Aparthotel Augusta

We stayed two places in Barcelona, one in the tourist district and here, in a Spanish neighborhood. The location was easy access to excellent restaurants, 3 different metro lines, plus a twenty minute walk to the upscale shopping district. The apar**ent was very roomy, much more than we needed but extremely comfortable. Wi-Fi was not great but doable.

So I'll start with the positives: - Front desk staff are lovely and helpful for the mostpart -The rooms are spacious and clean. The shower was also lovely, with good water pressure. -The Aparthotel is well located (in Gracia, which is a lovely, peaceful neighbourhood). Now the rest: On arrival, in addition to the room cost, we were asked to leave an 100 euro deposit for potential damages to our depar**ent. This seemed absurd for the type of establishment... the only other time I've needed to do this was for short term rentals. But, not the fault of the staff, so we paid it knowing we always leave places as we find them. Now, I always ensure a place is tidy at the end of my stay, doing washing up and ensuring to bin any waste. However, 'Leaving the place as you find it' in this case literally means that you have to take the trash out yourself (to a bin outside the hotel) at the end of the stay. This was my first experience of having to do this in a hotel. A hotel that we had paid considerable money to stay in... This felt very off. Throughout the stay, a few things stuck out. The lack of toaster (which I had come to expect, having stayed in apart hotels throughout Europe), which meant we had to prepare our toast in a frying pan... akin to a camping trip. Being called down by the front desk to collect a delivery that wasn't ours (despite assuring the member of staff that we had not ordered anything). The Wifi was not good either. The strength of signal would vary between rooms within our apar**ent, and sometimes drop completely. Housekeeping also took it upon themselves to dispose of a bag of our groceries, which had been left in a cupboard. Not next to the bin, which I could have understood. I still don't know how this happened, and front of desk staff were not able to discern any more (however we were offered complementary breakfast by way of apology, which we appreciated). The breakfast, however, was underwhelming. A small selection of pastries and a frittata, not the continental selection that had been advertised... We got our 100 euros back, and suffice to say I think this will be our final stay in this strange Aparthotel.

The aparthotel was as advertised. Traveled with my two young adult daughters and place worked well for us. We either walked or took metro/bus to get to most areas, even to gothic quarters - about 35 mins walk, I think.

The name of this property is a total misnomer. In reality it is a fairly new block with two nice restaurants and a reception area on the ground floor and 30 apar**ents of various sizes on eight floors. It is not a Hotel. The pluses.. We had a two bedroom apar**ent which was very spacious and on the fourth floor, which meant that when necessary I could use the stairs to get out of the hotel. I would not want to be higher up the building as having one small lift could and did mean a very long wait for the lift to arrive. The block ( note I do not use the word hotel ever) is very well situated to tubes/ buses and restaurants. All the staff we met with were charming . Even if they did not have the answers I wanted !! Serviced apar**ent suggests some level of cleaning. But at this block, they rush into the apar**ent empty the bin under the kitchen sink, maybe change a couple of towels and rush away. On one occasion the toilet did not get cleaned and as they do not supply a toilet brush ... It stayed dirty. Yuck . and we did not get any clean sheets during the time we stayed !! There is no dishwasher, so you have to try and do your own washing up without a drying rack or a tea towel to dry up with. very tricky logistics and signing that I was responsible for the cost of all breakages meant being very careful !! Be warned !!!! Check out procedure requires you to clean the apar**ent, and leave everything washed up and all the garbage removed by us to the rubbish bins in the street !! this is a first for me anywhere in the world. Walking through reception with a garbage bag is definitely not a repeatable experience. We were told that the apar**ent has to be individually checked by a manager before you get your 100 Euros deposit refunded. as a result we changed our travel plans for the departure date to allow enough time to do all of the above. As I anticipated this could be a very time consuming process. The lift process alone added many minutes to the check out procedure !! We actually missed our train out of Barcelona because we had not allowed enough time to check out. We had only one very hard sofa bed / and a table and four chairs in the lounge. In one bedroom there was a chair. In the master bedroom there was no chair and all the fittings were there on the wall for a TV ..but no TV !! Kitchen was just about adequate, although you really needed a manual to get the induction cooker to work and I gave up on the microwave !!. Not having a corkscrew supplied in a kitchen in Spain seemed weird !! The air-conditioning / heating thermostat had a mind of its own and regulating the temperature in the apar**ent was a task in itself.. The ceiling lighting through out was stark to say the least. HORRID !! Really harsh ceiling lights everywhere which were blindingly bright at night time. And there were no other lights at all.....Thank heavens for a smart phone with a torch, as if you put the ceiling lights on in the middle of the n