Hotel Sofia

Elevator "system" is horrible. It often takes 10-20 min for the "right" elevator to come to you. Get rid of this system! Lounge is not maintained well - lots of dirty dishes and no one there to clean up Maintenance was unacceptable when we reported not having cold water nor proper A/C in our room. Just made excuses why they didn't come, but it was during Spain playing World Cup so we suspect they wanted to watch the football match instead of tend to an emergency.

Booked a club level room at the Grand Hyatt Barcelona as part of a 3-week trip to France and Spain. Arrived to the hotel after a long train ride from Paris. Check-in was very inefficient. We waited in line 15 minutes, without any acknowledgement, until finally someone from guest services came over and offered to check us in to our club level room. We got to our room and it was warm. We adjusted the thermostat and went to dinner. Dinner in the hotel was subpar. We had a variety of tapas and shared a ribeye steak. The tapas were fine. The steak was overcooked and tough and chewy. We made it back to our room and it was still warm. We hoped it was just the sun setting and it would cool off. It never did. We were up all night sweating. The next morning we went to guest services and let them know. 2 hours go by and nothing. We went back to guest services for a second time. An hour after that someone shows up and cleans the filter in the AC unit and tells us the issue is solved. It was not. Two hours later we get a call from guest services to follow-up. We let them know it was not working, and we need a different room. They moved us across the hallway. The temperature was better, but still higher than we are used to. For our inconvenience, they gave us a few macaroons. The breakfast buffet is very good, but it is only included if you are club level. The hallway sounds tend to be loud. If you're a light sleeper you may struggle. The hotel looks nice and is located in a nice area.

The staff at this hotel is world-class. The problem is, like the amenities of the hotel itself, there are just too few of them. The facilities are wonderful. The room was clean and well-appointed. The spa is lovely. The dining facilities are great. For this size of a hotel, there should just be more of them, and more check in desks / agents. The hotel is just gigantic. The overall feel is that of a cruise ship, or waiting to get into Disneyworld--if that's your thing, great! It's not my thing. I had just achieved "Discoverist" status and it made me think I'd be able to access some benefits... instead, not only was my early check-in request unacknowledged, but our room wasn't ready until nearly 2 hours after normal check-in, and we waited in line for easily 45 minutes to find this out. After some cajoling with the Hyatt app chat reps, the manager did comp us into the hotel's (truly fantastic) spa facilities, however that was on the second day, and it would have really been lovely if we'd been able to enjoy that while waiting for our room, rather than just waiting around the hotel. (We did have club access so at least there was a place to sit.) To me, a five-star property plus alleged "status" could have meant: I'm so sorry, we are extremely booked today and running behind. Why don't you feel free to unwind in the spa facilities while we finish preparing your room and getting your bags up? That would have been simple, at no cost to the hotel, and very satisfying to me. I was really hoping this spot would be an oasis of relaxation during the last 48 hours of our honeymoon, but, sadly, it was quite the opposite.

I don’t think this hotel is nearly at the quality of a so-called five star property, and the devil is in the details: this hotel does not feel well run or well-executed. Check in took 45 minutes waiting in line, where my wife and I had to straddle two lines because of the frequency of guests running into problems that took a tremendous amount of time to resolve. The front desk ought to cordon off complex guest matters to a separate line so they don’t degrade the entire experience for everyone else. After that, our room wasn’t ready, and they said they would text us—but they never did and we had to again wait in a long line to get our keys. The rooms, which seem recently renovated, are a bit of a disaster. Most vitally: there are motion sensing lights that are extremely sensitive, take 2 minutes to turn off when activated, and cannot be turned off. This meant that my wife and I were waking each other up anytime we would get up out of bed at night. Including sometimes when we just moved a little too much in bed for some reason. The AC is fixed and doesn’t seem like it can get colder than 24 F—this is ridiculous for a so-called 5 star hotel. 75F is extremely warm for sleep, especially when 62-65 is ideal from research. The blackout curtains do not block out good light. They leak a lot of light through the top part of the curtains. The wall between the room and the hallway is paper thin, and you can hear people walking from the bed. Overall, this was a pretty mediocre stay for the price. The location is nicely out of the touristy spots, but that’s all I can say about it really alongside the fact that the rooms are clean.

Love this hotel with the Maria Christina metro stop only a few blocks from the Grand Hyatt to perfect place to stay when visiting Barcelona. Staff was amazing and our room was fantastic. Breakfast was excellent with so many choices. Rooftop Peruvian restaurant was spectacular.