If you are looking for a cheap motel vibe (minus the security) and/or are a 20 something looking to party and don’t care about the comforts of what I would normally expect from an Airbnb, this place might be for you. What’s included: low budget fixtures, the most uncomfortable bed you’ve ever slept in (only one single sheet per bed, BYOB (bring your own blanket)), shower that floods, partying inside and outside the building until all hours (you might meet some friends), bathroom ceiling partially falling down from an unfinished repair with a still active leak from floor above, broken elevator, scaffolding outside the window (no sign of construction happening, so this might be a permanent aesthetic addition - it gives more balcony space for that morning coffee). If you are an older adult or family looking for a comfortable place to land at the end of a day exploring the city, I would look elsewhere. Yes, the location is pretty good. It’s close to the Las Ramblas and the Gothic Quarter and close to metro but it felt like it was on one of those blocks that was a bit sketchy at night so be careful.
The checkin process was very stressful. Adam was going to withhold the digital keys until we paid the tourist tax through the app. The app wouldn’t take our payment, we tried for over 24 hours and went round and round with Adam. We finally called Airbnb after Adam wasn’t helping to resolve, he then gave us the keys right away and said we could figure out the tourist tax issue later. What do you know, after trying a few days later it worked. It was an issue on the apps side. He also told us a month before checkin that we could leave our luggage at 1pm while the cleaning crew finished and come back at 4. Day of Adam said we couldn’t checkin until 4pm. Even after I sent him a screen shot of his message to me verifying 1pm was ok. He didn’t actually acknowledge this, he kept responding with his standard boilerplate email. It sounded at times that it was an automated reply. If we had known ahead, we could have made arrangement and not been left scrambling at the airport.
What else. The safe in the bedroom was pried open and broken which wasn’t a great sign (we really wanted to lock our stuff up), especially with the scaffolding right outside the bedroom window making it an easy entry point for a break in. Half the time we were there the lighting in the stairwells was out (we had use our phone flashlights to get up and down) and the power at the front door was out meaning the wireless access control didn’t work and the building was totally unlocked. Anyone from the street could enter the building. Adam eventually fixed this after a few complaints. We had a great time in Barcelona. A miserable time dealing with all the issues with this apartment. It is really just a cheap rental apartment and not what I would call an airbnb property. We wouldn’t stay here again.