Great location; nice apartment; management communication could be better.
Overall we had a good stay in Alba’s 2-bedroom, 2-bath apartment thanks to its excellent location next to Sagrada Familia, with Metro (get a 10-trip T-Casual ticket to acess all of the city quickly and conveniently) and taxi stations nearby. The apartment was practical, mostly equipped as listed, and mostly clean upon arrival. We enjoyed the balcony view of the park across the street and the top floor setting, despite the climb of three flights of narrow and winding stairs to arrive three stories above ground level.
As mentioned by other guest reviews, communicating with Alba at check-in was difficult to initiate. She had offered early check-in, but in fact she still had guests in the apartment when we arrived for what we thought was an 11:00 am entry. Luckily, after connecting with Alba and waiting with our bags piled up at the sidewalk café, we were shown in by the gracious cleaning person, Daniela.
The neighborhood was busy by day, but relatively quiet at night, and the drama of seeing Sagrada Familia at all hours of day and night add to its value. Like many before us, we also took advantage of the 365 bakery/café just below, sampling their baked goods and café con leche for daily breakfasts in the apartment. (Make friends with Anna on the morning shift and she’ll remember your coffee preference the rest of your stay.)
The smart lock system for the apartment doors was handy, though we struggled for a few days before succeeding with the downstairs building gate. We always carried the single set of keys when venturing out to the streets – a second set of keys would be useful to allow adult guests to head in different directions.
We did not use the TV (too much of interest to waste time on the small screen), but the WiFi system worked well – reliable service and good download speeds, though a bit slow when uploading photos to the cloud.
The apartment was comfortable for four adults. The second bedroom is tight and was uncomfortably warm during our week of high 70’s F temperatures and Barcelona humidity. Air conditioning units in the kitchen/dining room and master bedroom were essential, but we were able to only partially cool the smaller bedroom using the small fan provided by the host.
The apartment furnishings were adequate – IKEA style and quality, functional and simple. Guests should be aware that the master bedroom size is not a King – at least by US standards. We measured it as the equivalent to a Queen. The mattress and bed linens were comfortable. The living room could use one or more comfortable club chairs to complete the setting.
The small kitchen is handy, outfitted with relatively new appliances. Cookware and kitchen tools are limited, so don’t plan on preparing full meals. The glass stovetop and microwave combination oven are useful, and the dishwasher was an added convenience (though we would have also liked to have a countertop dish rack). The kitchen could also use a coffee maker – even if only a stove-top espresso pot or French press. We did not need the tea kettle during our warm-weather stay.
The washer/dryer is a single appliance – useful and reliable, but the capacity is small and the full wash/dry cycle takes almost four hours to complete. We learned to do small daily wash loads to keep up with our laundry needs throughout the week.
The en-suite master bath is well-equipped but with tight space (hey, it’s Europe). The hall bathroom is also practical, but has a very small shower compartment. We experienced the same odor problem (sewer gas?) described by other guests, which Alba was able to address after we notified her of the problem. Beware the scalding hot water in the showers – seems that the hot water heater should be adjusted down from maximum!
Other minor items indicated that the apartment needs a bit more attention to maintenance: some lighting fixtures were inoperable, the door latch and paper dispenser at the master bedroom toilet need repair, and a few more hooks for towels are needed at both baths.
Unfortunately, we had two large problems during our stay: the dining room air conditioner leaked condensate water for two days until fixed, and the hot water heater broke, partially flooding the kitchen and dining room. Although Alba ultimately fixed both, she was slow to respond with proper urgency, and her communication was inconsistent. After mopping up the place ourselves, we had to involve Airbnb to assure action and to push for resolution that allowed us to remain in the unit. After losing many hours of vacation time dealing with the issues, we were disappointed that we never received an upfront apology for the inconvenience or a thanks for the assistance we provided in responding to the trouble.