My husband and I recently spent five nights here. We booked because of the location and the good price offered by the hotel's website for our late-January stay. We were initially given a standard double room with a small balcony looking across to Palau Guell. We had two main problems with this room -- firstly, though deemed "non-smoking" it reeked of smoke, and secondly, we found the noise in the street below to be very irritating when trying to sleep (people were yelling and smashing bottles at 3am, and the noise really bounces around the narrow street). When we complained about these things, the staff was very kind and accommodating and switched us to a room with two twin beds pushed together and a balcony off the back of the hotel. Funnily, this room had a sign saying "smoking permitted," as well as an ashtray, but it didn't smell of smoke at all. It was very quiet at night, which made us happy -- we'd rather have quiet than a fancy view.
Breakfast was included in our stay, and while it was plentiful, we didn't enjoy it so much: as others have pointed out, the coffee, juice, bread, etc. are not of great quality. We did not try the hot foods on offer (eggs and such), but my husband liked the pastries.
There are a few things that bothered me and would make me not return: towels that smelled very strongly of bleach, beds that are extremely firm (though some may enjoy this), pillows that are uncomfortably high, bathrooms that ventilate steam not with fans but with a little window opening onto a strange, dark shaft.
Overall, the things that recommend this hotel are its kind staff and its good location. I would not recommend staying here if you have aversions to street noise or the smell of smoke, though our problems with both of these were luckily resolved.
- Gaudi Hotel Barcelona
