NH Collection Barcelona Gran Hotel Calderón

The location is fantastic. Many shops, sights/attractions and great restaurants within walking distance; whatever is not in walking distance is a short and very affordable cab ride away (avoiding the subway due to the prevalence of pickpocketing in the subway). The hotel rooftop and pool are lovely and very serene while providing a great view of the city. It was nice that the room is not carpeted and that felt cooler and likely much cleaner. Appreciated that the room had many USB charging ports.

While the floors are wood and therefore cleaner than carpeted hotel rooms; there was a lot of dust in the drawers, safe and closet; the dry mini-bar items were also caked in dust. The hotel staff, while very kind, had a varying degree of understanding/comfort with English and so during certain days/shifts there was not really a concierge or desk clerk who understood English or could provide some direction in English. While I very much liked the location and generally appreciated my stay, a designation of 5 stars for this hotel is a tad too generous. The rooms are a bit too bare and plain to merit such a designation. The rooftop/pool/bar do fairly merit a 5 star rating but definitely not the rooms, they are more 4 star. Also the doorman was not very helpful with bags upon departure (simply advised us to walk to the corner where cabs would be waiting as he was working solo and could not leave his post but this seemed to be the case everyday). Lastly, upon checkout about 30 euros had been added to my bill for mini bar items. I immediately advised the desk-clerk that I hadn't used a thing from the mini bar. She immediately removed the charge but had no explanation for why it was there in the first place. Had I not noted it, I would have been overcharged.

Breakfast was ok. Plenty to choose from, however as we are continental breakfast people, paying too many euros as flat rate for eggs, meat, cheese, pastries etc that we don't eat is hard to swallow. Would be good if hotels offering all this could also offer alternative of cereal, toast, coffee and juice at a lower price. We had one breakfast at the hotel, then went outside of hotel to find what we liked for much cheaper price.

Room could have been a bit bigger and more space for hanging clothes. Suitcase only fitted within hanging space, meaning clothes were scrunched up.

Everything was great. The rooftop has an amazing view and very nice staff.

The maid service was slow. Our room was not clean by 3 pm and we ended up not getting it cleaned for 2 days.