We stayed at this hotel during mid of March for 4 nights as a group of three. I reserved the hotel based on the reviews from tripadvisor.

The first thing I want to mention is that the hotel is very conveniently located. It is just two very short blocks away from the subway's interchange station CATALUNYA, where you can connect to L1, L3 and other lines that virtually take you everywhere. L3 runs from the north to the south of the La Rambla. L1 let you connect to L4, which allows you to get around the old town easily. If you wish to stick to L1, then the hotel is one block away from L1's UNIVERSITAT. In fact you can see that subway stop right from the front door of the hotel.

The hotel is about 3 blocks away from the La Rambla. So you can walk there within 5 minutes but are exempted from the parties and noises along that street.

We did not breakfast at the hotel. There is a Starbucks one block down from the hotel. Then there is a Cafe Zurich one block further. Both offer great coffee and pastries at decent prices (I cannot say "cheap" anymore at the rate the Euro is claiming up against the dollar).

The hotel itself is clean and trendy. The people at the front desk are very friendly and speak very good English -- especially after I arrived in Madrid and was shocked by how poorly English was spoken, even in the top 5 star hotel.

I am quite impressed with the size of the room -- being to Europe numerous times myself, I am used to small and crowded hotel rooms, especially at the price we paid. The bathroom is also spacious.

We stayed at rooms 416 and 417 and we did notice the noise from the subway underneath as other travelers have pointed out. But it did not bother us that much since we do not stay at the room during the day and during the evening the metros are less frequent. I do think they should offer more towels.

The only reason that I gave 4 instead of 5 stars for this hotel is the bar. I really think the hotel should fire its bartender. The first night we stopped by for a drink, it was 11:05 and the bar area was already dark (though you can still see some people sitting and chatting in the bar area). So we went downstairs and asked the front desk. The front desk ensured us that the bar is open and the gentleman tried to call the bartender. But after ten minutes he told us there must be some problem because there is no response.

The next night we stopped by around 10:40 PM and the bar was open. However, the bartender had such a nasty attitude as if we were bothering him and he really just wanted to get rid of us. All the drinks (very basic ones) we asked were greeted with either a cold and simple "No", or "We do not make that". At some point I could not help but started laughing. My husband had to instruct him to make a simple cocktail and he literally screwed it up right in front of us (not sure if this was done on purpose). While we were sitting in the bar area chatting, the bartender walked by and shut off the light. So he probably thought that his bar -- which the hotel told us to open pass 11:00 PM -- should be closed before 11:00 PM despite there were still customers.

Now some more tips:
(1) I found the map provided by the front desk of the hotel is quite useful. Speaking of city maps, please save your money and stay away from MapEasy’s Guidemap to Barcelona and Madrid. They are full of mistakes and mislabels. We tried three restaurants marked on their maps: One is located completely on a different street from what the map says – this incident happened in Barcelona. One is no longer there anymore (replaced by a Burberry Shop) and the other is closed – both occurred in Madrid. The city map that I found more reliable is Streetwise Barcelona and Streetwise Madrid.

(2) Almost all the guidebooks would suggest you to buy a T-10 ticket: for the price of 7 trips you can get on the metro for 10 trips. But if you buy T-10 ticket you cannot use the free transfer that you are entitled if you would have just bought one single ticket – which allows you to transfer within 75 minutes.