Some of the good points were that the apartment is conveniently located. Lots of shops/restaurants nearby. Plaza Catalunya is very close and lots of metro stations nearby. The apartment is spacious and we had eight people and did not feel like we were cramped. Contact with Michelle was good and she was very helpful initially with getting us a to and from the airport.
On the other hand, there were some pretty bad issues with the apartment. It definitely looked a lot better in the pictures. Scruff marks and holes in the walls could be easy fixes to freshen up the place. The noise level from the street was also a problem. If you are a light sleeper, you’ll have a hard time getting rest with all the street noise (people shouting/singing throughout the night, busses/ garbage trucks and sirens going all night).
Kitchen set up was also bare minimal- eggs and pasta is about all you can cook. There were two coffeemakers, neither of which worked and they were not replaced as requested. The electric kettle was also grungy with calcium deposits-should be replaced. The knives could barely cut through cheese, so again, no major cooking with those tools.
We were two families of 4 and we each had one bath towel-for 10 days. Considering the price and the amount of days staying at this place, we should have been offered more towels. They were also on the grungy side- with no bath/toiletries offered (other than hand soap). Bath shower was also a foot off the floor (with no handles to hold on to) which could be dangerous for older people. There had been complaints about the hot/cold water switching back and forth. This was not fixed and you’d be either scalding or freezing with no warning. There were also no pins to hang anything to dry-and if you dropped something-it was gone. Lastly, the building is not secure so anyone can walk up from the street. We had an iPad and camera missing from the apartment (from the room closest to the front door). This freaked out the kids and also put a damper on the trip. We don’t know if the place was broken into or if it was a cleaning crew who had keys.