When we got to the hotel I was told that my 12 year old son must have his own room. I had to pay for a room that my son never used. They claimed that this was government regulation that 12 year olds must have their own rooms. My son was frigtened to sleep in a different room in a strange country. When I got back home, I found that this was a big lie since there is no such government regulation. I have been writting to the corporate offices for almost a year and yet I have no answer. Do not go with children.

I just got back from the Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel and I am very relieved to be back home. I was in Barcelona for a large conference and I was eagerly looking forward to a stay in this 5 Star "GRAND LUXE" property. I had stayed there for a couple of days back when it was brand new and it was pretty nice then.

Boy was I disappointed!

The prices had shot up to absolutely unconscionable levels and the property is now showing its age with shabby dings and dents on the furniture, nasty muddy stains on beige bedroom carpets etc.

This is definitely not a 5 star "grand luxe" property in any way, shape or form. It's "facilities" are a generic, trendy restaurant and a lobby. No spa, no amazing pool, no choice of bars. In short, a generic, modern 4 star business hotel. If you compare this to even a 4 star hotel in say, Singapore or Hong Kong, you will come away shaking your head in disbelief.

If the blah facilities were the only issue, I would have ranked this place a "neutral/average" --after all I have stayed in FAR worse in Europe but it was in the area of the absolutely uncaring and snotty service that I think moved it's rating one step above "terrible".

The heating was turned on full blast at night, for example, and when I complained that I needed some cooling in my room, the lady at the "service desk" said that I should just open the window.... OK... except that there was a 110 decible Telecom Rock Extravaganza put on by some company in the courtyward ! I just sweltered until 1AM when the rock music finally stopped blaring.

The next night, I had to put up with hammers and machine tools being used to take apart the rock stage from midnight to 2AM. The management took a "who cares, this situation can't be helped" attitude! While this is understandable for an IBIS or MOTEL 6 type place, it is ludicrous treatment when one has paid EUR 900 / night (they jack up the rates during the GSM conference). I don't know about you but at this kind of price, I expect very courteous and responsive treatment, not some kind of insulting "manana maybe" shrugging. I don't care if there's a conference going on: if you can't take feed your guests even tuna, don't charge them caviar prices!

The Eurostars Grand Marina Hotel, I am afraid, is a bit of a dud. Greed, apathy and rudeness characterized my stay there.

Save your money, nerves and aggravation and consider staying elsewhere. Certainly for the money I paid, I received probably the worst price/performance ratio in terms of quality of stay of my entire working life.

We booked a long weekend at the Grand Marina and on arrival were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the rooms. Very modern with a seperate lounge area and comfortable. The rooms were spacious and everything was fine. The problems started when we went to check out on the final day. We had a flight booked at 8pm on the Sunday and so, wanting to enjoy our final day in the city, checked out and left our bags with the concierge. He presented us with a ticket for the bags and off we went for lunch. On our return, we presented the ticket and expected to get our bag. The concierge could not find our bag and a phonecall soon after confirmed that a gentleman at Barcelona airport had found our bag in the boot of his taxi when he got to the airport. The only option had been for him to ask the taxi driver to return the case to the hotel. Honesty in Barcelona is not a strong quality and the bag had never arrived back at the Grand Marina. We were getting nowhere with the management of the hotel who clearly did not care and so that we did not miss our flight, we left for the airport empty handed with the promise of an explaination from the manager the following day.

Back in the UK we made a claim with our insurers but needed to get confirmation from the hotel of the events that took place. We made call after call to the hotel who would never allow me to speak with the manager. I emailed the hotel asking for confirmation and again received nothing. All in all the service after the loss, for which they were responsible was awful. In the end, I managed to get a friend who was working in Barcelona to visit the hotel in person and stand over the manager whilst he wrote an email confirming events. If I had not had this friend do this, I would never have got the claim through.

In summary, whilst the hotel is well positioned and the rooms are lovely, the service and attitude of the staff and management is appalling.

This is the first time I have ever posted a review, but I have to share my experiences of staying at this hotel with others so you don't experience the difficulties we encountered.
I normally write off bad reviews I read as whinging hard to please pedants, but this is written in the hope that it is helpful information for anyone seeking to book a quality hotel in Barcelona.
I booked a late long weekend break at the end of January and booked two rooms for 3 nights at the Grand Marina. There were actually 5 of us staying including my 3 children (youngest is 9), but the website - similar to most - couldn't cope with booking a family of 5. I therefore called the hotel after booking and explained that there was an additional child and I was happy to pay the extra charge involved. I would have booked direct with the hotel but their website does not feature their telephone number (!) and would not accept an e-mail.
When we arrived late on Friday our rooms were not interconnecting, even though the hotel was almost empty and interconnecting rooms must have been available. On the Saturday I decided to check exactly how much they were adding onto the Bill for my 'extra' child so I had no nasty surprises at checkout. It worked out twice what I was paying as an adult. I queried this and the Duty Manager agreed to a small reduction, but still I was paying more for an extra 'Z Bed' stuck in one of our rooms than for my own stay. This hotel definitely does not want kids. It's a business travellers hotel, as witnessed by the bizarrely expensive minibar prices only to be tolerated if on expenses. Please don't think I'm stingy - I don't mind paying for quality - but this is a 3 to 4 star hotel masquerading as 5 star because the building looks good.
The pool was closed, the view was of cargo ships being unloaded (which continued noisily overnight) rather than the sea and the staff at reception were less helpful than a famous Torquay guest house. On checkout I asked whether they could advise what times the buses left for Gerona airport as my flight was at 10.30pm. I was made to feel like I was being a nuisance and was told that the last flight from that airport was 8.30pm so I should get a bus around 6.00pm. I checked my ticket and the flight was later as I thought, so we carried on without their uninformed guesswork. Comapre this to the last time I stayed in Barcelona, at the Neri Hotel (4 star not 5) where the staff printed out a bus timetable from the internet for me and could not have been more helpful.
It was an appropriate end to a generally poor hotel experience. Thankfully Barcelona itself more than made up for the over-priced and under-delivering Grand Marina. My daughter did have her bag stolen in the city, but at least the thieves involved in that instance don't call themselves 5 star.
If you're planning to stay in Barcelona, take it from me, there are much better 4 star hotels than the Grand Marina at around the same price or less - I'm only sorry we didn't stay in one.