On arrival, the room was large but dirty and well past its sell-by date. The shower area was dirty and the room stunk to high heave. The smell came from the drains. After the first complaint about the smell, a maid brought an air freshener. This was only temporarily effective.

On the second complaint, the staff agreed that the smell was unacceptable and promised to change the room the next day. In the meantime, they placed an electric deodouriser in the room. Tomorrow we'll see what the new room is like!

Breakfast is a disaster area: the servers are grossly understaffed: tales dirty and uncleared, hot food cold and generally a mess! After complaint, they put an extra member of staff on service - there was a marked improvement.

My limit was reached tonight when a cockroach went scurrying across the flor of my room.

The only good thing is that the staff do react when you complain. However, the things that are wrong are so obvious, that it should not get to the stage of complaining.

This hotel is well worn, smelly and not particularly clean. The service is appalling!

They have a spa in the basement, but it looks lethal!

The hotel is just out of town and near to the airport and there is a good bus connection to the centre. The hotel itself is ok and the bed was very comfortable, but it is not really what I would class as 4 star. For example, we only had 1 hanger in our room and despite asking at reception 3 times during our 4 day stay, they never provided any. In addition, although the breakfast was good, the service was not very good and we always needed to ask for teaspoons, napkins, cups etc. and the dining room was messy.

There was also a free airpot bus, but it only ran before 11am, so we couldn't use it when we arrived in the evening and we had to leave by 11 to go to the airport for a flight at 3pm.

with its magic and transparent view, Solvasa Barcelona represents an ideal place for rest and relaxation. The construction of its rooms, walls, lift and the floor is just like a colored art. It is the target of many international meetings and conferences.

We stayed here because we wanted a decent three or four star hotel from which we had easy acces to the downtown area of Barcelona. Before booking we first read some reviews and had a mixed feeling because some reviews mentioned smelly bathrooms and that it was too far from the downtown center, but I must say that afterall it turned out to be a good choice.

When you come from the airport you can take a direct bus that stops almost in front of the hotel (no more then a 2 minute walk). Going downtown you can use this same busstop (a 15 minute drive to the center). The only thing is that the busstop in the opposite direction where you have to get off when you come out of the city center at night is a bit far from the hotel when you're already tired (approx. a 10-15 minute stroll).

Nearby the hotel (take the bus, 2 or 3 stops or walking approx. 20 minutes) is a large indoor shopping center which also offers lots of different restaurants (open til late at night) and supermarkets if you don't want to go downtown.

The hotel itself in our opinion is great too. We checked in in the evening and were helped by friendly staff. The room for two persons was spacious enough for a pleasant stay (it's no suite, but it's certainly not small). There also was a minibar in the room and good airconditioning and you can also open the windows if you want. The room was cleaned and the minibar was refilled everyday if you wanted it to be.

Minor downfall: at the time of our stay there were some construction works going on at the open spot behind the hotel which made for some noise in the morning, but shutting the window worked fine.

We also originally requested a room on the ground floor as these rooms have a private terras, but upon arrival we got a room on the third floor. Still, although the hotel was pretty booked, the next morning without any trouble, we still got the opportunity to switch rooms if we wanted to (we didn't though, due to the construction works).

It's always difficult to make a choice for a hotel based on someone else's experience but I can honestly say that in my opinion this hotel is worth it's rating and a good place to stay if you don't want to pay loads right in the center, but still have a great decent place from where you can explore Barcelona.