Casp-er Guest House

Absolutely fantastic. Conveniently positioned, clean, friendly, excellent service. A basic guest house elevated to a higher level. Will definitely book again.

Positives: Location, price, high ceilings Negatives: Checkin/out in a separate building two blocks away from the property, terrible beds (we could feel the springs), paper thin walls (no acoustic insulation whatsoever), mold on shower edges and on curtain, dirty walls, half open stuck window shutters and lack of blackout blinds, noisy fridge, no fire exit. I appreciate it is cheap but there needs to be a minimum standard.

Getting there and finding the place to check-in was not what we had expected. We could easily find it on sat-nav but when we got there we were stood on the street for few minutes because nobody was answering the intercom. We tried ringing the phone number on the entrance door - no answer, then we tried the number from hotels.com - no answer, luckily one of the residents came out so we could enter the building. We got to the first floor and after knocking on the door the cleaning lady opened. We asked about check-in but she didn't speak english, she gave us a business card from Fontanella hotel and told us to go there. We called the number from the card and finally somebody answered. So we headed back to via Laietana and checked in (that went smooth - apparently the hotel sent an e-mail with check in instructions a week before - we missed it). Walking there and back with the luggage and after a long journey is the last thing you want when you arrive at the hotel. Secondly, we weren't expecting a very high standard as this is only a 3* hotel (we usually choose 3* hotels) but having visited over 20 countries in the past few years this hotel would be at the bottom of the list in any category (we only had a smaller room in Oslo). The window and the layout resembled a prison. No fresh air as you could only smell fried food after opening the window. The shower kit had to be held in hand and the shower curtain was covered in mold. Big plus for location and that's it.

Terrible, thin spring mattresses. Walls were dirty. Room window opened up to the buildings inner court, which had no pleasant views and smelled of restaurant greases. Shower was cramped and poorly designed, which allowed for water to easily flood the bathroom floors.

Great location, friendly staff, easy checking-in/out, daily housekeeping, walking distance to everything, a really good bakery next door for a quick bite in the morning. The room was nice, comfortable beds, decent bathroom. The only thing was the pillows, they weren't comfortable at all, so was hard to get a good night sleep.