Myself and my partner visited Ana's property at the end of April. This is our honest review of our stay at this apartment.
The location was fantastic. You're in the area of Vila De Gracia. This entire area, including the Fontana Metro and surrounding areas, are beautiful delights full of amazing little family/independent businesses, cafes, restaurants, shops and Pizzeria's. There is so much to do and see in this area, it's absolutely amazing. There's even a large second-hand English bookshop, multiple Japanese-themed stores, loads of comic/anime shops and country themed restaurants/shops.
Following down the main high-street (on the road from Fontana metro) takes you down to the main Cafe/Restaurant & Luxury shopping districts. There are many 4/5 star restaurants and cafes here to eat and relax in. Beautiful Tapas menus and the like. The luxury district has every fashion brand you could think of and even cheaper brands like H&M, Primark, etc. Many Gaudi buildings are along this road.
The property itself has a balcony which overlooks Placa Del Sol. This plaza has cafes, bars and restaurants which allows you to fully enjoy Catalan nightlife - The bedroom is on the other side of the apartment so you don't hear much noise, but be aware you will hear people shouting/being loud along the streets all the way to midnight (some nights we heard people still out at 1am on a weekday!) as well as the large heavy-duty metal door slam shut from people entering the complex.
The location is a mere 20 minute walk to all of the main Tourist attractions - 20 minute walk to Parc Guel. 15 to Sagrada Familia. 25 to La Rambla & Gothic Quarter, which is fantastic to save money on travel, as you can walk to these main attractions and to enjoy the beautiful scenic roads of Barcelona.
However, apart from Location - We do not recommend this property at all.
Firstly, the bedsheets were dirty - They smelt of sweat and clearly did not get changed at all. It's unacceptable that the Host did not change the bedsheets. We had to wash them ourselves, which is unacceptable, but as the property had no dryer, the bedsheets took forever to dry. The blankets in the cupboard had black stains, dirt, and also were very dusty. We also found bogey/snot on the underlining of the bed when we stripped it for cleaning.
Talking of the cupboards - Dust everywhere. They were unusable to store clothes in. Not even enough coat hangers for your clothes.
There was dust all over in corners of the property.
The floor was dirty and disgusting. It had not been mopped or properly cleaned at all - Walking around the apartment bare footed or in white socks would dirty them within minutes.
The shower curtain/railing is unstable and fell off during the night whilst we were sleeping.
The hairdryer is also a vintage antique. Started smoking once we turned it on and the fan to blow hot-air out the hairdryer does not work. It's clearly non-functioning and a hazard to use.
The only cooking appliances in the house is a microwave and an electric stove/hob. If you're planning to cook in the property, there is no oven. The electric stove also takes far too long to heat up & the Host should get better frying pans which are more suitable for Electric ceramic stoves.
The kicker to all of this, is the hot water. Do not, under any circumstances, expect to have proper showers. Allegedly, there was a 50ltr depot of hot water which fills up constantly, but this does not provide enough hot/warm water at all for two people to have proper showers. In the summer months where you wish to have cool showers as it's blazing hot, absolutely it might be adequate, but in Winter/Spring? No chance. My partner had to skip washing her hair for two days because were was not enough water for the both of us to shower after each other. 10 minutes is perfectly adequate to wash hair and thoroughly scrub your body clean after a day of sweating, but that was impossible. These were not "long showers", as they suggested we were taking.
You do not get these problems in an equivalent 3-star hotel, charging 3-star hotel prices. I expect these issues in a cheap hostel where you're sharing rooms with random people. If the Host cannot properly clean the apartment, then she should get proper cleaners, like many other Hosts do, to thoroughly clean the apartment.
To summarise, fantastic location. Sub-par and dirty apartment.