Grupotel Gravina

The only dislike we had was with the comfort of the bed which was hard as a rock.

Being from San Francisco and admitted "heat wimps", we made sure to spend the extra money to book hotels with air conditioning. At Gravina, the a/c control is a simple on or off. The only problem is, the only thing that turns "on" is a mechanical noise to make you think there's air coming - there isn't actually any air. We had a "superior doble" rom, which actually had plenty of space for us and our bags. When we complained, we were offered a move to a room 1/3 the size and after 5 minutes we realized the condition of the a/c was exactly the same. So we stayed in the larger room and begged for an electric fan, which the hotel did provide. The a/c in the lobby was considerably better and as we sat in the lobby bar trying to cool off, we overheard other guests complaining of the heat in their rooms, so it appears it is a hotel-wide problem. Though we had indicated to the reception desk that we did not feel we should be paying the same price for a fan-cooled (but not de-humidified) room that we'd booked for an air conditioned room, the gentleman on duty at check--out either was uninformed of the situation or feigned ignorance rather well. In addition, the neighborhood is a tad dicey - if you walk to the left and down to the Ramblas you are on a skinny stretch of street that seems to be the in place to buy punk clothing. Turning to the right out of the door and then to the right again, you are on a main street heading to Placa Catalunya. Don't do the breakfast! It's too expensive (15 or 17 euros!) and it's a "full" breakfast - but the food isn't well cooked and the one morning we tried it (thanks to "50% off" coupons from the front desk) I was sick most of the morning.