Petit Palace Opera Garden Ramblas

Let me say right away that I don't want my following testimony to dissuade anybody from staying at this hotel. We got a pretty good deal via bookings.org and for the money paid -- I shouldn't really complain. Location simply doesn't get any better than La Rambla. But in all fairness to other hotels fighting to get their rating up, I must agree with some of the other reviewers and say the owners of this one must have pulled their four stars out of their asses. There is no gym or swimming pool at this four-star hotel. There is no real restaurant that is open for lunch and dinner. Rooms are small. Clean, modern looking, freshly painted (in orange), with flat-screen TVs. But small. The bathroom was nice, with a rain shower, opaque glass doors. True, there's no lock on the bathroom door, as one of the reviewers noted, but that didn't bother us much. The place lists itself as a "hi-tech" hotel, and hi-tech rooms go for 300 euros a night, and I didn't stay in one, so I can't testify to the technological advancement of a hi-tech room. The only thing that was hi-tech about my room was an ID-card lockable safety box. (Is a flat-screen TV hi tech enough?) I have no doubt, though, that hi-tech rooms feature retina-scanning bathroom locks and window blinds opening to your voice command. But here was a nice surprise at a hi-tech four-star hotel -- the elevator was out of order, equally for all guests, regardless of their choice of technology. And there were black garbage bags filled with dirty linen on each flight of the staircase. Dirty coffee cups on the stairs, too. The hotel is an Ikea customer.

Sorry for being so negative. I’m really not badmouthing this hotel. As I said, it’s fine for the money, and I do recommend it. Only don’t be fooled by the stars. Also, you can have a perfectly fine breakfast right across the street for less than 15 euros which you would pay for breakfast at the hotel.

Unique Quality: Its central location beats my above dissatisfactions.

Directions: Take the airport shuttle to the last stop, Catalunya Square, walk down Las Ramblas. It took us about 30 minutes to get there from the airport.