Hesperia Sant Joan

I liked the fact that the towels were changed every three days the room was nice. The beds were good. Shower is great. Towels are so nice. There’s a soap dispenser. There is heating and airconditioning. There’s an elevator. You can go and come whenever you wish. Staff is nice, if you see them. Supermarket is close by. Mosque is close by for the Muslims. Tram is also close by, around a 10 minute walk. And bussed are also close by

They change the bedding every 6 nights. In my opinion it could be done more often. There is no physical person checking you in. You have to do the self check in. Loads of people had issues with he machine. I couldn’t change the language. Luckily I know moderate level of Spanish but if you don’t it’s quite hard. There’s a parking area but since there are barely people working they can’t open it for you. Same with the gym, sauna and all the amenities. They went for a ‘futuristic’ idea. But it just makes it all feel very out of touch. They only give you one card. I was with my dad. If he went out to buy groceries you take the card out of the place holder, causing all electricity to be cut off. So I was without lights and electricity for the whole that my dad was out. And vice versa. The location is far away from the center of the city. Good thing is there are a lot of busses around. But it takes u a good 40-50 minutes to get to the area of for example Sagrada Familia. Overall the Appartment is nice. You do pay quite a bit. But yea with Barcelona that is to be expected. But the fact that it’s a good 10km from Barceloneta beach and all the areas surrounding and still paying this much is quite concerning. But oh well. WiFi also is quite bad at times. And there isn’t great connection to the internet on your phone so yea. If you don’t rent a car expect a lot of travel time. Also for when u rent a car don’t forget to take your physical credit card with you. We forgot it since we just use our phone. Most car rentals will not rent a car if you don’t have a physical credit card. Also for the self checking in. You pay at the self check in. I don’t mean for the stay but for every day that you stay you pay tax or something. If my information is correct it only applies to people from outside of Spain. I stayed 8 days and payed a little over 9.50€ This was our first time staying in Barcelona and this Appartment/Hotel. Do good research before booking!!

Location

Basic facilities for a short stay but no additional bedding/towels etc and no staff to ask.

Good location with nice area, big rooms and bathroom , very close to Tram station and shops

The space for the family and the general lay out. While there has clearly been a recent touch up, the room is still quite basic and old - especially the kitchen space. If you are planning on cooking regularly, you should bring key utensils as there is not much. Beds were very comfortable. Nearby options for walking the dog including two small dog parks (for small and large dogs). And the café next door where the staff are all so sweet and friendly. My son loved going there for his breakfast.

We arrived very late and after checking in via the self-service machine, first noted the bad smell as we exited the lifts on the first floor. This smell then got worse once into our room where there was an awful smell - a mix of mold, damp and cigarettes (despite the no smoking warning signs). Reception is only open from midday-8pm so there was no one to assist and we had to endure a miserable night. My wife was coughing and was sick the whole night because of the smell, my son did not sleep well and even my dog started coughing. I sent a message that night to the Hesperia to complain - I still have not received a response. We called the customer support line first thing the next morning to be told that there was nothing that they could do and so we had to wait until reception opened at midday. Luckily when we did finally manage to be seen, there was a spare room on the sixth floor which had no issues with the smell and so we stayed there for the rest of our stay. The man on reception was not at all apologetic and seemed like he just wanted the issue to go away and move on to another task. Upon further investigation there are other reviews online about the awful smell, as well as unfriendly staff on reception, so the management must be aware. Also every morning there is a very strong smell of cleaning products outside the lifts, as if they know there is a problem and they try to hide it rather than fix it. Upon returning from our holiday, I messaged the Hesperia again to complain about our first night and the fact that no one had replied to our original complaint - I am still waiting for a response to my email chasing them for a response to my original complaint. This is TERRIBLE customer service. Such a shame the first night was so bad. We don't know for sure, but my wife then stay unwell for the rest of the week.