This spacious suite is in a traditional Madrid apartment block. It has cute Juliet balconies opening looking out at the apartments opposite and the street four stories below, and it's furnished in bachelor-pad style. It's apparent from the other reviews that the lasting impression many people have of this place is if the stairs! Us too, but we can't complain because we knew about them in advance. André helped us with our bags which was much appreciated.
One thing I didn't realise from the property description is that the private bathroom is not an ensuite; it's for your exclusive use but is accessed via a corridor shared with other guests and the host. This meant having to change in the bathroom (the towels provided weren't big enough to cover you for the dash between rooms) which I found to be a bit of a pain since I wasn't expecting it.
Another surprise (maybe welcome to some and not others!) was the full-length mirror mounted horizontally at the foot of the bed. Perhaps it was this which informed my impression of the translucent stain we found on one of the pillow cases... but Andre assured us they had been washed and we found another clean one so it wasn't that big a deal.
It must be said, we didn't get a great night's sleep the first night due to heat (with the windows closed) and street noise (with the windows open)... I gather this is a common complaint in Barcelona. We found one of the fans worked better than the other and after swapping them and using earplugs we had a better night the following night.
The living room was large and the location was conveniently close to some good restaurants and a few handy bus routes, and a short walk to the Metro.
As for Andre himself, he was a very enthusiastic host, and we appreciated his extensive tips on where to go in Barcelona. He likes to send lots of messages, which I found overwhelming at times as he would send numerous follow-up messages if I was unable to respond immediately (he sent over 10 messages before we checked in to the apartment and at least another 20 during our stay, many of which were recommendations). Nobody could accuse him of being uncommunicative!
We also appreciated that he let us keep our bags at the apartment for a few hours after check out and left us some pastries as a parting gift.