Alba Hotel

Not recommended – especially for women

If I could give zero stars, I would.
The area around the hotel felt unsafe, with signs of different activities (bad ones). My mother was harassed right in front of the entrance – extremely disturbing. I strongly advise women not to stay here.

Inside the hotel, we experienced repeated power outages. At night, there was no lighting in the hallway or bathroom, we had to use our phone lights. The water was mostly cold – not ideal, especially during colder seasons. The walls are extremely thin; we could hear snoring and conversations from other rooms. Complaints at the reception were met with a simple "sorry" – no action taken.
We also had a bad experience with the tourist tax: the staff (Mr ) refused to issue a receipt after several requests, which made us suspicious.

Finally, our original reviews (mine and my mother's) were reported and removed, most likely by the hotel to suppress negative feedback. This raises serious concerns about transparency.

To all travelers: Spend a bit more for a better, safer experience.
To women: Consider a women's hostel instead – your safety matters.

I uploaded one Video of several for proof. People who stayed here will recognize the rooms.

To the Hotel:
Removing my reviews won’t change my experience. I will continue writing new reviews until it stays on this website. Instead of hiding criticism, focus on solving the problems.

The worst hotel ever. The WiFi in the room didn’t work. When I told the front desk about it, she simply said go outside and the WiFi works there. They didn’t do anything to fix the WiFi. Please don’t waste your money and time in this crap of a hotel.

Not recommended. Be very carefull!
It was chosen for accommodation as a last resort because we couldn’t find anything else, because staying in Barcelona is very expensive, especially if you're trying to book a room at the last minute, plus the 24-hour reception.

A few words about the area:
The "hotel" is located in the area known as the most dangerous in Barcelona, that we unfortunately didn't know. Omonia is literally a much safer area for those who know it and have walked there at night – no exaggeration! In the surrounding area there are homeless people and drug users and the smell of urine and garbage is pervasive. Just a little further down, there are traps set up and the narrow side street could be called the "red-light district" – if you can undersand what i mean.
So, the location gets a rating of 0.

About the hotel:
The facilities are unacceptable. The room smelled like a mix of foot odor and cannabis. We passively smoked more than we’ve ever smoked in our entire lives. The balcony, which was supposed to be there, was simply a door with bars instead of a window, and it overlooked an uncovered area that had been turned into a garbage dump.
You can imagine the stench. It’s not advisable to open the window/balcony door because the atmosphere worsens. There was suffocating heat, and there was no way to adjust the heating. There were three power outages. In fact, for two of them, we sent a message to the accommodation via the contact form on Booking. If the power goes out in one room, the whole floor loses power. And of course, you must contact the reception either through your personal phone, go there in person, or use the Booking contact form. The room had a small fridge that was moldy. You wouldn't even want to put a sealed bottle inside. The towels were quite small and weren’t changed for the 3-night stay, same goes for the bed linens. The facilities are old. Access to the room is through two other keys between two connected buildings. So, to get to our room, we entered through the main hotel entrance, took the elevator, then went out of one building, unlocking and locking the next two doors for security reasons. Then we continued to the room. Regarding the receptionist (Mr), personally, he didn’t bother us, but there’s a related old comment about his condition. We don’t judge him personally, but it is a professional space where one needs to be alert and capable of assisting clients when needed.
The worst of all is the cleanliness and something else I will mention later.
Regarding cleanliness, it was quite clever to use colorful tiles with abstract designs on the walls so that the lack of cleanliness wouldn’t be noticeable in a photo. It’s a health hazard.
As for the value for money, we can say they’re selling ice to Eskimos. We paid a lot for nothing. In the EU country we were in before arriving in Spain, we paid less for luxury services and cleanliness!
What I must mention last and as the most important is that you should be careful with the following: even though you’ve paid in full, they ask for your bank card and record all its details (number, date, etc.) to confirm that you’ve paid! They could confirm this bank-wise. In short, personal data protection doesn’t apply here, it’s like being outside the EU.
A very unsafe, unpleasant, and dangerous stay. Unfortunately, just one of the things I mentioned is enough to ruin your trip. We even reached the point of looking for another hotel, but unfortunately, we neither found one nor were we eligible for a refund.
I decided to write this review because families with children travel, and they need to ensure the best for their safety, just as any solo traveler would want a trip without problems.
Fortunately, we returned home safe and sound.

I had a terrible experience booking through Trip.com, and I will never use this platform again. I booked Alba Hotel through Trip.com, expecting a comfortable stay, but it turned out to be a complete nightmare.

At check-in, the receptionist assured us that all amenities, including heating, were available. Since it was very cold, I specifically asked about it, and they confirmed it was working. However, upon entering the room, we realized it was freezing cold and remained that way the entire time.

I barely slept all night—not even 10 minutes continuously—because of how cold the room was. It was truly unbearable. When I complained to the reception, they told me to go back to the room, saying that someone would come to fix it. No one ever came. The next morning, at check-out, they casually admitted that the hotel had boiler issues all along. If that was the case, why were we not informed at check-in? Instead, we were lied to and left to suffer.

What’s worse is that Trip.com failed to ensure this hotel met basic standards before listing it on their platform. As a booking service, Trip.com should take responsibility for the quality of the hotels they promote. This experience has completely ruined my trust in Trip.com, and I will never use or recommend this platform to anyone.

If you are considering booking through Trip.com, be warned—they do not seem to vet their hotels properly or take customer complaints seriously. I am extremely disappointed and expect much better from a reputed travel platform.

The bathtub in room 206 was very rusty and sharp, I cut myself on the side of it due to the limited manoeuvring room in the bathroom, to the point where I had to go get a tetanus booster (cost 115 Euros) from the local walk in clinic. I approached the staff in a calm manner, showing them a picture and stating what happened, as I wanted to report it but knew it wasn't the receptionists fault. This resulted in a less than helpful conversation, the staff got very agitated at me and said it was my fault and I should have come to them before. As a young woman alone at that point, this made me quite uncomfortable. They did claim that the tub was being fixed the next day (when we were leaving), but given the number of reviews about it already, I doubt it.
Other than that, the rooms are fine, but be advised that the AC (including the fan function) only works when the outdoor temperature exceeds 23oC.

The owner of the place is not very respectful. The rooms are just good for sleeping, nothing more…