Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel

I have been to Barcelona before so instead of staying on Las Ramblas I was looking for somewhere close to the main area and somewhere two female travellers would feel little bit safer on an evening in the city when it is after dark . This was great ! We were so close to the beach but also to the shops ;). The hotel is modern , clean and staff very good. There is a gym and pool although we didn't get the chance to use. The hotel is in walking distance to la Ramblas and taxis are straight outside also.

I adopt a fairly simple approach when purchasing something. I expect to get what I pay for. I didn't. So when planning a short trip to Barcelona this hotel seemed a good option. So I went online and booked a room, breakfast, and added a "view" (explained as either of the city or of marina) which was extra, all confirmed by credit card. Total cost for two nights €528 On arrival we checked in and I presented with an invoice described as being for the first day and asked to sign. This seemed a bit odd but hey, local customs. The room was on the second floor. The "view" was of the legs and safety netting of a funicular support tower. So I went to reception who reacted by telling me that I had in fact been upgraded to a mini suite. In fairness they offered two alternative rooms on higher floors (3 and 5) but these also faced the funicular tower so this was a bit of a non option. Now my experience of upgrades is that the hotel cannot wait to tell you the good news. So why did this hotel only tell me after I went to reception to complain about the non view. Somehow I didn't quite believe that I had the full story. I expressed my displeasure and left it at that as it was nearly 10pm. Just to explain what a mini suite is in this hotel. It is an extra space with a moveable partition and it contains one two seater sofa, one coffee table, a second flat screen television and the room fridge. So you can sit alongside your partner instead of stretching out on your bed, or you can invite two friends in and they can sit on the sofa and you don't have to look at them, but it is otherwise a pretty useless addition. There is a balcony, unfurnished, about the square meterage of two coffins laid end to end and about as cheerful. The main room was pleasant enough to the standard of a €90-120 room in a four star hotel. The bathroom was vast. Fixtures were all to a high standard but there was an element of impracticality with a lack of places to hang towels "close to the action", very low slung toilet and bidet and a strange miserliness with things like toilet rolls. This bathroom design is fine for the able bodied but if infirm or disabled think again as there are no grab rails and the highly polished floor is exactly that, highly polished. The following day we headed off for the planned sightseeing and shopping returning at 3pm. The room had not been cleaned but there were cleaners in the adjoining room so we went to the bar for an hour to give them a chance to do their stuff. When we returned the cleaners had disappeared and the room had not been cleaned. I phoned reception and this time the response was that it was my birthday. Trying to bring this increasingly surreal experience back to reality I asked that the room be cleaned after we had gone out for the evening at around 5.30. I explained that we would be back between 10.30 and 11.00pm so there was plenty of time. This,as best as I could understand it, was agreed. The safe then jammed requiring an intervention by housekeeping to reset it. When we returned we found the following. The room had not been cleaned. There was a small birthday cake and four bottles of water in the bedroom section, a trolley with a bottle of Cava, more bottled water, fruit and cheese and a note from a manager apologising for the problems and inviting us to relocate to a complimentary suite. So as far as I can understand it we were being asked to eat fruit, cheese, cake and drink cava on top of our evening meal, pack, move to another room just before midnight with a view to checking out early to catch our flight the following morning. So I called reception again. During a difficult conversation it was obvious that the receptionist was not aware of the offer of another room but in fairness the person did understand that we wanted the room cleaned and made up and that the trolley and cake were to be removed. Once again we headed off to the bar to allow housekeeping to do the necessary. When we checked out I was told by the receptionist that as I had provided my credit card details on checking in there was nothing else to pay. No paperwork was offered. So I asked for a copy of the bill. The receptionist printed it off and put it straight into an envelope. What was there to hide? Obviously I then looked at the bill. The bar bill from our first night was not included, but "room service" which we had not had was, the two bar bills from the previous afternoon and evening also were not included. The room and breakfast was charged in full including the "view" extra cost. I took the view that I was "up" as the missing bar bills more than offset the extra cost of the non existent view and the non existent room service. The website is a bit disfunctional (try to follow through on the airport shuttle service) and a bit dishonest in terms of the pictures. We observed a very young and enthusiastic staff, speaking a good standard of English and we heard a couple of other languages spoken fluently. One to one service in the bars, breakfast area and concierge department was excellent. The reception staff were superficially helpful but they did seem to operate in a parallel universe and it doesn't help that they have the habit of taking calls while dealing with you face to face. Scuff marks on the walls are a no no. Dirty plate collection stations in the breakfast room are not acceptable (try going onto the terrace and look at them through the window). The hotel just needs competent management and more visually based control. Management presence was non existent which is reprehensible and there seems to be no escalation procedure where the staff rather than the customer can move a problem up for resolution. The appropriate punishment I would recommend for this management is that they should have to stay in their own hotel and see how they like it. A short visit from a professional consultant like Alex Polizzi would sort this place out in a heartbeat. The infrastructure is there, more or less, and there are good staff. Until that happens do yourself a favour, book into a cheaper hotel with better standards and spend what you save somewhere else. Otherwise you will feel like you would have been better drawing €500 from the cash point and setting fire to it.

We chose the romantic package to celebrate our 32nd anniversary. When we arrived we were told that our room was not ready....we could go to the bar and have a drink while we waited. We waited over two hours to check in. Unacceptable! Then after we were able to get into our reserved room....the cava and chocolate strawberries my husband expected to be there.....finally showed up....the next day! So much for my surprise on our anniversary! The room was nice....but we were there for four nights....and our room was not cleaned until after 5:00pm each day......absolutely unacceptable. The only nice thing was the breakfast buffet....excellent variety, The pool area was super small and not enough seating sun lounges to go around. Would not recommend this hotel to anyone.

If you leave anything in the room, by accident, be prepared that you never see it again. When I left my laptop charger in the room I realized two things: - the delivery of the object costs 55 EUR - the hotel sent me the wrong charger All together I spent more than a month chasing my charger. When I asked for some compensation, eg.: one complimentary night in the hotel, the answer was that we already apologized and this should be enough. Not very professional or friendly answer.

Dear Reader, before you read my words until the very end, let me annotate some points before. I have been to this Hotel also in the last years, used several services from the dining, to rooms service, laundry service, the concierge, hanging around on the roof top, using the service on the terrace etc... but... Many things I miss can be really found in other Hotels with less stars.. On my very first trip to this Hotel I was astonished, if not impressed, how well the location was, the personnel showed up very professional, a roof top terrace, nice breakfast, nice food, and overall something was not right. It feels like 5 stars, but it is not. Bathroom: Looks ok, but the isolation of the bathtub is somehow 1 star. Edges of the elements are not in line, you can see gaps, the separating glass windows of the tub feels cheap, the overall tub feels cheap. Toilet is ok, but mine at home is better… The mirrors in the bath don’t have an underlining heater to keep the visible surface clean from the steam after taking a shower. The amenities seem to differ during my trips, while last year I got a nice golden package with shaver, foam, soap etc. this time I was happy to get a soap, although I had at least the same booking class and extras. This is remarkable, and usually I do not tend to remind them of missing things or why there are differences – because my duty is done by paying, their duty is to fulfil their 5*. Living Room: Although having ordered my different pillows, there were only these horrible pillows that I know from my childhood. Hard, not comfortable, not convenient… There are some Hotels like H…. or Le….. where I sink into sleep immediately. Balcony as last time in same room class… not available, instead the windows were not properly isolated, so I heard the ships all times. The Hotel should know that, when ships are more or less 30 Meters away from you. You don’t need an alarm or wake-up service here – the ship’s horn does everything you need, wanted or not. But the battle ship in front of our windows was awesome… 😉 Now the best things: One day someone from the personnel knocked at the door, bringing me a birthday cake for my “birthday�. I was really amused, because it was neither my birthday nor the correct recipient. This is just organizational fail. The service guy on the roof top didn’t really notice you need some drink or something else for awful 20 minutes, when he noticed that there were some guests and so he jumped. In the bitter end I did not like to go to a bar and had to remind him of bringing me the menu! And that’s what is supposed to earn a tip. Not really… Restaurant areas: Only the “new� people at the hotel jumped attentively to provide the service. Those I knew already were acting like begging for the day to end. The food is for sure ok, you can have sea food, fried sea food also (bah), salmon, olives,… but please ask nothing special. Gambas, spicy with Habaneros, not feasible. Usually I prefer in the deep evenings a glass of rum, but after I only saw Brugal, Zacapa 23, not even 25, not even Matusalem (or the waitress had no clue) or Pyrat, I gave up asking any further. And please, dear hotel, this popcorn is horribly cheap! 5*, Ladies and Gentlemen! The bad: And, as usual, getting used to during my last trips as well as this time – The invoice. Last time it was completely wrong with incorrect balances, positions, this time my booking was mixed up, leaving me with the same impression as usual: A horrible front desk. Seriously… The personnel in total, as described above, lacks the competence of attentiveness, serving you the environment as expected. But they lack details like the room with misaligned furniture elements and edges not in shape – you remember what I wrote about the bathroom? The personnel is the same. It looks good, but never expect anything automatically. You can ask them and they will do, but to me this is waste of time, telling them what to do. The good: The only point I really enjoyed: The concierge. Perfect alignment, reservations, no open wishes. But this is the only good point of this year’s impression. Of course, the hotel is usually trying to do their best to fix it, get amenities, compensate it with a next upgrade etc. I would say, with a discount of 30-40% this Hotel might be an option, but considering the noise, sea gulls trying to eat your food in the inner garden, personnel not understanding that you are not looking for boring times in the restaurant or roof top, while missing a beer or food for 10-15 Minutes and talking with you in a kind of semi-educated way, simulating maturity and serious conversation with a business traveller makes me think intuitively that it is not well-established nor settled enough to compete with the real 5* establishments. I noticed that the personnel is in total very young, which is perfectly fine, but seeing their attitude, attentiveness, dedication towards the client, clearly shows a management fail. I have never seen anything comparable with mixed impressions, but due to the fact, that money is not my main concern at all, special offers, rates, upgrades are simply neglectable as incentive to come back. On the one hand, I principally like this Hotel, but this is not 5*, Ladies and Gentlemen. Many thanks for your attention, dear reader, and good luck with choosing the right accommodation for your stay. My rating of 3/5 is absolutely fair in this case.