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Hilton Barcelona

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  • AVENIDA DIAGONAL 589 591
     Barcelona, Spain 08014
    34934957777
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Tombrew
Tombrew
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3 out of 5
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4
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Editor Pick

Not as Good as it Should Be for the Money

  • February 9, 2009
  • Rated 2 of 5 by koshkha from Northampton, United Kingdom
Not as Good as it Should Be for the Money

When my boss came up with the idea of holding a big training session for a bunch of colleagues, he threw in the suggestion that it should be 'somewhere creative', sent out the notification of the dates and then promptly flew off for three weeks holiday leaving the rest of us to try to interpret his vague instructions.
We went through a lot of turmoil. The trainer was determined to do it in Hamburg and then found, several weeks later, that the entire city was fully booked for some kind of trade show. By this point, we had only three or four weeks left to find an alternative.
He then set his assistant to work hunting down weird and wonderful hotels – places with bizarre sculptures and coffins instead of beds but thankfully none of those came off. Then the decision was taken to do it in Barcelona but the hotel was vetoed by the Finance director for being too expensive and so just nine days before the event, we still didn't have a hotel confirmation and then finally, we got a booking at the Hilton Barcelona.
First I think it's only fair to the hotel to say that one's experience of a hotel can be very different depending on the circumstances. Had I been there for a holiday, I might have rated it more highly than I did as a meeting venue - but even so, I really can't imagine I'd have ever chosen this hotel for a holiday.
Location
The first thing that's important to know when you arrive at Barcelona airport is that there are two Hiltons in the city. One is a Euro20-25 taxi journey, the other quite possibly twice that amount. Both are on the famous Ave. Diagonal - almost at opposite ends. So my advice is to have the address written down and give it to the taxi driver if you want to avoid a very expensive mistake. As the other is called Hilton Diagonal Mar, just nodding when you recognise the word 'Diagonal' is not going to help you! You will need to be explicit.
The drive from the airport is about 30 minutes, depending on the traffic. The Hilton stands right on the Diagonal so the taxi will pull off the street onto the forecourt in front of the hotel. It's a tall, concrete and glass building - not particularly memorable, but nothing ugly.
First Impressions
When you enter the hotel through the rotating door (who can resist a rotating door?) the main foyer is filled with the bar area which stretches up as a high atrium. The bar is full of giant curvy purple sofas and bright orange lamps - it's a delicate balance between 'funky' and 'trying too hard' and doesn't really fit with the rest of the hotel. The reception is a long wooden desk off to the left hand side and the check-in staff are some of the friendliest, jokey, pleasant people I've come across in a five star hotel. Considering that my favourite hotel in Barcelona (the Gallery) has the world's most miserable and indifferent staff, this was quite a nice surprise.
After arranging for a porter to take some things down to the meeting rooms, I headed up to check out my room on the 7th floor.
The Room
When you leave the lifts, the corridors are quite jazzy with striped carpets, bold colours and giant mirrors. It does all look a touch dated but nothing too bad. The rooms though are disappointing and reminded me of a student bedroom decorated by IKEA. On the plus side, I was right at the end of the corridor and could just about see the towers and cranes of the Sagrada Familia on a clear day but the level of décor was well below what I'd expect for a Euro175 per night room. Instead of a double bed, I had two singles - funny looking things with tube feet like an IKEA cheap bed. Each had a bedside table and on the bed I chose there was a long anglepoise style lamp above. There was a desk with another wall-mounted anglepoise, a TV suspended from the wall above a case stand with a drawer below. The trouble was that in order to use the case stand you risked banging your head on the TV every time. I can't comment on what the TV coverage was like because I didn't switch it on once during my stay - just spent a lot of time trying not to brain myself on the corners.
There was a large built-in wardrobe with an annoying light that glowed eerily. Inside was an iron and board, a mini-bar, a coffee and tea tray and a safe for valuables. The overall feel and finish of all the furniture was dated, unstylish and cheap-looking.
Other colleagues reported that some had received free bottles of mineral water in their rooms whilst others had been stung €4 a bottle for the same privilege. I was also told that wi-fi was being charged at the ridiculous rate of (if I remember correctly) €27 for 24 hours.
The Bathroom
Wow! Now this was a bit better than the rest of the room - lots of beautiful dark brown marble with gorgeous veiny quartz in it. I'm a sucker for a good bit of ornamental stone and this was good quality and very pretty. The sink surround was really large with lots of space for everything you could ever need in a bathroom and the mirror was enormous and there was a small cosmetics mirror as well. The bath, loo and bidet were all fairly standard and the toiletries were the standard (but very nice) Crabtree and Evelyn blue range. The marble for me lifted the bathroom out of the ordinary and certainly several levels above the rest of the room.
The Restaurant
I didn't have evening meals at the hotel as I'd booked different restaurants all over Barcelona and I didn't use the restaurant for lunch either as we had our meals set out by the meeting rooms. However, I did go in for breakfast on two mornings and found a fairly standard spread containing a good mix of hot and cold. Service was fine although the restaurant was maybe a little bit dark for that time of day.
As a meeting venue?
Oh dear. Why is it that hotels can merrily charge you exorbitant rates for meeting rooms and then put you in the basement with no natural light and walls like paper? The prices were shocking but I wouldn't have minded if the rooms had been better. We had one large meeting room - although I use the term large in the smallest sense - in which the lights repeatedly took it into their heads to turn on and off at random. This was amusing the first time my boss walked in and we were instantly plunged into the black - cue lots of comments on his role as the 'Prince of Darkness'.
On the second day the hotel had put another group in the room next to us and we could hear - if not understand - almost every word that was said. This was such a problem that the quietly spoken trainer struggled to be heard over the noise from the room next door.
In addition to the large meeting room, we had four smaller 'break-out' rooms which again had no natural light and were quite small. What I couldn't understand was that the public spaces around the rooms were enormous - so the only time we weren't cramped was when we were having our coffee and lunch breaks. The food at lunch was variable in quality but there was always plenty of it. However, the charges for coffee breaks were absolutely ridiculous - more than Euro10 per head.
To be fair, the venue was probably no worse than many meeting venues would be but it certainly wasn't excellent.
Other Facilities
There's a small outdoor area - a sort of terrace-garden type space - that can be accessed from the back of the bar. However, I don't think this was part of the hotel - it didn't seem to be in any way enclosed. According to the website there's a gym and a business centre but I didn't notice either.
Recommendation?
For a business meeting, I'd have to say that it was adequate, but nothing special and they could have tried harder. As a place to stay for fun, it's not the most central although the metro station nearby will whisk you into the centre of town in a lot less time than it would take to take a taxi and for a lot less money. However, it's OK and if you could get a deal on the price (let's be honest, Euro175 is ridiculous for B&B) it's not awful. However, it's also not good enough to be considered a 5-star in any other city in Europe.

From journal Eating and Sleeping in Barcelona

Editor Pick

Hilton Barcelona - Part II

  • June 21, 2003
  • Rated 4 of 5 by roza4 from Cinnaminson, New Jersey
Hilton Barcelona - Part II

Continued from Part I

The executive lounge is on the 4th floor; here Hilton VIP’s have continental breakfast, snacks throughout the day, drinks in the evening and you can watch large TV all day long if you have nothing better to do. Also here with the help of the hotel staff you can get some brochures about Barcelona sightseeing and check the opening hours of museums. Here in the executive lounge we met a lady from England who just came back from a day trip to Montserrat and highly recommended that. I am glad I listened to her since that proved to be an unforgettable experience.

So far so good, but don’t forget, you are in Europe. Even though the hotel is modern, rooms are small by American standards, especially for three people in one room. The room has a queen size bed, large but not very practical wardrobe with safe, writing desk with chair, couple of night stands. They squeezed in a rollaway at my request. The rollaway is rather short and narrow for an adult, and I am not very tall. The bathroom is pretty large with toilet, sink and bathtub. We had a corner room with windows on two sides on the building, so we had a good view of the street beneath us and the roofs of shorter buildings.

The hotel has free internet access for guests on the first floor in front of the reception area. Also on the first floor are pay phones, restaurant and a large sitting area with lots of newspapers to choose from. A block away (across from the metro entrance) is El Corte Ingles where you can buy anything: food, clothes, shoes, electronics, photo film.

Overall, the location is not central but very easily accessible by public transportation. It’s very close to the metro station, train station, there are several bus routes that stop near the hotel, and it’s on the way of the Bus Touristic. I would recommend staying at this hotel if you aren’t traveling with a large family.

From journal Travels to Spain - Barcelona, Part II

Editor Pick

Hilton Barcelona - Part I

  • June 21, 2003
  • Rated 4 of 5 by roza4 from Cinnaminson, New Jersey
Hilton Barcelona - Part I

Website is here.

I made my reservations through Hilton website, then confirmed them with the hotel staff by e-mail and everything was in great shape. \ The lady who answered my e-mail was very friendly and helped me to reserve tickets to the Liceu theater during my stay in Barcelona. Liceu is definitely worth a visit especially considering that cheap seats for a performance will cost you about as much as the visit to the theater alone.

The Barcelona Hilton is located near metro station "Maria Cristina". To get here from the airport is easy and cheap. Buy a ticket for 10 trips (you will have to get to the city from the hotel anyway), this way you can go by train from the airport to Sants station, there change to the metro, and as long as you travel on both within 90 minutes, it will cost you 0.58 euros for both! \If you buy a single ticket, it will cost 2.25 euros for the train alone, and metro ticket will cost another euro. Trains from the airport go from the Renfe station that is connected with terminal B by a covered walkway. Even if you have luggage, carts are free of charge and there are escalators everywhere in the airport, so it’s no big deal to take a train, everybody does. If you have a lot of luggage, you might be better off taking a taxi, since Barcelona metro mostly has steps especially when exiting the metro station, not many escalators. Trains leave from the Renfe station in the airport sometimes earlier than the timetable says, so come a little bit ahead of time. You can get a timetable at the information desk in the airport or in the ticket office of any metro station, but always check the time of the train departure at the ticket office right near the trains.

When you exit metro "Maria Cristina", ask for Hospital (pronounced [ospit’al]) de Barcelona, since everybody knows where the hospital is and you will see its name in large letters from the metro exit, but not many of the locals know where Hilton is – they don’t stay there. The hotel is right across the street from the hospital, and about 3 blocks from the metro. Hilton is a tall building made of concrete and glass, very modern with atrium that spans all the way to the top floor. Taxis are always parked outside and you will never have any problem with getting a taxi even late at night if you have an early train or plane.

Continued in Part II

From journal Travels to Spain - Barcelona, Part II

Hilton

  • January 6, 2001
  • Rated 2 of 5 by Tombrew from Marina del Rey, California
This was your basic business-oriented Hilton Hotel. Except for the bidet, you could be anywhere. I stayed here because I had thousands of Hilton Hhonors points to burn, so it was free. It is located somewhat away from the most popular sights, although it is fairly close to the Temple of the Sacred Family (the unfinished Gaudi masterpiece). There is a pleasant bar in the atrium of the lobby, where a couple of cold ones are mighty tasty after a hot day out. Across the street is a wonderful treat - about a solid half mile of tapas stands, selling everything you can imagine.

From journal Beautiful Barcelona

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