The Hotel 1898 is located in the former buildings of the Philippines Tobacco agency of Spain, a trading company. This makes for a truly nice and genuine old building, where the insides have been ripped out and redone completely. Absolutely everything inside is new, including the newly carved out parking garage.

We arrived to check in without any problems, after first having some quarrel with the GPS. The street La Rambla is not a valid GPS destination for this hotel, after calling the hotel we were told the street address is Pintor Fortyun 1, and the GPS guided us to the front door.

The location is on the main tourist street in BCN, apart from the scores of cheap-flight tourists hanging around the location can't be more perfect in BCN.

After check in we ordered parking for the car a bit pricey at 23 € per night. But the garage is right under the hotel, amazing for such an old building and I was guided in by the bellhop.

The room is probably too small for its price category, but very tall and nicely done. Very clean, and always magically cleaned when we were out. The A/C was found inside the closet not difficult to find but a bit difficult to read the screen. After shivering through the night with an overzealous A/C I decided to read the manual and discovered how to run it proper.

Room was quiet, apart from some low hallway noise. Not a nuisance.

There's plenty of channels on the TV, but not all of them were as according to the manual. Nice to have Fox Series to watch in the evening after the spa.

We did not feel the 20 € breakfast was a good enough value to eat in the hotel.

On the roof is one of the major assets of this hotel, a smallish pool and a very nice bar. The pool is good for a dip in the heat and there is several beds along the rooftop. Ample amounts of towels and a complimentary bathrobe makes the lack of changing area near the pool a non-issue.

In the bar, there's no a lot of perfection, in spit of the staff effort. They are courteous and friendly, but not very professional. Also, the drinks are very off on the recipe, like the strawberry daiquiri. Nice selection of cheeses on a plate along with a bottle of good red wine is a much better bet in the not very comfortable large divans.

The spa in floor -1 is nice, with a warm and comfortable spa pool. Steam sauna is still out of order, and the Finnish sauna was not hot enough at 70 degrees Celsius and low humidity.

At the business centre, there's the usual Americans hogging the computers chatting along with home base in Kentucky or where ever but fortunately there is enough of them to go around. I had to print, sign and fax a contract in the evening and none of these actions were an issue. WiFi in the room was very slow and needed a login and password from the desk to function.

All in all, this is a 4/5 because there's some issues that need to be corrected. They have an almost perfect building and location but partly fail on details and prices. This does not mean that the hotel should be avoided, however.

This is a fantastic hotel, Reception were so friendly, supplied us with maps and even highlighed places of interest. The breakfast is lovely and very varied.The rooms are beautiful, spotlessly clean.The pool and roof bar are lovely and give you fantastic views of the city

Only slight negative is there are bars beside the hotel, it's not soundproofed enough so the sound carries and can disturb you through the night.

Highly recommend this hotel if you fancy a relaxing base for sightseeing!

My wife and I really enjoyed this hotel. I have stayed in Barcelona before on business trips and this time I was at the Hilton for a meeting before moving to the 1898 for three nights. I was not at all disappointed; we were in a standard room facing the courtyard so no view but it was very quiet considering you are right in the middle of all the action on the Rambla. Staff was highly courteous and allowed us to check in at about noon which was terrific. Needless to say, with the current exchange rate of about 1.65 dollars to the Euro, it is not cheap (about $450 a night) but it's one of the nicer hotels I've stayed in, and I've been to quite a few. The rooftop view is great, just be careful as a few drinks will set you back at about $18 a pop. The location is spectacular... I have heard the Meridian across the street is also very nice at about the same price or higher, and the 1898 has a lot of history to the building. The "mood lighting" as described in other reviews is nice. Bathrooms very pleasant. Internet access is free in the business center on the second floor (called Floor 1). Not much nightlife in the bar, mainly due to the fact that the weather was so great that everyone wanted to be outside. Have a great time!

There is certainly no complaints about room size or style. Not sure what room the reviewer had that said they couldn't swing a mouse but ours was big by European standards. A lot of storage and a large bath for two with a brilliant rain shower.

The bed was a true queen / king size (not two pushed together) and the style of it was very modern and chic, without being two cold and souless.

The turn down service supplied fresh towels if you had used the ones supplied in the morning during the day. This was a first in my experience.

The roof top pool isn't olympic size, or one you would do laps in. But it has 360 degree views and is great on a hot summers evening. The euro habit that used to be confined to Germans of putting towles on pool chairs is alive and well here. I didn't spend much time at the pool but one morning I noticed two chairs were "reserved" for over two hours. There are not many of these chairs so if you can't beat them join them and get up there early then go have breakfast.

The roof top bar is wel appointed and has great views. The furniture consists of large lounges and cushions. Very pricey though. It also attracts outsiders so I would assume gets busy in peak summer.

The only reason I didn't give 5 was the staff were just so indifferent and the bar prices over the top. The staff at the roof top bar didn't want to know you and were certainly not friendly. I don't really care about service but on this trip had stayed at a place just before this one that had brilliant personal service which really made this place look even worse than it probably was.

Also, I could be wrong, but it didn't seem to have air conditioning in the rooms? It wasn't overly hot so not an issue, but would be in August. I couldn't se any controls or vents.