W Barcelona — Hotel in Barcelona

I have to say I was a bit skeptical when I booked my stay at the W Barcelona Hotel. For one, there was a really famous YouTuber who claimed that the room was dirty and looked tired, with clips suggesting lapse of service from the cleaners. For two, a couple of Tripadvisor reviews mentioned that the hotel had double charged them, which should be my worst nightmare if true. Still I decided to go ahead with this booking because I simply cannot resist the beautiful Barceloneta Beach, which is just beside this hotel. ||Turns out this was one of my best decisions. Not only was it well kept, I have made thorough scrutiny of places that are most likely to be overlooked by the room service staff, and not a single trace of dust was found. As for the quality of the room, I think it has lived up to five star hotel status. Mind you, I didn’t say it was up to W standard, as some of W’s rooms around the world are actually not quite up to standard, and this is not one of them. Whether it’s the space, facilities or the layout, it totally justified its price. Plus, according to my understanding, all rooms have massive sea view, so all I can say was, either the Youtuber mentioned above was unlucky or….maybe the staff has watched his clips and rectified their problems. Whichever is the case, I do not have any complaints. As for the double charged issue, it didn’t happen on me either.||For the bathroom, you will also not be mistaken as another hotel chain, as it has a more subtle design lately adopted by W hotels. Gone are the days where you can still see vivid colours like orange or purple in the bathroom, as well as bathroom amenities with fruity scent. My favourite aspect of this bathroom was its extended anti slippery tiles to the living room area, which I think it’s a very brilliant and pragmatic design. ||Another strength of this hotel was its army of restaurants, which I have dined in a couple of them during my stay. First, let me take you to the Coya, a Peruvian restaurant serving amazing South American food. Whether it’s this refreshing and sumptuous avocado tortilla, the stone bass with truffle ponzu sauce, or this grilled portobello with aji (AHI) panca, they all have something in common, which is its sauce. The sauce or the seasoning of all these dishes have successfully brought the best taste of fresh produce like Avocado or flesh like stone bass (bars). And to end this dinner on a high note, this Tres Leches (tres letches), which means three milks cake with Vanilla ice cream, tastes like heaven, as the creamy milk matched the brownish salted dulce (du faye) de leche perfectly. The only slight disappointment was this grilled tiger prawn, which despite the fact that it’s finely grilled, the texture of the prawn was a bit mushy and not very firm.| |The other restaurant that I had dinner was called fire, and as the name suggests, it is specialised in all kinds of grilled dishes. This time I have ordered grilled vegetables as the starter, and I have to say the grilled avocado is surprisingly good, as I usually eat them raw. For main course, I had this medium cooked steak, I have to say although perfectly grilled, it was a bit on the firm side. Also a bit disappointed was this Basque cheese cake, which lacks the creaminess and fluffiness that makes a Basque cheese cake so irresistible. This one is only mediocre at best. That said, the service was excellent, and the food is actually not bad.||No stay at a W hotel would be complete without using its pool, which it has three. The one on the first floor was actually closed, and the pools won’t open until 10 am, so do expect a lot of guests using the pool during weekends. I have instead stayed on the first floor where you can see the beautiful views of the beach as well as enjoying their snacks like hamburger and fries and smoothies. As for the gym, it was well equipped with all the standard facilities like treadmill, dumbbell and strength training machines.||Last but least, breakfast is serve at the restaurant called salt at the basement, which is decent and you get the see the beautiful views of the beach while having their buffet or a la carte breakfast. Their breakfast buffet’s choices are acceptable, but with so many restaurants outside the hotel, you won’t miss anything if you don’t include breakfast as part of your package. As for the lobby lounge, service was equally excellent, again this salad is juicy and refreshing, and I have to say the fresh produce of Spain is something that I missed the most when I returned to London.||Overall, I am really happy that I have chosen this hotel for the trip to Barcelona, as what’s better than basking in the sunlight with all those hot looking guys and girls. Whether it’s the quality of the room or its food, staff service or the overall vibe, this hotel is one of the best W hotels that I have stay.ed over the years. Plus even though W hotels are supposed to be marketed as a fun and playful hotel, the guests here are actually quite well behaved and polite, so I would recommend this hotel to anyone in...

Excellent location. Good rooms with a modern feel. Great showers and terrific water pressure. Restaurants are great inside as well as the night club, which attracts many guests and locals. Morning breakfast is VERY good, and the hotel is kept clean.

Service, TERRIBLE. Checked into a room that had issues. Called down right away, they said they would work on it, but could not accommodate an immediate switch since they were very busy. Told them it's not a big deal, but to please not forget about me. They assured me it would be handled. Called down 5 hours later, had no clue what I was talking about, and just said no rooms were available. I told them someone told me they would accommodate me earlier, but they said they had no record of it. I explained all the issues I had with the room, and they said they would work on it. I told them I had to leave for an event and would not be back until later on in the evening. They said they will send a night to my room with what they can do. I returned to my room and found no notes. It was too late, so I figured I would deal with it the next morning. The next morning, I called down, and once again, they said they had no record of anything being done, nor did they know what was wrong with the room. I AGAIN explained everything, and they told me I needed to wait until a manager came in at 9 am to figure out what they could do. I told them that I am leaving and will not be back until the afternoon, so the front desk told me not to worry and that they would pass the message to the manager, and I will have my new room by the time I come back. I came back around 5 pm (17:00), and what do you think happened? AGAIN, no notes or accountability, and nobody worked on anything for me. I get upset with the front desk, and they go to the back to talk to the manager. Person comes back and says, "Don't shoot the messenger, but they will not accommodate any room changes." They said it was because I booked through a group, and they only blocked out the room that I am in. I demanded to speak with that manager, whom the person told me not to bother with. However, I finally got the manager to come out and explained to her everything that happened, and she agreed that I needed a new room and she would take care of it by the next morning for me. I told her that I am going to be out of the room, same as the day before, and she confirmed that she will accommodate me and have the room ready by the time I came back, as long as it's after 3 pm (15:00). She made me sign something that gave them the OK to move my stuff from one room to the next during the switch. I came back around 4 pm (16:00) and went right to the desk. I gave them my name, and AGAIN they said they have zero records of anything changing. I told them the manager's name, and they told me she was not working. I said it's impossible, as she insisted that she would be here, gave me forms to sign, and would assist with the room change. The front desk person goes to the back and finds the manager (miracle). The manager came out and apologized. Pressed some buttons and gave me room keys to a new room. Said she will send up someone to move my stuff, which they were already supposed to do. I go to my new room and, after about 20-30 minutes, figure out the air conditioning does not work. I called down, they sent a maintenance crew. Maintenance came and changed the air filters, and told me the room would cool down within an hour, as the filter was very dirty. Figure they would have a system to check this. I went to dinner and came back, and the room was cooler, and the AC was working. All this for a decent 2 nights' sleep after battling with them for 3 days...insane. Figured they would at least have the decency to comp 1 night for me, considering all the issues they caused...they didn't. I did tell the guy all this as I was checking out. He was really good and said he feels terrible and offered to split the night with me. Said anything more would need to get approved by management, and they would get in touch with me...which they never...

The hotel staff displayed clear pre-judicial behavior. I, a lite* Afro *merican, went to get a table for my party. I was told the table was available. When the rest of my Afro American party arrived 30 seconds later, the restaurant told me that the kitchen was closing and I could no longer have my table. I walked to the beach and called the restaurant and asked for reservations in my nice, Midwest, Merican accent and was told by the same woman who turned me away to come so they could accommodate me.

When I talked to the manager she denied the behavior. When I told her I was going to report her to the hotel, she trying to back pedal says that it is their policy to never turn away hotel guests. She continued to deny this was based on ra-ce but could not justify her actions. She admitted that their policy was to ask if people were guest but couldn’t explain why no one asked us.

When I now refused to let them serve us and told them we would not support them and I was reporting it she tried to force me to give her my name and room number. I told her it is not my practice to tell people who just displayed pre-judicial behavior towards me my information she got noticeably upset. (This was salt, the W’s beachfront restaurant).

The story doesn’t end there. We went back into the hotel for our dinner reservation at Fire, W’s inside restaurant. When I set these reservations the young lady told me that we could return at 10:30 for inside or 10:45 for outside. We got there at 10:10 to see if anything opened early and they said we had to wait for 10:45. We returned and the hostess started to head outside but her manager stopped her and directed her to set up a table inside. 2 people from my group said that it looked like they were seating us inside but I assured them that that was impossible as we specifically had outside reservations and that’s the only reason we waited so late to eat.

Sure enough the manager tried to seat us inside. I politely told the manager that our reservation was for outside (remember I haven’t had any dealings with this location yet). He immediately became belligerent and told us he is the manager and no location can be guaranteed. I explained to him that we were given two times and asked if no location could be guaranteed why was I given 2 options. There was also plenty of space outside. The manager refused to answer any logical question. Yelled and over talked any of us that tried to talk. The hostess denied telling us that. She then tried to deny it in Spanish to her boss but I am fluent so I understood her. They refused to accommodate. They were rude. Mean. Threatening. Antagonistic. Etc. my group said we just wanted to eat as it was getting late. We took the inside seats. We sat for about 20 minutes and no one came. I went to ask the manager when a waiter was going to come. He grab his head and said “Jesus Christ, do you want to enjoy your dinner. Someone is coming. It’s only been 5 minutes”. He said, “we are trying to help you. They sent you up here from Salt and we are trying to accommodate you” I told him, “Salt didn’t send me up here. We already had reservations here. Also, I never give Salt my name or room number nor did they see me heading up here. So how do you know what happened? Why did they call you and tell you? And how did they describe my party?” He refused to answer any question, left and got the hotel manager who wouldn’t acknowledge what was done but offered some small discount. The offending manager stayed in the kitchen the rest of the night (kitchen has windows so you can see in). The manager from salt came up and they talked for 5-15 minutes.

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