Acevi Villarroel - Barcelona, Spain 

I stayed at this hotel 2 years ago and more or less the standard hasn't changed. Good location if you want to be in the Eixample, it's about 10 to 15 mins walk to Paseig de Gracia (for shopping) and Ramblas, but at night you'd want to use taxis to get around. Rooms are nice and comfy, even though they are starting to show the first signs of wear and tear (which is not that stilish to me). This time I tried the breakfast room (breakfast was included in the room rate): there's a good variety of food and nice wholemeal croissants (never seen these before), but not sure the whole lot is worth ? 15,00 per person per day (if you have to pay it separately)? Pool is very small and the gym is tiny (more like a small area with free weights and a treadmill rather than gym). Still a good option if you just want to burn the extra calories from an evening out eating tapas :-). Overall a good hotel with good services and a decent standard, but don't expect the Hilton or Mandarin Oriental! :-D

We reserved parking at the hotel and even phoned the hotel to confirm this. Upon arrival the receptionist told us in a very rude and dismissive manner that the parking was full and that we'd have to park elsewhere. The elsewhere turned out to cost 23 euros a day and was quite far from the hotel. My husband then asked to see the manager who was even less accomodating and extremely unpleasant. She had a contradicting story and said that the parking had flooded. She also pointed out that a person should choose a hotel for the room and not the parking! There was also a terrible smell of sewage in the elevator which also filled our room and did not make for a very romantic ambiance (perhaps it was the flooded carpark.) At times there was no hot water and we ended up taking cold showers. We were all in all rather disappointed with the hotel and do not think it is worthy of 4 stars.