Hotel Barcelona Universal

Pre and Post Cruise Stay

Every thing which has been written about his hotel is true. The beds are hard, but I slept great. Stay on the top floors and you will not have a noise problem. The front desk staff is a little rude, but the rest of the staff was very pleasant. you will not get in your room before 3:00 pm so bring a swim suit in your carry on. you can use the pool or go to the beach. The beach is ten minutes away and is very nice and safe. Take a taxi its about seven euros and is worth it. The front desk staff worried us needlessly, by telling us the beach was full of pick-pockets. We found a beach full of tourists.

Another great stay in Hotel Universal.

Large clean hotel with very professional and friendly service. Subway entrance just outside, 2 stops to get to Las Ramblas, the main harbor, and elsewhere, so no need to walk through dark streets at night. Good cheap restaurants with booze and many other hotels next door on surprisingly lively Parallel Ave. The 4th restaurant down has great veal milanese. Avoid eating on Las Ramblas as all the restaurants are mediocre and expensive. The wifi did not work in the room, but they have free wifi for laptops in the lobby, and 2 free computers available with internet. In-room safe and minibar. Comfy beds and tv with many channels, including several business and in English. Clean bathroom with toiletries. We stayed here last year, and this year a quick browse through the hotel sites made my choice easy. We like this hotel alot, especially for the price. As for the area being sketchy, Las Ramblas has hookers after 11:00pm, this area does NOT. Don't believe the bad reviews.

Excellent

Great room and excellent service

Great Location, easy to get around

We stayed at Hotel Barcelona for our honeymoon and enjoyed the quick access to the metro (right outside the hotels front door) and the short walk (under 5 minutes) to La Ramblas. There are some nice dinning options right around the hotel. The pool is nice, though it was often crowded, hard to find chairs on a few afternoons. I would stay here again.

Not worth it - there are better hotels for the price!

The hotel is on top of a metro station...that's very convenient, but also VERY ugly. You have to either walk up a dirty outdoor stairway or try to find a poorly lit dirty elevator....the hotel looks like it was designed in the 50os and never updated and the furniture is chipped and not so clean...it's also not sound proofed and you hear EVERYTHING from the hallway....didn't seem like there were alot of people there so it didn't get too noisy.

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Great Location

We were on a pre-cruise overnight stay. Convenient access to city’s underground metro for exploring. The hotel is walking distance to tourist destination such as La Ramba and short taxi ride to the cruise terminals. Although our room faced the busy street, but the noise level was tolerable. Front desk staff was excellent and were very helpful.

Dissapointing stay in BCN

Hotel is next to a very sketchy neighborhood. Quick walk to La Rambla but through sketchy, narrow streets. Not the best neighborhood at night, especially for youth and families. Hotel does have a rooftop pool but it is poorly maintained. The front desk is knowledgeable but not accommodating. No wifi access in the hotel even though it's advertised. Not close to major bus or metro stops. The official Barcelona tour buses are almost a mile walk from the hotel. Awful restaurants near the hotel.

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The Hotel Barcelona Universal

Nice hotel with a good location close to major attractions. The staff was very helpful and most spoke English. Overall, it was a pleasant place to stay and a good value. The rooftop pool was a plus.

Conveniently located

The hotel staff is professional. The room we received was extra roomy for European standard. The only thing I wish they would include with the prices is breakfast, as this is a standard, customary expectation with most European hotels. For breakfast the price is too steep for what you receive. Also, for those who do not have cell phones, be careful of making calls to mobile numbers in Europe or to the States. The rates aren't published by the hotel. We were in for a shock when it came time for check out. The charges were astronomical!

A decent Hotel

This hotel was rated as as a four star hotel. I would say 3 1/2. It looks nice, but everything is very cheap inside and the beds where not comfortable. I also had trouble sleeping because of something irritating my skin. Not sure if it was the soap for the sheets, but I had to move onto the couch due to excessive itching! The sheets smelled awful also. Kinda like bleach. The staff was great and the location was great. It just needed some good beds and fresh sheets and it would be a 4 star.

Noisy Noisy Noisy

Could not sleep all night was too noisy windows were not insulated enough.