The apartment looked exactly the same as the pictures on the internet, hardwood floors, tiles, very beautiful. Quite nice furniture, if not the best possible quality (Ikea, mostly with a few antique dressers). A very nice 5-piece bathroom with dark red and white tiles. Very good A/C unit. A bakery right across the street (oh the smell - just had to get fresh bread every morning...) and two supermercados 2 blocks away with Passeig de Joan Borbo as well 2 blocks away, Barceloneta subway stop not much further.

However, the apt could definitely have used a good cleaning . . . it was quite dirty but we did not bother calling the agency -- we did a quick cleanup ourselves and it was much better. The fridge made some horrible noises once and the washer door broke and did not open, but all the problems were quickly and friendly dealt with by the agency (staff speaks good English). The water I guess in most of Barceloneta is a bit salty/minerally and makes your skin a bit sticky, and the gas-heated hot water is a bit slow to start coming but all things just made our stay feel more like we're actually living in Spain -- just a week but still.

Just a word of warning: a lot of the older buildings in Barcelona do not have elevators and our apt for example was on the third floor. In case someone doesn't know (like we did not), in Spain the floor at street level is ground floor, the next one is "principal" and the next one is 1st . . . so guess how many floors we were up a very charming old staircase (read narrow and dark . . . ;-)

So if you rent an apartment in Bcn, you'll probably face a few more difficulties than with a hotel room, but you also will get to live almost like a local and possibly also in a very pretty old building like us!