First of all, this apartment is in a fantastic location. Right off of the Ramblas and within walking distance of many attractions and amenities. Other than that, we were a little let down by this apartment. The photos oversell it. The apartment is generally more shabby/run-down, darker, and much more cluttered than we were expecting. The bathroom is very tight (even for Europe), with a notch in the door so it can actually swing past the toilet. It just wasn't somewhere we could really feel relaxed. Our check-in process was a little frustrating (see below). The apartment wasn't terrible, but if we go back to Barcelona, we will stay elsewhere.
>>>We weren't given the name of the manager to meet us until I sent a message from our train a few hours before we arrived. I had initially told the host that based on our train's arrival, I estimated we would be at the apartment at 4:00. Once we were finally contacted by the manager to meet us, he asked when we would meet him and I told him that our train just arrived so we would make our way to the apartment right then via metro. He kept insisting on us giving him an exact time. We were first time tourists in Barcelona so finally, I just said, "I don't know how long the metro takes from the train station. You tell me when we'll be there." He said 30 minutes and hung up. When we got out of the metro, we initially started the wrong way on the Ramblas. After a few blocks, we realized something wasn't right and called the manager. He was very exasperated and told us he was in a hurry and now we were going to be later and when we tried to confirm the correct direction, he just sort of waved us off and hung up. Once we were close to the apartment, we called and told him we'd be there in a few minutes and he said he was waiting outside the apartment for us. When we arrived at the front of the apartment, no one was there. So we called again and he said he was waiting and when we told him we were pretty sure we were outside the apartment, he said, "okay, I'll be there in 30 seconds." When he walked down the street and shook my hand, the first word out of his mouth was, "finally." It was 4:09. I looked at my watch. Literally within 10 minutes of our communicated arrival time. And we had kept in touch with him the whole way there so he was well aware of our one little travel mistake, which, again, only put us there nine minutes later than what was originally communicated. It was a frustrating experience.<<<