Avenida Apartments Tapioles II

For €300 a night, the double bed and bedding really need to be better, and there’s no sofa area to relax in. The apartment is newly renovated, though, and well placed for Montjuïc, La Rambla, and the Apollo nightclub.

We booked through Airbnb, but I wouldn’t recommend this place. It was dirty and untidy, with grimy walls, ripped curtains, and a sewage smell. One bed was missing sheets and a duvet when we arrived at 6 p.m. We called four times before they finally brought them at 12:30 p.m., and the last call included a threat to file an official complaint. Disgraceful, and incredibly expensive for what you get.

The location worked well for visiting the sights, and Barcelona itself is wonderful. The apartment had one bedroom with a bathroom downstairs, plus an upstairs bedroom with four small bunk beds and another bathroom. The rest of the space was basically a living room with sofas. But it was dirty and cold, with worn, torn furniture and dirty walls. The sewer smell was especially bad in the bathroom, where it was hard to breathe. It may have looked like the photos 100 years ago, but it didn’t now. We tried to cancel as soon as we saw it, but that would have cost over 800 euros. We called the police, then decided to stay because we had no guarantee we’d get our money back. I wouldn’t stay there again. I rented it for four nights, from 29.12.2017 to 02.01.2018.

They’re inflexible about check-in, and the service is unfriendly. There are video cameras inside the apartment, so there’s no privacy at all.