Hostal Josefina

We’d just arrived after a very long journey from Barcelona and had to stay the first night. The beds were so dirty, with hair and dead skin on them, that we slept in our clothes. They looked used, as if they’d simply been remade without changing the sheets. The room hadn’t been properly cleaned, and none of the reception staff spoke English, which made it very hard to communicate. We clearly explained the problem and requested cleaning the next morning, but nothing was done. When we returned for an early checkout, it was still in the same condition. Our complaints weren’t properly addressed, and nobody offered a solution.

The central location was the only good thing, with several kinds of transport nearby. We paid over 250 euros for two nights, mainly for the location, expecting a reasonably clean room to sleep in. It was a huge disappointment, and I don’t recommend staying here. The whole room smelled like sewage, like a public toilet. Every receptionist we met seemed annoyed when we asked for help. They rolled their eyes when we asked for the Wi-Fi password or another toilet roll, making us feel as if we were interrupting them at work. The room was dusty and felt dirty. My husband is allergic to dust, and his skin became itchy and red. There was just one tiny plastic stool to use as a bedside table. The bed had no headboard, only plastic bars or pieces that added nothing and were uncomfortable and impractical. One switch controlled all the lights, and bedside reading lamps would have helped. There was no minibar. The advertised free Wi-Fi was so unreliable that I couldn’t get through a Netflix episode without the connection dropping several times. The bathroom was extremely cramped. My husband is over 1.80 m tall and barely fit on the toilet without his knees hitting the wall. The sliding door wouldn’t close properly. The shower cabin was cracked and gross, and the wall-mounted hair dryer had a short cord that made it hard to dry my hair in the small bathroom. The toilet brush was so worn it should have been replaced years ago. We paid extra for breakfast, served on the 10th-floor rooftop. From the reviews, we expected something exceptional, but instead there was a menu of options. Breakfast usually costs 7.5 euros and includes tea or coffee and orange juice, with a choice of scrambled eggs with one sausage or bacon, fried eggs, a hot sandwich or a small croissant. It wasn’t filling or tasty for us, and the fried eggs were undercooked. The room had basic supplies, just small bars of soap and cheap, runny shampoo and shower gel in refillable containers.

We had to stay the first night because we’d traveled a long way from Barcelona. The beds were filthy, with hair and dead skin on them, so we slept in our clothes. They looked as if people had slept in them and they’d only been tucked in, and the room hadn’t been cleaned before check-in. No one at reception spoke English. We asked them to clean and warned them about the problem, but nothing was done. When we came back to check out early the next day, it still hadn’t been cleaned, and none of our problems had been resolved.

The location is very good and the room comfort was decent, but noise came through from the street and other rooms. I’m giving it one star because I’m sure room service threw away the box with my nighttime dental braces that I’d left on the table. I now have to pay another 300 euros for a replacement after getting back from vacation, and there was nothing we could do about it.