Apartment Olivera 43 is a completely unsatisfactory apartment.
The pictures in the listing do not make clear that the toilet is located next to the kitchen without a proper door separating them. Instead there is piece of corrugated sheet plastic acting as a divider. This is not the full length of the door opening and does not have a catch. This means that contamination from the toilet to the food preparation area in the kitchen is inevitable. (It is disconcerting to say the least to be able to look into the toilet bowl when you open the fridge!). This arrangement precludes the preparation of food in the apartment.
We called the agency to request that we be moved to another apartment in light of the above. They refused saying in the call that different countries have different standards and that this arrangement was quite normal in Barcelona, and far better than would be experienced in, for example, ‘Asian countries’. Leaving aside the implicit racism in that comment, we made clear this was not a satisfactory response. The agency said they had no alternative accommodation available, nor would they supply even a partial refund to allow us to book into a hotel.
It is clear that the arrangement of the flat is insanitary. Spanish building regulations are clear that a toilet must be separated by a proper door and have ventilation. The arrangement of this apartment meets neither of these criteria. It is clearly not fit for purpose and should not be offered as accommodation.
Not only would we advise in the strongest possible terms that you should not book this specific apartment, but also be wary of other properties listed by Aparteasy if they see this property as both ‘typical’ and ‘acceptable’ accommodation. We will be escalating these concerns with AirBnB and the Barcelona tourist office.
Otherwise the photographs of the apartment give a fair picture of its qualities. It is dark and shabby. The bedroom is cramped. The sofa bed, which we tried as an alternative to the small bed, is in fact broken and the fold down frame does not function properly. The shower has mildew on the tile grout, and the hand basin is not properly attached to the wall so that it does not drain and there are gaps between it and the wall.
In addition there is no curtain to the rear of the property, the glass is not true privacy glass so when using the toilet or shower you are overlooked from the neighbouring balcony. (To be fair to Aparteasy we did decline their offer to remedy this by coming round to put up a sheet over the window.)
Awful. Awful. Awful.