotel site shows no other room with that name and those specifications. With this reasoning they could have given us a room without a toilet or a main door because "the confirmation email did not specifically mention them".

This simply means that they are selling a room that claims to have certain characteristics to attract guests, while it does not have them (maybe some do? I wouldn't know). This is called "fraud" in my book. Or scam.

The reception staff claimed they asked management for support, but the answer they got was a No. No discount, no voucher, no free taxi ride to the airport (just to mention some easy compensations they could have offered to us). I'm not even sure whether staff actually did call management (allow me to doubt it), but it does not change anything.

I have rarely experienced such a blatantly dishonest behaviour and I was very disappointed with our room (which was tiny for 3 people! The only wardrobe could be barely opened with the sofa bed open) and with the hotel response.

Let me add that breakfast is definitely below par for a 4 stars: it looks ok, but the quality level is very low, with ingredients of poor quality.

In summary: stay away from this chain, there are definitely better options our there.

EDIT FOLLOWING HOTEL REPLY

Mr Raoul, While I appreciate you taking the time to paste a standard reply to my original message, let me briefly comment : you stated that you care for customers and you thank me for my feedback. Well, too little too late I'm afraid. We complained for days, since day one, when we realised you had put us in a different (worse) room. You had plenty of time to get back to us, to fix the problem, to propose a solution. But no, your staff in reception claimed that "management said there is nothing they can do". We all know it's not true. There are always ways to compensate an unhappy customer, you chose not to offer any.

Your message today sounds fake and next time (not with us, as we're not coming back) a customer raises a problem, talk to him/her there and then, don't wait for a 1 star review on Google (and on TripAdvisor, btw) to post a rather...

This was our first time visiting Barcelona for our Mediterranean cruise from the Barcelona cruise port to Cadiz, Lisbon, Porto and Morocco. We stayed at the IHG Hotel Indigo Barcelona Plaza Catalunya for two nights prior to our cruise from Barcelona’s cruise terminal. I loved the Plaza Catalunya area. As I previously reviewed, our airport taxi driver had trouble locating our IHG Hotel Indigo. The IHG Hotel Indigo is a four-star superior hotel, with design and decor that takes inspiration from the neighborhood’s architectural masterpieces. Take, for instance, their Gaudí-inspired lobby and guest room murals, and the patterned fabrics and artwork that showcase the community’s history. Outside their doors, it’s a short walk to the Gaudí original Casa Batlló as well as the cafes and street performers of La Rambla, the Temple de la Sagrada Familia, and countless shops and boutiques. ||When we checked in early at the front desk I was recognized as IHG Platinum Elite. Since we had an overnight flight from EWR Newark to Barcelona we arrived at the hotel in the early morning so we had to wait for our rooms to become available later that morning. We waited outside in their courtyard in the shade. At the IHG Hotel Indigo Barcelona Cocktail & Snack Bar, you may enjoy a drink or a snack after a day of exploring. The bar staff here were very nice. We stopped here to pick up some drinks before sleeping. Their poolside terrace is a perfect place to soak up the atmosphere over a glass of local cava. Our king bedroom #108 overlooking the pool included breakfast. I loved our room, because it had a very high ceiling and was at the end of the hallway on the quiet courtyard. We had an outside patio area with lounge chairs overlooking the courtyard. Our room rate included two daily breakfasts, which were very nice. See my many pics. I enjoyed my daily cappuccino, freshly cooked eggs, local bacon, sausage and local Spanish ham. My hotel cost was 403 Euros per night or 806 Euros for our two night stay or $964.34 (USA) in total. Including our bar bill my total hotel cost was 830 Euros or additional $45.01 USA. The hotel was in a great location near the major center of shopping and dining. I love tapas. See my prior two local restaurant reviews. The hotel staff here were very nice. They arranged a very large taxi to take the four of us including our four large luggages from the hotel to the Barcelona Celebrity cruise port. I would return here again. More to come regarding our Celebrity cruise...