Not particularly clean and there isn’t really free parking as mentioned in the listing but the people are nice.
The cleanliness problem is big cause in our stay we saw at least 20 cockroaches. They do seem to limit to the bathroom and kitchen. I’s a thrilling experience to be eating your breakfast and feel something crawling past your hand, or find your toothbrush with roaches on it if you leave it for ten minutes in the bathroom. The room itself is clean and big. It has a balcony and it’s very comfortable. We understand that old neighborhoods like this one will unequivocally have roaches. They’re old, they’re in the middle of all the action but the apartment could do with a thorough cleaning to avoid roaches in the kitchen drawers and such.
The location is unbeatable. It’s very practical in the middle of La Raval and very close to la Rambla. It’s a short subways trip away from la Sagrada Familia. But the listing mentioned “free street parking” and when we arrived we found none. There are parking places but they are all parking meter controlled and it’s not an option if you’re staying four days. Private parkings are around 50 euros a day if you didn’t make a reservation in advance. When we asked Airbnb about this they told us to leave it in the parking lots and ask for a reimbursement from the host. We thought this was a little excessive. So after paying 30 euros the first day for just waiting around to be able to do the check in, we went to a free parking VERY far away and took a taxi back. We had to take another taxi back on the check out. It was another 30 euros.
On the check in we were late because even though it says 14:00-22:00 check in the host only allows check-ins at 14:00, 16:00, and 22:00 sharp. We didn’t know this and it completely intervened with our plans since we had scheduled tickets and other engagements. The host tried communicating one day ahead but he only tried WhatsApp instead of using the Airbnb app. Since I had a Spanish chip my phone information did not work. Not to mention that I didn’t expect WhatsApp contacting and I don’t really use that specific app.
The host and the people in the apartment are very warm nice people. They have very good disposition and are extremely friendly. Aside for the cleaning this is a good place to stay if you don’t have a car. I feel bad for giving such a poor rating but it was a very stressful stay that costed me far more than expected.