Apartamentos Barcelona Nextdoor

Avoid Barcelona Nex Door Apartamentos

This was the worst vacation experience I have ever encountered and I am a seasoned traveller. I reserved the DALI apartment in February 2011 through BarcelonaNextDoor to ensure that I had the best picks available for our August vacation. Communications prior to our arrival were excellent. I am a single mom who was travelling with my two young daughters. We picked up the keys at the office and taxied to the apartment as we had an early arrival and check in was not until 3pm. The agency at least was kind enough to hold our luggage so we could do some sightseeing. We were told that upon arrival our apartment may be smelly but once the air conditioner was turned on the smell would quickly dissipate. We only knew the apartment number to be PP1. There we no indicators on any of the doors and the key did not operate in the door which seemed logically to be PP1, so we had to go to every door in this building (about 20) and try the locks, worried that someone was going to come out and accuse us of trying to break in. We tried 4 times at the door to which our key seemed to be the best fit. After playing with the lock we discovered that the key required two full turns to open. Meritxell Costa in the rental office was right, It was very smelly and incredible hot inside -35C!!! We located the air conditioner controls and turned the two units on. We waited for about 1 hour and it was still 35C. There were 3 floor fans present and this is where each of us sat for 1 hour...in front of a fan....waiting...keeping all the lights off so as not to add more heat. I called BarcelonaNextDoor and was assured that the AC worked as they had had problems with the AC and this had been addressed and to give it 4-5 hours as the apartment was large! The AC units were about 12 feet off the floor so we couldn't use our hands to feel if anything was coming out. I was provided an "emergency number" to call after office hours. I tried to call this number from the apartment as the office was now closed. All I got was some operator recording in Spanish which I could not understand. I later learned that the "emergency number" is restricted from the apartment telephone!!! I did not have my cellular with me on this trip due to the costs involved with international plans. After going out on the street and begging 10 store merchants to let me use their telephone, one finally did. I reached Marta, the "emergency" lady and told her that the AC was NOT working and it was 35C in the apartment. She told me she would get back to me in 20 min. I told her that we were at a store and that I would be back to the apartment in 15 min and await her call. We waited for 2 hours and she never called or came to the apartment. We finally went out again to get something to eat as it was now 10pm and we had not had any dinner due to trying to resolve this issue. We slept with fans blowing on our naked bodies. The two beds in the living room were horrible and sagged in the middle. One daughter had to sleep in the upstairs room which was even hotter, my other daughter come to my bed in the middle of the night. These apartments have only interior windows which all open to central square area of space which houses the elevator shaft which we could see people and people could see us. We opened all the windows to allow air in as it was about 15C cooler outside. The noise level was high and people were partying until late at night. Now the other issue was the sewer smell that was in this apartment. I woke so many times during that night due to the unbearable heat and the toxic smell and that emanating from the washrooms and/or outdoor corridor. The apartment had WIFI and so I was able to email the office that evening and asked that they call. To my surprise Meritxell did call us around 10am. She told me that Marta would be there at 11am as she was letting someone else in another apartment. I told her that she would not likely show up and she said she would call last night and did not. She did show up at 11:30am. She opened the door and went "WHEW". Interestingly, I thought about this afterwards, and she did not even look at the AC units nor look to see if the units were turned on properly and the correct buttons were pressed....can you understand why...because she knew that the AC did not work! If that was any other sensible person who kept insisting over and over that the AC worked...this would have been the first thing that they would have done, right? I told her that I rented this apartment as it specifically had AC and that I would like a refund for the 2 remaining nights we had booked. She said that she had another apartment that had AC that was not far away and would I like to go and see it. We did! Now, I had read that this area is not the safest in the evenings. DALI has two locked doors for entry, this apartment did not and the entry door was right on the street. So right off I was not impressed. Then as was started to climb the narrow steep stairs, I told Marta that I was not interested. The stairwell was about 2 feet wide, 4 or 5 flights up and very, very steep. We had 5 heavy pieces of luggage. She said that she would help carry them up. I asked if she would be here to help carry them down, and she did not respond. This bathroom smelt worse that the other! The AC did work, but there was only one bed. The girls would have to sleep on the sofa! I said that I just wanted a refund and would find a hotel as this was not what I had paid for and that BarcelonaNextDoor did not hold up thier end of the contract and I had done everything to a tee on regards to my responsibilities with the contract. She said it was not possible. By this time, I was in tears, and I am not one to cry very easily at all. BarcelonaNextDoor was ruining our 3 days here and one day had been wasted waiting for them the come/call and address this malfunction. Marta called the manager David at the office and at first he said yes, that he would refund us, but then he changed his mind and said NO! My one daughter was so upset watching all of this unfold, and spoke up, saying this was not fair and not right and that she was just a child and should not have to do this. Bless her heart! Nope, there was nothing that they were willing to do. They had our money and so..too bad for you....you "one time guest"! No customer service is required by these agencies and they know they will never see you again most likely as this is not a repeat customer kind of business. We returned to our apartment and gathered all our things and made sure the apartment was as we found it for fear that they would charge my credit card with the $200E security deposit. That remains to be seen. I had to go the a hotel and had to pay an additional $400E! I will be warning people on every site that I can about this agency and to not be fooled by the "enchanting pictures" they have on their website. This agency has turned me off of apartment rentals. And even though I have had success in other countries without problems, I will never ever take this chance again. This is without a doubt the worst travel experience I have ever had! Shame on BarcelonaNext Door for extorting tourists. What upsets me the most, is how they knew very well that the AC was not working in this apartment and they sent me and my children there and then continued to insult our intelligence by insisting over and over again that it was working! There is virtually no natural light in these apartments and therefore there are so many lights everywhere. I felt as if I was in a dungeon. Obviously the photos on the website are altered or they used floodlights to enhance the photos. Don't let this experience with these apartments called DALI, PICASSO or GAUDI ruin you holiday!

Stayed August 2011, travelled with family

Unique Quality: Close to Jaume metro