I'll start nicely: the location is convenient. On paper, it has everything you need for an extended, comfortable stay. The wifi is pretty good. That's where it stops though. I generally do not like to leave bad reviews and I'm very respectful of my hosts and neighbors no matter where I go. This is not someone's private apartment or a side hustle though. It's a business that needs to do much better! This review is about an apartment on the first floor facing the pharmacy across the street.
The number one issue was cleanliness. The place is dirty. I mean dirty as in the floors will make your feet black if you walk without house shoes. It's actually disgusting. There is so much piled on dust that it's turned into dirt everywhere. Like the countertops, the closets, the outlets, the shower - all dirty. I have no idea why they have a cleaning staff or if they do anything. I heard them yelling a lot in the hallway but not sure about actually working. If you choose to stay here, go to Condis nearby (C. del Consell de Cent, 26) and go to the cleaning section. We bought a mop (as the one in the room looked stiff from lack of use), a broom, cleaning supplies and scrubbed the place. We had to clean everything: the closets, the fridge, rewash every dish and eating utensil. Everything felt absolutely disgusting. Take a look inside the teapot and you won't want to use it. The bathroom looked like it hasn't been cleaned in years. Smells like a sewer.
The shape of the apartment and furniture is sad. The bed here will make your back hurt. It's extremely old and the springs feel like they poke through the mattress. The bed itself smelled bad (like wet sheets) so we had to wash the sheets before sleeping in them. The living room couch has seen its best days as well. It feels itchy to sit on it so we put a sheet over it. There is a big shower head that was never connected and is used to support another shower head. The TV has like 3 channels that work and no smart features.
Unfortunately, noise and smells travel easily here, as does the marijuana smoke. We had people that slept in the daytime and brought tables and chairs directly above our bedroom to stomp the night away starting at 2 am. You will smell weed for sure too. The balcony of the apartment next to ours had trash bags in it the whole 3 weeks we were there.
I will never understand how anyone could have rated this place positively in any way. If I had the chance to see this place in person before booking it, I would have ran the other way.
In the defense of the management here, they are good at communicating, which is why my rating is not a straight 1. I reported each issue to them and they said it's an old place, pandemic, etc (as if it wasn't booked the whole time). They did offer us a refund but it was too late to find another place last minute to stay for 2+ remaining weeks last minute so we battled it out. They also offered to move us within the building (other apartments looked about the same) and another apartment in a different building for a massive fee (which would have been us hoping the same company actually cleaned there - no promises). It was pretty bad overall. I never expected to pay so much money for such an uncomfortable and poorly managed place. I wish I could have found a more comfortable place to move to when I was offered a refund but it's not easy to repack my life and find a place on a whim just to leave again.
The location is the only thing that really works. The neighborhood isn't the best but it's convenient and has a lot of options for dining and also close to the metro. I'd come back here if they actually showed some care, managed the place for their guests' comfort and cleaned the place.