Gran Derby - Barcelona, Spain 

Friendly front desk, spacious rooms.
Posted: Thu, Jun 12 2008
Stayed at Grand Derby with 2 children. Location is not great, but easy to get taxis and buses and move around. It is halfway between the stadium, Passeio de Gracia and Montjuic. It is a business/residential area. There are 2 strip clubs a few doors from the hotel, but we never saw any dodgy looking people in the area. (I think they must go out much later than we did!) There is also an AMAZING patisserie around the corner. The first room (duplex) we were given, although very spacious was quite smelly as there is not direct light coming to it. We arrived late and the night porter was nice but not very good at solving problems and giving directions... We changed rooms the next morning to a junior suite. The guys at the front desk (during the day) were extremely nice. They were very good at recommending and booking restaurants, finding train times and giving us directions. The swimming pool is also a bonus at the end of the day.

An acceptable hotel - maybe not 4 star though
Posted: Wed, May 28 2008
My boyfriend and I went to Barcelona for a weekend city break and found this hotel on the internet. We thought the price was reasonable considering some of the prices of other hotels in Barcelona. I was a bit concerned before arriving due to some of the reviews I had read...but was relieved when I got there. I wouldnt say it was totally up to 4 star standards but I was acceptable. I was slight confused when I got there - the hotel seems to be linked to another hotel across the road. I never really got to the bottom of this but I think the restaurant, bar etc is in the hotel across the street. This I wasnt really keen on but we ended up on the la Rambla every evening so it didnt really matter in the end. Our first room was one of the duplex suites - I have to admit I was slightly disappointed with it - the sofa was very worn out looking. The window looked out onto a small tunnel with other rooms facing directly onto it...it just wasnt great. However, like another reviewer we were given the option to upgrade. We were shown 2 different suites and were allowed to choose which one we wanted. We accepted the upgrade and it was 20 euros per night. The upgraded room was far nicer - there was a glass panel from the shower into the bathroom! There was loads of room, a big tv etc Finally I do have to admit that the hotel was quite far out from the city centre. Though we decided to buy a 2 day pass for the hop on hop off bus tour and there was a stop 5 mins away from the hotel so we used that to get about combined with taxis. It worked for us.