I was recently in Barcelona and had the chance to check out two Hyatt properties. One did not impress me at all. But one I fell in love with…and cannot wait to return.
I arrived late into Barcelona and spent my first night at the Hesperia Tower, a property Hyatt recently acquired that will soon become the Hyatt Regency Barcelona.
The room itself was very nice. In fact, I was upgraded to a spacious suite with plenty of room to spread out. But when I tried to order room service, I found my phone line was disconnected (both the bedside phone line and phone in the restroom). Oh well, I was too lazy to go downstairs and only pizza was available on Uber Eats, so I just went to bed.
The hotel is under construction and so breakfast as well as the Regency Club are temporarily housed on the lower level in what is ordinarily a conference area. While the buffet was quite expansive, I found the quality of the food quite poor. I’m not just talking about the coffee and orange juice, which was indeed deplorable. The breads, pastries, eggs, and fruit were just so-so. I walked away both feeling stuffed yet unsatisfied.
Meanwhile, the hotel has no built-in health club or spa. Instead, you can walk down to a large public health club a couple doors down and purchase a day pass for $12. I visited the gym around 11:00 AM and found it to be quite crowded…I can only imagine how crowded it gets in the evening.
The location is also convenient to the airport, but a good 15 minutes out of town.
Hotel SOFIA
So the next day I decided to check out and move over to the Hotel SOFIA, part of Hyatt’s Unbound Collection. The hotel is located in central Barcelona (although I would not say in the best area for tourism).
Wow, what an improvement for about $80 more night! I was not upgraded to a suite, but my deluxe room was spacious..and beautiful. The bed was one of the most comfortable hotel beds I have ever slept in, thanks to excellent bedding.
And look at the huge bathroom, with an oversized bathtub and shower, plenty of counter space, and great natural light.
The hotel also offered a great wellness center with sauna and spa plus a fairly comprehensive 24/7 gym.
Finally, the breakfast was amazing. Fresh-squeezed juice, a barista to make coffee, superb omelets, smoothies, fresh berries, and delectable pastries and cold cuts. It was a joy to eat breakfast here, even alone…
CONCLUSION
I’m in the midst of a trip report which will run another 20+ days, but once that is done I will provide full reviews for both hotels.
I’m going to have to give the Hesperia Tower another try once remodeling is complete and it fully rebrands as the Hyatt Regency Barcelona, but I loved the Sofia…it was a perfect 24-hour stay.
I stayed at the AC Victoria hotel a few blocks north (it was the only Marriott property that would allow a rollaway bed and 3 people in a room). My family loved the area. No, it’s not in a “tourist” area, but that was a good thing, especially for the restaurants. Fragments Cafe was one of the best dinners we had in the city and again, just a few blocks away. The tourist stuff was just a few Metro stops away.
Matthew,
We had a 4-night stay at the Hotel Sofia back in early May of this year. Used a GSU and was confirmed into a Great Wish Suite. It was positively fantastic. Wish suites are all on dedicated floors (18 & 19) with their own check-in/lounge/bar. All Wish suites have dedicated Butler service. The room was amazing (100 sqm) – easily the best use of a GSU I’ve experienced so far (even considering my previous GSU stays at GH & PH Tokyo, PH Milan, PH Vienna, PHNY – and those were all wonderful stays in their own right.)
I highly recommend booking onto the Wish floors on your next visit. Trust me, it’s right up your alley 🙂
The hotel is a bargain at 20k, but the cash rate at the time of our visit was the better value.
The location was fine. weather was perfect so we just walked everywhere – never set foot on the Metro.
Sounds good. Can’t wait to return!
So, since this is a new Hyatt I guess we don’t have to wonder if this is another trip report dredged up from 9 years ago?
My stay was less than a week ago.
I just came back from a full week in Barcelona with my family and stayed at the Hotel Arts which is part of Ritz Carlton. Wow, wow, wow!!!!! I never received such an amazing treatment from any hotel anywhere in the world. To save time from your readers I had booked two room using Marriott points but we were upgraded to one of their very exclusive penthouses. It was a two story apartment with views of any part you wanted from Barcelona and the ocean, exclusive butler and concierge service so in sum we were treated like kings. Highly recommend.
I was in AC SOM Marriott in BARCELONA. It wasn’t a bad hotel either compared to the Crowne Plaza Fira center hotel we had booked. Their breakfast was not bad. There is a huge mall close to the hotel, it is like 5 minutes walk from the hotel. It takes about 15 minutes to the city center from AC SOM hotel.