Ola Living Santa Anna — Hotel in Barcelona

Now known as Ola Living Santa Anna

The location, once you find it, is excellent for shopping and eating out.

The street it sits on runs between La Rambla and Avinguda del Portal and has a number of coffee shops, bakeries and general shops.

The entrance is a single grey door with black metal bars over the window. Number 35 sits above the door. It's very nondescript and unless you know what you are looking for, you'd miss it.

To get in, Ola Living had sent us instructions for downloading an app which provides digital keys. The idea is that your phone is your key.

When the app indicated the door could be opened, the app crashed and refused to open.

A call to Ola Living had them talk me through how to download a different app and we eventually had a working app to open the door which lead us into a narrow, completely white, entrance hall of about 10 feet long which lead to a white marble, narrow, straircase.

Our apartment was apartment 4:

2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms (one with a shower and washing machine), kitchen and living area.

The apartment is very bare. Very little in the way of furnishings. The twin bedroom had no window, no cupboards. Nothing except 2 beds and certainly no air-conditioning which would make it very hot in summer.

Double bedroom also had no air-conditioning but it did have a small window, a wardrobe and the en-suite bathroom / shower.

All beds were very comfortable.

Kitchen had a full sized fridge with freezer and a hob cooker with microwave, kettle, toaster and nespresso machine.

There was a small, narrow, bar table top with two bar stools but only good enough for drinking coffee.

Living area was small and had a small round dining table with 4 chairs. Good for eating snacks and drinking coffee. Not a lot of room for full dining.

Sofa was a 2 person, faux leather sofa bed. TV was on the wall, about 32" max and a small air-conditioning unit.

There is a safe to use.

The French windows lead onto a small balcony which looked down onto street below.

The apartment is very basic and needs attention. It's looking worn and in need of some modernisation. Shower door didn't close properly and floor became soaking wet.

There are 29 steps to ground floor with a lift outside apartment with enough space for 4 people and no bags. Lift takes you to 1st floor (I think) and then you walk down 10 steps to reach ground level.

The area has lots and lots of shopping, groceries stores, bakeries, coffee shops, department stores...all within a minute's walk.

Bars can be found in the area, especially around Placa Del Pi but it is touristy and the tapas bars are not only aimed at tourists but are also full of them, so getting a table or a place to have a drink is difficult. Avinguda del Portal...gets incredibly busy and shops are rammed full. Just getting an ice-cream takes a good 5 minutes and queues can exist up until 9pm. If you don't like crowds, this isn't for you.

So, a very basic apartment in a very busy location but would I stay again: absolutely. Basic or not, it had everything we needed. It could be noisy at night and people in apartment above made a lot of noise but ear plugs in and it all went away. Morning Churros and chocolate 30 seconds down road or 3 minutes for cheaper option.

It's all here and getting around Barcelona couldn't be easier. One minute we were shopping and 30 mins later on the beach taking in the sun.

Ola Living staff were fantastic. Very professional, polite, helpful.... couldn't ask for more and I believe Yuliia is someone the company can be proud of. She is so helpful.

N.B We stayed beginning of April with temperatures around 9 at night and 24 tops at day so apartment wasn't hot or in need of cooling down. My feeling is that in summer, it could get very hot and you'd need extra fans which...

Excellent location near La Rambla and close to buses and metro. Also, next door to the homeless hostel, so late at night, waking down back to the apartment feels a bit unsafe with all the homeless people in the street. However they weren't a bother to us but be aware if you are going alone. The apartment was clean and had everything we needed. The main bathroom is in the main bedroom and it smelt really bad. They provided toiletries which was really useful. The apartment is only accessible by phone app key, so if you find using your phone difficult or you lose your phone, or it runs out of charge, you are stuck. Great idea but a pain in the neck. The reception is always accessible by WhatsApp but they are not...

I stayed at an apartment from this company in Barcelona and had a very serious incident: my personal belongings were stolen while I was out. The property refused to take any responsibility, claiming there were no signs of forced entry, and dismissed the situation without offering any kind of support or compensation.

There was no real investigation into the possibility of unauthorized internal access or duplicate keys. Their only response was to blame me for not using the safe, which, frankly, does not excuse the failure in their basic duty to provide a secure place to stay.

Extremely disappointing experience. I do not recommend this property.

Someone internally knew the access codes to all apartments because I was not the only one in the building which is owned by Ola Living to have had a forced entry.

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Tuve una experiencia muy negativa con esta empresa. Mientras yo no estaba, me robaron pertenencias personales del apartamento donde me hospedaba. El establecimiento se negó a asumir cualquier tipo de responsabilidad, alegando que no había señales de entrada forzada y sin brindar apoyo ni compensación alguna.

No investigaron si pudo haber habido acceso interno no autorizado o si alguien tenía una copia de las llaves. Lo cual es lo mas obvio porque hay camaras por todos lados y entraron a mas de un apartamento del edificio (donde Ola Living es dueño). Solo se limitaron a culparme por no usar la caja fuerte, lo cual no justifica la falta de seguridad básica que cualquier alojamiento debería garantizar.

Una experiencia realmente decepcionante. No recomiendo este lugar...